How to disciple & how to be a disciple

Jesus was not recruiting fans

Crowds admired Jesus. Disciples followed Him. When His teaching got hard, “many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” Jesus turned to the Twelve: “Do you also want to go away?” Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:66-68).

The word “disciple” is mathētēs: a learner, a pupil. It appears 269 times in the KJV New Testament. The New Testament never calls believers fans. It calls them learners who follow. So here is the question: Am I an admirer of Jesus, or a disciple who has forsaken all?

Step one: forsake all

So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

Fishing on the Sea of Galilee was a family trade, not a hobby. James and John worked with their father Zebedee, who had hired servants (Mark 1:20), and they were partners with Simon (Luke 5:10). These were working businesses. And in Luke 5, they left right after the biggest catch of their lives, when the boats began to sink with fish. They didn’t leave a failing business. They left a booming one.

The word for “forsook” is aphiēmi: to let go, give up, keep no longer. It is the same word used for “forgive.” They released their nets the way God releases our sins: completely. In Luke 14:33, “forsake” is apotassō: to take leave of, bid farewell, renounce. The Amplified Bible catches it: “say good-bye to” all that he has.

And “followed” (akoloutheō) means to walk behind someone as their attendant. Following is not admiring from a distance. “Follow Me” in Matthew 4:19 is literally deute opisō mou: “Come here, behind Me.”

There is a hard irony in the story. Aphiēmi returns on the night of the arrest: “Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56). Men who once forsook all for Him ended up forsaking Him. Grace restored them, and Pentecost made the surrender permanent.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Rabbi or Lord? “Is it I?”

At the Last Supper, Jesus said one of the Twelve would betray Him. “Each of them began to say to Him, ‘Lord, is it I?’” But Judas said, “Rabbi, is it I?” (Matthew 26:22, 25). Later he greeted Jesus with “Greetings, Rabbi!” and a kiss (Matthew 26:49).

“Lord” (kyrios) means “he to whom a person or thing belongs… the owner.” It means, “You own me, and You decide.” “Rabbi” (rhabbi) was an honorable title for a teacher. It means, “You teach me.” In Matthew’s Gospel, the only person who calls Jesus “Rabbi” is the betrayer. The word itself isn’t evil, and faithful followers use it in John’s Gospel. The point is Matthew’s contrast. Eleven men confessed ownership, and one offered only a teacher’s title.

In the first century, students sought out a rabbi. Jesus reversed it: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). And He accepted both titles: “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am” (John 13:13). Judas kept the first and refused the second. A disciple who never surrenders lordship is a fan with a front-row seat. “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

Step two: take nothing with you

And He said to them, ‘Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.’

No food bag (pēra) meant no stockpile. No spare tunic (chitōn) meant no backup plan. No extra staff (rhabdos) meant nothing natural to lean on. The money belt (zōnē) was empty. Many commentators harmonize Mark’s “except a staff” with Matthew’s “nor staffs” through the word ktaomai, “provide”: don’t go out and acquire extra. Take what you have and go.

He gave them “power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases” (Luke 9:1), and that was enough. Later He asked, “When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing” (Luke 22:35). He stripped natural confidence so they would learn supernatural reliance. If God sent you, God will sustain you (Philippians 4:19).

Step three: “You give them something to eat”

Facing five thousand men, besides women and children, Jesus told His disciples, “You give them something to eat” (Matthew 14:16). In Greek, the added pronoun makes it emphatic: YOU give them. He put the responsibility on their shoulders on purpose.

Philip calculated that 200 denarii, about 200 days of a laborer’s wages, wouldn’t be enough. The irony: Philip was from Bethsaida, “house of fish,” and knew every market nearby. None of them could solve this. John tells us Jesus asked “to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do” (John 6:6). Jesus wasn’t confused about the bread. He was revealing Philip’s faith.

Andrew found five barley loaves and two small fish. Jesus said, “Bring them here to Me” (Matthew 14:18). He blessed and broke the bread and “gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes” (Matthew 14:19). Disciples become distributors. Stop measuring your assignment by what’s in your hand. Disciples are raised by facing the gap between human weakness and divine supply: “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Step four: correction. Jesus did not pamper immaturity

Jesus rebuked fear and little faith (Matthew 8:26), carnal thinking (Matthew 16:23), hardness of heart (Mark 8:17), unbelief (Matthew 17:17-20), pride and ambition (Luke 22:24-27), prayerlessness (Matthew 26:40-41), and even unbelief after the Resurrection (Mark 16:14).

“Of little faith” (oligopistos) means trusting too little. Jesus didn’t say they had no faith. He said their faith was too small for the storm. “Hardened” (pōroō) means to cover with a callus. A hard heart is a spiritual callus. It forms where we keep getting rubbed and never yield.

When Peter tried to rebuke Jesus, Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23). The Greek is hypage opisō mou, and opisō is the same word from “Follow Me” (deute opisō mou). Jesus wasn’t throwing Peter away. He was sending him back to the follower’s place: behind Jesus, not in front of Him.

• Love without correction produces weak disciples. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:6). Judas gave a kiss. Jesus gave correction.
• Correction is proof of sonship. “For whom the Lord loves He chastens” (Hebrews 12:6), and afterward it yields “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11).
• Correction comes with intercession and restoration. “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail” (Luke 22:32). Later: “Feed My sheep” (John 21:17).

Jesus’ seven-step pattern for making disciples

1. 1. Call them out. “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).
2. 2. Separate. “That they might be with Him” (Mark 3:14). Being with Him comes before going for Him.
3. 3. Strip. “Take nothing for the journey” (Luke 9:3).
4. 4. Test. “This He said to test him” (John 6:6).
5. 5. Correct. “He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart” (Mark 16:14).
6. 6. Send. “Heal the sick… Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7-8).
7. 7. Empower. “Tarry… until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49); “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4).

Jesus gave the Twelve delegated power and authority for their training missions (Luke 9:1). The fullness of power came at Pentecost, after the surrender, stripping, testing, and correcting had done their work. The result? People “realized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Will you forsake all?

Jesus did not make disciples by making life easier. He made disciples by demanding everything, removing crutches, confronting weakness, and teaching them to live by faith. He called them to forsake all, sent them with nothing, commanded them to do what they could not do, and rebuked everything in them that did not look like faith.

So respond today. Move from Rabbi to Lord. Name the nets you’ve ranked above Jesus and release them. Ask God to soften every callus in your heart. Ask for the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; Luke 24:49). And then go, and “give them something to eat.”

Ankit Rambabu Pinnadari · Acts of Faith Ministries

Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version, the New Living Translation, and the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, as noted.