How Jesus Trained His Disciples: The Four-Step Method We All Can Follow Today

This is Part 11 of an 18-part series drawn from Kurt Olson's book, The Endgame of God. New posts publish every Wednesday at  GoMultiply.org/blog.

Jesus didn’t just command His disciples to make disciples. He modeled a simple four-step training process — and He was willing to begin discipling people long before they were even saved.

Jesus did more than tell us to make disciples. He showed us how, in a way so simple that anyone can do it. But before we look at His method, I have to clear away one assumption that stops many of us before we ever begin.

In the church world today we tend to assume we have to get people saved before we can disciple them. But is that how Jesus did it? Consider His own twelve. When did Peter actually get saved? People give me four different answers — his calling, his great confession, his weeping after the denial, his restoration by the sea after the resurrection. The answer is we don’t know, and we must not need to know, or the Bible would tell us. But here is what we can see plainly: Peter was lost when he met Jesus, and somewhere along the way he got saved and became born again. Which means for some part of those three years, Peter was an unsaved disciple following Jesus.

Thomas is an even clearer example. Almost everyone agrees Thomas was not truly saved until he encountered the risen Christ and cried, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). That was three years after he began following Jesus as a disciple.

Lastly, think about Judas. When did Judas get saved? He followed Jesus as a disciple for three years and, according to Jesus, was a son of Hell (John 17:12) and never truly saved.

Do you see how significant this is? Jesus was willing to disciple people from their point of interest, not only from their point of conversion. That is huge. It means every single person is a potential disciple. You and I have a limitless supply of people we can disciple. The Gospel still must be shared — no one can have saving faith in a Savior they have not heard about — but, using the Discovery Bible Study, we keep discipling anyone who is willing to take the next step with Jesus, whether they cross the line of saving faith on day one or day one hundred. So disciple everyone who is willing. Guide everyone who wants to take the next step in obedience to Him.

Every training program has four basic steps: I do, We do, You do, Go do.
And Jesus’ training program was no different. 

Next, He lets them try doing some ministry under His direct supervision. John 4:1–2 tells us that although Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, “in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.” He is right there, preaching, teaching, healing, and overseeing the whole scene, but it’s actually His disciples who are doing the baptizing. Step two is supervised practice — close enough to watch them, far enough to let them do the work of the ministry. 

Then He sends them out ahead of Him. In Matthew 10 He sends the Twelve to the towns of Israel, and in Luke 10 He sends seventy-two others out two by two — with the very instructions He had modeled in step one: heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the lepers, raise up the lame, and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. Step three is releasing them in short term missions to do it themselves, on their own. Then they come back and report back to Him. 

Finally, in Luke 22:35–36, Jesus says, “When I sent you out without purse or bag did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. He said to them, “But now, take your purse. Take your bag” — those words “but now” signal a shift from the training program to a way of life. This is their graduation from training to lifestyle. And here is a trap that far too many believers are stuck in: they never move from level 1. They remain in “watch me” mode for decades. They may be watching and listening but they never apply it. Many are waiting for permission to do the work of Jesus, that Jesus already gave. So ask yourself honestly — where are you at in this process? Have you graduated, are you still watching, or are you somewhere in between? 

There is one rule that keeps the church on track — what I call the One Rule of Paul for all the churches. Three times in a single chapter he says, in effect, when you come to Christ, stay where you are: “each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you in” (1 Corinthians 7:17, and again in verses 20 and 24).

Which of Jesus’ four steps are you on right now — watching, practicing with others, doing on your own, or graduated to a lifestyle of disciple-making? What would it take for you to move to the next step?