What The Bible Teaches About Discipleship

Theme: What The Bible Teaches About…
Speaker: Dub McClish, Editor of The Gospel Journal
Date: March 14, 2004, Sunday Evening Worship Service - (During a Gospel Meeting March 14 Through 17, 2004, at the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Main Scripture References: Luke 9:23 (ASV): “And He [Jesus] said unto all, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Matthew 28:19 (ASV): “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
Centered on the Text 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (KJV)

[Introductory remarks by Brother McClish:]

I ask you to please be long-suffering with me about your names. One dear lady has already asked me tonight what her name was and put me on the spot. I won’t call her name. I could. But I told her that I was going to tell a story that I thought provided the perfect answer to people like her, who like to put preachers on the spot.

My wife’s older brother lives in Springfield, Tennessee, just north of Nashville. When my father-in-law was preaching in Centerville, Tennessee, a few miles south of Nashville, back in the 1940’s—World War II days—there was a family there that became very, very dear to them called the “Chesser” family, and Sister Chesser became a third grandmother to my wife and her siblings. And they just called her “Chesser.”

Well, she had her 90^th birthday celebration a few years ago in Centerville. And so my brother-in-law, Tom, went down for the 90^th birthday party. He had not seen Chesser in a while, and so when he came into her presence, he hugged her, and he could tell there was a distant look in her eyes. He said, “Chesser, you don’t know who I am, do you?” She didn’t answer at first. They talked a little bit, and then Tom said, “Come on, Chesser, just admit it. You don’t know who I am, do you?” And she looked him right in the eye and said, “Why, I certainly do! It’s either you, or somebody that looks just like you!”

Now, that’s come in handy a few times over the years when people say, “I bet you don’t know who I am, do you?”

[Brother McClish begins his sermon:]

Tonight, we are studying discipleship. What does the Bible teach about discipleship? In the American Standard Version, the word “disciple,” or one of its cognates [from a common original form, as two words; related, similar], is found 269 times. And in a book no larger than the New Testament, that makes it a very important subject. By far, the great majority of those occurrences are to be found in the first four books of the New Testament. The word “disciple” is most frequently employed by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to describe those whom Jesus was gathering about Him as He went from place to place preaching and doing His wonderful works.

But when we come to the close of Jesus’ stay here on earth, He issued the Great Commission, and in the Matthew account of the Great Commission, He put a little different emphasis upon what a “disciple” was going to be from the time that the apostles began to carry out the Commission. In Matthew 28, verse 19, Jesus told the apostles, “Go and make disciples (the American Standard Version says—and it is a little bit more accurate than the King James that says, “Go and teach all nations….”) “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” In other words, He was saying that, “From the time that you begin preaching the Gospel, carrying out this Commission, a disciple is going to be one according to GOSPEL terms, according to the terms of the Gospel, which will be ratified and certified by the shedding of My blood, where full and complete remission of sins will be obtainable.”

And so, we should not be surprised when we begin reading in the early chapters of Acts that the word “disciple” begins to appear in that very connection and with that definition. Thus, we read in Acts, chapter 6, and verse 1, that the number of disciples in Jerusalem was multiplying. Then we read in verse 7 of that chapter that the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Now, to what group of people do you suppose the term “disciples” referred? Well, it referred to the church, of course—those who were hearing and obeying the Gospel Message and being added to the church, as Acts 2 documents.

When we get to the 8^th chapter of Acts, the chapter opens by talking about Saul of Tarsus, this young man who’d given his consent to the stoning of Stephen, at the close of the 7^th chapter. And it tells us that a great persecution broke out against the CHURCH, and Saul was leading that persecution, verse 3 tells us. And yet, when we flip to the 9^th chapter and the first verse, we read that Saul was “yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the DISCIPLES….” So, there you see the “church” and “disciples” are identified as the same body of people. To be a disciple after Pentecost was to be a New Testament Christian, one who had been added to the church.

We read the occurrence of this term a few more times until we get to Acts 11:26, which becomes somewhat of a “watershed passage” as to the use of the term “disciple” in the New Testament. This is where Luke says “that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” We read the term “disciple” only 18 more times in all of the New Testament after Acts 11:26. We begin reading, instead, of the term “Christian,” which occurs two other times in the New Testament after Acts 11:26. “Brethren,” “saints” and other terms are used to describe those who are members of the Lord’s church.