A Church on Mission: Making Disciples

When it comes to discipleship, there often tends to be a difference between a person who is a Christian and a person who is a disciple of Jesus. However, the word disciple is found over 250 times in the New Testament while the word for Christian is found less than five times. I want to be sure that we are all clear on what the bible means when it refers to a disciple. It is synonymous with a follower, a student. We won’t cover this extensively but a Christian is not just a person who goes to church a couple times a month and wears a cross necklace around their neck. A Christian is a disciple, one who sits at the feet of Jesus hanging on every word. The phrase “sideline Christian” is an oxymoron, folks. But all of this is a sermon by itself.

I want to spend our time talking about making disciples and thinking about what that means for our lives and the life of our church. In that discussion we will look at a few different passages of scripture but I want to begin by reading Matthew 28:19-20.

Read Matthew 28:19-20

Making Disciples is a Way of Life

Have you ever met someone whose entire life is shaped around a hobby of theirs? I’ve seen this from afar for families who have a child that plays travel ball. Everything that they do during ball season revolves around weekend tournaments. Their money, their time, what they talk about around the water cooler. It’s a way of life.

The same should be said about being a disciple. Everything that we do should revolve around our dedication to Jesus.

Keep in mind that Matthew 28:19 is stated to the eleven disciples of Jesus. He tells them that He has all authority and because of that, Jesus says “Go!” Now there are some who see this as a call of moving from where you are to across the world but the reality is that this one word implies “as you are going”. A great way of thinking about the great commandment from Jesus here is “as you are living your life, make disciples”. We should be constantly looking for opportunities to share the gospel with others and help them to understand the eternal value of following Jesus.

Making disciples is a way of life for the disciple of Jesus. But also we see,

Making Disciples is a clear command

We have to remember that Jesus is speaking to the apostles, those who saw Jesus die on the cross. They are the professional Christians, served faithfully in church, was there every time the doors were open, and Jesus is telling them that their responsibility is to make more disciples. This is something that we are all responsible for. And the model that Jesus is proposing is one of multiplication where once a person believes that Jesus Christ is Lord, they do all that they can to bring others along this journey that we are all on.

I fear that so many don’t take it seriously that we have been commanded to make disciples. Once they are saved, they are content to just live their lives, try to be a good person, and make it into heaven on the bare minimum. But it should be obvious that Jesus commands us to go beyond that. We should take this command seriously and understand it as a command just like “you shall have no other gods before me.

Making disciples is a way of life and is a clear command. Additionally,

Making Disciples is Ongoing

There is a reason that when we pray for the lost and the wandering, that it is not just praying for one person. Once another soul is brought to the Lord, we aren’t off the hook but instead we continue on with that person until they come to a point where they are a mature believer and begin to share the truth with others themselves. Instead, Jesus says to His disciples, “make disciples”.

There are no requirements on age here. There is no person who is too young or too old to be a disciple-maker. This understands the value of the elderly in the Proverbs as well as takes seriously what Paul says about not allowing others to despise you for your youth in 1 Timothy 4:12 .

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Making disciples is a lifelong pursuit. It should be taken seriously because it is a command of Jesus and it should be our way of life.

Finally,

Making Disciples has Difficulties

It should be stated that nothing that is worth doing is easy very often. Making disciples is difficult because being a disciple of Jesus comes at a great cost. Jesus talks of the hazards that come with following Him. But I want to turn our attention to one of the hardest passages of scripture for people to hear today. In Luke 14:25-26 , Jesus provides a requirement for being one of His disciples.

Luke 14:25–26 ESV

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

It would seem baffling to so many of us for our love of Jesus to cause the care that we have for our father, mother, wife, and children to pare in comparison to the point of it seeming like hate. In some situations, following Jesus means that we have to choose between family and the Kingdom. But the last segment of verse 26 is the most difficult thing for most people to swallow.

You must hate your own life… While we battle against it, the love that we have for ourselves is most often the biggest reason why a person will never fully commit to Jesus. It is far easier to ride the fence and do the bare minimum rather than a true surrender to King Jesus.

I point all of this out for us to evaluate what we are doing as individuals as well as what we are doing as a church.

Way of life

A clear command

Ongoing

Difficulties