Real Discipleship Devotions for Men by Robert M. West
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INTRODUCTION
REAL DISCIPLESHIP
We’ve all heard the word disciple many times, but what does it really mean?
In the original Greek language of the New Testament, the word translated “disciple” means literally “a learner.” Many people in Jesus’ day followed particular teachers, identifying themselves as their disciples. John the Baptist had disciples (Matthew 9:14), as did the group of religious leaders known as the Pharisees (Luke 5:33). Of course, we are well aware of Jesus’ twelve disciples, the men He hand-picked to learn from Him for the last three years of His life on earth. Jesus called these men to follow Him (Matthew 4:19), just as He’s called each of us.
But it’s possible to follow Jesus halfheartedly, in ways that don’t last. John 6:66 describes a sizable group of Jesus’ disciples who “turned back and no longer walked with him.” So it’s vital that we as professing believers, as followers of Jesus, be sure we’re “real disciples,” the kind who stick with Him and finish our race, as the apostle Paul described the Christian life (2 Timothy 2:7).
This book will help you understand the full scope of Jesus’ teaching by examining vital discipleship topics like
• God’s Word
• prayer and praise
• self-denial
• service to others
• giving of time and resources
• development of healthy Christian relationships
• and much more
By showing how these important subjects play out in scripture—and providing encouragement for you to pursue them in your own daily life—Real Discipleship Devotions for Men will provide potentially life-changing inspiration.
1 REAL DISCIPLESHIP
FOLLOWING JESUS
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
Matthew 9:9
As Jesus began His public ministry, He selected a diverse group of twelve disciples. These learners would follow Him for three years and then become His apostles—men sent out to carry His message of salvation to the known world.
Some may have questioned the Lord’s calling of Matthew, who had a notorious reputation in his Jewish community as a Roman tax collector. Generally, the Jewish people despised tax collectors for cheating and extorting people. They were considered traitorous collaborators with the occupying Romans.
Luke 19:10 quotes Jesus as declaring that He had come to “seek and to save the lost.” Jesus found and called Matthew, showing that He could transform any life and use any person to help accomplish His mission. And Matthew was a real disciple—his response to Jesus’ call was immediate as he completely broke with his past. “He rose and followed him”—there would be no turning back.
Matthew wanted his former friends to meet Jesus, so Matthew 9:10–13 describes a party he hosted with Jesus as the special guest. This event was attended by people of questionable character as “many tax collectors and sinners came and
were reclining with Jesus and his disciples” (verse 10). The local Pharisees, the prominent Jewish religious leaders, objected to Jesus associating with so many “bad” people, but Jesus explained exactly why His ministry was needed.
He first used the analogy of a physician treating the sick (verse 12). Then Jesus referenced the Old Testament passage we know as Hosea 6:6: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (verse 13). The Pharisees certainly knew this text and should have cared for sinners like Jesus did. They failed because they were not real disciples.
Here is a great discipleship lesson from Matthew’s life: If the Lord can change and transform a social and moral outcast like Matthew, making him a trophy of God’s saving grace, then He can change anybody who responds to Jesus’ call to “Follow Me.”
• Who are some acquaintances the world may consider too bad to ever change?
• What steps could you take to reach out to those who are living lives of sin?
2
REAL DISCIPLESHIP
THE FAITH THAT PLEASES GOD
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
Faith is an important word in the Bible. Scripture explains that “by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). Disciples are encouraged in Jude 20 to “[build] yourselves up in your most holy faith,” which means growth in God’s Word. Hebrews 11:13 speaks of those Old Testament heroes still living by faith when they died, but who hadn’t received God’s promises. Rather than doubting the Lord’s reliability, they “were persuaded of [the promises], and embraced them” (kjv).
Hebrews 11 has been called the Faith Hall of Fame because it describes sixteen Old Testament saints, in addition to unnamed disciples known only to God, who were commended for their faith.
Enoch is a unique Old Testament figure featured in Hebrews 11:5. That verse and the one following both speak about pleasing God. Enoch is named in the Genesis 5 genealogy in which deaths are listed, but verse 24 says, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Hebrews 11:5 explains that “Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.” This rare experience of being transported directly to glory was his
reward for walking with God and pleasing Him for more than three hundred years.
Hebrews 11:6 indicates that it is impossible to please God without genuine faith. This kind of faith is twofold. First, those who approach God “must believe that he exists,” meaning trusting in how He’s revealed Himself. Second, they must believe that “he rewards those who seek him.” This is the passion of every real disciple.
Hebrews 4:16 encourages disciples, even today, to “draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” This is a display of the type of faith that pleases God, the kind of faith He will surely reward!
• How can you display the faith that pleases God?
• How has God rewarded you when you’ve sought Him in faith?
3
REAL DISCIPLESHIP
BEING A DISCIPLE
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Matthew 5:1
In New Testament times, religious leaders typically had disciples. In John 9:28, for example, the Pharisees called themselves Moses’ disciples, and John the Baptist’s disciples are mentioned in John 1.
Jesus had His inner circle of twelve disciples, the men He was preparing for ministry after His return to heaven. Beyond the Twelve were a group of around seventy unnamed disciples (Luke 10:1), and some of an even larger group are described as having abandoned Jesus (John 6:66). Also, two influential men named Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were called “secret disciples,” keeping a safe distance from Jesus during His public ministry. Yet in John 19, they publicly displayed their faith as they played an important part in Jesus’ burial.
In scripture, Jesus’ followers are described by different titles. In Acts 5:14 Luke calls them “believers.” The apostle Paul called the believers in the church at Colosse “faithful brothers and sisters in Christ” (Colossians 1:2 niv). Acts 11:26 reports that “in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” The word Christian, which today is a commonly accepted term for believers, appears in the Bible only a few times, and some believe it was originally a derogatory term used to shame believers.
But the most common term for Christians in the Bible— found only in the four Gospels and in the book of Acts and used around 260 times—is disciples. This name comes from the Greek word mathetes and refers to one who is a learner, a pupil, or an apprentice, someone who follows and learns from a teacher. It’s used to describe both genuine believers and superficial followers of Jesus.
Real disciples are those who follow Christ as Lord and Savior, having been pardoned from their sins, given new life, and adopted into God’s family (Romans 8:15–16; 10:9–13). Real disciples worship God, actively learning and applying His truth, and following Jesus as their example (James 1:22–25; 1 Peter 2:21). Real disciples find their place in the mission to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Real disciples are motivated to live holy lives with a hopeful expectation of their Lord’s return (1 John 3:2–3).
• What do you think makes you Jesus’ disciple?
• How familiar are you with the concept of discipleship?
REAL DISCIPLESHIP
FREED FROM SIN
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31–32
Israel’s history includes long periods of slavery. Their Egyptian bondage lasted four hundred years before Moses announced, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Let my people go” (Exodus 5:1). Centuries after that, God’s people were hauled away to Babylon, where they spent seventy years in captivity, before the Persian emperor Cyrus proclaimed their freedom and sent them back to their homeland.
In Jesus’ day, Israel was ruled by the Roman Empire. But Jesus preached a message of freedom from sin, not Roman rule. He said in John 8:34 that “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” Jesus’ gospel did not emphasize national and political freedom but spiritual freedom from the penalty, the power, and eventually the presence of sin.
Becoming Jesus’ disciple is not merely a onetime decision but a long-term relationship of knowing and following Him. Real disciples receive His truth and continue in it so that they may experience His forgiveness, a sense of assurance, and personal freedom from sin’s awful effects.
Bible commentator William Hendriksen wrote, “One abides in the word of Christ by making it the rule of one’s life. In other
words, obedience is the same thing as abiding in the word. This makes one a true disciple of Jesus and leads to genuine knowledge of the truth.”
During His earthly ministry, Jesus knew that not everyone who followed Him was a real disciple. Many who had claimed discipleship would fall away, as John 6:64 notes: “Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe.” He sadly watched as “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (verse 66).
Real disciples continue with Jesus. They are free from sin’s terrible control when the Word of God governs their hearts and minds.
• What does it mean to you to be set free from slavery to sin?
• What part of God’s Word are you studying now to enhance your own freedom?
BECOMING JESUS’ DISCIPLE IS NOT MERELY A ONETIME DECISION BUT A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP OF KNOWING AND FOLLOWING HIM.
REAL DISCIPLESHIP
UNDERSTANDING THE MOMENT OF SALVATION
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 10:9–10
In Romans 10, the apostle Paul clarifies how God saves sinners. After stating God’s verdict against everyone in Romans 3:23—that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”—Paul goes on to describe a common problem in many who think they’re okay with the Lord.
As a former Pharisee, Paul could relate to this line of thinking. Some people are very religious, having a zeal for God—but they are still lost because they lack an accurate knowledge of the gospel of grace. These people mistakenly replace the God-given righteousness that comes by faith in Christ with their own self-righteousness. So Paul points to Jesus as the answer, saying “Christ is the end of the law” (Romans 10:4).
Then in verses 9–10, he explains how a person is “saved.” The outward response (“confess with your mouth”) comes from an inward conviction (“believe in your heart”), resulting in salvation. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to affirm His deity and sovereignty as the one true God. This isn’t a onetime event but a public declaration of a person’s commitment to begin
following Jesus. This heartfelt saving faith is more than just the intellectual acceptance of the facts of Jesus’ resurrection. James 2:19 states that even demons have a certain belief, but it doesn’t save them.
Real faith acknowledges that Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates God’s acceptance of His Son’s sin-atoning, sacrificial death: Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). His sacrificial death and physical resurrection are inseparable events to be believed. Then confession with the mouth is the natural outflow of this inward faith. Confession doesn’t earn salvation but rather gives evidence that salvation has been received.
Finally, Paul communicated the encouraging promises that real disciples won’t ever be put to shame or disappointed (Romans 10:11) and that everyone who calls on the Lord in prayer will be saved (verse 13)!
• How did you overcome the difficulty of accepting that you were a guilty sinner before a holy God?
• What challenges have you faced in confessing Christ before others? Why?
REAL DISCIPLESHIP
UNDERSTANDING REGENERATION
AND RENEWAL
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Titus 3:4–6
It’s important for real disciples to understand the details of the gospel message. Knowing how God our Savior rescues sinners helps believers to appreciate all He’s done for us and also helps us to be more effective in sharing the good news with others.
The apostle Paul began Titus 3 by emphasizing the importance of a good public testimony. He urged believers to act with compassion and patience toward unbelievers while remembering the difficulties of their own former unbelief. Paul wanted obstacles removed from anyone who was considering following Jesus; he wanted the “doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:10) to be attractive.
Paul described Jesus’ first coming as a divine act of goodness and loving kindness. Jesus came to rescue us from the greatest evil and to bless us with the greatest blessing. Paul
then clarified that God’s salvation is not received because of works of human merit but only by God’s mercy. No collection of good deeds could ever “earn” salvation for anyone, since even works done in righteousness don’t take away sins. In Romans 10:1–4, Paul shared his burden and prayer request for his countrymen who were deceived by this error.
The word regeneration in Titus 3:5 indicates being “born again.” This is the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit bestowing cleansing and new spiritual life on those who are spiritually dead. Believers become a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and enjoy a living relationship with Him. Jesus discussed this idea with a renowned religious teacher named Nicodemus, saying, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Some Bible translations say “born from above,” emphasizing an act of God.
The term renewal in Titus 3:5 refers to the ongoing changes that God’s Spirit produces in lives. It is described as the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22–23. God gives all of these rich blessings through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Real disciples are grateful for God’s regeneration and renewal, and they seek opportunities to share this truth with others.
• How have you dealt with the mistaken idea that people can earn their salvation?
• When did you learn about the need to be born again?
REAL DISCIPLES ARE GRATEFUL FOR GOD’S REGENERATION AND RENEWAL , AND THEY SEEK OPPORTUNITIES TO SHARE THIS TRUTH WITH OTHERS.
