To Be a Disciple of Jesus
Before Jesus returned to heaven, He left these words with His disciples:
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 keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matt 28:18–20).
Jesus revealed to them that all authority had been given to Him and He was now commissioning them for their assignment after His ascension. It was a simple commission: “Go therefore and make disciples.” A disciple is a student of a teacher. In those days, a group of students would be chosen by a rabbi, a teacher, and would commit to him daily for instruction. He would then teach them what he had come to accept as knowledge for their lives.
Jesus then told them how they were to make disciples of people from the nations. He told them to teach people what they had learned from Him. It seems at first that this commission was just for His immediate disciples but when He said , “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” it became clear that this commission was for all believers for the age in which we are now living. He would continue to be with us through the Holy Spirit whom He had promised earlier would come and guide them into all truth (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit, then, would become the teacher of future disciples of Christ.
The subject matter of the Holy Spirit for this church age is “teaching them to keep all that I commanded you.” It is a simple curriculum — what He had commanded them to do they were to pass on to others. You will notice the obvious absence of many things that we consider essential or traditional today. He said nothing of going to church, or building any sacred buildings, wearing any special clothing, special rituals, or special ways of worship. He said nothing of a pastor, sermons or any of the other countless traditions we think of as Christian essentials.He knew that the Holy Spirit would lead them into what was necessary for their lives.
Jesus made it simple for them because He was always leading them away from religious mandates in favor of genuine lives of devotion to God. Actually, to make it very simple, Jesus gave only one commandment during His ministry. It was very simple and very profound:
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 first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37–39).
Of course, Jesus had many other specifics He encouraged but He made it clear that all that the Father desires of us is wrapped up in these two crucial commandments. Love God and love others — simple but profound. His only sermon was directed toward the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and the persecuted (Matt 5). He was not trying to build a following but teaching people to love themselves, love God and love one another.
The entire ministry of Jesus was simply teaching people how to love with the Father’s love. In the midst of His sermon, He said this about His message: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mat 5:17). He fulfilled the law by being all that it stands for and through the Spirit coming to dwell inside of us (Col 1:27). Through His indwelling presence we learn to live according to His will. The fruit of the Spirit, His likeness, begins to grow in our lives (Gal. 5:22, 23).
So a disciple of Jesus is a person who follows Him, learns from Him and adjusts his life accordingly. Our life was meant to be a spiritual school in which we learn from the personal teaching of Jesus. We have a teacher who not only teaches us but stays with us to lead us into the truths of His lessons. Just before HIs death He promised us the Holy Spirit would come to lead us into all the truth. Before He ascended He said, “. . . behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20). Remember, He, the Father and the Holy Spirit are one and together lead us into His truth if we seek to know His will.
Being a disciple is not a matter of raising your hand or coming forth at a church meeting or repeating certain words. Those may be tiny first steps but discipleship is a life lived in ongoing fellowship with the Master of the universe. We are not called to be theologians who immerse ourselves in a pool of doctrinal issues. We are called to follow and listen to the One who is the subject of all the doctrinal discussions. He is the Teacher and the curriculum because eternal life is not about filling our heads with knowledge but about knowing Him and living in fellowship with Him (John 17:3).
God’s people today are being called out of the disarray of modern church life into a genuine life guided by our Rabbi, the Messiah Himself. We are being called once again to take His yoke upon us and learn from HIm (Matt 11:29). That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
