5 Secrets of Discipleship

In the Christian community we hear a lot about discipleship. But what is it really and how do we actively do it? Is it just a Christian buzz-word or is it a Biblical way of doing life together? The answer is found in the Greek.

What is a Disciple?

Jesus issues what Christians call the Great Commission in Matthew 28 as he ascends into Heaven. “Go and make disciples.” As his last commandment, this must be pretty important. In Greek, the original language used in writing the New Testament, disciples is translated from matheteuo, which means be a disciple of one, teach, instruct. The root word for matheteuo is mathetes: learner, pupil. The root word of mathetes means to learn by use and practice, to be increased in knowledge.

Simply put: A disciple is a learner.

When Jesus says “Go and make disciples” he is saying “Go and learn and then make learners of me.”

1. Be a Learner

We tend to make the concept of discipleship overly complicated. But if a disciple is a learner, then it makes sense that before we get involved in the discipleship process (teaching of learners), we must first be disciples.

Followers of Jesus are first of all learners.

Mathetes additionally carries the connotation of learning by intent through inquiry and observation. To learn, we have to spend time with Him. We have to observe how and why He said and did the things He did. We have to ask Him for a greater desire for Him. Before I can begin to even harness the responsibility of teaching anyone about Jesus, I must first learn from Him myself.

I absolutely love this quote:

At the feet of Jesus,
is the place for me,
There a humble learner,
would I choose to be.
P.P. Bliss

There is nothing better than being a hungry soul bent at his footstool with an eager heart. Head on over to this post, if you’d like to learn how to cultivate a learner’s heart.

2. Be a Teacher

Followers of Jesus are first of all learners, but then are teachers.

There are a couple of Hebrew words for teacher. One definition is “to send out the hand, for pointing out- to show with fingers.” The fingers that made the world, made our brains and souls to understand his word are the fingers that still mark his faithfulness in our lives today. Because we have personally learned from Jesus and intimately know him, our hearts should long to point him out to others.

We are God-carriers to our generation. We can’t go and make disciples while keeping the world at arm’s length. We can’t make following Jesus fundamentally about behavior modification. Christianity is not about behavior modification; it’s about Jesus. Jesus did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive.
Christine Caine

When we acknowledge who we were without Christ and who we are with Christ, we are pointing to the one who splayed his fingers out on a cross. Our lives are living testimonies of who he is to us and what he’s done for us. We teach of his mercy and grace. We teach of his compassion and his freedom.

3. Be Hospitable

Typically, in the Jewish culture a disciple would voluntarily seek out a master rabbi to study under. Jesus, the True Master Rabbi, reverses this. He seeks out the disciples. As learners who desire to cultivate more learners of Jesus, we must also seek others out.

A great example of the power of community in the Bible is in Acts 2. During the early days of the church’s conception, verse 42 says the new believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers.” Fellowship is such a neat word in Greek: it’s koinonia. It means the share which one has in anything, participation, community. What a beautiful picture of the body of Christ. Jesus allows us to have koinonia with him and mercy of mercies asks us to participate with him in the sharing of the Good News.

Discipleship isn’t a complicated formal thing – discipleship is simply participating in community with each other. It is the breaking of bread, the sharing of meals and hearts. It’s opening your home, inviting a friend over for dinner and meeting them where they are at. Fellowship is writing someone a random note of encouragement, it is sending a gift.

Discipleship is celebrating God’s grace by sharing it with others.

4. Be Open-Hearted

In discipleship, we have to be real. Skeptics of grace can spot a fake faster than we can say hi. We are already fighting stereotypes and deception spun by the enemy – do not contribute to it by pretending to have all the answers.

Truth is: we are all wretched sinners in need of a Savior. We are in constant need of Jesus.

Jesus did real life with people. Jesus didn’t just teach them from a pulpit. He entered into life with them. For example, he fished with them, ate with them, walked with them, and engaged in every day ordinary life moments with them. And all the while, He was teaching them about Himself. The disciples saw the highs and depths of his humanness. They saw him perform miracles, they saw him in agony in the garden, they saw him beaten and humiliated and brutally killed on a cross. And then they saw him in his resurrected glory-state.

Be honest and vulnerable about your story. Invite people into your life to experience the real you. We are not perfect people. We are sick people who have encountered the healing hand of Christ.

5. Be Open-Handed

Knowledge isn’t meant to be hoarded, it is meant to be shared.

If we really believe the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus’ search-and-save rescue mission, it is too good to keep to ourselves. We are here to give it away. We are here to give Jesus away to a world full of broken and hurting people.

Nothing you ever do in this life will ever matter unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made.
Francis Chan

Be willing to go out of your comfort zone, because more time than not that is where growth occurs. It’s out of our element, in the deep end where we learn to trust the one who has led us there.

Recently, I was sitting a Bible study and someone said something incredibly profound: “What if no one told me about Jesus because they were afraid or uncomfortable or inconvenienced? How different would I be? Jesus is not offensive to me. He is precious to me.”

This is the beating heart of discipleship. It is the why.

We cannot save anyone. Jesus alone saves sinners. But Jesus has given each of us a deeply personal journey with him – and he wants us to share it. He wants the learners to partner with him in community to create more learners.

Our job is not to save people, but simply to offer Jesus. It’s not about you and what you can bring to the table. It’s about Jesus and what He brings: new life and hope for all who believe.
The IF: Gathering

What is a Disciple?