An Introduction to Discipleship

Introduction

Tonight we start a new series for Worship in the Round on the topic of discipleship and discipling.

This has been a subject we’ve been discussing a lot together as elders when we meet.

Because our heart as shepherds is to see each person who’s a part of this flock that called Anchorage Grace Church grow and mature as believers.

Paul’s ministry philosophy:

Colossians 1:28 LSB

28 Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

That mission was what defined Paul’s work with believers.

He wanted every believer be a fully-functioning, mature Christian.

That’s what “complete in Christ” means. It means fully, grown, fully mature.

That’s our heart and mission as well. We want to work to present every one of you complete in Christ.

Key: And that’s where “discipleship” and “discipling” come in.

Discipleship = growing as a Christian and following Christ

Discipling = helping other Christians grow and follow Christ

And that’s what this series is all about. We want to talk about discipleship and discipling from a bunch of different angles.

Now, my aim for tonight is the just give you a little bit of an introduction to the topic of discipleship and discipling.

I’m not going to go into detail on any one thing. I’m going to keep this at cruising altitude.

But really what I want you to get out of this message tonight is a drive and excitement for discipling.

I want to whet your appetite for what’s to come. Think of this message as the appetizer. I want you to taste and start to want more.

Because in the end, there’s no getting around the fact that every one of us, as believers, is called to be a disciple and make disciples.

That’s the mandate of Christ for his church:

Matthew 28:19–20 LSB

19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he ascended to heaven was a command for his disciples to make disciples.

He calls each one of us who are believers to be about the business of following Christ and helping others follow Christ.

So with that in mind, let me outline what I want to try to do tonight:

1. Define what is a “disciple”

2. Connect discipleship to the overarching redemptive plan of God

What is a “Disciple”?

The word “disciple” comes from the Greek term mathetes

Basic meaning: “follower,” “learner”

Greek culture

referred to someone who bound themself to another person in order to grow in knowledge of skill of some kind.

Trade skill (metal work, carpentry, craftsmanship, etc.)

medicine

philosophy

Master/student relationship at the heart of being a disciple

A disciple identified an individual they wanted to follow as a teacher and a guide

That teacher or master would impart knowledge to the disciple

Hellenistic Judaism

referred to someone who attaches himself as a follower to a teacher of a particular school of Judaism.

Rabbis were seen as experts in the law

Only someone who had studied for a long time under a credentialed Jewish scholar and had “passed all the tests” could then go on to posture himself as a credentialed Rabbi who had the authority to lead his own school of disciples.

What this led to were a variety of rival schools led by different teachers, each claiming superiority and authority over the others.

And eventually each “master” attracted circles of disciples who followed the Rabbi’s teaching.

That was the scene at the time when Christ began his earthly ministry. And that explains why in the gospels there’s mention other groups:

disciples of John (Matt. 11:2; Mk. 2:18; 6:29; Lk. 5:33; 11:1; John 1:35, 37)

disciples of the Pharisees (Matt. 22:16; Mk. 2:18)

And so much of the dispute and tension in the gospels between Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel had to do with where Jesus received the authority to teach the way he did (cf. Matt 7:29)

New Testament

But NT Christian discipleship is not like either of these.

Jesus’ description and teaching on what it meant to be his disciple—his follower and learner—was different.

1. Being a disciple begins with a call from Jesus

In both Greek and Judaism, being a “learner” was something you entered into voluntarily. You found a master whom you wanted to attach yourself to in order to learn from and acquire a skill or set of knowledge.

But throughout the gospels, we don’t see people voluntarily following Jesus. Instead, we see Jesus taking the initiative—he calls disciples to follow him (Matt. 1:17; 2:14; Lk. 9:59-62; Jn. 1:43)

The call of Jesus to follow him always marks the beginning point of discipleship (NIDNTT, 1:482)

KEY: discipleship starts with a divine call

Reason:

Being a disciple of Christ…does not begin with something we do. It begins with something Christ did. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). He loved the church and therefore gave himself up for her (Eph. 5:25). He paid a debt that he didn’t owe, but that we owe, and then he united us to himself as his holy people.

Mark Dever, Discipling, 14

It starts with his calling because he has to start with his work

2. Being a disciple required a radical break from your old life

I’ll let someone else teach more extensively with the cost of discipleship—it deserves a thorough treatment of its own

But the basic idea is that following Jesus means radical loyalty and a radical break from the world

Following Christ means taking certain steps. The first step, which responds to the call, separates the followers from their previous existence. A call to discipleship thus immediately creates a new situation. Staying in the old situation and following Christ mutually exclude each other.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

That’s why Jesus talked so much about how much following him cost:

all relationships in one’s life were second to your relationship with Jesus (Lk. 14:25-26)

all careers were second to him

all loyalties had to be secondary to him

all possessions are second to him

even your own life has to be second to him

Reason: a disciple can’t be greater than his master

Matthew 10:24 LSB

24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.

If Jesus (the master) is going to suffer and die, then the disciple has to follow in his footsteps

Matthew 10:25 LSB

25 “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

3. Being a disciple means learning from Christ in order to be like Christ

Remember, the word disciple means a “learner” or a “follower”

The goal was always to grow in one’s knowledge until he was like his teacher

What’s interesting is that for the majority of the Gospels, the disciples didn’t start out as great learners.

Jesus was constantly rebuking them for their lack of understanding

lack of understanding of Christ’s message and teaching

Matthew 13:36 LSB

36 Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”

lack of understanding of Jesus’ ministry and goals

Mark 10:13 LSB

13 And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them.

lack of understanding of the goal of discipleship

Mark 10:35–38 LSB

35 Then James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus, saying to Him, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.” 36 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 37 And they said to Him, “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

lack of understanding of the necessity of Jesus to suffer and die

Luke 18:31–34 LSB

31 But when He took the twelve aside, He said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be completed. 32 “For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, 33 and after they have flogged Him, they will kill Him, and the third day He will rise again.” 34 But the disciples understood none of these things, and this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.

The ignorance of the disciples became the starting place for what true discipleship really is

Discipleship is simply learning Christ

Ephesians 4:20 LSB

20 But you did not learn Christ in this way—

That’s a perfect description of what it means to be a disciple

Note: Learning Christ isn’t just an intellectual exercise.

Paul had just told them not to walk as the Gentiles walk

darkened in the mind

alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance in them

hard-hearted

callous

given to sensuality and the practice of every kind of impurity with greed

But that’s not how you learned Christ!

In other words, learning Christ implies that your life is going in a certain direction—toward Christlikeness!

The end goal of discipleship = to be like the teacher

Luke 6:40 LSB

40 “A student is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

The end goal of following Christ is to be like Christ

Summary

A disciple is a follower of Christ who has

(1) answered the call of Jesus to follow him

(2) made a radical break from his former life

(3) and is striving to be like Christ.

Discipleship and the Redemptive Plan of God

Now, with that background in mind, what I want to do is briefly set this idea of discipleship within the larger plan of God.

Discipleship as a concept is a theme that, while cloaked in other terms and images, is threaded throughout the whole of biblical theology

In fact, you could say that discipleship is at the heart of the redemptive plan of God.

The original image of God

You remember that at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 1:26-28, after God had created the heavens and the earth, He filled His creation with all the various plants and animals, he ended his creative act by creating man.

And man stands out immediately as unique from all other creatures in that he alone is made the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28).

What that means is that man was to act as God’s representatives.

He was to multiply and spread out over the earth and exercise divine rule and dominion over all of creation.

And by doing that they would spread rule and glory of God overr all creation.

Of course, in order to do that, man has to be like God.

And so he’s was endowed with divine attributes—or at least those than can be communicated to him—so that as he exercises this rule, he would communicate the character of God.

The tarnishing of the image of God

But the fall of man in sin interrupted that purpose.

Even though man still bears God’s image (Genesis 9:6), he can’t live out the purpose for which he was created.

So even though the God’s image was not lost, it was hopelessly tarnished by the stain of sin so that in his present condition, it was impossible for man to represent God.

The restoration of the image of God

But where man was hopelessly lost and unable to restore himself, God initiated his plan to restore all things.

God makes a covenant with Abraham. He’s going to bless all the peoples of the earth through him and his descendants (Gen 12:1-3).

Time passes and God rescues Abraham’s descendants out of slavery in Egypt.

He makes them into a nation. Gives them a law. Their purpose in spelled out in Exodus 19:5–6.

They are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, mediating the blessings of God to the world.

Now, throughout the OT we get to see little glimpses of where all this is going:

Isaiah 2:2–3 LSB

2 Now it will be that In the last days The mountain of the house of Yahweh Will be established as the head of the mountains, And will be lifted up above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, To the house of the God of Jacob, That He may instruct us from His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For from Zion the law will go forth And the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.

cf. Micah 4:1–2

This is a picture a time when the nations will stream to Jerusalem…

desiring to be instructed by God

desiring to walk in his ways

Not only is that a preview of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:3) but it’s a picture of discipleship happening at a global!

But what’s interesting is that as we move from the OT to the NT, there’s a rather decisive shift that takes place in how the Bible talks about the image of God.

In the OT, man is created as God’s image to represent God on the earth.

In the NT, the image of God becomes something wholly bound up in the person of Christ.

In the NT, Christ becomes the definition of what the image of God really is.

Colossians 1:15 LSB

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Christ perfectly reveals the nature and character of God

Before, in the original creation, man represented God to the rest of creation.

But now, if you want to see what God is like, you have to look at Christ.

John 1:18 LSB

18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

If you want to know what God is like, you have to look to Christ

Christ is God become flesh (John 1:14)

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 LSB

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Hebrews 1:3 LSB

3 who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

And so as the writers of the NT, particularly Paul, talk about the image of God, they talk about it in terms of the image of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is working through the Word to transform people into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:18 LSB

18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

the image of who? 2 Cor 4:4 - the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Colossians 3:10 LSB

10 and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—

“full knowledge” = learner!

“the image of the one who created him” = Christ (Colossians 1:16 “16 For in Him all things were created…all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

Romans 8:29 LSB

29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;

God’s predetermined plan = to conform believers to Christ’s image

Christlikeness becomes the aim and goal of the Christian life and for all things God does

1 Corinthians 15:49 LSB

49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

“at the end nothing remains of the earthly image in those who finally show forth the image of the heavenly man” (O’Brien, Colossians and Philemon, WBC, 43)

Overarching principal: God’s redemptive plan is taking people made in his image and restoring that image by conform them to the image of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

This is the ultimate aim and goal of discipleship.

As we said before, a disciple is a follower of Christ who has…

(1) answered the call of Jesus to follow him

(2) made a radical break from his former life

(3) and is striving to be like Christ.

And what we have to understand is that this is at the heart of the entire redemptive plan of God.

From the very beginning, God has been working to redeem a people for himself and restore them through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to display his character to the world and bring him glory.

And what’s amazing about this plan is that, while God could have done all that without any involvement on our part, he allows us to participate in his plan. He works in and through us to accomplish his purposes.

Our Lord’s conception of discipleship is not that we work for God, but that God works through us; he uses us as he likes; he allots our work where he chooses.

Oswald Chambers

And so not only are we called to be disciples—to answer the call and follow him and become like him—we’re also given to privilege of calling other people to follow Christ and helping them be more like him.

Being a disciple isn’t easy. We need others to help us in this process.;

Let him who would indeed be a Christian learn from the lives of eminent Christians the best ways to overcome temptation and to grow in every aspect of holiness.

William Wilberforce

Disciples are simply learners and followers of Christ who are teaching and discipling other learners and disciples of Christ.

As we follow Christ, we help other people follow Christ.

That’s discipleship.