Good morning.
I’d like to ask you to turn with me to Matthew 28, the very end of Matthew’s Gospel. I’ll read some very familiar verses, beginning in verse 16 through verse 20.
But the eleven disciples went into Galilee unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Of course, I want your focus to be upon that phrase in verse 19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”
Matthew 13:51-53. I’ll read this from the American Standard Version, 1901. This is after the Lord had finished speaking the parables.
Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things?
They say unto Him, Yea.
And He said unto them, Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, He departed thence.
Then, in John’s Gospel, I’d like to read a few verses from the sixth chapter. I believe these are familiar to most of you. John 6:66-69.
Upon this many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.
Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also go away?
Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
And we have believed and know that Thou art the Holy One of God.
John 21—another very familiar ending of a Gospel. I think you all know it. I’ll just read a few verses, beginning with verse 15.
When therefore they had breakfasted, Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these?
He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.
He saith unto him, Feed My lambs.
He saith unto him again a second time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?
He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.
He saith unto him, Shepherd My sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of John, art thou attached to Me?
Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Art thou attached to Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep.
Then I would like to read one or two more verses: Matthew 10. Those that have been going through this series with me know this verse already: Matthew 10:24-25.
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his teacher, and the servant as his lord.
Now, let’s just have a word of prayer.
Lord, we come to You again. We are utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit making real to us the Word of God. We need Your light.
We say again, Lord, to You: “Thou hast the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?” If You speak, we are helped. If You are silent, there is a clanging cymbal.
We call upon the Holy Spirit to fall upon us, to enlarge our understanding, to allow us to take in what the Spirit says to the churches, and to hear what You want to say to us this morning. All of us, dear Lord—beloved Lord—all of us want to hear from You, speaker and hearers alike.
In Jesus’ precious and worthy name, we pray. Amen.
I believe most of you know that we have been on this series called Making Disciples. I suppose, if you’re new this morning, you may get the impression, at least from these verses, that that is our subject: making disciples.
This is the last portion I’ll share on that. You can call it part four; you can call it what you like. But it is the concluding thought that I’d like to share on this burden I believe the Lord has put upon my heart.
The whole burden can be summarized in this phrase: the end of discipleship. What is it to look like? What is a disciple to be like? What is the outcome of the life of the disciple?
Now, let me caution you. On the one hand, we have not covered this vast subject in a complete and exhaustive way by any means. I leave that to you and to the Holy Spirit, as you seek the Lord for Him to enlarge to you and open to you the expanse of this subject—and, more importantly, to make real to you what it means to be made a disciple.
If all you hear is preaching, it is not enough. But if, on the other hand, you take what the Holy Spirit brings and you do business with God, then your life is called for, and the Word of God can make you a disciple. So that is one thing I just want to make sure of.
I also want to remind you of the origin of this burden in those three initial impressions. You’ve heard this before, but you’ll have to bear with me and hear it again.
First of all, before I ever began to think about this burden, this phrase came to me: “Making disciples.” I couldn’t get away from it. The Holy Spirit kept coming back: “Making disciples, making disciples.”
As I considered it, the Lord gave me three initial impressions.
First of all, this call to discipleship is beyond the initial call to believe on the Lord Jesus. There are many believers in the Lord, but due to the fact of not making a full response, they do not go all the way with the Lord and become disciples.
As a matter of fact, Peter had two calls. When you look in John 1, when John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” Peter’s brother was called. You know that story: Andrew went and found his brother Peter, and Peter received that initial calling to believe.
But then, when you read Matthew 4:19, you read a second call of Peter, when the Lord said, “Come, follow Me.” He followed that word up with a promise: “I will make you fishers of men.”
This is the call of the disciple. This one was to go beyond believing, to be a disciple—a follower of the Lord. “Come, follow Me.” In that following of the Lord Jesus, he was to be transformed and made a disciple. That is the first impression.
Secondly, this call to discipleship is an optional calling that not everyone responds to. Now, I don’t want to confuse anyone here. I don’t believe that is the Lord’s heart. But sadly, it is our history.
We want to do enough to get that eternal salvation. We want to believe, and if you believe, simply, the grace of God is so great and the love of God is so great that if you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will have eternal life. You cannot lose it. It will not be taken away. This is the truth of grace.
But God wants a full response. Those that respond further to this call of discipleship, He will entrust His secrets to. Those He will use as the core to build His church, just as when He walked upon the earth—that core, that twelve, that core He used to manifest what He was after and to build. Later, He used them greatly, as we read in the Book of Acts.
So, in this way, I think man’s thinking is wrong. We always think, “How little do I need to do to get by?” You know, it’s not just teenagers when you think about it. Usually our teenagers want to know how little. Sorry, kids, if you feel picked on this morning. I’m the exact same way.
How little do we need to get by? But the question before us—and the reason, in fact, this is not supposed to be optional—is that the Lord is looking in His people for a full response. With that full response, He can make you a disciple. That is the second impression.
Oswald Chambers helped me so on this point. He said, “You know, the Lord never said, ‘You must.’” He said, “Remember the ifs of God.” He quoted from Luke 14:26-27:
If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.
Optional, indeed, as regards eternal life. Necessary—absolutely—if you are going to go all the way with the King.
The third point—this was the third impression—is that disciples are not born; they are made.
You know, we are not all born kings. You may have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but I wasn’t. Disciples are made.
You remember, I quoted—those of you that know I’m a big football fan; some of you are so grieved over that still—but nevertheless, Vince Lombardi, that famous Hall of Fame coach, said of that scraggly bunch he turned into world champions, “Leaders aren’t born; they are made.” He was onto something.
I believe when you look into the Word of God and you see this phrase, “make disciples”—“Go therefore into all the nations and make disciples”—and when you see the Lord summarizing all the parables by saying, “Every scribe that is made a disciple,” you begin to discover that discipleship does not come with birth. It is something we are brought into by the making work of the Holy Spirit.
Well, that has been the whole burden.
Today we are going to consider the end of discipleship. What is the end to be like? I think there are three things, at least. You may have many more, and probably there are many more. This could be a much more exhaustive series.
But at least the three things the Holy Spirit seems to impress me with are these:
Number one: a disciple is to be captured by the Lord. That is absolutely essential. If you are not captured by the Lord, you can never be made a disciple. That is the end.
Secondly, a disciple is to be used of the Lord. We are, in the end, not just to be captured, but to be made useful—useful to the Master. That is what discipleship is to be.
Thirdly, we will touch on this today: discipleship, in the end, is really quite simple. The disciple is to be like his Lord. Do you remember that word in Matthew 10? “It is enough. It is sufficient for the disciple to be as his Lord, for the bondman to be like his lord.”
This is what we will deal with today. Well, let’s begin. Hopefully, you’ll stay alert and awake for most of it, and some of you may, in fact, get something out of it.
I believe this matter of being captured is absolutely essential. It is one thing to believe in the Lord Jesus; it is another thing altogether to be captured by the Lord Jesus.
Many of us believe in the Lord Jesus. Thank God for everyone that believes in the Lord Jesus. But there seem to be many fewer who are truly captured by the Lord Jesus.
I believe the clear teaching throughout the Scripture, and the lesson in particular of Peter’s life that we have been considering, is that he was one who was captured by the Lord.
There are two crises in Peter’s life. You may say, “Well, brother, I beg to differ. There are quite a few crises in Peter’s life.” Well, there are. But there are two crises in his life that I think illustrate this issue of being captured by Him.
The first is in John 6. Now, you know that occurs about a year prior to the end of the Lord’s ministry, in Capernaum, in the Galilean ministry, if that helps to set the context.
You remember what the Lord Jesus was talking about in John 6: He was the bread of life that was sent down from heaven. You also remember the context: the feeding of the five thousand.
In this, we begin to see that there is a very great lesson for us as disciples. I said it; I’ll say it again. Remember this: it is one thing to be called; it is another thing to be caught.
It is not enough for a disciple just to believe. In the end, the disciple must be a bondman. That is the difference.
You remember Peter, when he introduced himself in the last of his epistles, in 2 Peter 1, said, “Simon Peter, a bondman of Jesus Christ.” That is the end: a love-slave.
You are to be so captured, so attached to Him, that you cannot get away. You refer to yourself, with great emphasis, in the summary of your life, as a bondman of Jesus Christ. That is what it means to be caught.
Let’s look at John 6. I think most of you know parts of the story, but I think there are parts maybe we have not focused on so clearly. Let’s go back and begin in verse 48.
I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world.
The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat?
Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves.
He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me, and I in him.
This word caused such a crisis. You may think that this word caused a crisis just among the Jews because they contended, but this caused an enormous crisis among the disciples.
When you read this entire record, you begin to understand how great a crisis it caused among the disciples. Look at verse 60, for instance:
Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it?
Read that. Just for a moment, take that in. “Many therefore of His disciples,” having heard it, said, “This word is hard. Who can hear it?”
Look at verse 61, at the end. The Lord had one question: “Doth this cause you to stumble?”
Brothers and sisters, being a disciple is not easy. No one said it is easy. There are so many opportunities to misunderstand the things the Lord says. There are so many opportunities to become offended, to become overwhelmed, and even a disciple can turn around and go back from walking and following Him.
The Lord has one question: “Are you offended?”
You know, I know it is easy to become offended. The gravest offense is with the Lord Himself.
You remember John the Baptist. He began to question when he was languishing in prison, knowing for sure his certain death. He sent that word to find out about the Lord Jesus, and the Lord concluded it with one thought: “Blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in Me.”
How easy it is to get offended and turn back. How easy it is to say, “Lord, what You ask is too hard. We cannot bear it.”
Does this offend you? Verse 66. From that time—listen to this; this was sobering to me, sobering—“From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.”
Jesus had another question: “Will ye also go away?”
Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”
Brothers and sisters, it is easy to be offended. You know, we sometimes get offended at those closest to us. We get offended in the church. Don’t tell me it’s not true. I know it’s true. I have been offended in the church.
But are you offended at the Lord Jesus? Will you walk away? That was the question. He turned to those that remained and asked another question: “Will you also go?”
I don’t care what you think of Peter, in all of his faults and all of his flaws that are legion, he said to the Lord these simple words: “To whom shall we go?”
That is being caught. That is the end of discipleship.
When all seems to go wrong, when it seems hard, and offense is on the horizon, and there are problems at every end, can you say to the Lord Jesus, “To whom shall we go?”
I have often heard people pray, “Lord, where shall we go?” It is not a place. It is a Person.
Peter was caught by the Person of the Lord Jesus. He had many flaws. This is early—midway, maybe—in the public ministry of the Lord Jesus. There were many more lessons for Peter. There was much more dealing with Peter yet. At this moment, though, he could answer with those all-important words, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
To me, God found in this one, and those others, what He was after. I don’t know if it speaks to you the same way.
This hit me so hard years ago. The prayer I have offered up was, “Lord, keep me.”
You may notice every time I share, I pray this one thought: “To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” That is the secret.
Are you caught? Have you seen something of the Lord Jesus that has gotten into you in such a way that you are caught, that your only response, when everything else is wrong, is, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
That, to me, is the end of discipleship. That is the secret. You may not understand everything. You may not agree with everything. But if you can utter this simple response, the Lord has done a making work already.
Well, that is the first crisis. Are you caught? That is the question.
I have been reading Norman Grubb’s autobiography. You have heard about this before. Norman Grubb—the title of his autobiography is Once Caught, No Escape.
He said, and he credits his whole life and ministry to that one thought. That is what held him. He was caught early in his life.
If I can say one thing to us as believers, it is this: we need to be caught early in our life.
Some have only a casual relationship with the Lord Jesus. But ones that are caught cannot go any other way. They may be just as confused, but they will always turn back and say, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” This is the secret.
I know you were looking for something much deeper, much more profound, but it is the secret of discipleship: to be captured.
Norman Grubb said, “The Lord is good and doeth good. What mercy to have been captured young. And that is why I have titled this book Once Captured, No Escape.”
You can’t. You don’t want to. You don’t. This is the secret.
Oh, may the Lord help us. You want to know the difference between Peter and those that walked away? This is it. To me, there is no other explanation.
My prayer is always, “Lord, will You capture me early, that I cannot be among those that turn away? I know, Lord, there are things that will offend me. There are people that will offend me. I know there are things about You that may offend me. But don’t let me go.”
Put this response in my heart as well.
Well, I think also of John 21. This is the second crisis. Again, John gives us light on these things that the other Gospel writers do not.
I think you are all familiar with this story, but the very fact that John ends the record of his Gospel with this story shows us something of its importance.
Peter had utterly failed prior to this story. This is far different than John 6. Peter had denied the Lord with cursing, you remember.
You remember when that little portress came to him at the door, when the Lord was being judged in the judgment hall. Only John records it this way. Her offending words to him were, “Art thou also one of this man’s disciples?”
And he said, “I am not.”
Then that other one came when he was by the fire, warming himself, and said, “Art thou not also one of His disciples?” That was the question. And he said, “I am not.”
Then he heard the cock crow. Then we read in Luke 22 how he went out and wept bitterly. How convicted he must have been.
But you know, this is absolute failure. You remember the story in John 21. Peter said, “I go a fishing.” What else could he do? He was a fisherman. I will design buildings, and he will go fish. What else could he do? It was all over.
He had denied his beloved Lord with cursing, and this very thing he was called to be—a disciple—he said, “I am not.” That was his testimony.
But you know, the Lord had different ideas. Thank God.
The Lord showed up the seventh day after resurrection by the Sea of Galilee, and they were out fishing. By the way, the other disciples, they were just followers, but often they were followers of Peter. They said, “Well, we will go also fishing.” So they went out fishing.
They did not catch a single thing all night. Can you imagine the frustration of that? That is why I hate fishing.
People love it—the water, the boat, beer—they don’t have to catch a thing. My goodness, they did not catch a thing. Only fishermen know the importance of a catch, though.
You know, you come in, and it doesn’t matter if you have been out all day and all night. I used to come in my father’s little boat, just this red little bump. I would get so sunburned. I hated him dragging me out to Burrows Bay to fish.
The only good news was I could drink all the Pepsi I wanted and eat all the sweets I wanted. But I came back—because that day, I do not even know if we knew what sunscreen was—a little red thing with a white top.
They always ask you when you come in, “What did you catch?” You know, fishermen. We used to fish around the golf course—a little bream. Catch all the greatest catch, get this whole bream, nothing to eat, a little bream. We would take them home, boy.
We would catch those things on our bamboo poles or our bobbing red-and-white float. They would always say, “What did you catch?” The catch is what is important.
The Lord had a different catch in mind. The catch He had in mind was Peter himself.
He said, “Hey, you guys, why don’t you put the net over on the right side?” They must have hated that. They did not know it was the Lord. They must have thought, “Who is this shoreline expert? Put the net on the right side.”
They got a haul that they could hardly bring in. In John, it says the disciple—this was all he was ever known by in his own record—John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”
You know the story. Peter put on his overcoat, because the narrative said he was evidently fishing naked. That is another thing I would not recommend, with sharp things and such.
But he jumped into the water and swam to shore because God had done something in him, and he responded.
He went there. The Lord had already made breakfast. The Lord began to say, “Simon, son of John.” Notice the name He called him: that old name, Simon, son of John.
“Lovest thou Me more than these?” That is what He said. “Do you love Me?”
I love the way Darby has translated this. He answers, I believe correctly, Peter’s answer: “I am attached.”
The Lord says, “Feed My lambs.”
The Lord says again, “Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?” He shortens the question.
Simon says, “Lord, I am attached to Thee.”
Then the third time, the Lord used a different Greek word, the same one Peter used. He said, “Simon, son of John, art thou attached to Me?”
Peter, grieved, said, “Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.” The Lord says, “Feed My sheep.”
Brothers and sisters, I do not know what you think of Peter, but I believe the Lord found in Peter what He wanted at that moment.
Peter could respond, with all of his faults and with a denial fresh in his mind. I wonder, when the Lord was asking him these three direct questions, if he could even look into the Lord’s eyes.
When He said, “Lovest thou Me more than these?”—the fire, the fish—his mind must have instantly gone to the fire outside the judgment hall when he said, “I am not a disciple.”
But God had something. This man was captured. The only way he could explain it was, “Lord, I am attached.”
Now, I love Brother Darby’s notes. I would like to go into all the detail of those different words between agapao and phileo. It will be a great help if you read Brother Darby’s footnotes. It will give you some light on those two different words.
But this is not that the Lord lowers the standard, as some might think. The Lord was after something. What He is after, in the end, is that we are caught for Him. That is what He is after.
So all he could say was, “Lord, I am attached to You.” I believe it was enough at that moment.
I was reading in Brother Stephen’s book Discipled to Christ. He put it this way. He said, “This is what Peter is saying: ‘I can only say that there is something within me which goes out to You, which ties me to You so that I cannot get away.’”
“Somehow, somehow I am attached to You, and I cannot cut myself loose. You have apprehended me. You have bound me. I cannot get away from You. You know all things.” That is what he was saying.
You remember when the apostle Paul, in Philippians 3, was sharing his great passion about pursuing the Lord and knowing the Lord. He said that he was not perfect: “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect.”
But he pressed on, and he said, “I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.” That is what the Lord was looking for.
This is my only question—my burning question for me, my burning question for you: are you captured? Has the Lord laid hold of you in such a way that you have to say, “Lord, I am attached”?
This, to me, is the end of discipleship.
You know, a sister once said, years ago—and I have made it one of my favorites. I will not say her name; people say I embarrass enough people in public. But she said one day in a prayer something that stuck with me: “The Christian life is God interrupting our life.”
I believe that is true. One day, you were like me, walking on your own, satisfying the lust of the flesh, doing what the mind and thoughts willed to do. Then that day, the Lord Jesus appeared to you and drew you to Himself, and He literally interrupted your life.
Thank God for that interruption. Thank God that “Do Not Disturb” signs mean nothing to Him. The Lord of glory came in.
That is what He does. He brought us to Himself. But I believe the life of discipleship is more than that. It is God capturing our life.
May the Lord help us. May the Lord make this our testimony.
We sang that hymn—I asked him if I had a song—George Matheson’s hymn. I do not know what you know about George Matheson, but he was one that was really caught.
George Matheson was an old Scottish preacher, blind at eighteen years of age. His most famous hymn, which we often sing and you all know, is “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.” That is one caption.
The story is that he was about to be married to his fiancée, and then they discovered he was going blind. That young lady—many of us would not blame her—could not handle the thought of being married to a blind preacher and left him.
The glory of that story is that his own sister gave up her whole life. She refused ever to marry and became his eyes.
So devoted was she to him. She would read him the Bible and read him the concordance. His great usefulness can be attributed to that unselfish—utterly unselfish—sister.
It was in a time when his other sister was being married and the family was gone. When they were away at that wedding, he went into great depression. He suffered from bouts of great depression.
In an instant—in five minutes—the Lord gave him the whole of that hymn, “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.” The Spirit of God came upon him, and he knew what it meant to be captured.
How many have been helped by that hymn? He wrote another hymn. Maybe it is not so familiar. We sang it: “Make Me a Captive, Lord.”
It says in that first verse:
Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
This was his life and testimony. May the Lord capture us. It is the only glue that will hold us.
I do not know about you, but I tinker and do not do too good a job at it. You could ask Linda. I tinker around. I love to make and build things.
I have tried all kinds of glue—a superglue that will hold anything. Fortunately, maybe I just do not know what to use.
Lately, I found some good glue: Gorilla Glue. Good stuff. I had this molding—I put it in my living room, this fake molding. You might think it is a little cheesy, but I researched it. I got the right glue. It said it was the only glue for the project.
I took that glue and put plenty of glue on. I am telling you, do not spare the mashed potatoes or the glue. That is my philosophy. That is just extra, okay?
So I put the glue on this thing, and I went into the living room recently and the molding was hanging down. It obviously was not the glue that holds.
But let me tell you: if the Lord Jesus can arrest you, speak to you, capture you—though you might have many faults—that is the glue that will hold you right to the end. This is the end of discipleship.
Well, we need to go on to the next point. It is rather short, but let me just mention: a disciple is not only to be captured; a disciple is, in the end, to be used. Discipleship is for service.
In the end, if you read 2 Timothy 2:21, we are not to be vessels of dishonor, but vessels of honor. It says—I love this phrase—“serviceable to the Master.” We are to be used in the end.
Now I want you to think about this a moment. Just think of it. Do not lose reality here. Do not lose touch with who we are talking about—with Peter.
Peter had failed so miserably. Your first thought might be, “How could he ever be used of God?” Well, maybe it is just the way I think, but at least it is my thought. I will not put that on you. At least that is the way I think. He failed so greatly. How could he ever be used?
Somehow, you may think about things in your life, and you may begin to think, “How could I ever be used?” But to me, that is the glory of the story of Peter.
God did not let him go. In the end, God’s desire for Peter was fulfilled, and Peter was greatly used in an unimaginable way. Just read the Book of Acts.
I think it is outstanding: the early chapters of Acts—Acts 1 through 12, and then Acts 15—are primarily about Peter. He was used extraordinarily.
You have to think back for a moment: was that not the Peter the Lord often corrected, who always, it seems, misspoke and in the end denied? It was indeed. That is the glory.
It says in 1 Corinthians 1, He takes the weak things of the world. He takes the foolish things of the world. He takes the despised things of the world. He takes things that are not, and He makes things that are, so that no flesh can glory in His presence.
That is Peter, and that is us.
Do you think you are fit to serve? Qualified to serve in the natural? You are not. But God delights in taking the ones that seem to be so ill-equipped and transforming them and using them for His service.
Now, to me, that is the great encouragement of Peter’s life, and that ought to be great encouragement to you.
The next time you are moping about—do not tell me you do not do it; we all do it—moping about, thinking, “Oh, we never could be used,” just think of Peter.
I am so grateful that God did not choose John as the outstanding illustration of the making of a disciple. Not that John did not have his faults. Do not forget the sons of thunder.
Oh, they were so discreet in their own way, like we are often refined and discreet. They told their mother, “Go to the Lord Jesus. You can ask Him. He will not ever know it is us. Go to the Lord Jesus and ask if James and I can one sit on His right and one sit on His left.”
He was not perfect. But boy, he was the only one that was at the cross when all scattered. What a testimony of the age.
He was in the judgment hall when Peter was outside saying, “I am not a disciple.” It does not seem to me that God uses him as the illustration as much as He uses the wayward Peter. I believe it is for our encouragement.
It is so that you can know you too can be used, so that I can know somehow, with all of my flaws, I can be used. This is the mercy of God.
I will never forget when I was newly saved. I was talking to a fellow who was getting his PhD. He was a smart guy, I will tell you—or smarter than I was.
I happened to quote this verse in 1 Corinthians: “The Lord does not call many wise.” Boy, I tell you, we lost that friendship real quick. He took a little umbrage at my interpretation of the Scripture.
I was saying, “Praise the Lord. The Lord does not call many wise. He uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise—the base things.” I lost a good handball partner.
Well, that is the glory of Peter’s life. Think of how greatly he was used.
You know, in Acts 4:13, it talks about the council, the leaders of Jerusalem, the high priest and his whole house—Caiaphas, Annas, and all that gang—and they were judging Peter.
It says, in Darby’s translation:
Now seeing the boldness of Peter and John, and perceiving that they were unlettered and uninstructed men, they wondered.
Well, the Authorized Version is not so kind. It says, “Unlearned and ignorant men.” They marvelled.
Brothers and sisters, a disciple in the end is to be used. Who He can use, if He can only capture and get hold of them, will amaze you.
I think one day, when we are in the kingdom, when we are at the judgment seat and we see the ones the Lord used, we will be amazed. We will marvel just like they marvelled. Only the Lord can do that.
I love the story of D. L. Moody. You have heard it before; I will say it again. You remember Moody—maybe, and you may argue with me—the greatest evangelist that ever lived.
But Moody was a farm boy, and Moody was a shoe salesman. Now, please do not, none of you shoe salesmen in here, get upset with me. I am not demeaning shoe salesmen.
But he was a farm boy turned shoe salesman, turned to the greatest evangelist that ever lived—all because the Lord got hold of him.
A word came to him in a prayer meeting while he was in London: “The world has yet to see what God can do with one who is wholly committed to Him.” How He can use such a one.
Well, that to me is so great. Look in Acts. I want you to go back and read these first twelve chapters, because we do not have time, but you begin to see it.
I will give you a few examples. In Acts 2, at Pentecost, Peter gave the first sermon of the church. What a changed man. The Holy Spirit had come upon him, and Peter stood up with the twelve.
You remember the end of that sermon: three thousand people were added that day to the church. How he was used. It says in verse 41, and then in verse 42:
They continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
These ones, from this first sermon, became the living core of the early church. How greatly he was used.
Not only that, think of Acts 3, with the lame beggar by the gate called Beautiful. He had been there for years, and that healing turned things around incredibly.
You remember Peter and John walked by, and he was asking for alms. Peter reached out his hand: “Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Oh, that miracle changed things. It went all through the land—the first miracle in the church period. How greatly he was used.
Or think in Acts 5 of Ananias and Sapphira—the first church discipline. Peter spoke a word. Read the record. He spoke a word with such power, and life went out of him. How greatly he was used.
There are so many instances. Oh, I think of Acts 8, Simon the magician. You remember, this was the first real error in the church, and Peter was the one used to contend with that error.
Simon the magician saw the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and man, he wanted that power. He said, “Give me some of that power.” He was ready for that power, and he wanted it for money.
Peter said, “Thy silver perish with thee. Repent.” First great error. How greatly he was used.
Or you think of Acts 10, the house of Cornelius. You remember that devout Roman centurion, Cornelius. You remember the apostle Peter went to Joppa, to Simon the tanner’s house.
When he was at Joppa, he received a vision from on high. It was a great sheet with the quadrupeds, the creeping things, the fowls of the air, and the unclean things.
The Lord spoke in that vision and said, “Peter, rise, kill, and eat.” He said, “Lord, I have never eaten such unclean things.” He was a good Jew.
“What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.”
Through Peter, the door of the gospel and the church was opened to the Gentiles. I think it is the Lord’s mercy.
When the Holy Spirit fell upon them, Peter was convinced that God is no respecter of persons.
I think it is amazing that the exact same sign occurred as at Pentecost: they spoke in tongues. Now, I know you are all thinking I am slipping into my charismatic mode, but I believe the Lord wanted to make no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Peter was used.
I think it is phenomenal. Acts 12, the first corporate prayer meeting; or Acts 15.
It was the greatest danger to the church. The Judaizers could have brought in division, imposed the law, and the very nature of the gospel would have forever been changed. We would no longer be just under grace, but under law and grace.
Peter was the one who stood up and gave the summary. How he was used.
Brothers and sisters, I believe the Lord wants to use us. I am not at all confused that we have many flaws. You may not think you have many flaws, but I am convinced we have many flaws.
But that does not discourage the Lord Jesus from using the ones He calls to be disciples. That is the end of discipleship.
Finally, Matthew 10 says it is enough for the disciple to be as his teacher. “The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the bondman above his lord. It is sufficient—it is enough—for the disciple that he should be as his teacher, and the bondman as his lord.”
This is the end of discipleship. In the end, if you can say one thing, it is that we are to be like Him. That is the end. We are to be transformed. We are to be conformed.
If you read Romans 8:28-29, we see the whole purpose of God: He has called many sons, and He has called them that they may be conformed to the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus. That is the purpose of God.
How, in the end, Peter was like the Lord. You may disagree. Peter was not perfect—do not get me wrong—but how the Lord had done a work, and in the end he was like the Lord.
You remember, in his death, he even requested that he be crucified upside down. He was crucified like his Lord, but just before they did it, he said, “No, no, no. Put me upside down. I am not worthy to be crucified like my Lord.”
You remember how he wrote those letters to the sojourners in his epistles—1 Peter and 2 Peter—how he became an encouragement and fulfilled that word of the Lord: “Feed My sheep, feed My lambs, shepherd My sheep.”
He had suffered greatly in being made a disciple. In these two epistles, short as they are, the word suffering occurs sixteen times—more than in any other epistles in all the New Testament.
Likewise, they have the word glory sixteen times, more than any other epistle in the New Testament.
So this one who had been made, dealt with, captured, and used, began to understand that in all those sufferings God was doing a work—a making work. He was being transformed. He was being conformed. Those sufferings were with a purpose and an end in view.
But listen to this. When he concluded in 1 Peter 5, he said this as his encouragement:
And the God of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.
I love that phrase: “Himself shall make perfect, establish, strengthen, settle.”
Suffering, dear brothers and sisters, is not an end. Glory is the end, but suffering is essential to a Christian. I have heard recently—you may have heard this as well—that a Christian is not to suffer. I do not believe that at all.
I think you would have to throw away half the New Testament. But I believe those sufferings, the Lord can use them to make us into His image, to make us like Him, to mold us to be like the Lord Jesus.
This is what Peter understood. So he said, “After you have suffered a little while.” Thank God there is an end. He will make you. He will establish you.
When he talked about the proving of their faith in 1 Peter 1:6-7, he said, “The proving of your faith is more precious than gold that is refined in the fire.” He again says, “a little while.”
Dear brothers and sisters, I hope you sense at least something of what is on my heart.
We are to be made disciples. It is God who makes us disciples.
It was the Great Commission. Some people have reduced the Great Commission to evangelism. Now, evangelism is included in the Great Commission, but when you read the Lord’s word, it says strictly, “Go ye therefore and make disciples.”
I believe this is what the Lord is after.
Peter was captured. In the end, you are to be captured.
Peter was used. It amazes us who God can use once He captures them.
In the end, Peter was like Him. He could even say to the shepherds—you remember the Lord said, “Shepherd My sheep”—he could say to the elders in 1 Peter, “Shepherd the flock of God.”
Not as lording it over your allotted charge, not for base gain. It is not what you get. But if you are like the Shepherd, you will shepherd like the Shepherd.
May the Lord help us to be made disciples. May we yield to Him in a way that He can move upon us, draw us to Himself, and we will respond to the disciple’s call.
I think Peter’s life is really quite simple. When he was called as a disciple in Matthew 4:19, the Lord said, “Come, follow Me. I will make you fishers of men.”
At the end of John 21, that same call goes forth from the Lord Jesus. He says, “Follow Me.”
Notice that phrase, “I will make you,” is gone. I believe the Lord had done a work. There had been a process. There had been a yielding. There had been a responding. There had been a making.
It says in 1 John 3, now we are children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But it does say this: we know that, when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.
This is the end of discipleship.
Lord, we just want You to have everything that You want.
Lord, we want to follow in our brother’s footsteps. We want You to capture us early. We do not want to just believe. I do not want to just receive from You. We want You to capture us.
Make us have to say, “Lord, I am attached to You. Where can I go?”
Lord, use us. We offer ourselves to You. We say, “Send me.” Do the work. Send us.
You glory in refining and using what seems so unusable. Do it with us.
And Lord, in the end, make us like Yourself. Really conform us. We do not want to walk all the days of our earthly journey and, when people see us, say, “I do not recognize you.”
We want to be like the believers in Antioch, so that people might say, “They are Christians. Look at them. They look like Christ. They live like Christ. They act like Christ. What can we call them?”
We offer ourselves to You and pray that Your Word will find place in our heart and we cannot escape it.
In Jesus’ precious name. Amen.