So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, “who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time–houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions–and in the age to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30).
Consider this Scripture; you might have read it a great number of times. Perhaps you read it so fast that you miss the point. Take it slowly now, word by word. Now could you identify the phrase ‘with persecutions’? Yes, right in His statement of assurances to His disciples, Jesus included ‘persecutions’, a word very unwelcome. Jesus was just assuring His disciples on what they stand to gain as His disciples. Now among the blissful items He mentioned, He included persecution, an odd item to the rest. Why? He just wanted to be honest with them and with any who would come to follow Him as a disciple throughout the ages that, yes, you would enjoy exceedingly great blessings such as no unbeliever can ever have, in this life and after this life, yet persecutions will come along with the blessings. A disciple should thus bear in mind that persecution is his to suffer as eternal life is his to inherit. Moreover, persecution is not all, other adverse factors of its kind such as false teachings and temptations add up to persecution to make discipleship quite a challenging way of life. Thus despite the overwhelming assurances or benefits to enjoy, discipleship has another facet, which is challenges. This lesson will focus on the major challenges that hit discipleship or that try to stop the disciple from following Jesus Christ. They are:
1. Temptation
And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. (Mark 1:13. Also Matthew 4:1, Luke 4:2)
Jesus Christ Himself had His fair share of temptations from the devil. Jesus once said to His disciples, “A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:20). Jesus meant to say that what he was experiencing and what his disciples were yet to experience would not be any different; that is, His disciples would experience the bliss and the pain that He was experiencing. Therefore, if Jesus experienced temptations then His disciples would experience the same. But the question is what or who brings temptation? – Who tempts disciples of Jesus? It is the devil who tempts – (Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:13, Luke 4:2.) How does he do it? He dwells on the disciples’ desires to entices him to sin –
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. (James 1:14).
You know what? The ulterior motive behind temptation is to make the disciple sin. Do not forget that sin has been the age-old factor that separates man from God – then once man is separated from God, he is in the state of death – spiritual death. It is written –
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:15)
See: How to overcome temptation
2. Persecution
Persecution is an integration of many undesirable experiences such as suffering hatred, death, arbitrary arrest, torture, incarceration, etc. on account of Jesus Christ. Jesus was honest enough to tell His disciples beforehand that such a thing would come their way. Let see a few of the many kinds of persecution mentioned by Jesus –
i. Hatred from the world
At some point in history, Jesus Christ knowing His days were numbered, prayed for His disciple, in John 17. What He said was more of teaching as it was of prayer. While praying, He spelled out certain consequences or challenges that His disciples were yet to suffer on account of Him. He categorically mentioned that His disciples would suffer hatred –
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (John 17:14)
(Also) Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. (Matthew 24:9)
ii. Death
One day, on the Mt. of Olives, Jesus was teaching His disciples about what was yet to come during the end times, and he told them about the persecution they were about to suffer, saying,
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake… (Matthew 24:9)
Not long after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, persecution of His disciples grew rapidly and hit the point where some disciples lost their lives. Some biblical examples of disciples who were murdered are:
- James, brother of John, Acts 12:2
- Stephen, Acts 7:57–60
- Antipas of Pergamos, Revelation 2:13
- Many more were put to death, Acts 26:10
iii. Facing various kinds of persecutions
Aside from hatred and death, Jesus also mentioned that His disciples would face various kinds of persecution such as arrest, interrogation, imprisonment, etc;
But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. (Luke 21:12)
Not long after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the disciples began to experience what was said beforehand:
- Peter and John were arrested, Acts 4:1–4
- Peter and John were interrogated, Acts 4:5-7
- Disciples arrested and beaten, Acts 5: 17, 18, 40
- Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned, Acts 16: 19–24
- Paul, brought before King Agrippa and Festus, Acts 25:23-24
- Paul was stoned, Acts 14:19
- Peter was imprisoned, Acts 12:3, 4
See: How to overcome persecution
3. The permeation of false teaching
Even persecution with all of its brutalities is inferior to false teachings in terms of efficiency in destruction. False teaching has done what suffering, animosity, and incarceration of persecution could not do. Over the centuries, false teaching has permeated, confused, misled, and ravaged the church sore, and disciples have struggled in its perils up to this day. False teachings have left an indelible mark on Christianity, in that it has brought about a lot of schisms, and schisms have given birth to different sects and different sets of doctrines in the Christendom. Certain sects such as Arianism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christadelphians, etc. are the handiwork of false teaching. Moreover, false teachings are effective in misleading disciples into apostasy than any other factor. Disciples of Jesus, across the ages, have had to contend with false teaching. Even in the days of the apostles, false teaching was not scarce. It cropped up, confused the disciples, and had to be put out (Acts 15:1–31). The all-knowing Jesus saw it coming, so He warned His disciples beforehand about the proliferation of false teachings composed by false teachers, false prophets, etc. that was yet to come, saying –
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15)
Today we can list false teaching as one of the major challenges of disciples considering its track record across the centuries. It has inspired apostasy throughout the ages to a great extent, misleading many disciples to wander away from the faith, ending their discipleship prematurely.
NB: False teachings, temptation, and persecution such as death, suffering, incarceration, hatred, etc., have done a great deal of harm to Christianity right from the day of its birth. Disciples throughout the ages have had to contend with them and or manage their lives through them. They are the disciple’s major challenges – challenges in the sense that they interfere with the disciple’s course of discipleship. Basically, persecution, false teachings, and temptation are intended to either stop the disciple from following Jesus or mislead the disciple in a wrong course to his damnation. But whether these challenges will succeed or not depends on the disciple himself. The disciple has the potential to overcome them; in fact, Jesus, our Lord and Master, expect you to overcome them.
See: How to overcome false teachings
4. Self-imposed challenges of disciples
So far as serving God is concern, every disciple and Christian is an enemy to himself or herself in that some of the challenges we are going to face in following Jesus will come from ourselves. Our human nature comes with weaknesses and indulgences which pose challenges to our following Jesus Christ. If not properly checked, these factors are able to remove us from the path of following Jesus as Christians and disciples.
i. Moral weaknesses of disciples
There were twelve disciples of Jesus, one of them, Judas Iscariot, could not continue being a disciple of Jesus for life, for he fell away along the line and became an apostate. Why? Though all the disciples of Jesus had weaknesses, Judas Iscariot alone sold himself to his weakness and, eventually, the devil, holding him by his weakness, led him astray into apostasy and destruction.
Judas Iscariot had a weakness he could not control, his weakness was greed – greed for money – and he became a lover of money. Judas Iscariot was the treasurer of Jesus’ team. He began to exhibit his greed for money by means of stealing money for himself from the money box which was committed to his keep. However, the coins he was stealing from the money box did not appear to be enough for him, he wanted even more money. His quest for more made him see his Master, Jesus Christ, as a big offer for the taking. Judas Iscariot’s greed and theft pave way for the devil to walk into his life (Luke 22:3-6). Then, the devil influenced him to go to the enemies of Jesus – the chief priests – to betray Him. This was Judas Iscariot when he went to betray Jesus:
Judas Iscariot said to them, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26:15
Judas Iscariot was really in for the money; he was obsessed with making more money no matter what it takes, whether fair or foul means. He successfully sold Jesus and had 30 silver pieces more to add to whatever money he had been stealing from the money box. Eventually, his act of betrayal led to his remorse; and the remorse led to his suicide. Moreover, Judas Iscariot became apostate since his act of betrayal.
All disciples of Jesus identify with the fallen disciple, Judas Iscariot, in that we all have weaknesses. Having weaknesses is not a big deal; what really matters is checking our weaknesses. We should ever be mindful that weaknesses are a major challenge to disciples for they can ruin our relationship with God and we will no longer be reckoned as disciples.
See: How to overcome weaknesses
ii. Self-indulgence
God does not like sin; in fact, sin has always been the factor that separates man from God. One reason why it is difficult for us to stop sinning is that certain sinful activities are enjoyable to our senses. The practice of doing sinful deeds that we like or enjoy is called self-indulgence.
It is difficult for most Christians and disciples to part with circular music because the beat and or the lyrics seem to excite them so much. Sex before marriage has become a common, enjoyable sin in modern Christianity. Extravagance, violence, vindictiveness, fornication, alcoholism, adultery, being litigious, lasciviousness, looking at the opposite sex lustfully, etc. are all common indulgences of many disciples in the modern church.
We should bear in mind that self-indulgence is a sin and sin ruins our relationship with God. To be able to be a disciple or follow Jesus Christ for life, self-indulgence is a challenge you need to overcome.
see: How to prevent self-indulgence
CONCLUSION
False teachings, temptation, and persecution stalk the disciple every day of his life. And all the three are entirely inspired by the devil. His motive for bringing them into the disciple’s life is to try to stop him or mislead him from following Christ Jesus. He begins throwing these challenges at him right from the day he made the decision to follow Jesus as a disciple. Most certainly, as a disciple of Jesus, these challenges will stalk your life, but what matters is that you have what it takes to overcome them.
However, moral weakness and self-indulgence are challenges a disciple and Christian poses on himself. Also, the devil is very good at harnessing our weaknesses to his advantage and to our disadvantage.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- Which of the challenges of disciples is the most prevalent in modern times?
- What have you been doing personally to overcome the challenges you face as a disciple?
- Which of these challenges mostly cause disciples to fall?