The Way of Jesus, Pt. 1: Jesus is the Way
Victory Life Church — Sunday, March 9, 2025
Introduction
“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” ~ Richard Foster
The desperate need today in this generation is for men and women of depth. This generation has seen enough hypocrisy, spin, scandal, and pretension. There is a call for there to be heroes of the faith once again. Will we answer that call? How do we become deep people?
An Integrated Faith and Life
[ Example of the Dresser: Jesus is merely a drawer within the larger whole ]
This kind of image of the Christian faith reveals a lack of an “integrated” faith, which has led, in my opinion, to the “disintegration” of faith. When our faith is disconnected from the rest of our lives, it has limited power to shape our lives.
John 1:4 (ESV)4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John 5:39-40 (ESV) You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 10:10 (NLT)10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
John 14:6 (ESV)6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
“The Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life.” ~ Eugene Peterson
John 20:31 (ESV)31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Faith, as John states the intent of his Gospel, “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,” is not merely believing true or redemptive things about Jesus, though it may include that. Believing for John is about seeing that Jesus’ life, not just his atoning death, is what saves our whole life, not just our afterlife. “Life in his name” is about every aspect of our lives being redeemed and restored in Jesus.
Jesus did not come to merely save our afterlife, but our whole life.
Talking about where you go when you die is not how Christianity reshaped the world. Going to heaven when you die is not what fueled the passion of the martyrs for the faith. What made the church so transformative to the world was the apprentices of Jesus having the life of Jesus flowing through them, despite any obstacle.
“Christianity is not just a set of doctrines but a divine whole-life philosophy worth dying for, if need be.” ~ Jonathan T. Pennington
Apprentice to Jesus
Understanding Jesus in his first-century Jewish context: a Teacher. He was a “rabbi” who called disciples to “Follow Me.”
Luke 5:27–28 (ESV)27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
Mark 1:16–18 (ESV)16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice—a practitioner, even if only as a beginner.
Being a disciple meant to walk alongside your Teacher in an attitude and posture of observation, listening, learning, study, obedience, and imitation.
“As Jesus’s disciple, I am his apprentice in kingdom living. I am learning from him how to lead my life in the kingdom of the heavens as he would lead my life if he were I. It is my faith in him that led me to become his disciple. My confidence in him simply means that I believe that he is right about everything: that all that he is and says shows what life is at its best, what it was intended by God to be: “in him was life and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4, NASB).” ~ Dallas Willard
The disciples of the early church in the book of Acts were known as “Followers of the Way”: Acts 9:2, 19:9, 18:25-26, 19:23, 22:4, 24:14, 24:22
Romans 6:4 (NLT)4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
The Christian in the New Testament is used three times. The word disciple (or apprentice) is used 269 times. We have lost this New Testament sense of what the Christian faith really is: apprenticeship to Jesus. Instead, it has been replaced with a mental ascent to certain doctrinal tenets but divorced from everyday life.
“The Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life.” ~ Eugene Peterson
If we want the life of Jesus, it comes with a commitment to the truth he reveals and the way he lives. This is what it means to surrender our life to him as Lord and as Teacher. Yet most of us have not really understood our Christian faith to be this. Western Culture has adopted some ideas from Christianity but has disregarded Jesus as anything other than an inspiring historical figure. Certainly, he has not been upheld as the Lord of all or as the greatest mind the world has ever known. Yet this is who he is, and he calls us with grace and mercy to follow him, surrender our life to him, and trust him in the everyday moment-to-moment aspects of real life.
“What lies at the heart of this astonishing disregard of Jesus found in the moment-to-moment existence of multitudes of professing Christians is a simple lack of respect for him. He is not seriously taken to be a person of great ability.”
We must recover this sense of apprenticeship with Jesus, trusting him with the totality of our lives, following him closely in everyday issues of life, and learning from him how to truly live.
“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heart-breaking needs, is whether those who…are identified as “Christians” will become disciples—students, apprentices, practitioners—of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.” ~ Dallas Willard
Colossians 1:13–14 (NLT)13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
Conclusion: Series Overview
Communion with God
Character Formation into Christlikeness
Community with God’s people
Commissioned into God’s work
Cross-shaped Christianity
Recommended Resources
Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer
Jesus, The Great Philosopher, Jonathan Pennington
The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson
The Great Omission, Dallas Willard
Eternity is Now in Session, John Ortberg
Citaions and Notes
Richard J. Foster. Celebration of Discipline. 3rd ed., HarperSanFrancisco, 1998. p.1
Eugene Peterson. The Jesus Way. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007.
Jonathan T. Pennington. Jesus the Great Philosopher. Brazos Press, 2020. p. 9
Dallas Willard. The Great Omission. HarperOne, 2006. p. 6
Dallas Willard. Renewing the Christian Mind: Essays, Interviews, and Talks. HarperOne, 2016. p. 280
Eugene Peterson. The Jesus Way. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007.
Dallas Willard. The Great Omission. HarperOne, 2006. p. 19
Dallas Willard. The Great Omission. HarperOne, 2006. p. xv