Disciple Makers
In several previous posts, the term disciple maker has been used. An explanation may be in order. In the New Testament section of the Bible (covering Jesus Christ’s life to the beginning of the church in the 1st century) the term Christian is only used three times, but the word disciple is used over 250 times. One reason for this is that Jesus Christ didn’t tell His followers to identify themselves by any particular label other than followers. So, the tag “Christian” didn’t occur until years after the church began and was not necessarily phrased by those self-proclaimed Christ followers. They were called this by the world around them to express that they weren’t necessarily Jewish ethnically and certainly not religiously. But they desired to devote their lives to the teachings, lifestyle, and mission of Christ.
A disciple is simply a learner or follower. In the Jewish context of the 1st century, there were professional instructors called rabbis. They had schools that they led in which students would attempt to enroll. The students followed them around doing and saying exactly what they saw and heard. It would be like a university professor that had their own private school, but the students were perpetually in class until the professor decided their education was complete. To be complete would mean being able to teach and live like the rabbi. It was years of work and adaption, but you only enrolled because you sincerely desired to take this path.
Jesus Christ happened to be one of those rabbis, but He was not conventional. He was different from the rest. This was not because He was divine but because He didn’t follow the pattern of all the other rabbis. He followed what His Father in heaven instructed Him to do. He had followers that were lifetime learners. He chose them rather than them enrolling in His program. He didn’t even offer a program. He offered Himself…literally to the point of death. It is not that He expected all those that followed Him to die for their faith. It was that He expected them to have such a devotion to Him that they would be willing to lay down their life if it came to that. The devotion can be seen more so in how they live daily rather than whether they are martyred.
When Jesus Christ chose His disciples, He expected them to reproduce what He equipped them to do. So, He would show them how to live, then ask them to help Him with a task, then watch them do a task, and finally release them to live on their own but always available for them to ask for help. He trained them in this pattern so that they could pass it on to others and multiply. This is much like being trained on a new job. Someone will often walk with you until you understand how things work. The difference is that often in a business or in the military, the trainers and instructors are not necessarily equipping so that everyone else become trainers and instructors. Yet, with Jesus Christ, this is exactly what He meant for each of His followers.
The phrase disciple maker is used rather than just disciple to signify that each follower of Christ is to replicate other followers of Christ and so on and so on. Some may have never been taught about being a disciple. Some people are raised up in church all their life, and it was never discussed or made significant. Others were taught to be a disciple through living a disciplined life as a Christ follower but were never taught to pour that into someone else for them to pass it on as well. This is the Gospel Commission! It is a reproducing, multiplying, replicating journey. We invite you to walk this path with us. Would you like to learn more?