Discipleship

In considering how to make a disciples, we first must know what a disciples is.

The Bible give us the characteristic of a disciple in John 1:35-41 “Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, And he looked at Jesus as He walked along, and said, Look! There is the Lamb of God! The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Him. But Jesus turned, and as He saw them following Him, He said to them, What are you looking for? [And what is it you wish?] And they answered Him, Rabbi–which translated is Teacher–where are You staying? He said to them, Come and see. So they went and saw where He was staying, and they remained with Him that day. It was then about the tenth hour (about four o’clock in the afternoon). One of the two who heard what John said and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first sought out and found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found (discovered) the Messiah!–which translated is the Christ (the Anointed One). AMP

If we consider the mentioned passage, the following directs us to understand the meaning of a disciple :

1. John was standing with his disciples. A disciple is not only a disciple in terms of Jesus the Christ, but is called a disciple because he follow the teaching of someone.

2. The two disciples of John then heard what John said concerning the Lamb of God, and followed after Jesus. A disciple put into practice what he learned.

3. They called Jesus Rabbi which means teacher, they willingly submitted to His authority, asking where He is staying, Jesus said “come and see” – meaning follow Me. A true disciple follow, even though he do not know where his teacher is leading him, but follow based on trust.

4. They heard what Jesus said and they believed it, confessing that they have found or discovered the Messiah. A disciple is willing to confess what he believes.

Based on above mentioned we can conclude that a disciple is someone who by his own will follow after a teacher. We, as John are not the teacher, we simply direct people to the Teacher, Jesus Christ. They then have to decide by themselves to follow the Jesus, and to submit to His guidance. A disciple of Jesus is only recognized as a disciple once he confessed that he have discovered Jesus the Messiah as the Son of the living God.

Therefore I am of the opinion that a disciple is not taught but directed towards Jesus as the Messiah. It is only then that a disciple can learn from other disciples to walk in obedience to all that the Lord taught us. The disciples in Acts directed people to Jesus as they always accredited Jesus, taking no credit for themselves.