What is a Disciple? And Why Does it Matter?

 

I've been watching The Chosen, and I have to say, it is the best depiction of Jesus and his ministry I've ever seen. Their attention to detail and depiction of what it was like to be with Jesus is amazing, so much so that I haven't been tripped up by the creative extrapolation like I normally would. The above picture is Jesus hugging Simon Peter - the love of Jesus is captured beautifully. 

The TV show, in addition to being a great alternative to normal binge watching entertainment, has had me thinking more and more about discipleship. What is a disciple? Why did Jesus come to make disciples? And why was making disciples the main focus of His time on earth? In the next few paragraphs, join me in the asking and answering of these questions: 

1. What is a Disciple?

This is something I've been very specific in learning over the years. It feels like there are so many "discipleship" programs going on in churches and ministries around the world, but they all seem to have a different tone or standard. What was Jesus's standard for making disciples? What did he require the Twelve and others to do in order to be given that description? In my studies, I only know of six verses where Jesus specifically lays out what He considers His disciples: 

Luke 14:26, 27, 33; John 8:31, 13:34-35, 15:8

These verses are so powerful at laying out the cost and description of being a disciple of Jesus, they are worth going through one by one. We'll begin with Luke, because they outline the cost of following Jesus. This is the standard: for if we don't meet this standard, Jesus says we cannot be His disciple. 

If anyone comes after me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and child and brother and sister, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:26 (ESV)

We begin with undoubtedly the most confusing verse on its face. We are supposed to hate our family? How does that make sense? Does that word really mean hate? 

The answer to the latter question is yes - (Strongs G3404) it literally means to "detest" and is the same word used when Jesus says "You have heard it said that you are to love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Jesus is using a strong word here, and I believe it is meant to create some sort of shock value.

What makes this confusing is that there are plenty of verses commanding us to love people, honor our parents, love our wives, loving children, and of course loving our brothers and sisters. So is Jesus contradiction himself? 

No, I don't think so. What I believe what Jesus is saying here is also what he says in Matthew 10:37 - whoever loves mother or father more than me is not worthy of me.

It isn't that we are to literally have animosity toward our family, but our love for Jesus Christ, and dedication to Him, should be so great that by comparison it may seem that we hate everyone else. 

That's the cost of being a disciple of Jesus: He must come before every relationship you have. Period. When we choose to disobey God in order to preserve a relationship with someone else, even our own family, we are disqualified from being His disciple. 

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:27 (ESV)

This one requires a bit more historical context. The natural thing to do when we read this, is believe that Jesus is referencing to his death - which he isn't. He clearly hasn't died yet, and he's laying out to his disciples the cost they need to be willing to pay. 

During the Roman, crucifixion was the most popular form of execution. When the Romans would occupy a place (as they did in Israel during Jesus's time) they would execute people through crucifixion, and force them to carry their own execution stake (cross) from the prison to the crucifixion location (Golgatha / Calvary being that specific place in Jerusalem.) 

The symbology behind this, was that this person's final path in life was under Roman authority. Their final act was an act of service to Rome, their final moments in life would be a demonstration of Roman rule,  displayed for all to see. 

When you bear your cross, you know you are taking your final walk of life. There's nothing left once that journey is finished. In the same way, Jesus is saying this of his disciples: once you come after me, that's it. No exit plan, no other paths, nothing but wherever Christ leaves. 

Your life is no longer your own, but completely submitted from that point on to HIS authority. Obedience is now a forgone conclusion, not an option to be weighed out. If we always question whether we agree with Christ's command, we are disqualified from being His disciple. 

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple - Luke 14:33

Here, I believe, Jesus is truly summarizing what discipleship costs: everything. We must reject everything we have. Here's a challenging question: how eager are we to rid of something if we find out it is a hindrance to our relationship with Jesus Christ?

I recently have been visualizing this principle in this way: I imagine my entire life represented by objects on a table. In the middle is a picture of me, my wife, and little girl - this represents my family. Scattered around the table are pictures of other people in my life, a laptop which represents my career, a baseball with the Chicago Cubs logo printed on it, a book by my favorite Author, etc. If I look at my life like this, what is my attitude toward what Jesus can do with it? The way I see it, I can a few different types of attitudes. . . 

1. This is my life, only I can decide what to include and what to exclude. 
2. I'll listen to Jesus, but I'll make my own decision on what to rid of at the end of the day.
3. Jesus can take anything he wants! Everything is open.
4. I'm eagerly waiting to hear what to throw away. Garbage can in hand, just waiting for His word. 

Which attitude do you mostly resonate with? If it's anything other than number 4, then you aren't willing to renounce all you have. If we don't renounce all we have, we are disqualified from being His disciple. 

Now let's move on to John - these three verses describe a disciple, and say some pretty cool things about specific characteristics of a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples," - John 8:31

In addition to describing an attribute of a disciple (one who abides in His word) it also exposes that just because someone believes in Jesus, that doesn't make them one of His disciples. This implies that becoming a discipleship is a process - one that begins with believing Jesus, and continues to dedicating ourselves to Him.

The dedication of ourselves to Jesus begins with what Jesus is getting across here: we must abide in His Words. The Word "abide" is used primarily to explain two things that are connected. We must "abide in Him" as John 15 says - being so close and connected. It's also translated to "remain" in the NIV and other versions. 

The principle being established: make the Word of Christ woven into the fabric of your life. Be so enriched in His words that they become a part of you, both in mind and action. To know Jesus is to know His words, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). To know the heart of Jesus is to be saturated in the Words of Jesus. 

Jesus says, that if this is true of us, then we are truly His disciple. 

A new commandment I give you; love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyonewill know that you are my disciples if you love one another - John 13:34-35 (NIV)

A good question to ask here is, why is this a "new" commandment? After all, when Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment, he says in Matthew 27 that we are to love the Lord God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and then love our neighbor as ourselves. So if loving others was already established, why does Jesus call this new?

The answer: Jesus is raising the bar. Before, we were to love people as ourselves, but now Jesus is telling us to love others as he loves us. Meaning, we are now to love others more than we love ourselves. To treat others better than we want to be treated. 

Jesus says in John 15:13 that greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. That's how Jesus loved us: he gave up everything for us. 

Jesus says that this is how people will know we are His disciples. When it is painfully obvious that we love them and others more than we love ourselves - that we are truly others oriented.

By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples - John 15:8

Not only does this verse weigh heavy in that Jesus says that these people "prove" to be my disciple - removing all doubt - but it is also the only verse I'v ever found where it is explicitly stated that something about our life glorifies God. 

We can do a study on this verse by itself - and I'd encourage it. But to summarize my thoughts, we have to understand what "fruit" means. 

The Bible uses the word "fruit" in two contexts: the first is reproductive - "be fruitful and multply." This is overwhelmingly the largest use of the word. The other is identification - "you can tell a tree by its fruit." 

How is it being used here? From my perspective, both. I say this, because I don't think you can claim one without the other. 

If we are bearing fruit that reproduces, then the only way our faith is reproduced is if other people are being reached and changed for Jesus Christ as a result of what Jesus has done in our life. And what he does in our life is an indication that Jesus is truly in us, because we wouldn't be able to look like Him otherwise. 

If we are beginning to transform into looking more like Him, that will only mature if we do what He did, which is give up his entire life in exchange for other people (as He will say a few verses later.)

This is the highest mark of a man or women of God: when God begins to fill them up so full of Him, that begins to poor them out into the lives of others. That is what it means to bear fruit, and that is why God is specifically glorified through this: because when we bear fruit, we are being used by God to make the world look more like Himself - Colossians 3:9-10, 2 Corinthians 3:18. 

When God begins to use us to completely transform the lives of others through the transformation He has done in our lives, we prove to be His disciples. 

When these six things become true of our life, then we can be sure that Jesus would call us one of His Disciples. 

2. Why Make Disciples? 

Here is a question I've more recently asked myself, as I have pushed and pursued becoming a disciple, I've often times wondered why that is . . . why is making disciples what Jesus chose to do when he came? Wouldn't it have been better to proclaim to Gospel to as many people as possible? Surely he could have turned the heart of Ceasar himself, used the influence of the Roman empire to get the message out - surely that would have been a much safer option? 

Why did Jesus leave the future of the Gospel message and with it the keys to the Kingdom of God to only 11 leaders? Not just 11 leaders, but teenagers, barely old enough to be required to pay a temple tax, nevertheless share the most important message ever given to man . . . 

Here are the two reasons I think Jesus did it this way, and reasons why if we should become and make disciples today . . . 

1. So the Message Would Be Believable

If the World was going to believe the Gospel, it needed to be delivered by those who were completely sold out for it - whose lives were completely dominated by its truth, and by those so in love with Jesus, that it would be attractive. 

Becoming a disciple, as the above verses demonstrate, is the process of getting to know Jesus, and developing the conviction that he truly is who He claimed to be. The truth of the Gospel, when understood more fully, demands the complete reorientation of our entire life. Jesus accepts us as we are, and then transforms us into who He created us to be: bearers of His image - Colossians 3:9-10. This is what true faith looks like. 

A surface-level conviction in the message was not going to be received after Jesus left, and boy will it not be today. 

2. So The Gospel Would  Last Beyond the First Generation

Acts 7, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, and 24 all describe the opposition to the spread of the Gospel of Jesus. . . it includes threat of death, imprisonment, stoning, and lashing. But what did the church do the more it was oppressed? The more convinced they were to keep going. In fact, Acts 5:41 says that the attitude among the disciples was that they REJOICED that God saw them fit to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. 

Had Jesus not made disciples, then it wouldn't have been worth dying for, because those who believed wouldn't have seen enough to develop that kind of conviction worth dying for. The process of discipleship is, again, the process of reorienting our life to be wrapped up in the person and direction of Jesus Christ. If we are not developed, then persecution arises and wipes us out. 

If Jesus just delivered the message, and didn't train the twelve to become disciples, and live up to those six standards, then it would have been silenced long before we would have heard it. 

In the same way, if disciples are never developed today, then persecution from outside (threat of pain) or within (making excuses) will wipe the faith out in one generation. 

Conclusion

Making disciples is what Jesus commanded the twelve in Matthew 28:19-20, and for good reason. If disciples didn't exist, then the faith would have been extinguished a long time ago. The reason we have heard the good news today is because Jesus is still making disciples, and through those disciples, he's making others - preserving for Himself a remnant of men on earth so that he finds faith when He returns. 

The question we must ask is, do we want to be a part of the solution, or do we only want the benefit of it?