November 1, 2022

Gleanings

Thoughts on Discipleship

Gerald R. Chester, Ph.D.

When Billy Graham was asked for a plan of success as a spiritual leader, he responded:

I think one of the first things I would do would be to get a small group of eight or ten or twelve men around me that would meet a few hours a week and pay the price! It would cost them something in time and effort. I would share with them everything I have [learned], over a period of years . . . Christ set the pattern. He spent most of his time with twelve men. He didn’t spend it with great crowds. In fact, every time he had a great crowd it seems to me that there weren’t too many results.¹

This attitude toward large meetings is startling from a man whose resume included more than 417 crusades that drew more than 215 million people.² Nevertheless, he recognized the priority that Jesus placed on investing his time discipling a few, rather than engaging in events that drew large crowds. And because of the authority of Jesus’ life as the pattern for Christians to follow, toward the end of his life Billy Graham submitted to Jesus’ pattern.

While it is true that Jesus experienced some large gatherings and was compassionate toward the masses, he did not seek large crowds. Rather, he chose twelve men to be his disciples, and he spent three years investing his life into them so they could carry on his legacy after he was gone. Jesus modeled for us how to live by focusing on investing in a few disciples, while being compassionate toward, but not consumed with, the masses. If you agree with Billy Graham’s view that Jesus is the authoritative model for Christians, by whose authority do Christians change this model?

Looking deeper into Jesus’ life, note the three phases of his thirty-three years. During the first phase, he immersed himself in Scripture. By age twelve, he could converse with and amaze the best theologians of his day. During the second phase, from age twelve to thirty, he was a carpenter submitted to Joseph, his adopted father. He started as an apprentice and, eventually, became a master carpenter.³ And finally, during the third phase, Jesus invested his concluding three years primarily into twelve men and was even more focused on three (Peter, James, and John).

Of these three phases, the first (becoming a skilled theologian) and third phases (being an itinerant teacher of truth) seem congruent, but the second one (becoming a master carpenter) seems out of place. He spent more time in the second phase than in the first and third combined. It seems to make sense that he could have easily skipped the second phase and gone from the first phase to the third phase. Instead, he willingly submitted to the second phase.⁴ Why is the second phase so important?

Perhaps the answer is the Creation Mandate. Jesus was a student of Scripture who was not only committed to knowing Scripture but also to living holistically regulated by Scripture.⁵ Everything in his life was governed by the values, principles, and practices of Scripture. This suggests that he, in his humanity, lived under the Creation Mandate, the first mandate given to mankind that defines God’s purpose in creating man.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth." So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth." (Genesis 1:26–28 CSB)

God created mankind and blessed him to multiply and master his created order. The divine purpose was for mankind to be God’s ruling agents in his material universe. Mankind became the connection between God, who is a spirit being, and the physical or tangible creation.

Because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, their heirs (all humans) were impaired in their ability to fulfill the Creation Mandate. Jesus came as the last Adam (since the first Adam, the only person who was created sinless). Consequently, Jesus alone was qualified to remedy the sin that separated mankind from God. Furthermore, Jesus empowered mankind to obey the Creation Mandate, particularly, the ability to master God’s universe. Because of the Creation Mandate, work has dignity and value before God. It was the first expression of worship by mankind to the Creator. Jesus spent eighteen years working—the majority of his life—mastering God’s universe as a carpenter. His life is a model for humankind.

The apostle Paul followed Jesus’ pattern. Paul was a tentmaker and an educated, biblically literate itinerant teacher. Both his work as a teacher and tentmaker were used of the Lord to disciple, evangelize, and perform supernatural acts—even his work clothes were used to heal diseases and exorcise demons.⁶

Interestingly, neither Jesus nor Paul sought to draw enormous crowds, build buildings, or form large organizations; rather, both sought to build people—disciples. Disciples are disciplined learners committed to following the worldview, in word and deed, espoused by their discipler. And both Jesus and Paul understood the connection of the Creation Mandate to discipleship because they viewed physical work, such as carpentry and tentmaking, as acts of worship that were integral to their itinerant teaching work.

Scripture records that Paul had at least eighteen disciples. His two closest were Timothy and Titus, whom he called true sons.⁷ These men served as his legates. Some others, whom we know little about, faithfully served. And four others abandoned the faith being lured by worldly pleasures or deceived into blasphemy and false teaching. Perhaps Paul was comforted knowing that even Jesus had his Judas.

Can we learn a lesson from Billy Graham, Jesus, and Paul that discipleship is not about drawing big crowds nor is it glamorous or easy but it is the way of the Lord? And can we learn that discipleship is holistic, encompassing all words and actions of life? Can we learn that discipleship is far more than evangelism and that drawing crowds and doing big events can stoke personal egos but bears little fruit?

True discipleship is like raising children—it is a long-term process with many highs and lows, and much arduous work with little glamor. But this is the way of discipleship as God defined it and Jesus modeled it. Paul imitated Jesus. And Billy Graham, at the end of his life, acknowledged that Jesus’ pattern was the way of success. Will we embrace Jesus’ pattern of living? Or will we choose the glitz and glamor of big events with large crowds?

May we have the grace to humble ourselves and measure success as Jesus did by committing to a seemingly mundane lifestyle of facilitating discipleship in the lives of those to whom we are called to serve, knowing that this is what we are called to do. And this is the right way to live as Christians under the Lordship of Jesus.

______________________________

(1) Frank Viola, ReGrace (Baker Publishing Group, Kindle Edition), 130.

(2) Ibid, 125.

(3) Mark 6:3.

(4) Luke 2:51.

(5) Matthew 4:4.

(6) Acts 19:9–12.

(7) 1 Timothy 1:18; Titus 1:4.