How does discipleship as we read about it in Scripture even relate to us? Are all Christians called to discipleship? Discipleship within Scripture may often appear to be a foreign concept, as we see the disciples called to die to themselves in order to follow Jesus. While Jesus no longer physically walks with us on earth, discipleship truly looks no different for Christians today. It is not an optional command for the Christian, but rather a call to daily deny oneself and follow Christ in full surrender. In this video, Pastor David Platt asserts the call to discipleship that is expected of all Christians.
- Who Should Answer the Call?
- Picking Up Your Cross
- All Disciples Are Disciple-Makers
All Are Called to Discipleship
The call to discipleship and the call to disciple-making are most definitely not just for mature Christians. You look at the very beginning of the book of Matthew, and Jesus approaches four men, first four disciples, and He says, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” His call to them was the initial call to discipleship, and that initial call to discipleship was an inevitable call to die, to die to themselves.
He would say to them over and over and over again, “If you’re going to come after me, you must deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow me. You must renounce everything you have and everything you hold onto, to cling to me.” This is what it means. This is the essence of what it means to follow Christ, and so abandonment for the glory of Christ is the essence of what it means to be a Christian, not for those who are ready for that kind of mature teaching.
Give Your Life to Leading Others to Christ
Similarly though, even when we hear Jesus say, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men,” what we hear is that fishing for men, making disciples, from the very beginning was tied to being a disciple. And so these four men, from the very beginning of their initial call to follow Christ, were being called to fish for men, were being called to give their lives to leading other men to become followers of Christ.
And so disciple-making is not an optional command for the mature Christian. The essence of what it means to follow Jesus, to be a disciple of Jesus, is to abandon your life to follow Him, to His person and His mission, which is to make disciples of all nations. So every disciple is a disciple-maker. Every follower of Christ is a fisher of men. This is not just for mature Christians; this is for every follower of Jesus.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
