I want you to open your Bible at John, Chapter 13. We've been speaking on following Jesus, and I still feel that that's what God is speaking about: following Jesus, listening to Him. We talked about hearing His voice. Everyone is following something. We're either following Jesus, or we're following something else, or someone else. The challenge of our life is to follow Jesus, and to finish our course passionately following Him, and following His lead. Jesus said: if you follow Me, I will make you to become a fisher of men; so we get the picture straight away, if you are followers of Jesus, you will be vitally interested in people. It just goes hand in hand.
But I want to speak today, and just share a message on: the Evidence of Your Discipleship. There's probably a lot of things that give evidence we're disciples of Jesus, but there's one that He actually makes unmistakable; and I want to get this right out there, so we could put a checklist: am I a disciple of Jesus? Am I a disciple of Jesus? How many would say: yes, I am? Okay then, well let's look at what Jesus said it meant, to be a disciple of Him. So we look in John 13:34-35, He said: a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; in the same way I've loved you, you love one another. By this will all know you're My disciples: if you have love, one for another.
So Jesus clearly, unmistakeably, identifies the evidence you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. Now notice some of the things it is not. He does not say: anointing and authority indicates you're a disciple; because you can have a gift, and be totally disconnected from Jesus, just operating in faith. He does not say: position or title means that you are a disciple of Jesus. You can be a Pastor, and still not be a disciple of Jesus. Think about it. He does not say: healings and miracles following you, indicates you're a disciple of Jesus; because He said to those in Matthew 7: we did signs and wonders in your name; He said: I never knew you. It does not mean that if I'm being blessed and prospering, that I'm a disciple of Jesus, because there are people in many countries suffering, enduring hardship, losing their lives. They are not being blessed, as we would measure it, in terms of finances and external things.
It does not mean Bible study and prayer; so you can be studying your Bible and praying, and still not be a disciple of Jesus. It does not mean spiritual experiences, visions or angelic encounters. You can be having all of those, and still not be a disciple of Jesus. You're just having experiences - wonderful experiences; but I remember in revival, some of the people had the most powerful experiences. I remember two of them at least, ended up in jail, because of the terrible things in their life. They were not followers of Jesus. They enjoyed experiences with Him, but were not followers of Him, they were not His disciples. So we look at all of those, so how can you tell? Here it is. It's so clear. This is how you know. There's only one way you can know: that you love one another! It's really quite simple isn't it, that you love; so in other words, how we relate to the person next to you, and others in the body of Christ, and how we treat them - that's how you know if you're a disciple or not.
You can call yourself a Christian, but in the Bible, the term Christian was reserved for disciples. We've gone and got this loose thing now; but you see, Jesus made it very clear, it's actually the one thing that speaks more than anything is this. It's the quality of the relationships, and the way we treat one another. This is where the evidence of discipleship is seen; because sin fractured relationship with God, relationship with one another; the evidence of the work of Christ in our life redeeming us, is in our relationships, and treatment of one another. Last week we had a message, a very powerful message on unity, on how you grieve the Holy Spirit, or we can stop Him moving totally; and become anti the Holy Spirit, not through our worship necessarily, or our Bible studies or meetings; but by how we treat one another.