The word 'discipleship' is used by many people in the church to mean a variety of things, from 1-on-1 mentorship to spiritual growth. But what did Jesus mean when he talked about discipleship? Ryan Weingartner, Young Leaders National Specialist for YFC, has done a deep dive on this topic.
Ryan is currently writing a book for YFC on discipleship, and the content from today's talk was based on part of his writing in that context. Unfortunately for them, editors actually cut this section out of the forthcoming book, for the sake of brevity. Fortunately for us, he has graciously shared it here, below. Enjoy!
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How did Jesus describe a “disciple”?
Our methodology in defining discipleship has been to summarize what Jesus did with His disciples. “As the Father sent” Jesus, so He sent His disciples. Therefore, we looked at principles we can learn through how He spent time with His disciples. There is another way to learn how Jesus wanted us to disciple others. We can look at how he used the word “disciple.”
We already said “disciple” (mathetes) is a common noun, used 264 times in the New Testament. See the full list in Appendix 1. The word is used too broadly by the New Testament writers to derive a definition from it. For instance, you cannot be a disciple unless you take up your own cross (Luke 14:27) and give up all your possessions (Luke 14:33). Yet, there was also a secret disciple (John 19:38) and disciples that withdrew from Him (John 6:66). Paul already had “his disciples” in Damascus shortly after becoming a believer (Acts 9:25). So, the New Testament usage of the word itself is too broad to derive a definition from.
Yet it is important to note that of the 264 uses of the noun “disciple,” it is only used by Jesus 13 times (4.9% of the uses). In fact, if you combine parallel passages and multiple uses per paragraph, Jesus only talks of someone as a “disciple” in five unique places recorded in the Gospels. It seems that Jesus was very selective of when and how He used this word.
The other 251 times the New Testament authors use the word “disciple” are used to lump a group of people together with little to no further meaning. But the five places Jesus uses the word “disciple” are loaded with meaning as we’ll see below.
Another way of thinking about this is by considering how Jesus refers to the twelve. Does He call them “disciples?” While the biblical authors refer to the twelve as “disciples” scores of times, Jesus chooses other phrases. Whether talking to them or about them, He calls them, “You men” (Matthew 8:26, 26:40), “My brothers” (Matthew 12:39, 28:10, Mark 3:34, John 20:17), “You of little faith” (Matthew 14:31, 16:5), “Friend(s)” (Matthew 26:50, John 11:11, 15:15), “The twelve” (Mark 14:20, John 6:70), “Infants” (Luke 10:21), “Little flock” (Luke 12:32), “Little children” (John 13:33), “Children” (Mark 10:24, John 21:5), “Foolish men” (Luke 24:25), “The men you gave me” (John 17:6, 17:12, 17:24), and “My servants” (John 18:36).
In fact, the only time Jesus refers to the twelve as His current “disciples” is in an indirect way. At the end of His time with them, He instructs them to tell the owner of the upper room, “I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples” (Matthew 26:18). Every other time Jesus uses that word, the twelve are listening, but the word “disciple” isn’t about them. Jesus is using that word as a description of what a disciple should be like. And they are lofty descriptions with considerable qualifications, as we will see.
Jesus is very intentional and selective of His use of this common noun (disciple) which He eventually uses in its very rare verb form for His final command to them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). Is it possible that though the word “disciple” was a common noun in First Century Jewish culture, Jesus chose only to use it in ways to help the twelve have a clear picture of what He meant when He told them to disciple all the nations? If so, then although the Bible does not provide a precise definition of a “disciple,” we learn much of what it means from these 5 intentional uses of the noun “disciple” from Jesus. We learn what Jesus wanted His disciples to do in their discipleship with others. Not surprisingly, you will see much overlap with what He modeled for them described in the previous section. Let’s explore the five places where Jesus talks about a “disciple.”
1) A high calling
Matthew’s Gospel is shaped around five lengthy discourses of Jesus. Matthew 10 is the second discourse, and the first place Jesus uses the word “disciple.” In sending His disciples out to cast out demons and heal diseases, He gives detailed instructions, raising the bar on what it means to be His followers. They will live in poverty (Matthew 10:9-11) and face rejection (10:12-23). And it’s in this context that Jesus first talks about being a disciple. “A disciple is not above his teacher” (10:24).[1] If they called Jesus Beelzebul, they’ll do the same to those who follow Him. Jesus communicates incredible standards as He says He will deny those who deny Him (10:33) and His message will result in family members turning against each other (10:32-37). And ultimately, He calls disciples to take up their crosses and die (10:38-39).
However, in the same chapter He tells some of the great rewards of being a disciple. “The very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:30-31). Jesus promises not only protection but finding true life through discipleship (Matthew 10:39). The speech ends by promising “whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, He shall not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42). So, we find in Matthew 10 both a high calling, but also a high reward.
Luke 14 is parallel to this chapter and has many of the same phrases. For instance, He says,
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:26-27
Jesus then spends most of His Luke 14 speech giving two illustrations to elevate the definition of discipleship. Since it’s such a high calling, people should weigh carefully if they want to live this way or not. He says that people don’t build towers without first calculating the full cost, and kings don’t go to war without first evaluating if they are able to be victorious. Therefore, in the same way, followers of Jesus should count the cost before saying yes to being a disciple, because the calling and cost is so high. “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions” (Luke 14:33).
What can we learn about discipleship from Matthew 10 and Luke 14? Discipleship is a high calling and deserves careful consideration. This significant commitment level is true for both the disciple and the discipler. So, as we move to define and apply discipleship, we should not expect that every person at a ministry site will want this level of commitment (both for young people and adults). Discipleship is for Christians who have counted the cost and want more in their walk with God. Have they said yes to the Luke 14 invitation to discipleship? Which people at your ministry site are demonstrating some initial fruit of that decision? A discipleship relationship is most effective when both parties say and show that they want it.
We must be careful when we determine who is aligning with a “high calling.” Remember Jesus chose men who didn’t have high levels of economic status (fishermen), popularity (Matthew, a tax collector), compliancy (Simon the zealot), or even current character (Peter). A high calling doesn’t equal the outward signs many would look for in discipleship candidates.
We must also consider that what counting the cost means for a teenager is not the same as what it would mean for an adult. And it will mean something different for teens from different backgrounds. No teen or adult lives up to the standards of a disciple that Jesus sets of hating their own life (Luke 14:26), giving up all their possessions (Luke 14:33), or carrying their own cross (Luke 14:27). We must contextualize the words of Jesus to the twenty-first century and to teenagers. The flexibility of the principle can be worked out, but the principle remains. Discipleship is for someone who is ready to take the next step in their relationship with Jesus. Discipleship is a high calling.
Does this mean we shouldn’t have regular meetings with someone who is not ready for discipleship or not a Christian at all? Certainly not! That kind of follow-up work is often necessary to help move young people towards becoming disciples of Jesus. In fact, that relationship might look a lot like discipleship (especially as it relates to the level of relational depth and time spent). However, since Jesus defined a disciple in terms of a high calling, we will also. Though we often fear scaring off young people with a high bar, young people are drawn to something big and purposeful that they can be a part of.
Another point of instruction we learn from Matthew 10 and Luke 14 is that discipleship should be mutually agreed upon. From what Jesus did with His disciples and how He talked about discipleship, it would be strange for Him to be discipling someone who didn’t know they were being discipled. There should be a clear understanding between a ministry leader and young person of the purpose of the time spent together. The purpose should be stated up front and occasionally repeated.
2) Share the Lord’s Supper
In a parallel paragraph in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus instructs the disciples to reserve a Passover room for the Last Supper. All three authors quote Jesus telling them to ask where He can eat the Passover “with my disciples” (Matthew 26:18, Mark 14:14, Luke 22:11). While there may be nothing significant to Jesus’ words here (He had to use some designation for His followers) it’s noteworthy that it is one of only five places Jesus uses the word “disciple” and the only place He refers to the twelve as His disciples. Is it possible that they heard Jesus use that word as something significant, something lofty, and now for the first time, right before He leaves them, He’s letting them know He views them as His disciples? In fact, two of His five uses of the noun “disciple” come during the Last Supper (John 13:35, 15:8).
Also, it is noteworthy that the request is to reserve a room for He and His disciples for the most intimate setting of His earthly life. During that evening, Jesus allowed them to share His sufferings as He despised going to the cross (Hebrews 12:2). As one would say of a dinner with intimate friends, Jesus said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you” (Luke 22:15). Jesus did not hold His relationship with His disciples at an arm’s length. Nor did He expect them to do that with their disciples. Rather, the discipler should appropriately bring those he disciples right into his most vulnerable, intimate, difficult life events. Jesus could not confess sin to His disciples (Hebrews 4:15), but He could show them that even He had a “troubled soul” (John 12:27), a “troubled spirit” (John 13:21), and times “in agony” (Luke 22:44). His disciples also saw Jesus weep on at least two occasions (Luke 19:41 and John 11:35).
Disciplers are often tempted to teach from a distance and impart knowledge without also imparting their lives. Maybe the teen will vulnerably share but the discipler often holds back. This can create fear for the teen who is trying to be honest. Sadly, adults who struggle with their own ability to be vulnerable tend not to respond well to teens who are being honest and vulnerable. An adult who has been appropriately vulnerable with a young person sets the stage for that young person to take a scary step of faith and share something with the adult.
One of my big mistakes in discipleship was when a young person once admitted to me some failure in sexual sin. It was not the first time he stumbled in this area, and I moved too quickly to suggest radical steps he could take to ensure victory over this sin area rather than moving toward compassion. Add to this reaction that the fact that I struggle with being vulnerable with others myself. He became too discouraged to keep trying, and he stopped walking with the Lord. We met a few times after that, and I tried to encourage him back toward God but was ultimately unsuccessful. If I could start over, I would have been personally more vulnerable myself in that friendship and would have shown more compassion toward his scary step of vulnerability.
Let’s follow the example of Jesus. From the dozens of lessons a discipler gives, it is the moments of vulnerability that will stick most. Paul echoes Jesus as he reminds the Thessalonians of His ministry among them. “Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8).
3) Continue in His word
The final three times where Jesus uses the word “disciple” are quick, one-off references in John’s Gospel. But again, seeing as these are the only three times Jesus uses this word in John’s whole gospel (as noun or verb), they are likely intentional. John recorded Jesus saying around 7850 words, making “disciple” 0.038% (or 38 one-thousandths of one percent) of His words. And as you will see, these are three well known passages that help form the definition that Jesus had in mind when He commissioned His disciples to disciple all the nations.
John 8 is in the middle section of John where there are several lengthy speeches of Jesus. Jesus had been challenging the Jews and their leaders for not believing in Him despite His works. In a rare moment of clarity, some of the Jews believe. “As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him” (John 8:30). Jesus takes this opportunity to encourage these new believers to a higher calling. “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine’” (John 8:31).
Jesus turned specifically “to those Jews who had believed Him.” He waited to use this word and then offered discipleship to those who were trusting Him. This echoes the point above that discipleship is for believers who are ready to take the next step with Jesus.
He says if they continue (menno) [2] in His word, then they are truly His disciples. Menno is the same word repeated in John 15 for abide. It means to make your home in. Jesus uses the noun form of menno in John 14:2 for the “dwelling places” He is preparing for us. Jesus didn’t just teach His disciples to read the Bible but to make their home in the Bible. A true disciple makes the Bible the source of all wisdom and guidance for their life.
Ajith Fernando laments that,
“This attitude is sadly rare among Christians today. We are perplexed when children of evangelical parents, children who grew up in the church, respond to some of the contemporary controversial issues in ways at odds with Scripture …
“How did this happen? I think one reason is that people have not looked at the Bible as the clear guide for assessing what is right and what is wrong. They have gone to the Bible for inspiration, not for instruction. Sermons and Bible studies have ‘blessed the people’ but not helped inculcate a fear of God and of disobedience to the Word.”[3]
Raising up lifelong followers of Jesus who lead means putting the Bible in its right place as the source of all authority and truth. The Bible is above the disciple, the disciple is not above the Bible. The disciple does not align the Bible to fit with his life but aligns his life to fit with the Bible.
The content of discipleship is first and foremost the word of Jesus, extended out to the word of God. Discipleship includes friendship, vision casting, modeling, and mobilizing, but discipleship that leads to lifelong followers of Jesus is heavily rooted in imparting the word of God. As Jesus said, it is those who hear and act on His words who have built their house on a rock. When the inevitable storms of life crash against that house, it will stand (Matthew 7:24-27).
4) Love for one another
The final two times Jesus uses “disciple” as a noun take place appropriately during His final talk to them in the upper room discourse (John 13-17). As He prepares His disciples for His departure, He tells them two more key features of discipleship.
John 13:34-35 - “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
People often wonder how this is a new commandment. Old Testament saints were also commanded to love. In fact, Jesus already said that the whole Old Testament could be summed up in two love commands: to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-40). So how is this new? Maybe its new in its standard: “as I have loved you.” Jesus is calling them to a new love where they are even willing to lay down their lives for each other (John 15:13). It’s also new in that love is the summation of the entire “new” covenant. This new covenant (or arrangement) of God with His people which was predicted in the Old Testament and inaugurated through the death of Jesus (Hebrews 9:15, 10:20, 12:24) is founded upon and carried out through love (Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:4). Therefore, love is the evidence or proof of discipleship. By love “all men will know that you are My disciples (John 13:35).”
Whatever else discipleship is, it must be born out of a love for God and therefore a love for the people being discipled. It must also model and teach love as a lifestyle to the disciple. A love “just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2). Discipleship leads to sacrificial love as a lifestyle. Love will ultimately lead not only to all men knowing we are disciples (John 13:35) but also to them coming to be disciples as well (John 17:21,23). The disciple will bear much fruit as we see in point 5.
What if you don’t feel love toward them? Then love until you love. In other words, choose to show love toward the young person and eventually your feelings will follow. Get in touch with God’s love toward you enough that it leads you to move toward the young person. Then, in time and by God’s grace, He can help you grow genuine affection for that person.
1 John 4:11-12 - Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
5) Bear much fruit
One of the most well-known parables of Jesus is the only one He tells in His final discourse. The parable of the vine and branches in John 15 has been a source of understanding of spiritual life for centuries. The picture of a branch abiding in the vine so it can produce fruit is the ultimate picture of us abiding in Christ. And in John 15:8, Jesus says, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”
What kind of “fruit” does Jesus have in mind? Some argue that since He’s sending out His disciples to “go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain” (John 15:16) He must be talking about the fruit of more disciples. This is the way Paul uses the word in Romans 1:13. Others point to passages like Galatians 5:22-23 and say the fruit Jesus intends is character growth. I believe that it is both. They’re quite connected! In His final prayer of this discourse Jesus prays for His disciples to be sanctified (John 17:17) and unified (17:21,23) which are areas of character growth. But this is for the purpose of others believing (John 17:21,23). Jesus wants them to bear fruit through personal and communal spiritual growth which will lead to the fruit of numeric growth. In fact, He wants them to bear much fruit which will bring glory to the gardener, the Father, and “prove” that they are His disciples (John 15:8).
We already saw that love is the proof of discipleship. Now Jesus adds fruit as proof of discipleship. Just as a gardener can step back and observe that His labor is not in vain, discipleship also should have measurable, observable results. This can be discouraging if you are working hard and not seeing the fruit you would like. One thing to keep in mind is that the imagery of fruit is used by Jesus partially because we are not in control of it (Mark 4:26-29). So, we shouldn’t be “fruit inspectors”.[4] It can be easy to get discouraged if we don’t see the character growth or numeric growth we would like, and we question our efforts in discipleship. During these times of doubt, under the security of Christ, it is wise to ask the Lord and others if our discipleship is lacking in some way. But if we’re following the pattern and commands of Jesus, then we press on and heed Paul’s wisdom: “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (Galatians 6:9).Jesus spoke of a “disciple” in five separate passages. To be a disciple is a high calling. The disciple gives up all his possessions and takes up his own cross. He shares share his life with others and makes his home in the word of God. Finally, he proves he is a disciple by living a lifestyle of loving others and bearing much fruit.
Jesus seemed intentional at describing a disciple at key moments in His ministry. Then at the climax of His time on earth, after He showed Himself to be the death-conquering Savior that He claimed He was, He flipped that noun into a verb. He commanded His disciples to lead others to become the kind of disciples He had described.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; 20 and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
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[1] Luke 6:40 is a parallel use of “disciple” by Jesus. A pupil (mathetes) is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
[2] Menno – Strong’s Reference 3306.
[3] Ajith Fernando, Discipling in a Multicultural World (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019),165.
[4] This is Chuck Smith’s term for those who have an over-focus on the fruit in Why Grace Changes Everything (Eugene, OR. Harvest House Publishers, 1995).
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