A Living Legacy (Sermon: Acts 9:23-25)

The word disciple means to be a student of a teacher--a follower. When we think of a disciple, we often think of one of Jesus' twelve disciples, but there were other disciples in the New Testament. Mark 2:28 tells us that both John the Baptist and the Pharisees had disciples. The Pharisees even considered themselves to be disciples of Moses, since they were trying to follow his teaching (John 9:28). And so while there were many disciples in the New Testament, today I want to draw your attention to the disciples of Saul.

Acts 9:25 reveals that before the new believer Saul ever left Damascus he already had disciples of his own. Wow! Some Christians live their entire life without ever discipling anyone else and Saul had disciples even as a new believer. Only God knows the impact that some of these disciples had in the world. That's one of the amazing things about investing your life in disciples, once they have come to maturity, they carry on the ministry even in your absence.

Some of you may have heard of Stephen Olford, but to the average reader his name will not be familiar. But how about Billy Graham? Have you heard of him? Did you know that Stephen Olford discipled Billy Graham and taught him how to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit? It's true.

As believers, we all want to make a contribution to the Kingdom of God. We all want to be remembered for something we were or something we did. In short, we all want to leave some sort of legacy. Do you realize that if you make discipling others your legacy, they will still be carrying on the ministry even after you are gone? Discipling others is the only real way to leave a living legacy.

Why not pray today that God will show you some believers that you can help to grow closer to the Lord?