Introduction to Discipleship

The life of discipleship was anticipated in the Old Testament, made explicit in the Gospels, and fleshed out in the Epistles and other New Testament writings.

The Old Testament set a pattern for discipleship by way of covenantal relationship.

• God calls for Israel to be his people and walk in his ways (Deuteronomy 4:1-14; 10:12-13; 1 Samuel 12:14).
• When they broke the covenant, Israel was described as “walking in the ways” of pagan gods (1 Kings 18:21).
• This walking in the ways of God finds culmination in Jesus’s call for his original apostles to “follow him.”
• The word disciple is almost exclusively limited to the New Testament Gospels and Acts and was an early designation for followers of Jesus.
• The word denotes a master (or teacher) – student relationship and means that the student would follow in the path of life laid out by his or her master.

Discipleship is the church’s highest calling, core identity, and central task.

Discipleship cannot be named among one of the church’s activities; it is what the church is and does.

Before Jesus ascended to heaven, he made clear in the Great Commission that making disciples was the church’s call (Matthew 28:18-20).

• In this sense, discipleship is not optional
• There is no such thing as Christians who aren’t disciples.
• As a community, a church cannot tag discipleship onto its multi-level programs; the core purpose must be behind everything the church is and does.
• Including its worship, evangelism, social witness, multi-generational programs, etc.

Disciples of Jesus seek to glorify their Lord by becoming like him in all respects.

In ancient times, disciple relationships were common in the Gentile and Jewish worlds.

The basic pattern was that a student learns from and becomes like their master.

• This is what Jesus said in Luke 6:40, “The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” (NIV)
• Later, Paul said that the goal of the Christian life was predestined to be conformity to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29).
• The best witness to what is expected of Jesus’s followers is the life of Jesus himself, not despite his unique vocation as the Son of God but especially in light of his identity.

The Gospels’ witness to Jesus’s teaching, way of life, and relationship with God are fundamentally the most instructive revelation of what God expects of his people. 

• And since Jesus fulfilled the image of God perfectly, Christians can now look to his example to fulfill their original vocation as image bearers of God (Genesis 1:27; 2 Corinthians 4:4).

The life of discipleship is characterized by a pattern of self-denial and a focus on others.

Disciples are not characterized by conceit, narcissism, or false humility.

Even excessive introspection misses the purpose of the Christian life.

Disciples are marked by an outward life that focuses on serving others (Mark 10:35-35).

• Instead of claiming natural rights or seeking maximal happiness and comfort for one’s existence, disciples look to the needs of others, especially those close to them.
• The very act of the Incarnation set a pattern for self-denial and emptying oneself of privileges to love others well (Philippians 2:1-8).
• Jesus often reminded his original disciples of the cost to follow him; it involved “denying the self daily” and “taking up the cross” (Luke 9:23).
• Disciples must crucify—put to death—anything that stands in the way of following Jesus.

Authentic discipleship requires the initial, often ongoing, act of repentance and turning away from sin.

A disciple of Jesus who lives in the kingdom of God or under his rule recognizes that repentance is not a suggestion but an imperative.

• To repent, biblically, means not only to feel remorse for sin but to turn away from it and toward God; to turn away from evil and toward the good.
• The Old Testament prophets regularly called God’s people to repent (Isaiah 45:22; 55:7; Ezekiel 14:6; Joel 2:12-13), and in the New Testament, it is made a prerequisite for salvation (Matthew 4:17; Acts 2:37-41).
• Being a discipleship is totalizing and comprehensive and requires the entirety of one’s being.
• When Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment, he responded that one must love God with all one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength. (Mark 12:30-31; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Hebrews 12:1; 1 John 3:6-7).
• Often, this means re-evaluating core assumptions about identity, vocation, and culture and allowing the gospel to critique us, even when it’s painful.

An essential element of effective discipleship is community.

God’s salvation is not intended primarily to create individual Christians but to create people who share an identity in Christ.

The community has played an integral part in humanity’s wholeness from the very beginning:

• “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18)
• In the Old Testament, the entire community was often held responsible for one person’s sin (Joshua 7:24), and people sought reform together (2 Chronicles 34, Nehemiah 9, Jonah 3).

In the New Testament, Jesus’s followers regularly gathered together for several purposes, both in large and in small groups (Acts 2:41-44; Acts 4:31), and it is indeed mandated for Christians (Hebrews 10:25).

• Varying sizes of communities allow Christian disciples to be vulnerable, encouraging, accountable, and supportive of one another in appropriate ways.
• Community is necessary for discipleship because everyone has a weakness that is served only by others, and conversely, everyone has a strength that can serve another person’s weakness.
• It is in isolation that disciples fall prey to Satan’s devices and fall into temptation. Together, the life shared by disciples serves as a testimony to God’s plan of renewal for all of creation.

Head here: https://exartidzo.com/forums/topic/why-discipleship/ to submit your responses to a couple of questions.

Don’t forget to take the quiz!

Additional Research Opportunities:

“Nones on the Rise” from the Pew Research Center
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/

Five Problems with Christian Evangelism (and What to Do Instead)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/five-problems-with-christian-evangelism-and-what-to-do-instead_b_7267044