What is a Disciple | Pastor Doug Sauder | Discipleship Night 2026

We've been talking about the simple invitation of Jesus. Follow me, be with me, and I will make you. My life will be formed in you. You can become like me. And then you will become fishers of men. You will do what Jesus did. Jesus actually said, you'll do greater things than I have done. You see, when we talk about this definition of a disciple, fully devoted, reproducing, following Jesus, everything we just talked about up here is what that full devotion looks like, how we spend time with him and are formed by him in community and learn to pray and learn to hear his voice. But there is a mission. Jesus was a man on a mission. And his mission had a method. It wasn't to attract big crowds, though he did. And it wasn't to heal every person. But it was to speak about the kingdom of God in word and deed and train 12 people that he would turn it all over to. And it was all up to him. These 12 people were not plan B. They were plan A. And when you see his method, it's sort of stunning. And we're gonna see it today in Luke chapter eight and Luke chapter nine and Luke chapter 10. In three chapters in Luke's gospel, we see the method of Jesus' mission.

How do I reproduce myself in someone else? And so when you look at Luke chapter eight, well, he's called his disciples. They've been following him around and now they're gonna go on their mission. And in Luke eight verse one, here's what Luke records. After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were with him and also some women. So a group of 12 male disciples, a group of female disciples, and they're following Jesus all through Galilee, town after town, village after village. And what are they doing? They're watching him. He wants to be with them and they're watching him teach. They're watching him heal. They're watching him cast out demons. They're watching him raise the dead. They're just watching him and they are wowed. And then that mission is over. They spent time with Jesus, watching him as a man on a mission. But look how Luke nine begins. When Jesus had called the 12 together, he gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

What's happening? Hey guys, we're gonna go all to the same towns and we're gonna do the same thing. We're gonna preach, we're gonna teach, we're gonna heal, we're gonna cast out demons, except this time I'm not going. You, go. You watched me do it last time, now you do it. And so they did. And they came back and they reported. Now, what happens next? Look at Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, well, we see this. And after this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. And he said, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. What's happening? The first mission was one person with 12 watching. Second person was 12 people, two by two. The next mission in the same region of the Galilee, same town, same village, there's another 72. What's happening? They're multiplying, they're being reproduced. And this is Jesus' mission and his method. And we have a clue about what he's doing in Luke chapter eight when he takes them

on the first mission. He says, I wanna tell you what the kingdom of God is like. It's like a farmer who sows a seed. And that seed, for some people, falls on hard soil. They have a hard heart, so it doesn't stick. And then that seed, it falls on hearts that are shallow and it doesn't remain. Or it falls on hearts that are crowded and it gets drowned up, all the stuff. But sometimes the seed will fall on a heart that's ready and receptive. And a seed like that can produce 100 times what was first planted. If you look at Luke eight and Luke nine and Luke 10, that parable is happening in real time. The disciples are reproducing themselves in others. In Luke chapter eight, it's the first generation of the seed, Jesus. And Luke nine, it's the second generation of what that seed has produced, the disciples who are on mission. And in the third generation, it's 72 who are investing and praying for more people to go into the harvest field. work. It's right there in plain sight. Jesus wants to reproduce himself in us. He doesn't just want us to say, now that I'm saved, that I spend time with him and I join my community group, life is good. No, invite other people. The work is so plentiful and the labors are so few. And so this is the invitation. How can I be a disciple of Jesus, a fully devoted and reproducing follower of Jesus? And again, Jesus gave this great commission, go and make disciples, which means part of our life as a disciple is reproducing ourselves in the lives of other people who reproduce themselves in the life of other people.

The method of Jesus' mission was very simple. It's his model of discipleship. I do, and then you watch. I do, and then you help. Then you do, and I help. And then you do, and I watch. And over and over, we watch him do the same thing with ordinary people. And these ordinary people, they change the world. So sometimes I think when we say our mission is to make disciples, I think we should maybe put something in parentheses right after that. So I'm going to say it this way. Our mission is to make disciples who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples. How did you become a disciple of Jesus? 2,000 years of this have come to us. And so now we have this moment. And so what are we doing with it? A lot of people in this room, if I ask you like, who are you discipling? Like, ah, I mean, I'm reading my Bible every day. Great. And in my community, great. But who are you invested in so they can become one of those hundred times seeds of you and someone else who disciples someone else? And so the question, who are you discipling? And the next question, who are they discipling? And if you're like, I don't really know, then this may be the place where you lean in because you got a great upper body, but your legs are like this. And Jesus wants to be formed in us. I love Jesus. I love his word. I love his people. But now, now I got to get busy because I've been a Christian far too long to not be able to reproduce myself in someone else. So Lord, I want you to give me strength. I remember this shocking statement. I heard this at a promise keepers like, I don't know, 30 years ago, this guy gets up and he says, you will never reach your full potential in Jesus Christ until you help someone else reach their full potential in Jesus Christ. I'm like, that doesn't sound right to me. And the more I thought about it, the more, yeah, that's, that's right. Christianity is neither a spectator sport or an individual sport. It's a team sport. And if you're not in there mixing it up, then there's an area of growth where you can train yourself to be godly. How can I begin to invest in others? And today we are in the middle of what people call a quiet revival. People getting hungry, coming back to church, young people asking questions, prayer meetings that are filling up. And the question is, what are we doing with all these people who are showing up at church? And it's a question we have to ask ourselves. And when I look back at some of the early revivals, like the first great awakening, there were lots of crowds. Think of these names, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, John Wesley. They would fill up fields and churches and mass outreaches. Thousands of people would

come. And arguably George Whitfield was the best preacher of them all. He could attract a crowd and and hundreds, thousands of people come to faith in Christ. But John Wesley, he wasn't organized. Everywhere he went, he didn't attract quite as big of crowds. But he made sure everywhere he went, he established a little congregation, maybe 50, 100 people. And in that congregation, he made sure that they were divided into groups of 10 so they could do life together. In those groups of 10, he created these little discipleship groups so that three people, four people would meet together every week and talk and hold accountability and challenge each other spiritually. This model of a church congregation, a group within that congregation that did life, and then a small group for accountability. And everywhere he went, that was his method. That's why they called him a Methodist. Right? It's true. Look it up. You can check it out for yourself. And it became one of the fastest growing discipleship models. And when George Whitfield, who was a friend of John Wesley, was ready to die, he was reflecting on his whole life. The guy who attracted much bigger crowds. And he said this, my brother Wesley acted wisely. The souls that were awakened under his ministry, he joined in these classes and congregation groups, and thus he preserved the fruits of his labor. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand. It's like thousands of people be converted into my ministry, but then the legacy has just disappeared. It became a rope of sand, but because I didn't focus on discipleship and I I wonder, I just wonder, like, a church like ours that loves to present the gospel, how well are we discipling people so the legacy isn't just a rope of sand and great stories of altars full of people, but disciples who are fully devoted and reproducing? Jesus was a man on a mission, and that mission had a method, and I want us to think deeply. What does that mean for me? And listen, this is something that never ceases. As old as you are, I wanna give you one of the last scenes in the Gospel of John.

Jesus looks at Peter after Peter has denied him. He restores Peter. Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. And then Jesus says this to Peter. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you were old, you'll stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he said to Peter, follow me. Now think about this. What's the first thing that Jesus said to Peter? Follow me. What's the last thing Jesus said to Peter in the one-on-one conversation? Follow me. That means we're never done. In the first round, Peter learned the way of Jesus. He learned to be with Jesus. But he was still somewhat in control. But now Jesus says, on this next round, Peter, I'm gonna ask you to follow me, but it's not gonna go exactly how you want. You're not gonna be as in control and the Spirit of God's gonna take you in these different places. Are you gonna be okay with that? And that's a question for us.

In my following of Jesus, will I be open to say, I'm never gonna be done? I'm never gonna arrive? And every time I get closer, I say, okay, my life is yours again. Take me wherever you want. This is the question for every follower of Jesus. And so I wanna challenge you. Just ask yourself, where am I at in this process of full devotion, of reproducing myself? And maybe whatever God just showed me tonight, help me to take that next step. And I just wanna give you a clear path. Here's how we do it here. Kind of a simple discipleship model. What does it mean to be fully devoted? Well, here, if you're brand new to our church, we take you through a class experience called Connect. We hope that everyone who calls this their church home has begun that process. What do we believe? What are we about? Who are we? And then a class called Following Jesus. For those people who are new, I don't understand the Bible, what to start reading, what the Christian faith is about. And then an experience called Freedom where I work out all those inner hurts and wounds from my childhood

and all the things I've never figured out how to process that the Holy Spirit wants to bring healing in those places. And then all the formation classes. How do I handle my money? How do I live life on mission? How do I do these things? And then how can I join a group, a community of people as we follow Jesus? And then that formation, well, it's followed by now some chances to grow as a leader. What does that look like? How do I become a leader at Calvary? Well, once I go through that process of learning and growing and being stretched, now I want to serve and I want to lead a group. I want to go through a leadership process called youth. I want to become an intern. I want to come here 10, 20, 30 hours a week, give my summer and begin to serve next to other people. And all these opportunities are here all the time waiting for someone to go, I'm in, I'm ready. And listen, a picture is worth a thousand words. I want to share with you just the process by which Pastor Chris is going to interview a woman named Carol at his campus and talk to you about how that process worked out in her life. So please give a warm welcome to Chris and Carol. ♪♪♪