Discipleship / 1 Corinthians 11:1 / Matthew 22:37–40

Growing Big People

There are moments in the life of a church where you recognize that they are really not trying to draw a big crowd; they are really trying to grow big people. Last week was one of those moments for me. I came in, sat in the back, and took notes as I heard Shay teach, like many of you did. I was just really taken. First, the guy is a phenomenally gifted communicator. Second, the boy is not scared.

When he was talking about being generous with our time, talents, and treasures, you begin to realize that in those moments, you are not trying to build a big church. If you were, you would never talk about that. You would never talk about anything that might in any way sound offensive. But what he did was remind us that everything we have is given to us by God. It is not ours, and we are called to steward everything we have in terms of time, talents, and treasures.

I was thinking about that this week, trying to do in my own life what we ask you to do: take what we teach and process it throughout the week. As I was thinking about that idea of generosity, I was reminded of Acts 20, where Paul quotes Jesus. He quotes words from Jesus that none of the gospel writers recorded for us. Jesus makes the statement that it is better to give than to receive.

Acts 20:35 (NASB)

’In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’’

As we continue working through this Paradigm Shift series, I am reminded that this series is an absolute kick in the face, if we are honest, because it is convicting. Every single week, it is right in our face. Every single week, it is challenging us. Every single week, it is stirring us with thoughts that are countercultural, addressing issues that need a paradigm shift. The issue I want to cover this week is the issue of discipleship. My hope is, in a loving way, that it is equally convicting.

You cannot go more than a page or two in the Gospels without seeing the concept of disciples being called. There are over 250 mentions of this idea of what it means to be a disciple. The Bible talks over and over and over about the importance of discipleship. But in order for us to understand discipleship, we need to set it up a little bit and look at the background.

The Roots of Discipleship and the Synagogue System

You find this concept of being a disciple deeply rooted in the Scriptures. In fact, according to Deuteronomy 6, the original disciplers were supposed to be dads. Now, in our culture, we have almost completely lost that. Some dads are killing it, but if you took a vote, for the most part, dads have punted that opportunity. Maybe after hearing this message, we can get back to that. Deuteronomy 6 challenged dads to take the Word of God, study it, and teach their children.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NASB)

’These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

The worship expression in the early parts of the Old Testament was that dads would teach the Word of God in the home, and then the community would assemble together corporately for worship. Your corporate assembly would be either in the tabernacle or the temple, depending upon where you are in the Old Testament storyline. The reason you assembled corporately had primarily to do with sin.

Discipleship brings out sin issues. When you sinned, what did you do? In the Old Testament, you had to bring an animal sacrifice. Why? Because without the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness of sin, and the wages of sin from Genesis to Revelation is still death. You would come to the temple or the tabernacle, spend time in the Scriptures, pray together, and present your offering.

That system continued until 586 BC, when the Babylonians invaded, deported the nation of Israel out of Jerusalem, and burned the temple to the ground. Now the people of God living in captivity had a massive problem: How do you come to a location that no longer exists to offer a sacrifice on an altar that has been destroyed before a temple that has been burned to the ground? How do you worship God?

To preserve their cultural connectivity, their heritage, and their theology, they began assembling in smaller groups in community center-type facilities. If somebody had a big garage, they threw the door open, people showed up, and they hung out. These were called places of assembly—in Hebrew, bet knesset. The Greek term is the one you are probably more familiar with: synagogue.

Synagogues became the places where Jewish people assembled to pray and study the Word of God. They could not bring animal sacrifices anymore, so study and obedience to the text became their primary expression of worship. As the history of the synagogues unfolded, schools were attached to them. These schools began teaching the Scriptures. An elementary school child would spend their time in school studying the first five books of Moses, the Torah—Genesis through Deuteronomy. They would memorize large chunks, if not the entirety, of those books. Their education started not with the ABCs, but with, “In the beginning, God.”

When you graduated from elementary school, you moved on to secondary school, and the rest of the Old Testament opened up—the Prophets and the Writings. At around age thirteen, when you graduated from secondary school, you would most likely enter your father’s trade. If your dad cranked a pipe wrench for a living, you got swole cranking a pipe wrench with your pops. If your dad worked with leather, the Bible would call you a tentmaker. If he was a tekton—which our Bibles translate as carpenter, but most likely meant stone worker—you worked with stone. That is what you did, with rare exceptions.

The rare exception was the intellectual elite. If you had the biblical prowess, you had the rare opportunity to seek out a rabbi—a recognized expert in the text. You would find a rabbi whose teaching connected with you, approach him, and ask, “May I become your disciple?” That rabbi would quiz you and decide: “Yes, I think you have the ability,” or, “Thank you, but go back to pounding stone with your pops.”

Jesus’ Paradigm Shift: The Caller and the Called

That cultural backdrop shapes the Gospels. Jesus interacted with people who understood that system intimately. When Jesus arrives on the scene, He initiates a profound paradigm shift regarding discipleship in two major ways.

First, under the traditional system, if you had the skills, you approached the rabbi and asked for permission to follow him. Jesus turned that entirely on its head. In Matthew 4, He approaches ordinary workers and says, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Matthew 4:19-22 (NASB)

And He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the [son] of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

The first paradigm shift is that Jesus called them. Have you ever wondered why these young men, working with their dad in the middle of a workday, dropped their nets immediately and followed Him? To follow a rabbi and be accepted as a disciple was one of the highest honors imaginable. Here were these young men who had washed out of the elite academic track, back at their father’s trade, mending nets. Then Jesus comes along—one of the most well-known rabbis of His day—and calls them. Of course their dad, Zebedee, said, “Go! That’s Jesus! You should totally follow Him.” So they dropped everything and pursued Him.

The second fascinating thing is not just that Jesus called them, but who He actually called. In the Gospel accounts, He calls four fishermen from tiny, obscure fishing villages in the North of Galilee that nobody cared about. Normal, everyday, blue-collar workers—like tow truck drivers. Those are my people. Jesus calls them.

He also calls a guy named Levi, whom our Bibles often call Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector by trade. When I say tax collector, do not think of an IRS agent. Think of a mob figure without a enforcer to break legs. In Roman culture, a tax collector agreed to pay Rome a set quota, but had permission to charge people whatever else they could extort. They would overcharge, send Rome its portion, and pocket the rest. Needless to say, they were despised by the Jewish community. Jesus called a tax collector.

He also called Simon the Zealot. What was a Zealot? A Zealot belonged to a religious faction so fiercely committed to God’s law and the overthrow of Roman rule that they used violence. Zealots would conceal daggers in their sleeves in crowded marketplaces, sneak up behind people like Matthew, stab them in the back, and walk away as the body hit the floor. They were ancient terrorists.

Look at this group: four blue-collar fishermen, Matthew the extortionist, and Simon the terrorist. These are the people Jesus called. I do not know what your perspective of Jesus is, but look at the Jesus of the Bible. He invites shady, broken, normal people. I do not connect with the intellectual elite. I washed out of advanced schooling; I got a community health degree from Fresno State, which basically just means it was the easiest degree for me to finish. And here is Jesus, initiating relationships with everyday, messy people like us.

Life-on-Life Discipleship

Jesus invited them to follow Him. One of the keys to understanding discipleship is knowing what it is and what it is not. Discipleship is not merely an information download. Jesus did not call them simply to give lectures. Teaching was part of it, but discipleship is not just teaching what you know; it is reproducing what you are.

Jesus said, “Come, and I will teach you, but I will also show you how to live as I live.” That is the essence of discipleship. Jesus spent nearly four years with them, pouring into their lives. He taught them, but He also exposed the sin in their lives. When you live in close, intimate relationships over time, you cannot hide who you really are.

If you are trying to do discipleship purely through text messages or occasional video chats, that will not work. Discipleship happens life-on-life, in real intimacy, over time, with awkward conversations. Read through the Gospels. Look at how many times Jesus deliberately put His disciples into awkward situations to see how they would respond, exposing their pride, their arrogance, their competitiveness, and what Mark repeatedly calls their hardness of heart.

Jesus said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Mark 8:34 (NASB)

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, ’If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

Being a disciple is not a one-time decision you made years ago because someone offered free pizza at a junior high youth event and you repeated a prayer. Being a disciple means daily recognizing the preeminence of Christ in your life—that He must increase and you must decrease. It means learning day by day how to put faith into action, how to handle the Word of God, how to love the poor, and how to deal with sin.

When the Gospels come to an end, the disciples were probably wondering what came next. After all the miracles and crowds, they might have felt that nostalgia you experience on the last night of summer camp: “What an amazing time we had with Jesus! Let’s get together in a couple of years for a reunion.” But Jesus had something in store for them that they were not fully prepared for.

The Great Commission

In Matthew 28, Jesus has been arrested, crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. In Jewish culture, when a rabbi taught, he would cite his authorities: “Rabbi So-and-So says this based on Rabbi So-and-So.” The Apostle Paul did this in Acts when he noted that he was trained by Gamaliel, one of the premier scholars of the day.

Throughout the Gospels, religious leaders constantly challenged Jesus: “By what authority do You do these things?” They wanted to know who His rabbi was and where He went to school. But Jesus would say, “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you.” He quoted no human rabbi. His authority came directly from the Father because He and the Father are one.

With that divine authority established, look at what Jesus commands in Matthew 28:

Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB)

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ’All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ‘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; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’

I imagine the disciples heard that and felt completely overwhelmed. Jesus was telling them, “Boys, you are just getting started.”

In the Greek text, Jesus gives an imperative command. It is not a suggestion or an optional dialogue. Most people look at verse 19 and assume the command is “Go.” But in the original language, “go” is a participle modifying the main verb; it is best translated “as you are going.” Wherever you go, in your everyday life, the imperative command is: make disciples.

What is a disciple? A disciple is someone who lives like Jesus and helps others live like Jesus. The Apostle Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 11:1 (NASB)

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

Discipleship is not Gandalf dropping nuggets of wisdom on hobbits. It is not Yoda training a Padawan. It is simply one broken person saying, “I am pursuing Jesus. Come follow me as I follow Him.” It is inviting people into your imperfect journey as you both look to Christ as the focal point.

This command implies two vital realities. First, it assumes universal participation. There is no qualifier. It does not say, “If you are exceptionally spiritual, make disciples.” Faith in Christ equals a mandate to make disciples. Discipleship is not reserved for an intellectual elite; it is a universal calling for everyone who names Jesus as Lord. Second, it assumes replication. You are discipled, you disciple someone else, they disciple another, and the process continues indefinitely. Our Christian lives ought to be defined by who is discipling us and whom we are discipling.

Jesus gives us two clear instructions on how this happens:

1. Baptizing them. Making disciples has an evangelistic foundation. Baptism is an outward, public proclamation of an inward spiritual reality. Baptism does not save you; adding any merit to baptism diminishes the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Jesus plus nothing equals salvation. Baptism proclaims that someone has crossed over from death to life, recognizing their sin and embracing Christ’s righteousness. Making disciples means we open our mouths, articulate the Gospel, and lead people to faith in Jesus.

2. Teaching them to obey all that I commanded you. Discipleship involves intentional teaching, but it is an ongoing process of obedience, not a graduation program. You do not finish a few classes, earn a diploma, and say you are done. In discipleship, you help each other align real life with the Scriptures. When someone says, “I’m struggling with sobriety,” or “I’m tempted to compromise in my relationship,” or “I have an impossible boss,” you open the Bible together and ask, “What does God’s Word say about this?” Then you adjust your life to obey it.

This requires genuine vulnerability. If you present yourself as someone who has everything figured out and treats the other person like a broken project, discipleship will fail. Years ago, I was being discipled by a brilliant man. I loved his teaching, but I had never heard him admit a single struggle. One day, another guy I was discipling asked him, “Do you ever struggle with reading your Bible?” and he replied, “Never. Every single time I open it, it comes alive.” I thought, You are lying. Later, we were running across a freeway overpass, a truck blew a gust of wind, his hat flew off, and he let slip a four-letter word. In that moment, I thought, Yes! Because now I knew he was real. Vulnerability matters. Do not pretend you have arrived; point people to Jesus while walking through your own mess with honesty.

Then Jesus adds the second great promise: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Left to ourselves, who feels adequate to make disciples? Paul writes to the Corinthians that our adequacy is not from ourselves, but from Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:4-5 (NASB)

Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as [coming] from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

He tells the Colossians that we proclaim Christ, admonishing and teaching everyone, laboring with His energy that powerfully works within us.

Colossians 1:28-29 (NASB)

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

None of us are adequate on our own. But Jesus promises His presence as we obey His command.

Why Have We Stopped Making Disciples?

How did the early church do with this command? Within two years, they had filled Jerusalem with their teaching (Acts 5). Within four years, they were planting churches and equipping disciples across the region (Acts 9). Within fifteen years, they had turned the world upside down (Acts 17). Within thirty years, the Gospel was bearing fruit throughout the known world (Colossians 1).

So how are we doing today? How are you doing individually? Can you name the person who is intentionally discipling you? Can you name the people you are actively discipling? For many of us, the Great Commission has become the great omission. Why?

• We have distanced ourselves from it. We assume disciple-making is someone else’s job—for pastors, missionaries, or the super-spiritual.
• We have outsourced it. We say, “My church makes disciples.” But you are the church. If you are not making disciples, the church is not making disciples.
• We have misunderstood it. We equate discipleship with curriculum, conferences, or Bible studies. You can attend Bible studies for decades and never make a disciple.
• We have neutered it. We expect no replication. We take in truth but never pass it on to anyone who will pass it to others.
• We have socialized it. We hang out with Christian friends, talk about sports or movies, and call it discipleship. Community is valuable, but discipleship requires intentional spiritual formation.
• We have disqualified ourselves. We think, My life is too messy to disciple anyone. The original twelve disciples were not spiritual giants; they were ordinary, often confused men whom God transformed. You do not need to be perfect; you just need to be following Jesus.
• We have ignored it. We treat the command like an awkward topic we would rather avoid.

This is not a methodology problem; it is a heart problem. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He summarized it simply: love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Matthew 22:37-40 (NASB)

And He said to him, ’‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ ’This is the great and foremost commandment. ’The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ ‘On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.’

Love for God and love for people is the fuel for making disciples. When we lack disciple-making in our lives, it reveals that we need our hearts renewed in love for God and others.

A Grassroots Revolution

I completely detest consumer Christianity—where people show up like spectators who bought a ticket, hoping the performance entertains them and makes them feel good. If that is what the church is, count me out.

What I read in the Scriptures is a breathtaking movement of followers of Jesus who are active participants rather than consumers. That is the movement I want to give my life to—a grassroots revolution that pushes back darkness and storms the gates of hell. And it begins with discipleship.

How do we return to this?

First, yield your life daily to Christ. Discipleship begins when your feet hit the floor in the morning and you pray, “Lord, I belong to You today. Use me in my classes, at my job, in my relationships. I surrender to You.”

Second, cultivate a life like Jesus lived. Spend time in the Scriptures. Pray faithfully for friends who do not know Christ. Pray for those you are discipling and those who disciple you. Invest your primary energy not merely in building a career, but in investing in people for eternity.

Third, take initiative in the lives of people around you. Imagine if our coffee shops were crowded with open Bibles. Imagine dorm rooms with students gathered on beat-up couches studying the Word together. Imagine fraternities and sororities transformed because men and women began opening the text and discipling one another.

Discipleship needs a paradigm shift in our lives. It is a universal command given to everyone who belongs to Christ. Let us reject passive consumerism, reorient our lives around Jesus, and invite others to follow us as we follow Him.

Let’s pray together.

Father, I am so grateful for Your Word. I pray that it would sink deeply into our hearts and ignite a genuine movement among us. Forgive us for being spectators who settle for religious routines. Help us repent of complacency. Give us the courage to step out, to be discipled, and to make disciples. Build deep maturity in us, change our families and our communities through everyday obedience, and fulfill Your work through us as we walk in the promise of Your presence. In Jesus’ name, Amen.