Go
Notes
Transcript
Today we finish our series on our mission statement.
Know God
Know your purpose
Know one another
Grow in faith
Grow in ability
Grow in community
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Go Make Disciples
Go Make Disciples
What is a disciple?
A person who follows or is a student of another.
A person who is following Jesus. To be more specific they have:
Believed the Gospel.
Convicted of Sin.
Repented and Believed in Jesus.
Trusted in Him for Salvation.
Followed in obedience through baptism.
They are following him in their life, seeking to learn about him, and be obedient to him.
How do you make a disciple? Jesus said - Go and make disciples - what does this look like?
The Gospel is Preached
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
The Spirit Convicts
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
The People Respond
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
We see the response that people should have here.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
The People devote themselves to growth.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
It is at this point where I hope the concept of Know. Grow. Go. is clear to you.
It is the life cycle of being a disciple.
What does this look like for you?
If you are a believer, if you know him, you very clearly have a call to make disciples.
This means proclaiming the Gospel.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
You are called and compelled to take part in the Gospel Ministry of Reconciliation.
This is not an option - it is a part of being a disciple.
Those who follow Christ, should be about what he is about.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Jesus’s mission was for the reconciliation of the lost. That whoever would believe in him, would not perish but have eternal life.
We see very clearly that this mission has been given to us as believers.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The steps of proclamation:
The lesser good: Inviting People to church. Good for...
People that profess to be Christians.
Previously churched people.
Those who have a knowledge of God.
Those who are curious.
The standard: Sharing the Gospel.
Telling your story.
Familiarizing yourself with Biblical Passage.
Finding avenues of connection.
Lead them to Christ.
There is no shame in bringing in outside help where unsure.
But you can lead someone to Christ!
This means teaching believers to follow Christ.
After salvation, Jesus is explicit that part of making disciples is teaching them to obey everything that He commanded them.
This is the task of ALL disciples. (this is the last thing he commanded them)
What does this look like?
and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
This is slightly more specific, because Paul is an apostle, talking to Timothy who has a specific calling on his life, and he is entrusting it to others who will be teaching - and so on.
This does not, however, remove our burden of playing a role in disciple making.
Just as some are evangelists, but all should evangelize. Some are teachers, but all should teach.
In whatever capacity you are in, at whatever maturity level you may find yourself, you should be seeking to share and invest those things to someone else.
For some of you here, this calling is no surprise and is something that should kindle within you a response of obedience.
You have followed Christ for some time.
You have grown in your faith.
You can look into the lives of others and see ways that you can disciple them and lead them to follow Christ.
You have knowledge to share and you know it.
For others, this idea may sound difficult or raise insecurity within you.
You may be a new believer, you may have been a believer for a long time, but you’ve not grown and developed to a place where you feel confident investing in others. You may be willing but unsure about how exactly to put it into practice as you don’t feel specifically called to “teaching” roles.
You will always be able to find someone who you can share what you know about God with, if you don’t know who that is in this moment, you need to regularly seek to be aware of them.
An example of what this looks like:
Barrett singing Jesus loves me to other baby.
Making disciples takes having awareness of self and humility
You must be aware of yourself.
You must realize your limits.
You must be willing to say “I don’t know.”
You must utilize your giftings.
Go Live Your Purpose
Go Live Your Purpose
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,
so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;
the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Prophecy: Speaking God’s truth with authority.
Service: Doing the work of ministry
Teaching: someone who is teaching others.
Exhorting: encouraging
Contributes: Giving and sharing with others.
Leading: Showing others where God is leading
Doing acts of Mercy: helping those who are in desperate situations.
What has God called you to do?
What is your purpose?
Your purpose is to make disciples in whatever place God has placed you.
SHOE EXAMPLE
Go do it!
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
This is echoed by the armor of God which says that our feet must be fitted with the Gospel of peace.
Go On Mission Together
Go On Mission Together
And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—
but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there.
And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”
So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.
And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
We are not called to do this alone.
It takes all of us:
For Manpower
There is too much work to be done.
For Support
Not only is there too much work to be done, for only some people to do it, this is work that requires the
In calling and gifting
Back to the shoes example.
So we must all:
Obey the Call to Go Make Disciples
Live into our individual purposes
Go together. When we do, we are able to saturate the world with the Gospel of Christ, for the Glory of God.
The Cycle of the disciple:
Know God
Know your purpose
Know one another
Grow in faith
Grow in ability
Grow in community
Go Make Disciples
Go live your purpose
Go on mission together.
Where are you in this cycle?
