At the opening of chapters 8, 9, and 10 of the Gospel according to Luke we see the secret of the growth of God’s kingdom — discipleship.
HE DOES — YOU WATCH
The first stage of discipleship is described in Luke 8:1:
1 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, (Luke 8:1)
The Lord Jesus was carrying out His ministry. He served as a servant, as a preacher of the kingdom. He was called by the Father for this, and in the beginning He did everything Himself — He proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God, He preached, He healed the sick, He performed signs and wonders. But in this text we see something else that is extremely important. He did not do any of what He did alone. With Him were also His twelve disciples — the apostles (Luke 6:13). So Jesus had disciples with Himself, and He was training them. For He knew that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few (Luke 10:2). By this conduct of His, our Lord left us an example — that when we carry out our ministry, we should not do it alone, but take our disciples along with us. Jesus preached, Jesus healed… And what were they doing? They were simply with Him and watching Him.
Of course, Christ fulfilled His own part, and it is entirely understandable that no one could take His place in giving His blood for the life of all people in the whole world. Only the blood of the only begotten Son of God is sufficient for salvation, and even if someone else had died in our place — his blood would not have been enough, because he would not have been worthy to be a sacrifice for the sins of all humanity.
But what I would like to draw your attention to today is that, besides carrying out His own ministry, Jesus was also teaching His disciples — so that they would continue His ministry, so that the kingdom of God would keep growing even after He had completed His mission on this earth.
In other words, the first stage of discipleship is simply to be with someone who has already become an established follower of the Lord and who does His works — simply to be beside him and to watch him.
HE DOES — YOU HELP
The second stage of discipleship is that we not only “be” with our teacher, but that we begin to help him in what he is doing. For example, when Jesus wanted to feed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, He blessed the bread, but He gave it to them to distribute the bread and the fish. And in fact, the miracle happened in their hands (Matthew 14:15-21).
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” 16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. 18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:15-21)
So in this case Jesus was doing something, and they were helping Him. Their help was expressed in this: they first distributed, and then they gathered the leftovers into baskets, so that nothing would be wasted.
We must never disregard helping. And not only helping, but serving. Many of the great men of God began their career in God’s kingdom as servants.
- Joshua began as the servant of Moses (Exodus 24:13; 33:11)
- Elisha began as the servant of Elijah (2 Kings 3:11)
- The author of the Gospel according to Mark — John Mark — began his ministry as the helper of Barnabas and Paul (Acts 13:5)
YOU DO — HE HELPS
The third stage of discipleship is that, after we have watched how the Lord is served, and after we have helped in another’s ministry, we ourselves are authorized for ministry by the one who is training us and begin to serve on our own (Luke 9:1).
1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (Luke 9:1-2)
Do you see? What Jesus was doing in Luke 8:1, He has now entrusted to His disciples. Jesus treated His disciples as a spiritual father. Of course, He truly was that to them. He not only gave them birth through the gospel, but He also raised them up to become His followers — to live His life, to speak His words, and to do His works. In the beginning He did the work of the ministry, and His disciples only watched Him. After that He did something, and they helped Him. In the third stage, they did something, and He helped them.
YOU DO — HE WATCHES
And finally, after Jesus ascended, they did the work, and He watched them from heaven. This is stated in Mark 16:20:
20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. (Mark 16:20)
So then,
- In the beginning Christ did the work of the ministry, and His disciples simply watched Him. (He does — you watch.)
- After a while — He kept doing the work of the ministry, but no longer alone — His disciples helped Him. (He does — you help.)
- Later — they began to do the ministry themselves, and Christ helped them. (You do — He helps.)
- Toward the end — they did the work, and He watched them. (You do — He watches.)
- And finally — they had disciples of their own, who were followers of Christ.
That is why it is so important that we be nurtured and built up as followers of Christ. Not only that we ourselves be disciples of Christ, but that we also have our own disciples. For see what happens in Luke 10:1:
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. (Luke 10:1)
Were there not, at first, only Jesus and the Twelve? Then where did these seventy-two come from? The verses we are looking at — Luke 8:1; 9:1; and 10:1 — are very important, because in them we see the growth of the kingdom. In the beginning only Jesus does the ministry; after that — the Twelve, who take up Christ’s ministry; and now — the seventy-two. At the start of Acts we read of 120, and from First Corinthians we learn that by the end of His ministry Jesus had about five hundred disciples (1 Corinthians 15:6). After that, in Acts we read of 3,000 (Acts 2:41), of 5,000 (Acts 4:4), and after that of the multiplying not only of the disciples (Acts 6:7), but of the churches (Acts 16:5). What am I trying to tell you with all of this? That the kingdom of God is alive, and because it is alive, it grows, and this growth happens through discipleship — through passing on to others what we have learned and what we know.
A sobering question along these lines — a question whose answer would reflect the degree of our participation in God’s kingdom — is this question:
“How many disciples have I made this year?”