Jun 14, 20243 min read

Making Disciples for Jesus

When Jesus rose from the dead, He gave His disciples a mission.

Read Matthew 28:18-20

Following Jesus

Up until now, we have been referring to the 12 people that Jesus spent the most time with as His disciples. But what exactly is a disciple? Let’s read about how Peter began following Jesus.

Read Luke 5:1-11

What did Peter do before becoming a disciple of Jesus?
Into what did Jesus promise to make Peter?
How did Peter do in response to Jesus calling him?

Peter left everything to follow Jesus! This is a disciple. When we became disciples of Jesus we left our old lives in order to follow Jesus and He radically changed the direction of our lives!

In Jesus’ day, rabbis would gather to themselves disciples from the smartest young men. Those young men would leave their family and their trade in order to live 24/7 with their teacher. They would absorb the teachings of their rabbis and emulate the way they lived.

Think about that! Discipleship was a radical restructuring of a person's life in order to model oneself after the pattern of their teacher. It’s one thing to emulate the life of a merely human teacher, it’s another thing entirely to emulate the life of Jesus! That’s the guy who healed the sick and raised the dead! He is the Son of God! How could we emulate the life of someone like Jesus?

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus in the 21st century?
Is it possible to be a Christian but not be a disciple?

We need God's Help to follow Jesus

The Bible says that Jesus performed the miracles He did by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 10:38) Then Jesus gave the same Spirit that rested on Him to His disciples! It’s the power of the Holy Spirit that is present in the lives of Jesus’ disciples that enables us to live like Him! We cannot live the Christian life by trying really hard. We can only be a disciple of Jesus by depending on His Spirit.

Jesus gave the command to make disciples to the people who followed Him. They heard and obeyed His teachings and followed His way of life but they were still falling short. Peter had just denied even knowing Jesus to a servant girl because he was scared. He had left his life as a disciple of Jesus entirely in order to go back to his old life of being a fisherman. He had completely given up! All the disciples abandoned Jesus when He was arrested. The disciples were very far from perfect. Jesus knew they needed the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill the grand plan of bringing the Gospel to the whole world. That’s why He told them to wait in Jerusalem until they had been filled with power from Heaven.

Is perfection required to be a disciple of Jesus?
What is required to be Jesus' disciple?

The disciples of Jesus were far from perfect. They constantly argued about who was the greatest among them, they often said foolish things, and they even abandoned Jesus at the time of His greatest need. Still, Jesus trusted them to carry on His work and establish His Church because He would leave them the Holy Spirit who would continue to make them more mature even after He left them.

Jesus doesn't need you to be perfect in order to follow Him, He just needs you to be willing.

Helping others follow Jesus

Those who followed Jesus did make disciples and those disciples were also expected to make disciples.

Read 2 Timothy 2:2

This verse is from a Letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, his disciple. Paul told Timothy to pass along the teachings and pattern of life he learned to other faithful people. This is part of being a Christian! We learn from Jesus in the scriptures and obey His teachings! We emulate His life and teach others to do the same.

What does it mean to follow Jesus?
How can we teach people to follow Jesus?
What do you need to emulate Jesus’ life?
Are you living a life that looks like Jesus?
Are there people in your life that you think God is leading you to teach about Jesus?