Marks of Discipleship
Child birth is incredible isn’t it? A new life comes into the world. It’s one of the greatest miracles and gifts from God. But then reality sets in. You have to take care of the baby. And it’s nasty. And it’s difficult. And you feel like a zombie. And you have to feed them and change them and nurture them and warn them and you have to do it over and over and over and over again. Church, that’s a picture of discipleship. And that’s what we see in today’s text. Discipleship in practice.
In Acts 18:18 through 19:7, we see discipleship in action. The Apostle Paul, along with Aquila, Priscilla, and Apollos, demonstrate the essence of what it means to be a disciple and to make disciples.
We are called to be disciples and make disciples. (18:18-23)
Paul's third missionary journey epitomizes the call to discipleship. He deliberately visits the new congregations, showing us the importance of nurturing and strengthening the faith of new believers. Like Paul, we are called not only to lead people to Christ, but to ensure that those who come to faith are grounded, growing, and thriving in their relationship with Christ.
“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer[1]
How are you investing in the lives of others? Especially new believers? There’s part of the Great Commission that we often leave out. We are called to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Normally we stop there. But Jesus adds, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.” Who is Jesus talking to? His own disciples! The ones He had taught and poured into. He’s telling His disciples to make disciples. And the same commission still exists for you.
So, who is called to teach others? You are…if you are a disciple of Jesus. You might think, “I don’t know enough.” Well, there’s a cure for that! Grow in your own understanding of God! And did you know that one of the best ways to learn is by teaching others? Guess what…I had never had an interest in or taken a class in apologetics before I started teaching it in a Christian school. Now it’s one of my life’s passions and I’m getting a PhD in apologetics. I grew in understanding and passion as I sought to teach others.
"He desired to go to Ephesus, but he first chose to revisit his spiritual children. He agonized over the spiritual maturity of recent converts (Gal 4:19) and rejoiced at their progress in the faith (1 Thess 2:19-20).”
Discipleship starts with salvation. (18:24-25)
Do you remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus? “You must be born again.”[2] This is the first step in being a disciple. You must be born again. What do you think about Apollos? Was he born again?
Apollos, though eloquent and knowledgeable, had gaps in his understanding of the gospel. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t a believer. It’s like putting a puzzle together. He had most of the pieces, but there were some gaps in his understanding.
Apollos understood the most important things. First, he “accurately” taught the way of the Lord. That’s a crucial piece of the puzzle of salvation. If you get Jesus wrong, you get salvation wrong.
Secondly, we see that the Holy Spirit energizes his passion. When it says that he was “fervent in spirit,” before the word “spirit,” in the Greek, is the article “the,” which seems to indicate the Holy Spirit, especially in contrast to the twelve disciples of John that we see later in the text.
So, the main pieces of the puzzle were there for Apollos. But, he was still missing some. This should make us assess our own grasp of the gospel and its implications on our lives. We don’t know for certain where the gaps in his understanding were. Some people seem to think it was in the new covenant baptism practice established by Jesus. But whatever it was, it was not essential for salvation but was an outworking of our salvation in Christ.
If discipleship starts with salvation, and we are commissioned by Jesus to go and make disciples, then it should be a priority to lead people to salvation. Not in word, but in practice.
“Paul W. Powell, in The Complete Disciple, described this condition: "Many churches today remind me of a laboring crew trying to gather in a harvest while they sit in the tool shed. They go to the tool shed every Sunday and they study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and then get up and go home. Then they come back that night, study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and go home again. They comeback Wednesday night, and again study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and get up and go home. They do this week in and week out, year in and year out, and nobody ever goes out into the fields to gather in the harvest.”
Our main goal should be to make disciples, and that starts with going out into the harvest fields. Part of the harvest is then teaching those people the things of God.
Discipleship conforms our minds to a proper understanding of God and His Word. (18:26-28)
Discipleship starts with being born again. So, let’s think about that. For a while after someone is born, what do you feed them so that they’ll grow? Milk. I want you to hear what Hebrews 5 says about this. Did you know we don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrews? For many there is strong speculation that it was Apollos. I tend to lean that way with its strong Old Testament references.
Hebrews 5:12-14 – 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
The willingness of Aquila and Priscilla to gently correct and guide Apollos shows us how transformational discipleship can be for us and others. It’s through discipleship that we grow in our understanding of God and His Word. I love how Dallas Willard describes discipleship.
“Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.”[3]
The goal of discipleship is that we look more like Jesus! We can learn a lot not just from Aquila and Priscilla and how they disciple Apollos here, but we can learn a lot from Apollos. He models for us how to embrace humility, remaining teachable regardless of our spiritual maturity or theological knowledge. Remember, we’ve been saying this and here is yet another example…we need to have open Bibles and humble hearts.
This also challenges us to be willing to invest in other people spiritually. I want you to think about investments. Does it cost something to invest? Yes. It costs money. So, why do people do it? Because the investment yields profit. What happens when you invest in someone spiritually? It costs. It costs time and energy and resources. So why do you do it? Because the reward is great!
We then move from the discipleship of Apollos by Priscilla and Aquilla to some disciples of John that Paul disciples.
Discipleship follows baptism. (19:1-5)
We’ve seen the need to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded, but what else does Jesus say is necessary for making disciples? “Baptizing them…”
Contrary to Apollos, these others seem to not have a proper understanding of Christ’s sacrifice for them. They were baptized under the baptism of John, which was a baptism of repentance. They were missing the puzzle piece of Jesus, and they didn’t have the Holy Spirit. The purpose of John was to prepare the way for Jesus. It was even prophesied that this would be his purpose. They were seeking to worship God, but they were missing the mark. Some essential puzzle pieces were missing. Tony Merida says,
"They resembled Apollos in some ways, but the differences outweigh the similarities. Apollos taught accurately about Jesus and was fervent in the Holy Spirit, but the same can’t be said for this group."
I was fortunate to meet with a man this week and talk to him about the reality of Jesus and walk through the Old Testament scriptures, showing, like Paul and Apollos both have done, that Christ must die and rise…and that He really did! And this man, in his hospital room, who believed the Hebrew scriptures, believed in Jesus.
When this happens for these people Paul is talking to, they are baptized not in a baptism of John, of repentance, but in a baptism of Jesus, of salvation in Him.
This challenges us to examine our own obedience to God's Word and the alignment of our beliefs with biblical principles. Are there areas in our lives where we need to realign with God's truth? Are we willing to submit to His authority in all aspects of our faith and discipleship? True discipleship involves not only belief but also obedience to Christ's teachings. We must seek to be obedient disciples, faithfully following Christ's example in both belief and practice.
Finally, after we see these people have a proper understanding of Jesus, another major puzzle piece falls into place. They are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit. (19:6-7)
A key characteristic of those who are in Christ is the Holy Spirit that resides within them.
Discipleship involves not only learning about God but also experiencing His presence and power in our lives. Over and over in Acts, when people come to faith in Jesus, it is evident that the Holy Spirit resides in them, through outward signs and through boldness in proclaiming the gospel. These disciples now had the Holy Spirit because they now had Jesus.
Can the same be said of you? Do you have all of the puzzle pieces? Are you missing any essential pieces? In what ways do you need to be discipled, and who has God placed in your path for you to disciple?
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 1937, (New York: Touchstone, 1995), p. 59.
[3] https://dwillard.org/articles/how-does-the-disciple-live
