Talk

What is a Disciple?

Ben Stuart

June, 30, 2024

Ben Stuart introduces a collection focusing on what it looks like to be a disciple. In this talk, he encourages followers of Christ to evangelize and equips them with the knowledge to share the Gospel using Ephesians 2.

Key Takeaway

The Great Commandment and the Great Commission show us a picture of what it means to be a disciple. People can be disciples of many different people and things, but there is something very different about being a disciple of Jesus.

What does it mean to be a disciple and make disciples?

Various churches offer different programs and opportunities to learn more about Jesus and get involved. At Passion City DC, all of our programs need to be based on principles and precepts in God's Word. Thankfully, our King has given us simple orders.

The Great Commission was given in Matthew 28:16-20. We are to make disciples. These are the marching orders of Jesus. The word "disciple" comes from Latin, meaning student, pupil, or learner. It's following a person's way of life, coming under their teaching, and then modeling your life the same as theirs. So, whose voice is shaping the way you view the world? Who's discipling you?

Jesus wasn't just another man with disciples. Being a disciple of Jesus is different. His disciples worshiped Him. (Matthew 28:17) All authority belongs to Him. (Matthew 28:18) He is with us until the end of the age. He never stops living. (Matthew 28:20)

He also gave us the Great Commandment. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus says to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Simply put, you love God with your entire being, and from that, you love and cherish those around you. Love embraced becomes love extended.

When you put the Great Commandment and the Great Commission together, you get an idea of what it's like to be a disciple.

5 Elements of a Disciple- these are related in a circular manner, they're not levels.

Evangelism—reaching others with the good news. All authority belongs to Jesus and we are to go and make disciples. Declare the good news!

Community—connect people into the family. Jesus said to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19) Baptism is a symbol of connection. Ephesians 2:19-22 says we are knit together as a temple, members with one another.

Discipleship—teaching them to obey all that He commands (Matthew 29:20) So, we enter into a relationship with God, associate with Him and His people, and then we begin to learn what it is to know and walk with Him.

Service—we love our neighbors as ourselves. (Matthew 22:39) We meet the needs of others.

Worship—we love the Lord with everything. My whole being is about declaring the glory of God who has changed me. (Matthew 22:37)

Evangelism

If you think a disciple is just a learner, then you are missing something. In John 3, we see Nicodemus, a highly regarded man of the law and ruler of the people. He would have memorized the law, but when he came to learn from Jesus, Jesus didn't say, "Just be a good learner." In John 3:3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. Jesus looked at an educated and motivated man and told him he needed to be born, something he couldn't do on his own. Birth was a critical part of your life journey. How can you be born again? Jesus answers John 3:16, God gave His Son, and whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.

Christianity is both an event (I'm alive!) and a process (I'm being conformed into the image of His Son.)

Ephesians 2 is one of the most direct presentations of the good news. Good news is good depending on the situation you're in and your awareness of it,

Ephesians 2:1—you were dead, a corpse, in your sin He compares our life to a morgue. Spiritually you're dead. We are rightly to be judged.

Ephesians 2:4—But God! He is rich in mercy and have loved us. He made us alive with Him. Jesus died, was buried, and raised to the Heavenly places. He looks at you and says, "That's you! Because you believe in Jesus, you are positionally different forever." You're born again. He makes you something else.

Paul goes on to bring up all sorts of tensions and issues. He makes it a point to show how the Gospel has brought all parties together. He has reconciled all our differences as one. The Cross doesn't just reconcile us with God; it reconciles us with humanity.

“

"I exists to know God and make Him known."

”

Ben Stuart

Discussion Questions

What is a disciple? Who have you been a disciple of?
What are the two simple orders Jesus gave that help us understand how to be a disciple?
What makes following Jesus as a disciple different than others that followed John the Baptist and other teachers? See Matthew 28:17-20.
What does it mean to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength?
How do you love your neighbor as yourself in practical ways?
What are the five elements of being a disciple? How are they related to each other?
When Nicodemus came to Jesus to learn from Jesus, what did Jesus tell him? Why would this have been confusing and disappointing to Nicodemus?
How does John 3:16 tell us we can be born again?
According to Ephesians 2:1, what are we in our sin? Why is that bad news?
What is the good news in Ephesians 2:4? How is that life-changing for you?

Scripture References

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

9not by works, so that no one can boast.

10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—

12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,

15by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,

16and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,

20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

37Jesus replied:

“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

18Then Jesus came to them and said,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Ben Stuart

Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.