When Does The Discipleship Process Truly Begin?

Jesus showed me another incredible revelation one day—that He also received an invitation. God the Father invited Jesus, the word of God, to come in flesh and blood to make a way for all of humanity to be reconciled back to God:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Jn 1:14,15)

Jesus walked the entire journey of discipleship from birth to death to resurrection! One foundational piece of the discipleship process in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ that is often overlooked is submission. Jesus submitted to His earthly parents until He was 30 years old.

This was a normal part of their culture back then. I believe we can learn from His example. Allow me to share the story from the Gospel of Luke:

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.  And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me?

Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in statureand in favor with God and man (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Luke 2:41-52)

Every time I read this I laugh! There are so many clues and treasures about our life in Christ in this passage. This passage clearly demonstrated that Jesus understood the Father’s invitation to the discipleship process. He demonstrates this by responding: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” From this response, we can conclude that Jesus heard the invitation and responded to it by the age of twelve.

This passage teaches us about another important principle; the importance of obedience to the one discipling us, in this case, Father God. God did not yet instruct Him to leave His house and begin any type of ministry even though the elders were clearly impressed by Him.

Instead, we see Him returning to His earthly parents and submitting to their authority. The Son of God, the Word of God made Flesh, submitted to his parents for 18 more years!

His obedience and submission to His parents evidently led him to grow in wisdom, and favor, not only with man, but with His heavenly Father. What an incredible key to unlocking the road map in advancing the kingdom we have found tucked away in this early Scripture in the life of our Messiah.

I would love to write a whole book on this chapter in Luke, but for now, I want you to realize the importance of the invitation and the response to the invitation from a disciple in the overall process.

Let’s dig a little deeper by moving a bit further into the first chapter of John:

The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit! (New King James Version, 1983, John 1:43-47)

Here, we see that Jesus extended the invitation to Philip. Short and sweet he says, “Follow me.” The next thing we read is that now Philip is following Jesus’ lead. He goes and finds Nathaniel, and says something similar, simply, “come and see.”

Just before this Jesus models a similar process:

Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”  The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” (New King James Version, 1983, John 1:35-37)

This passage reveals an interesting point to think about; are we pointing disciples to Jesus, the ultimate disciple-maker? Or are we pointing them to teachings, programs, processes, or books? Or are we pointing them to spiritual leaders who may talk and teach about how to live a life in Christ but may actually distract us from God’s chosen process and calling on our lives?

Let’s continue reading:

Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.” (New King James Version, 1983, John 1:38-41)

Here we see John the Baptist, humbly allowing his disciples to go where he could no longer take them. This is true humility! Andrew follows Philip’s example by inviting someone into the process almost instantly. This is another key for us to learn from.

Both of them tell their future disciples that they have discovered the Messiah. Our Kingdom response as believers in Jesus the Messiah is to invite others to “come and see” or “come and follow.”

Our natural response after receiving Jesus, should not only be just belief; there is an action tied to it. In the cases mentioned above, we see how they stop whatever they are doing and “come” quickly followed by an invitation to someone else to also follow. A true invitation into the process of discipleship is a “now” word.

It requires immediate or quick action, without any delay. It even required Jesus to leave all His glory behind and come to earth when the Father extended the invitation.

Every believer’s journey is unique; how far each of us is to follow, depends solely on Jesus. For my family it was farther than we imagined to the continent of Africa! (You can learn more about what we do as a family in Africa HERE ) However, one thing remains the same for every disciple; the initial invitation requires an immediate response.

Urgency and courage is involved. Let’s consider why. Jesus only had three years to finish His Father’s work. He waited thirty years to finish three years’ work! In those short three years, He changes the world. Although He moved with compassion, patience, and love, He also moved with urgency. So, why aren’t we?

Why isn’t the church? Maybe we have missed something crucial in the model Jesus gave for creating movements. Don’t get me wrong, building relationships takes time.

However, we shouldn’t get stuck there, as inviting and initiating the discipleship process and movement should be quick. We can conclude that if Jesus answered the invitation, and then extended the invitation to twelve more, that we too have a call to extend the invitation to others. Discipleship begins with an invitation. Who is God revealing to you that your invitation can go out to?

To read the final part of this article go here 👉 https://whenlovecompels.com/where-does-discipleship-begin-3/

If you enjoyed this post and feel led to begin the discipleship process or help others with it this book could be a great resource and place to start! Get the book 👉 📕 HERE