Making Mature Disciples of Christ

The Great Commission Study, Part 6: Making Mature Disciples of Christ

Sunday, June 6, 2021

Laboring towards Maturity

Introduction

In the movie Old Yeller, you have a dad going away on a cattle drive, the dad says to his eldest son Travis, “Well son, while I am gone, you will be the man of the house. Be the pigs to mark, fresh meat to shoot, and mainly there’s the corn patch. If you don’t work it right, we’ll be without bread this winter. Sure enough a man’s size job.” The conversation goes a bit with Travis asking his dad for a horse. The dad finally agrees and says, “You act the man’s part, I’ll bring you a man’s horse.”

It is in fulfilling and doing all these things that Travis will earn his mark as a man in his dad’s eyes.

And while becoming a man or a woman looks different within each family, there comes a point and time where one is recognized as a man or woman by their parents at a certain stage in life. Typically there is either verbal affirmation, or the fulfilling of duties that earns these marks.

But what about when it comes to discipleship? When are we marked mature? And how do we help others grow to that point of maturity? That’s what I want us to look at tonight as we close our 6 week study of the Great Commission.

Recap

Over the last 5 weeks, we have worked our way through parts of the Great Commission as we understand what it means to make disciples of Jesus. Our starting place was of course Matthew 28:16-20 where we find the Great Commission given to the apostles. There we read:

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 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.

As we have unfolded this, we have looked at Going to make disciples, at the task of evangelism and pre-conversion discipleship, baptism and conversion, early discipleship for a new believer. Each of these helps us grasp a little bit more of the fullness of the Great Commission.

But today, we close out our time as we look at the call to observe all that I have commanded you.

The task

Let’s start by looking at Hebrews 5:11-6:2

Here in this passage, we see that there is an expectation to grow in Christ. Some were to the point that they should have been teachers, but weren’t even past the elementary stages of discipleship. They were still on spiritual milk.

Growing in discipleship is the expectation of Christian discipleship. A disciple is to be like a plant, growing, and living. A plant that doesn’t grow isn’t a healthy plant. Same with a disciple of Jesus.

But one does not go from being a baby Christian to a mature Christian. And we see this in Hebrews 5:14. These are trained by constant practice.

Helping believers grow towards maturity will take time, patience, and perseverance.

However, it is towards this goal in which we are called to toil. Turn with me to Colossians 1:28-29. Here it says…

Paul toils and struggles to present everyone mature in Christ

Notice how he does this though

Proclaiming Christ

Warning everyone

Teaching everyone with all wisdom

He toils not by his strength, but the power of the Spirit.

How?

Paul Tripp in his book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands writes, “Personal ministry is about people loving people, but in a way that includes bringing them God’s word.”

And while we looked at this last time in our need to point them to the word, this remains the same for how we disciple towards maturity. We point them continually to the word.

Being an example

Philippians 3:12-17

Verse 17, being an example even as we have not obtained perfection or full maturity

But we set our eyes on the prize of the upward call

We hold to what is true

Building up (Encouraging)

Ephesians 4:11-16

The church together helps build its body up

The church helps ensure all parts of the body are firm and standing strong.

Continuing to teach and entrusting them to also go and teach others

2 Timothy 2:1-2

Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

As we continue to teach the Bible to new believers, the other part of the discipleship process is listening and asking good heart questions.

Part of discipleship is getting to know people. Knowing their joys and sorrows, knowing how they are growing and where they are struggling. And this comes through the process of attentively listening to them. As you teach, listen to their questions, heart as they learn to apply the word. And ask good follow up questions. For example, what do you mean when you say that you continue to struggle with anger? Can you give me a specific example? Or, you mentioned you felt as if the Lord had grown you leaps and bounds in humility. What are some examples of where you were and where you are now?

In asking good questions and listening attentively, we are able to get to the heart of issues and have concrete examples to go off of. Remember, we are all sinners and as we are helping others grow to maturity, there is still a temptation to keep things hidden. But as we dig deeper, we are able to get at the root of things still within the heart. And as we do so, we are able to point our brothers and sisters back to the hope of the gospel and how we are called to live in light of the gospel.

Paul Tripp again in Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands says, “As we seek to encourage change in the hearts and lives of others, we want to help people not only to confess their sin but to repent as well...We are more than watchmen giving warning; we are actually tools of change in the hands of the Redeemer.”

Teaching towards maturity

We continue to preach the gospel

We remind our disciple protegea over and over again of who they are in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3-14

We then remind them of who they are to be in Christ

Unity

New Life

Walk in Love

Family Life

Wearing the Whole Armor of God

Ephesians is a great book to work through in Christian discipleship

For it is here that you find all of these things in helping a believer grow into maturity.

We teach them to fight for the faith

1 Timothy 6:11-19

Pursue righteousness

Godliness

Faith

Love

Steadfastness

Gentleness

Take hold of eternal life

Keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of Christ

Set hope on God, not riches

Do good

We continue to walk through life with them as we unleash them into the world.