Discipleship Begins and Ends with Christ

Introduction

In the church we talk a lot about discipleship. In the Korean church we even have an organisation for it called DTS (discipleship training school), where people are trained in ministry and evangelism. Even within local churches we have discipleship programs especially for church leaders. And discipleship is a good thing, after all, Jesus himself at the end of the book of Matthew gave us instructions to go out and ‘make disciples of all nations’.

Being a disciple is about being a follower of Jesus. It is making the decision to make Jesus not only your teacher, but also your Lord and Saviour.

But what does that life as a disciple of Jesus actually look like? How does it start? How do you continue to live it? How does it end? It’s easy to say that being a disciple is a follower of Jesus, but what life actually looks like and entails can be a bit ambiguous at times. But I think John 1:35-51 is perfect in helping us recover the meaning of discipleship, because quite conveniently, in this passage we see the first 4 disciples of Jesus being called: Simon, Andrew, Philip, and Nathanael.

And to put it really simply, I think this passage shows us that discipleship begins with Christ, continues with Christ, and ends with Christ. Essentially, the whole Christian life is about discipleship, and that whole life as a disciple is about Christ.

Discipleship begins with Christ - Knowing and Seeking

So the first point is that discipleship begins with Christ. What do I mean by this? We spoke last week the importance of witnessing, and that witnessing to Christ is all about pointing to Christ. And when you receive this witness from someone else, that is exactly how discipleship begins. Look at the pattern seen in the passage today:

John 1:40 John witnesses to Andrew, and Andrew becomes a disciple.

John 1:41 Andrew witnesses to Peter, and Peter becomes a disciple.

John 1:45 Philip witnesses to Nathanel and Nathanel becomes a disciple.

(And it is not only the people that witness to Christ, but the very works of Jesus become a witness to who he is. If you see John 1:48-49, Jesus’ miracle of knowing everything about Nathanael without even having met him causes Nathanael to become a disciple. Jesus’ miracle itself becomes a witness to Jesus.)

And when we witness by pointing to Christ, we point to who he is. We show people who Jesus is, his identity, his character. Remember in the first session we talked about the importance of knowing Jesus? Well that’s come up again here! We point to Christ and help people to know him, understand who he is. See how the witnessing leads to the disciples coming to know something about Jesus:

John 1:35-36 Andrew comes to understand Jesus as the lamb of God

John 1:41 Andrew and Peter know Jesus as the Messiah, or the Christ

John 1:45 Phillip comes to understand Jesus as the ‘one of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote’ about.

John 1:49 Nathanael comes to understand Jesus as the ‘Son of God’ and ‘King of Israel’.

So even with us, this is how discipleship begins. Someone witnesses to us, and points out for us, Jesus Christ and who he is. We then come to know Jesus Christ, and then we become a disciple.

But doesn’t this make Jesus a narcissist? He only seems to care about himself, all he cares about is making himself known, and is not really interested in us or who we are. All he seems to really care about is erasing us and making only himself stand out. That can’t be further from the truth. If we look at John 1:48, we see this miracle of Jesus knowing everything about Nathanael, even though he had never met Nathanael before. We don’t know what Nathanael was doing or thinking under the fig tree, but clearly Jesus said something to Nathanael that made him realise that Jesus knew all the inward things of his heart, something that only God can know. So Jesus deeply cares about us, knows us, and infact knows us better than we even know ourselves.

And why is this important that Jesus knows us? Well it’s important because when you first become Jesus’ disciple, one of the very first things that Jesus will ask you is ‘What are you seeking’ - see John 1:38 ‘Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?”’. Now, Jesus may not appear in a vision and literally ask you this question in person, but when you first become a disciple of Jesus, when you first become a Christian, one of the first things you notice is that your very core values and identity becomes challenged and questioned. Jesus knows you so well - like he did with Nathanael - that when he asks you ‘What are you seeking?’, he already knows the answer. He is asking the question to expose to you the deepest desires of your heart, and asks you what are you truly seeking in life? What do you think are your deepest needs? And in doing so, God reveals to you your deepest idols, the things that replace the one who you should really seek, Jesus Christ. And these may be things that you yourself don’t even realise. And these are often things that are deeply challenging. When Jesus asks this question to you and exposes these idols to you, some people’s reaction will be denial. Others may try to compromise by saying ‘I need this’, refuse to let go, and try to keep one foot in each camp. Others may react with anger and criticism, saying that Christianity is too much, it’s asking too much of me, I’ve got my own life to live.

So with the beginning of discipleship, whatever your reaction might be, Jesus brings to the surface the deepest thoughts & desires of your heart, so that he can redirect you to follow him, instead of your idols. He needs to bring these things to the fore and to your attention, so that he can begin the work of reorgainsing your heart, your desires, and your loves.

Discipleship continues with Christ - Calling & Redefining

So that is how discipleship begins. But after this what is the ongoing life of a disciple? I think this passage shows us that the life of a disciple is characterised by calling and redefining.

What do I mean by calling? Several verses speak about Jesus calling and leading his disciples:

John 1:39 ‘Come and you will see’

John 1:43 ‘Follow me’

John 1:46 ‘Come and see’

This is quite a remarkable thing because the discipleship culture of Rabbis during the time of Jesus was that a student would seek out a famous Rabbi to follow, rather than the Rabbi calling them. Another different aspect is that it was usually the exceptional special students that were mentored and discipled 1:1 with a famous Rabbi. But here, it is Jesus himself calling his disciples, and Jesus calls his disciples not based on their qualifications; it’s not as though the disciples of Jesus were special in anyway or better than anyone else. Jesus doesn’t take into account your incompetence, sinfulness, or your unworthiness; He calls you to be his disciple not based on who you are, but based on who He is alone, based on what He can do for you and not what you can do for him. His perfect grace and love overcomes whatever brokenness may be inside us.

And for those who Jesus calls, they will feel this call in their life. One of the marks of a true Christian is a deep sense of calling. For some of us, they will know the exact moment they were called and became a Christian, because God worked in their life in a dramatic way. For others, especially for those who were born into the church, they may not be able to remember a specific time when they became a Christian. But this is not the important part - everyone has a different conversion experience. A true Christian, regardless of your conversion experience, has a sense of calling; they hear the voice of Christ in their lives saying ‘come’ ‘follow me’ ‘come and see’; for some, this voice may be very quiet, for others this voice might be loud and clear, either way the voice is still there. The life of discipleship is following that voice, and that means the Christian life has direction, an orientation that is headed towards Christ. And as a result our lives change because we are moving in a new direction in life that is completely different to before, we now have a different path and goal. That path may be bumpy with a few twists and turns along the way. And it is a journey, not an instant transformation - we will surely fall along the way. But in our journey of faith as disciples, Jesus puts guardrails, train tracks on that path for us, so that no matter how much we turn and sway, his voice continually calls us and carries us, and the overall direction and final destination is Himself. We are secure in Christ.

We also said that the life of a disciple is characterised not only by calling, but also redefining. Discipleship results in a redefining of who we are. If we look at John 1:42 it says “Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).” Jesus renames Simon to Cephas, which is the Aramaic word for ‘rock’; he is also called Peter, because Peter is the Greek word ‘Petros’ which also means ‘rock’. What is happening here? This is not just a simple name change, but Jesus is completely redefining who Simon is. By renaming him as Peter/Cephas, ‘Rock’, Jesus is declaring that Peter is the foundation of the future church - see Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. I think often as Christians, we feel like we need to force ourselves to behave or act in a certain way, we need to present ourselves to other people as ‘good’ Christians. We feel obliged to be nice to others, generous, loving. We feel obliged to not swear, not to gossip, not to smoke. But as we do this, we often feel like an imposter, because we get a sense that we are not behaving like our true selves, and often we fail anyway. But in the life of a true disciple, we don’t redefine and change ourselves from a bad person to a good person, from a non-Christian to a Christian, or even from a ‘bad’ Christian to a ‘good’ Christian. We can’t force ourselves to be something that we are not. It is Christ who redefines us. Christ calls us, and declares us to be a Peter, not a Simon, even if we still behave like a Simon, even if we are still stuck in our sinful habits. You are not made good by forcing yourself to do good, because if you do, you should feel like an imposter because that is not your true self and it’s impossible. We can’t make ourselves good. God declares us to be good despite how broken we are. Just like how Jesus declares Simon to be Peter, Jesus declares us to be his children (John 1:12-13), even though we are so undeserving and we don’t behave nor act like his children; this is grace.

And once he makes this declaration of us, he doesn’t just leave us in our sinful ways. Even after Simon was declared to be Peter, Peter is the disciple that denied Jesus 3 times. But who does he go on to become? After Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit empowers and transforms Peter, and Peter gives the very first sermon of the church, one of the greatest and most powerful sermons of all human history, and it is on this foundation that the church has stood for the past 2000 years. Peter who was once too scared to even acknowledge that he was Jesus’ disciple, fearlessly and passionately proclaimed the death and resurrection of Christ on the day of Pentecost. So when Christ redefines us, he not only declares us to be his children even though we are undeserving, but he also provides the change required in our lives through the Holy Spirit so that we may actually live as his children.

And it’s not just Simon that was redefined into Peter, but look what he calls Nathanael - see John 1:47 “Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”” Nathanael is called an ‘Israelite in whom there is no deceit.’ But when Simon is called Peter or Rock, and Nathanael is called a true Israelite, who actually is the true rock, the true foundation of the church, and who actually is true Israel? Jesus is. So when Jesus calls us, redefines us, and transforms us, he transforms us into His likeness. He helps us to become Christ-like. Becoming like Christ is the journey of a Christian disciple.

Discipleship ends with Christ

The last point is that discipleship ends with Christ. What do I mean by that? If we look at John 1:51, Jesus states that Nathanael will see the ‘heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’ If this doesn’t sound familiar, Jesus is referring to Genesis, where God reveals himself to Jacob as he is running away from Esau, and when Jacob falls aleep, God gives Jacob a vision where he sees ladder, reaching from the earth all the way to heaven above with God standing at the top of it, and Jacob sees angels ascending and descending the ladder. It is a moment of great divine revelation, as in this moment God reveals himself to Jacob and tells Jacob that He is giving to Jacob all the promises God made to Jacobs forefathers, Abraham and Isaac. These are the promises that God is making to all humanity, past present and future, and God is saying to Jacob ‘I will achieve all this through you.’ But Jesus now inserts himself into this vision, showing us that all the promises God has made to humanity, his unbreakable love, will be achieved through Jesus - by inserting himself into this vision, this is Jesus saying ‘I am the fulfillment of those promises, I am the Messiah, I am the Saviour’.

So discipleship ends with Christ. He is our end-goal, he is our final objective, because it is only in Him that the promises of God and the purpose of our lives is contained. What does this mean for us as his disciples? It means that we are followers of Jesus. I think Christianity is often mistaken for a nice way of life, a way of thinking, a philosophy, an ethic or morality. But we are not Christians to be good people. Christianity is not a lifestyle. Christianity is your whole life. Our faith follows and seeks a person as its final goal. We are to behold, and be captivated, be completely still, and be amazed by the one upon whom the angels of God ascends and descends, the one who carries in himself all the promises God has made to his beloved creatures. He is our objective. There is no truth, meaning, fulfillment, happiness or joy in life outside of Jesus. As disciples, our goal is not to get to heaven. Our goal is Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

So don’t forget our primary identity as Christians: we are disciples of Jesus. And that journey of a disciple starts with Jesus when someone witnesses to us and shows us who He is, it continues with Jesus as he calls and redefines us, and it ends with Jesus because He is our end-goal, He is our everything. Don’t dilute Christianity down to a lifestyle or an ethic or a morality; Christianity worships a person, Jesus Christ. So as you go about your life, remember in each moment who it is that we follow.