Art Not Thou Also One of His Disciples? - Part Two

 

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

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The minute you speak of being His disciple, this implies ownership. We belong to Him. To be His disciple recognizes His claim on us. We are to follow Him. Everything a disciple has belongs to his owner. He is always in readiness to do whatever the owner wants him to do.

 

Many people do not consider it that way. I was once talking with someone concerning the attitude of a group of people who were in a phase of Christian work. I mentioned the fact that they did not seem to be on their toes and active in what they were doing. The person said to me, with an air almost, of wonder, "Well, I don't think the thing was ever put up to them in that way. I think they looked upon what they were doing as more or less a job."

 

When one is a disciple of Jesus Christ, one does not look upon his work for God as just a job. If you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, you're just as much interested in a hole in the carpet in your church as you are in a hole in the carpet in your home. You're just as much interested in the plumbing and the heating of the church as you are in your own home. Of course, in most cases, you can only be interested vicariously, but I'm using this as an illustration to show that a disciple is interested in everything that concerns the life and the work of the Lord, and not merely in giving the Lord the shag end of what is left over.

 

Years ago I heard a story that shows what so many people do in relationship with their surrender of Christ. There was a girl who lived in a rich suburb of one of our great cities. She went to a certain church and belonged to a certain Sunday School class. One day a big car with a chauffeur came up to her house. The chauffeur came in and handed her a box from her Sunday School teacher, who was a very wealthy woman. The box contained roses, but instead of being fresh and dewy, they were just beginning to fall. The petals were discolored, the leaves were withered and one could see that the roses had been picked for several days. Well, the girl thought to herself, maybe Mrs. So-and-So gave the chauffeur that box several days ago and he just forgot to deliver it. So when she met her Sunday School teacher on the street, she emphasized the word today and said, "Oh, I want to thank you for the roses you sent to me today."

 

The woman said, "Yes, several days ago I was out in our greenhouse and I saw these roses. They were so beautiful, they made me think of you, so I cut them, and I've had them in our room and we've been enjoying them tremendously the last two or three days. When I saw that the petals were beginning to fall, I put them in a box and sent them over to you today."

The girl looked at her and said, "But, but, I don't understand."

 

And then the woman explained. "Listen dear," she said, "the other night my husband and I were driving down in the village, and he went into the store to get something. While I sat in the car waiting for him, half a dozen high school girls came along, talking about the special meetings over at the church. I heard one of the girls say, `Well, of course, I expect to be a surrendered Christian some day, but while I'm young I want to have a good time."'Then the stunned girl said, "Why, why, I said that! But I didn't know that you were in the car and heard it."

 

And her teacher said, "Yes, I heard it and I thought to myself: There is Mary, just like a bouquet of beautiful roses. And she says, `Lord, here is the blossom of my life; it is so fragrant and so beautiful, I wish to enjoy it. In a little while, when the beauty of it has worn off and when it is beginning to droop, then I will hand over to Thee that which is remaining. But in the strength and vigor of my life I wish to live it for myself."' That incident was the means of turning the girl to see exactly the way she was treating the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

There are too many people who are like this with the Lord. We give Him a wilted flower, but we do not give Him ourselves. Now, Christ gave Himself for you-and there was no holding back. It meant the cross. It meant the tearing of nails in the flesh. It meant the hanging of the weight of a body on those torn places in the hands and the feet. The Bible says, "Christ gave Himself for you." Yet it is a fact that most Christians would have to say, "I believe that Jesus Christ gave Himself for little bits of me, and I give Him little bits of myself from time to time when I have something left over. I give Him a tip Sunday morning from 11:00 to 12:00. And I give Him some more once in a while here and there." But, true discipleship is something far different. True discipleship is expressed in 2 Corinthians 8:5 where it says they "first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." They first gave their own selves unto the Lord.

 

When Christ was on trial before Caiaphas, the high priest, He was questioned. We read in John 18:19 that the high priest asked Jesus "of his disciples, and of his doctrine." Interesting, isn't it? The high priest didn't ask Him of His doctrine and His disciples, he asked Him of His disciples and His doctrine. That's the thing that challenges the world -what they see in the disciples. The doctrines they will look at later. There's no doubt of the fact that men look at you before they look at your creed. They look at the disciple before they look at the doctrine. They see us, they see our lives, they see our habits, they see our bearings, our attitudes. They know us by what they see us doing day by day. And they will form their conclusions about our beliefs when they see in us what we do and what we don't do. If they like what they see, then they may look past us to Jesus Christ. But believe me, if they do not like what they see, they will never look past us to see Jesus Christ.

 

Too often we alienate men by our inconsistency. Instead of adorning the doctrine, as we read in Titus 2:10, we detract from it. The gospel goes out into the world with two strikes against it. God Himself speaks of the offense of the cross, and it is bad enough to have the offense of the cross without having the offense of the disciple. Be sure when someone is offended by Christianity, they are offended, not by you, but by your doctrine. I can take it, I can stand it, if someone hates Christianity because of what Jesus Christ did and because of what we preach. That we're to expect. What makes me tremble is that anyone should dislike Christianity because of me. Everyone of us must keep this in mind as we remember that the world looks at the disciples before it looks at the doctrines.

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