“What is discipleship?” That’s a question I got from a man sitting across the table at my daughter’s bouldering practice. By his own admission, he wasn’t a Christian. But he overheard me talking to another Christian about discipleship. So, curious, he asked, “What is discipleship?” The brother sitting next to me said, “Ever heard of Obi Wan Kenobi?” “Heck yeah!” the man replied. “What he did with Anakin and Luke—discipleship has to do with following the ways of your master. As Christians, we’re following the ways of Jesus.” Not a bad response. How would you answer?

Today, I want to set the stage for discipleship. We’ll be answering only the What question this morning: what is discipleship and how should we think about it? Next Sunday we’ll answer the Who question: who’s involved? Then three weeks out we’ll answer the How question: how do we do it? So, let’s begin by answering the What question: what is Christian discipleship and how should we think about it?

Challenges to Understanding Discipleship

 There are some challenges to consider. Some of those challenges come from the Bible itself. Take John 6:66, for example. Many of Jesus’ disciples “turn back and no longer follow Jesus.” But then other disciples stay. Jesus asks the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Some don’t stick with Jesus. Some do. Yet both groups John calls “disciples.” That requires some sorting out. Thankfully, Scripture interprets Scripture. Jesus says in John 8:31. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciple.”

Then there’s also the challenge of poor teaching in the church. In college, the Baptist Student Ministry reserved discipleship for “serious Christians.” I’ve heard it presented as something only missionaries do, or as a special vocational calling. Besides, since we’re used to paying others for their services, shouldn’t we leave discipleship to the professionals? But then you read the book of Acts, and to be a Christian is to be Jesus’ disciple. Discipleship isn’t limited to a few who want “next-level Christianity.”

Later in grad school, I ran into those who reduced discipleship to making converts. But then you realize how the bulk of Jesus’ ministry involved teaching, training, modeling. The apostles address marriage, childrearing, money, work, eating, lawsuits, sex, government, hospitality, morality, suffering, death, unity, justice, taxes, holidays, drink. In short, discipleship is more than evangelism. It involves all of life.

There are also challenges from our culture. In his book Deep Discipleship, J. T. English points out one cultural challenge, that of the autonomous self. The West “has replaced the transcendence of God with the transcendence of self.” “People’s interest in spirituality is not waning, but the kind of spirituality people are increasingly interested in is a spirituality that is focused on the self.” “Self, and being true to yourself alone, is your highest good”—and sometimes churches have catered to that cultural mantra with books and courses on self-actualization and self-improvement. But Christianity, he says, “is not a religion of self-improvement…The way of Jesus is an apprenticeship toward self-forgetfulness.” The good life is not centered around you; “[it] starts and ends with God.”[i]

And that leads to the greatest challenge of all, the heart. We still battle a sinful nature. To use the words of J. I. Packer, “We’re all invalids in God’s hospital. In moral and spiritual terms, we’re all sick and damaged, diseased and deformed, scarred and sore, lame and lopsided, to a far, far greater extent than we realize.”[ii] We’re also prone to doubt and unbelief, delusions of self-confidence. We can grow dull to the things of God. Or we can get like the Christians James had to correct—not doers of the word but hearers only.

The greatest challenge to overcome in discipleship isn’t outside of us but inside of us. We need our hearts remade, our loves reordered. Just by the way things went this past week, you might think you’re up against the impossible. But don’t despair: Romans 6 reminds us that God can make us obedient from the heart. The new covenant we celebrate at the Lord’s Supper—it promises new hearts.

These are just a few challenges facing us. But God’s word is sufficient to meet each of them. I’m hopeful that by the end of this series, we’ll have greater clarity, courage, and joy in what Jesus is already doing among the nations and among you.

Discipleship in God’s Covenant Plan

Now, soon I’ll give you some facets of discipleship. But first I’d like to reflect on where discipleship fits within God’s saving plan. Sometimes it helps to see the bigger picture before focusing on a single part. We’ve all been to a mall or park or maybe a hiking trail. We get lost. Then, to reorient ourselves, we find the big map with that big red arrow: “You are here!” If it’s Google Maps, the big blue dot. That’s what I’m doing now: I want you to see how the Bible says, “You are here!” within the grand sweep of its story.

To do that, I want to start with Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus died for sins. He rises victorious over death. He then tells his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Imbedded in Jesus’ words are a covenant from the past, a commission in the present, and courage for the future—and when we observe those things combined, this tells us where we are in God’s saving plan. First, notice the covenant from the past. Jesus says, “Go and make disciples of all nations”—that’s key.

When Jesus says, “make disciples of all nations,” he’s not just saying, “a bunch of people.” Jesus links his victory over sin and death with the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham: “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”[iii] That shouldn’t surprise us. After all, how does Matthew begin his Gospel? “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Making disciples of all nations isn’t a new idea; it’s been God’s plan all along.

Jesus is the one offspring of Abraham who secured God’s blessing for the nations. By dying for sins and rising from the dead, Jesus has flung the door of salvation wide open for all peoples. Anybody who puts their faith in Jesus, will find themselves eternally blessed with the forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God. When you think of discipleship, you need to see it as what God is doing on that cosmic scale. Discipleship isn’t a matter of where I might squeeze it into my schedule. God is saving people from all nations with or without you; and it is to your amazing privilege to join him in that work and conform your life to what he’s already doing.

Imbedded in Jesus’ words is also a commission in the present: “Make disciples.” To be clear, it’s becoming increasingly popular to read into Jesus’ words the Christianization of nation-states: “make disciples of all nations as nations.” And yes, of course, Christians should get involved politics. In our country, it’s a privilege. But the context is clear—we don’t baptize nation-states; we baptize individuals. The grammar contains an implicit reference to individuals from all the nations.[iv]

Another error is to replace making disciples with things like relief efforts and social reform; and without question, Christians should stand out in any society as those with compassion for those in need. But meeting temporary needs should never lose sight of people’s eternal need to know Jesus and be conformed to his image. The church’s primary business is making disciples. We do that by baptizing individuals from all nations; and then helping them obey Jesus’ words.

At the same time, we’re not doing this alone. In Jesus’ words we also find courage for the future. Thinking about discipleship can sometimes get overwhelming. Where do we start—come on, all nations? What do I do? How long does it take? What if I don’t know the answers? How many needs will I encounter? Not only that—we have our own sins to deal with. One of the most discouraging aspects of discipleship is how slow our own growth can be. How can we deal with all these things?

Beloved, hear these words again: “Behold,” Jesus says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In the Old Testament, one of the most intimate things God could say to his people was, “I am with you.” It expressed his loving commitment to care for them, protect them, provide for them, uphold them in trial. It also expressed how he removed the barriers separating his people from God. Now we hear such words on the lips of Jesus, the one who came to save his people from their sins. All barriers are removed. He’s now committed to you throughout the present age.

And he has all authority in heaven and on earth. He’s over the angels and powers and principalities. He controls the winds and seas and seasons, health and sickness, riches and poverty, earthly peoples and political nations—everything. If you took the sum of all earthly and heavenly authorities and put them up against Jesus, he’d make them look as intimidating as Elmo.

That’s the Jesus who’s with you till the end of the age. When we talk about discipleship, don’t ever feel like this Great Commission stands or falls on you. It won’t be completed apart from your faithfulness—he chose to use you. But discipleship doesn’t ultimately rest on you; it rests on Jesus. Our purposes often fail. Our hands grow weak. That’s never the case with Jesus. He’s always strong. His purposes always succeed. And that should give you great hope in discipleship. He carries the weight of the mission. He’s got you every moment of every day till the end.

That’s where discipleship fits into the bigger picture. It’s the result of a cosmic plan God promised for all nations. It comes to fruition as Jesus saves and commissions us in the present. And it runs till the end of the age—all with Jesus’ help. “You are here!”

Disciple, Discipleship, and Discipling

Now that we know where we are in God’s story, let’s clarify what discipleship is and what it entails. Again, Matthew 28 is helpful. Jesus is speaking to the eleven who just spent the last three years following Jesus. They came to him not for mere information or better morals. They came to him for life. Remember Peter: “You have the words of eternal life!” Jesus commands these eleven to make more people like themselves.

Jesus also says that disciples are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and disciples are taught to observe all that Jesus commanded. So, according to verses 19-20, a disciple is someone baptized in the name of the Trinity who spends their life following Jesus’ commands. Discipleship is the ongoing process of maturing into Christ, learning to obey him in every area of life. And discipling is when you guys help someone else mature into Christ.[v]

Bearing the Cross as Jesus’ Disciple

Now, we could turn to many places in the New Testament that illustrate these basic ideas. But I’d like to spend the rest of our time on just one passage: Matthew 16:21-27. This passage reveals the heart of discipleship and what it’s about. Jesus says,

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.”

I think verse 24 summarizes discipleship quite well: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” In some sense, it gives us two sides of the discipleship coin. Being a disciple involves denying yourself—we might call that the negative side. And being a disciple involves taking up your cross—we might call that the positive side. Let’s start with the negative.

What does Jesus mean when he says you must deny yourself? Does he mean deny yourself laughter, the enjoyment of a good sunset, noble goals? No. It’s not ultimate self-denial. Context helps. In verse 23, Jesus rebukes Peter, “You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Denying yourself means denying that part of you that rejects God’s ways for man’s ways. It’s to de-throne self from governing your life—from saying, “I’ll follow you Jesus, but only on these conditions. I’ll follow you, but only if it’s safe. I’ll follow you, but only if I keep my stuff. I’ll follow you Jesus—just don’t question my political alliances.”

That’s the self we must deny. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Only the man who is dead to his own will can truly follow Christ.”[vi] Other places in the New Testament call this putting off the old self (Eph 4:22)—putting off falsehood, putting off greed, putting off sinful anger, putting off corrupting talk. Stated differently, we’re saying No to whatever keeps us from all that’s lovely about Jesus.

But be careful not to stop the Christian life there. We can’t reduce discipleship to what we’re not doing anymore, what sins aren’t as prevalent anymore, what commands we’re not breaking anymore. In his book, Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper writes,

Oh how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud—just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 [movies] in the evening…and lots of fun stuff on the weekend—woven around church mostly. This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more.”[vii]

That “far more” is gaining more of Jesus by taking up the cross. Discipleship is not simply self-denial. It’s about gaining more of Christ. It’s about loving Christ himself and being formed into his likeness—a big part of which included a cross. Test yourself here: have you reduced discipleship to mere sin management? Are you giving yourself a free pass because you haven’t spoken harshly to your kids, or you don’t look at porn, or you don’t break the laws of our land? Yet all the while there’s nothing positive to show.

So, let’s move now to the positive side of discipleship, taking up our cross. What does Jesus mean by take up your cross? Again, context helps; and when we look at the context, at least three aspects stand out to Jesus’ call to take up our cross.

The first aspect is single-minded obedience to Jesus. Single-minded obedience characterized the cross that Jesus was called to bear. In verse 21, he says that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. Then in verse 23 we see that that is the will of God, which Peter rejected. Of course, Jesus’ obedience to the Father plays out in other places as well, such as his prayer in Gethsemane, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” When Jesus calls disciples to take up their cross, he’s calling us to the same single-minded obedience observed in his own cross-bearing: “not as I will, but as you will, Lord.”

That obedience will then lead us to a second aspect of taking up our cross, namely, suffering in the path of love. In Matthew 16:21, Jesus says that he will suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed. So when he says, “Take up your cross,” it’s clear what he has in mind—suffering, even when it means death. But all this suffering is part of giving up his life for the church that he mentions back in verse 18. Jesus doesn’t just suffer; he suffers for us. He suffers because he loves his people. When Jesus calls us to take up our cross, he calls us to walk the same path of love. That path includes suffering for the sake of others—choosing the hard, inconvenient, uncomfortable things to pursue the good of another.

One final aspect is this: shameful rejection from the world. This is not something we often consider. Over time, our culture has candy-coated the cross. The cross wasn’t a piece of jewelry you wore, or a bumper-sticker, or wall-décor. The cross meant you were the wall décor. It was an instrument of torture and public shame. That is the cross Jesus calls us to take up in Matthew 16. Single-minded obedience to Jesus and suffering in the path of love will take you here. Your life will look foreign to the world because it doesn’t fit its value system; and they will hate you and shame you for it.

If you’re still living like you would’ve lived anyway without Jesus, you need to consider whether you’re mistaking the cross for something other than what it is. Taking up the cross is not just suffering from what’s common to this mortal life in a broken world. Taking up the cross means suffering rejection and shame wherever obedience to Christ demands it. You’re losing your life for Jesus’ sake (verse 25).

The Cross and People, Possessions, Vocations

This cross stands at the heart of discipleship, and boy will it shake things up! Take your relationship to people, for instance. Jesus says in Matthew 10:35, “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” The cross means hard choices with some of the dearest people we share life with. The cross may call you to leave those you’d rather not leave. It may call you not to attend that same-sex ceremony, even though family invited you. It may call you to expose the idolatry of movements like MAGA, even though close friends will forsake you. It may call you to stand on the truth when everybody else wants to compromise.

Or maybe it’s not a matter of separation from others but a matter of sacrifice for others. Don’t we see Paul applying the cross this way for husbands? Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. What sort of love should I show Rachel? The kind of love that willingly makes sacrifices for her good, to help her and nurture her. Or consider relationships in the church—Paul says we must bear with the failings of the weak and not please ourselves. “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good.” Why? “Because Christ did not please himself.” The cross affects relationships.

Or how about the cross and our possessions? Recently, we finished preaching through 2 Corinthians. Paul commends the Macedonians for their sacrificial giving. He also encourages the Corinthians to give. And what was driving all the generosity? “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). Part of discipleship is letting the cross shape how you use your possessions.

The apostle John addresses possessions from a different angle. In Revelation 13, the False Prophet pressures people to compromise by using economic (let’s call them) “incentives.” The False Prophet makes it so that “no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” The idea is that people worship the Beast’s image; and for doing so, they benefit financially. In first-century Rome, numerous trade guilds ran the economy; and membership was bound up with idolatry. If you wanted to make it, you got chummy at the temples. You sprinkled the incense and did whatever else to fit in.

But for those who worship Jesus, life got much harder. You couldn’t sell your products or your skills to make money. You couldn’t buy groceries. When that means your kids don’t eat, you can imagine the pressure to conform. In a society saturated with materialism, you’re going to be tested. If our allegiance to money is greater, we will not stand when the pressure comes. Taking up your cross may mean we go without.

Or how about the cross and how you view power. Historically speaking, one of the ways Rome flexed its political muscle was publicly crucifying people: “Here’s what happens when you mess with Rome.” But the irony is that when they crucified Jesus, Rome sealed its own fate. The apostle tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:25, “The weakness of God is stronger than men.” Christ crucified is the power of God. Through the weakness of a cross, Jesus conquered his enemies.

Jesus tried to help his disciples see this: “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.” Why? “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The cross reorients our thinking about power.

Or consider the cross and our vocations. Clearly, when Jesus called Peter and Andrew and James and John, they left their vocations. The same happened with Matthew. He left his tax-booth to follow Jesus. But not everyone had such a calling. John the Baptist told some tax collectors, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none,” and, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” He also told some soldiers, “Don’t extort money from anyone by threats…and be content with your wages.”

So it could be that Jesus is calling you to drop what you’re doing now for something else. But others will be learning how the cross impacts the way you approach the job you have. Taking up your cross transforms the way you think about your current vocation and how you serve others in it. Bonhoeffer once observed that the disciples left their nets, but Martin Luther left the monastery, both to follow Jesus.[viii]

In sum, we’re seeing that discipleship can’t be reduced to private prayer, Bible reading, and church on Sundays. Those are crucial means of grace. It will be to your spiritual detriment to neglect any of them. Disciples must know Jesus in the word and stay near to Jesus in prayer. That’s a given. But taking up your cross affects everything. Discipleship is about learning to follow Jesus 24/7. It’s about single-minded obedience in the path of love for all situations. It’s not a one-time program you get through. It’s a life-long process of taking up the cross daily—just as Jesus tells us in Luke’s Gospel.

The Power and Reward for Disciples

This is a basic picture of discipleship. A cross stands at its center. The cost is high and can sometimes rest heavy on us. Yet again, it’s not without the promise of “I am with you,” and what Jesus achieved to help you along the way. You can deny yourself because when Jesus died, you died. Your old self was crucified with Christ, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Sin no longer has dominion over you.

Also, you can take up your cross because Jesus took up his and then rose again. He walked through it already and rose victorious for you. When he rose, you rose with him. You can take up your cross because Jesus lives within you by the Holy Spirit. Trust him to give you everything you need in discipleship.

More than that, he promises to give you himself. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Do you want true life, the good life, unending life in God’s presence? Do you want a life that’s better than gaining the whole world, he says? You will find it when you follow Jesus. The apostle Paul knew it well: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him…”

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[i] J. T. English, Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus (Nashville: B&H, 2024), 23, 24, 30.

[ii] J. I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 44-45.

[iii] Gen 12:3; cf. 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14.

[iv] Jeremy Sexton, “Postmillennialism: A Biblical Critique,” Themelios 48.3 (December 2023), 55-58.

[v] Michael Wilkins, Following the Master: A Biblical Theology of Discipleship (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 41.

[vi] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 90.

[vii] John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2003), 119.

[viii] Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 89.