Hello, everyone! The other day I ran into a lady at the grocery store and I asked her how they were doing and how things were at their church. Oh, she said we’re thinking of finding another church. Our pastor doesn’t talk about anything except discipleship. It’s discipleship, discipleship, discipleship. I believe in discipleship, but surely there is more to learn in the Bible than that.
I’ve been thinking about what she said. Today I want to ask a question you’ve never heard before. Should we be talking so much about discipleship in our churches?
A Disciple – mathētēs in Biblical Greek – is someone who follows and learns. Literally, it’s what followers of Jesus did in the Gospels. As you may remember, Jesus told His disciples to “go into all the world and make disciples.” During this time, he used Gospel era language.
For a little while, that terminology continued. It’s not found in Acts 1-5, but we see an example of it in Acts 6: “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the disciples gathered all the disciples together… So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased…” We see this again in Acts 9: “Saul was still breathing out threats against the Lord’s disciples….” In fact, the word disciple occurs several times in this chapter.
Later, Acts 11:26 says, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” This seems to mark a change of terminology. This Greek word Christianós, (Chres-dee-a nos), occurs 3 times in the New Testament. It refers to one who models himself after Christ.
The word disciple appears a few more times in Acts, until we come to Acts 21:6, and from that point on the word disciple is never used again in the New Testament. It simply doesn’t occur.
I didn’t realize this until an older friend of mine pointed it out a few months ago. I was astonished! The word disciple seems to be missing from rest of the New Testament!
The word disciple is…
Not in Romans
Not in 1 or 2 Corinthians
Not in Galatians
Not in the Prison epistles
Not in the pastoral epistles
Never used by the Apostle Paul, not even once
Absent from the book of Hebrews
Not in James, Peter, John, or Jude.
Not in Revelation.
After Acts 21, it disappears from the pages of the Bible. But why?
Here’s one theory. Disciple was a literal Gospel term that implied following Jesus and learning from Him. That’s what the original disciples did, and that idea lingered through the early days of the Acts of the Apostles. But then as these early believers realized more and more the role of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, there was a change both in the verbage and the expectation of a follower of Jesus. Now, it was not just following Christ and learning from Him. It was letting Him actually live within us and live His life through us, beginning with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Look at the pattern in the following verses, as the call on a disciple’s life in many ways shifts from simple following and imitation of Christ to a Spirit-filled life.
- Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 3:18: And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
- Colossians 1:27 – Christ in you, the hope of glory.
- 1 Peter 4:14 says, the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
- 1 Corinthians 6 says: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the HS, who is in you.
- Ephesians 5 says, be filled with the Spirit.
- Galatians 5 says, walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit.
- 1 Corinthians 3 says, live by the Spirit.
- Ephesians 6 says, pray in the Spirit.
- Romans 8: Live according to the Spirit.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:19 says, do not quench the spirit.
- Ephesians 4: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
- 2 Thessalonians 2 and 1 Peter 1 talk about the sanctifying work of the Spirit.
- 2 Timothy 1: God does not give us the Spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control
- Galatians 5: the fruit of the Spirit is love…
This lines up well with the idea of the Victorious Christian Life. God has empowered us, even beyond the sacrifice of Jesus that cleanses us from all unrighteousness, to actually live the life Jesus has called us to live. And this empowerment is possible only through full submission to the Holy Spirit’s innerworkings in our lives. So, more than obeying the Father and following after the Son alone, we are also called to walk with the Spirit, submit to the Spirit, listen to the Spirit, and live by the Spirit’s guidance. The full Christian life, when lived well, is much more than just following in the footsteps of Jesus. It’s obedience to Father, Son, and Spirit.
Robertson McQuilkin says it this way: “Our thought processes are so under the control of the Holy Spirit and instructed by Scripture that the normal Christian authentically reflects the attitudes and behavior of Jesus Christ. God has first place in his life, and the welfare of others takes precedent over personal desires. The normal Christian has power not only for godly living but for effective service in the church. Above all he or she has the joy of constant companionship with the Lord.”
The concept of discipleship matured into something even better than someone who only follows and learns from the life of Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul and the writers of the epistles, as it were, retired the term disciple and replaced it with the concept of Jesus Christ Himself living within us by His Holy Spirit, living His life and doing His work in us by the power of His indwelling, dynamic, active, overflowing Holy Spirit.
That doesn’t mean we can’t use the words disciple and discipleship. But it does mean we should at least be aware that this wasn’t the term Paul used—not even once. Instead he said things like: May the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).
So I’m going to talk about discipleship a bit less, and the Spirit-filled life more and more.