Jesus Christ: Disciple Maker

[This is Chapter 1 of Disciple Maker: Fulfill Your Destiny in the Disciple-Making Movement Launched by Jesus Christ, by Phil Bickel (© 2020). Free download at www.philbickel.com/store.]

If a Christian disciple-making strategy had converted millions since 1994, yet was so simple that children can use it, would you consider it too good to be true, or too wonderful to ignore?  

In recent years I learned about a Christian outreach method called Disciple-Making Movements (DMM).  The more I’ve heard about DMM, the more I’m convinced that it stands in a class by itself and can enhance any outreach methods you already use.  Yet the purpose of this short book is not to convince you to adopt a soul-winning strategy. 

My goal is that you meet Jesus as the Disciple Maker, so that He may train you for your own personal role in launching a Disciple-Making Movement where you live.  

We sail on.  Finally reaching the shore, we long to set foot on solid land, but we balk.  Why?  Because we’ve landed at a graveyard.  It’s midnight.  And a naked, demon-possessed maniac is barreling down the slope toward us.  “Let’s get outta here!” we scream.  But before we can shove off, Jesus steps out of the boat to greet the lunatic.  And the next teachable moment begins.

We who follow Jesus today assume 1st-century believers had an advantage over us, because they walked with the Savior, heard His words, and saw His miracles.  But easy it was not!  While we know how the story ends, they experienced events as they unfolded, moment by moment and surprise by surprise.  Not yet knowing who Jesus really was or what would happen next, they were constantly jolted by the sayings, stories, and actions of their puzzling Rabbi.

Jesus’ Words

Sometimes we chide the disciples for not grasping Jesus’ bizarre statements.  Here are a few of them, paraphrased, to help us sense how shocking they are.

• “If you want to be My disciple, you must deny yourself, dig your own grave, and follow Me.”  (Mark 8:34)
• “Anyone who wants to be top dog must climb down to the bottom rung and be the servant of all.”  (Mark 9:35)
• “It is far easier for a camel to thread its head, humps, and hooves through the eye of a needle than for a fat cat to enter the kingdom of God.”  (Mark 10:25)

Counter-intuitive statements like these are not easily digested.  Jesus’ words compel people to unlearn what they have long assumed is true about God and people.

Jesus’ Stories

Besides being a master of baffling one-liners, Jesus also told topsy-turvy tales.

• In the parable of two men praying in the temple, the paragon-of-piety Pharisee goes home still smudged with sin, but the tax collector confesses his traitorous deeds and exits cleansed of sin and guilt.  (Luke 18:9-14)
• When a traveler get mugged by robbers, a priest and Levite are good for nothing, but a Samaritan bestows neighborly compassion on the victim.

What are we to make of His stories that flip our social perspectives upside down?

Jesus’ Actions

Jesus didn’t just talk the talk.  He walked the walk, with the disciples cautiously tagging along behind.  Imagine how these teaching moments bewildered them.

• When the disciples conjecture whose sin caused the blindness of a beggar, Jesus corrects them: “He did not sin, nor did his parents.  His blindness will soon display that I am the light of the world.”  (John 9:3, 5)
• As the disciples gawk at wealthy folk pouring tremendous tithes into the temple coffers, Jesus compels them to focus on a widow who abandons her last two pennies and entrusts her future to God’s care.  (Mark 12:41-44)
• Jesus behaves contrary to prevailing customs.  He does not teach His disciples to wash their hands before meals.  He heals on the Sabbath.  He dines with sinners.  These social habits provoke the religious honchos to badger the disciples, “Why does your Rabbi do these things?” thus implying, “Why do you saps keep following Him?”  
• Jesus sends disciples out in pairs with an unparalleled To Do list: 1) “Tell people: ‘The kingdom of heaven has arrived.’  2) Heal the sick.  3) Raise the dead.  4) Cure lepers.  5) Drive out demons.  I have generously granted you authority to do these things, so spread the blessings freely.”  (Matt. 10:7-8)

The first disciples faced a towering learning curve.  Eventually they climbed it rung by rung.  Have we?

Accurately Defining Discipleship

In the Gospels Jesus made disciples — hundreds of them.  Then in Acts the disciples made thousands more.  This wasn’t an accident.  It was the plan: “Go and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19).

Do you consider yourself to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?  Mistakenly assuming that the twelve Apostles were the only disciples, many church goers humbly demur: “I’m no disciple.  I’m no one special at all, just a typical Christian.”  Really?  Consider a pair of intriguing questions.

1. How often does the word “Christian” appear in the New Testament?  Answer: Only three times, because “Christian” was a term of derision that unbelievers used to label the followers of Jesus.
2. How often does the word “disciple” appear?  Answer: over 250 times, because it was the title that Jesus Himself bestowed on His followers in verses like John8:31: “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples.”

This distinction is the reason why Dr. Edward N. Gross wrote Are You a Christian or a Disciple?: Rediscovering and Renewing New Testament Discipleship (2014).  It is an extended, eye-opening biblical study and discussion of how Jesus calls and equips disciples who can make disciples.  The author informs us that in 1st-century Israel, not only Jesus of Nazareth, but many other Jewish rabbis were instructing bands of disciples in the Jewish faith.  Their students did not enroll for a course or a semester as students do today.  Instead, they forged a permanent, all-or-nothing bond with their rabbi.  Therefore, when men and women accepted the role of being disciples of Jesus Christ, they were committing themselves to do the following: 

1. Submit totally to Jesus’ will.  
2. Memorize Jesus’ teachings.  
3. Understand and accept Jesus’ traditions and interpretations of Scripture.  
4. Imitate His lifestyle in detail.  
5. Train the next generation of disciples in the same manner as He taught them.  

Wow, this far exceeds agreeing to a set of doctrines and attending church.  

Disciple Making Today

Jesus still is the Disciple Maker.  Since He has an adventure in store for us greater than we imagined, we wonder:

• What would discipleship, Jesus-style, look like today?
• How does a disciple make new disciples?
• Am I up for the challenge?

The coming chapters will address these concerns and more, as we climb the learning curve together.