Making Disciples
“The American church is ignorant of unreached peoples.” Joel made this statement a couple weeks ago during our Wednesday evening Bible Study time. He was finishing a series on Discipleship. The last words, the last instruction of the Lord Jesus to His church was this:
Make Disciples.
In today’s world of internet, travel convenience and global communications, there are no better conditions under which to obey this last instruction!
According to Matthew 28:18-20, making a disciple is 2 things: Baptism + Teaching.
Baptism is the outward show of a decision to follow Jesus Christ; it is an identity with Christ. In most countries around the world, baptism is a really big deal! In the scriptures, baptism is always linked to repentance; the early believers automatically put these two things together. To be baptized was to change paradigms, to change direction, to change loyalties, to change identity & association.
After the baptism, the new believer is to be taught to obey….to obey ALL the things that Jesus had taught His disciples. In our American churches, too often we substitute teaching the 10 Commandments, or the Christian Nation, or the Do/Don’ts of Tradition. But Jesus said for us to teach what He Himself had already taught!
If a mirror is placed in front of another mirror, it looks like we can see to infinity. This is a picture of the apostles & disciples placed in front of Christ…those of us coming down the line in human history can see back to infinity, back to the source of Salvation.
It is very important that we focus our discipleship of others, not on our own ideas, but upon the teachings of Jesus.
Joel brought the “all things” of Jesus’ command into 3 groupings:
1) the commands of Jesus according to the 4 Gospel records,
2) the Sermon on the Mount, which was Jesus’ description of the Kingdom & its citizens, and
3) His teaching about living according to the Holy Spirit.
The Commands of Jesus were 7 essential ones:
1. Repent, believe, embrace the Gospel, the Kingdom, the salvation offered through Jesus; see Matt 4:17 & Mark 1:15
2. Be baptized, and continue the life that it represents; see Matt 1, Acts 2:38, Romans 6:1-11, Acts 8
3. Love God and others practically, live a life of servanthood; see Matt 22:37-40, John 13, I John 3:11-18, Phil 2
4. Celebrate the Lord’s Supper, remembering His sacrifice for us as pictured at the Passover & fulfilled at Calvary; see Luke 22:17-20
5. Pray & fast. This was assumed by Jesus and modeled by Him. Matt 6:5-15
6. Give generously, with humility, in service to others. Matt 6:19-21, Luke 6:38
7. Make other followers of Jesus. Matt 28:18-20
Christ changes the heart of those who come to Him, but they must be taught. The Spirit is working inwardly, while the teaching is occurring outwardly. As we teach, we must focus on the teachings of Jesus, and we must give grace to the hearer. Just as Jesus did not pressure the rich young ruler to accept His teaching and change his ways into obedience to that teaching, so we must teach, encourage and model, but we must realize that ultimately, it is the decision of the new disciple and the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel is RADICAL! God help us to obey the simple teachings of Jesus….and to use every opportunity to pass them on to the unreached people around us!