Discipleship – Salisbury Baptist Church

Relationship, Not the Fold

1st March 2026

Being part of a church is not the totality of what it means to belong to Christ. The ninety nine sheep left in the open country were still the Shepherd's own; the lost one was separated not by location only from participating in religion. When the Shepherd finds the lost, He carries them close and will not let them go. True discipleship flows from surrender to Christ's leading, allowing Him to shape decisions, ambitions, and life itself. Being in the fold of the Church is where He wants you to be but that is secondary to being across His shoulders as He saves you from being lost.

The Secret of Discipleship

9th November 2025

To follow Christ means surrendering all rights to self-rule and accepting His call, whatever the cost. True discipleship does not seek comfort or self-preservation, for whoever tries to save his life will lose it. Only by letting go of personal pride and ambition can the soul find its worth in the love of God, who gave His Son as the propitiation for our sins. The challenge is simple yet searching: whose bid will you accept? The fleeting gain of the world, or the eternal gift of Jesus?

Whose I Am and Whom I Serve

12th October 2025

To be a Christian is more than believing in God or attending church; it is to belong wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ and to live in His service. Paul's words in Acts, "Whose I am and whom I serve," reveal the two inseparable halves of genuine faith-relationship and obedience. We belong to Christ through the new birth, when we personally trust Him for forgiveness and life, and we serve Him by offering ourselves to His purposes through the gifts He gives. Real Christianity begins when we can say with assurance that we are His, and our lives become worship as we serve the One we love.

Evangelicalism: The Gospel and the Holy Spirit

31st August 2025

There is one true foundation for Christian life: the Gospel that brings both forgiveness and transformation. The same message that saves also sanctifies, for the Holy Spirit received through faith in Christ continues the work begun at conversion. Evangelical faith centres on the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation, shaping believers into obedient disciples who surrender wholly to Him. True spirituality is never a second experience apart from the cross but the ongoing renewal of the mind, as the Spirit deepens our walk with Christ and displays His life within us.

How Disciples Are Made

17th August 2025

Making disciples is not a two-step process of evangelism followed by teaching; rather, it is a single, powerful act of delivering and teaching the Gospel. The true biblical method for making a disciple is to 'gospelise' them, for the Gospel itself possesses the power of God to both convert a person and turn them into a learner of Christ. The very same message that brings salvation is also the message that strengthens believers, builds them up in the faith, and equips them to endure, demonstrating that the Gospel is the beginning, middle, and end of our journey with Him. When you have led someone to Christ, do not leave them to struggle on in their own strength, but teach them with encouragement to understand that they have not only received forgiveness and a conversion experience but also are the recipients of the Holy Spirit whom they need to learn to walk with for the power to live the Christian life. Salvation is from faith to faith. We needed faith to trust in Christ for our reconciliation with God and we then need to continue in faith that his Holy Spirit will help us live the Christian life.

The Beautiful Service of Mary

16th February 2025

All four Gospels record the extravagant and costly Service of Mary to Jesus when she anointed his feet with costly ointment for His upcoming burial. It was by her a prophetic act. Jesus insists that the story is to be heard everywhere the Gospel message is given. Genuine Christian service flows from a heart transformed by Jesus Christ. While many churches emphasise activity and programmes, true discipleship begins with sitting at the Lord's feet and learning from Him, as Mary did. Her costly offering of perfume presents a powerful pattern - she served extravagantly because she loved deeply, having experienced Christ's life-changing power in His raising her brother Lazarus from the grave. The Lord desires this same depth of relationship with all His followers, where service springs naturally from a heart of gratitude and love. Theologically, we should always keep the Gospel together with the call that discipleship makes for us to serve. The Gospel works both to turn people into disciples and to motivate their service.

The Missing Key

1st December 2024

The Church, particularly in the West, seems to have lost the key to how discipleship is achieved. The true meaning of discipleship has been misunderstood many times in church history, particularly in understanding the Great Commission. While some believe discipleship and evangelism are separate activities, the original Greek text reveals that making disciples happens through preaching the Gospel taught with depth and substance. The power of transformation comes not because of programmes and human genius, but through the power of the Gospel itself - this is the real 'missing key' that Jesus gave His church. Just as a missing key contributed to the Titanic's fate, having the wrong interpretation of discipleship can lead the Church astray from its primary mission.

The Missing Application of the Gospel is to Makes Disciples

17th November 2024

Making disciples is not separate from preaching the Gospel - they are one and the same process. The evidence from Matthew and Mark's Great Commission accounts reveals that genuine discipleship occurs through deep, sustained exposure to Gospel truth rather than through a shallow initial conversion followed by different teaching. When churches focus on teaching the Gospel thoroughly and repeatedly, rather than seeing it merely as an entry point, their converts are far more likely to remain strong in their faith. This understanding shaped the early Church's approach and remains the Biblical pattern for creating lasting disciples.

The Narrow Gate of Discipleship

17th November 2024

The Christian life was never meant to be an easy path needing only minimal commitment. Jesus taught that the gate to true discipleship is narrow, and few find it. While salvation is freely given through Christ's work on the cross, and not based on one's own good works, it leads nonetheless to rigorous training and transformation resulting in upright living. Many churches today have widened the entrance to attract the crowds, but this compromises the deep discipleship that Jesus and the Apostles established which is aimed to produce righteous living. The Lord's design involves both grace for salvation and training for godly living—a narrow but life-giving path that produces lasting spiritual fruit.

Steps to the new beginning

31st December 2023

"I think a New Year's resolution often is when we come to a place of realising we need to make a decision as to direction. And we don't need to necessarily carry it all out or know everything about it, but we sometimes do need to take one step. And if I can help you today to take a step, an important step that the Scriptures help us to see is a part of what it is to be a disciple of Jesus."