Disciples are Reproducers
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The Coin is Our Mandate
The Coin is Our Mandate
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Our mandate is to make disciples.
Coin Side - Evangelism
Coin Side - Evangelism
One of the participles in verse 19 is baptizing, which assumes professions of faith, which are issued in response to hearing the gospel. So one side of our mandate coin is evangelism, which, of course is the word we use to reference our effort to speak the gospel to others with the aim of convincing them of their need to believe it.
Coin Side - Discipling
Coin Side - Discipling
I believe Mark Dever, in his book, “Discipling” defines this work as assisting others to follow Christ. Discipling means that we will come alongside others to help them live God-honoring, Christ-exalting lives. This is a life-on-life effort. Discipling can take several forms. Yes, it can be one on one, but discipleship can occur from behind the pulpit, in a small group, Sunday School class, after Sunday morning service with a few people, on the phone etc.
I want to spend the bulk of our time consider the work of disciple making with particular emphasis on reproducing disciple makers. But before we go there, I want to make sure we understand what we’re aiming in making disciples.
Here are some traits of disciples of Jesus Christ.
Disciples are
Learner: fundamentally this is what a disciple is
A denier of self
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
26 “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.
3. Haters of sin and lovers of righteousness
10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of his saints;
he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
4. Lovers of the church
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
5. Proclaimers of the gospel
3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
6. Faithful in their daily lives
10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
7. Meditators of God’s Word.
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
So, this is some of what describes a disciple of Christ, and this is what we want to see reproduced in the lives of others we disciples. But, let’s now turn our attention to the work of disciple making.
The text we will work through together is
1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 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. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Main Idea: We are not called to be disciples only but to make disciples
What do we need to know about disciple making?
It’s hard
It’s hard
What makes it hard?
Risk (3)
Risk (3)
How is risk connected to discipleship?
Paul issues the charge to share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus just after exhorting Timothy to make disciples.
This way of life; pointing people to Christ, calling them to deny themselves and take up their crosses. To live as if they are not of this world.
Paul wrote this letter from prison. Why was he there? Not for just being a disciple of Jesus. He was in prison because he was a disciple maker.
Jesus was killed on a cross for being a disciple maker.
Opposition (4-6)
Opposition (4-6)
Verses 4-6 gives us three illustrations: the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer. Each present costs.
The soldier: Distraction (4)
We’re told he does not get entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
He did become distracted by these civilian pursuits. He desired to please his commanding officer.
The analogy seems clear enough. We need to keep from getting entangled in the many calls for our attention that would lead us away from striving to please our Lord.
But distractions abound, and it’s not so much the billboards that we drive by on the highway or even our TVs. Smartphones, our sometimes insatiable desire to be entertained.
But sometimes we can be tempted to give our attention to good, honorable causes at the expense of making disciples. What are some possible good causes that could eat up our time and energy so we do not engage in making disciples.
The Athlete: Short-cuts (5)
We take short cuts and not play by the rules because we tend to be self-serving. A short cut is meant to make life easier. More pleasant. Not as burdensome.
But there is no way around this. Making disciples is grueling work. Consider the words of Jesus:
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
or Paul
28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Sacrifice. Self-sacrifice.
On a corporate scale, this is what churches often do. The shortcut is the hype of substance. I used to tell my students in the youth ministry I lead in FL that I had no doubt that they could find something more fun and exciting to do than come to Youth Group meetings. Our games of kickball and singing and a message from God’s word would not be as entertaining as a movie or even just sitting at home watching TV. But I also told them that there was nothing they could do that was more important.
Living Hope, you know this, but do believe the hype, and don’t become part of it. Making disciples is often slow, frustrating, taxing and emotionally draining, bt it is the process necessary to present others mature in Christ.
The Farmer: Recognition (6)
We know famous athletes, actors, musicians and even politicians. We don’t know many (any) famous farmers. No trading cards for farmers.
There are known Christians. Musicians, writers, pastors, but they are not necessarily known for their disciple-making skills. Maybe their teaching on discipleship but for their own efforts in making disciples.
This is not a glamorous calling, but it is God-honoring.
As one preacher put it: to embrace disciple-making is to embrace obscurity.
So the work of making disciples who make disciples is hard. What else should we know about disciple making?
It’s Teaching (2)
It’s Teaching (2)
Now regarding the teaching component of discipleship, Paul identifies two concerns to which Timothy should address: fidelity to apostolic instruction and the faithfulness of those he disciples.
Fidelity to Apostolic Instruction
Disciple making is relational. But relationship without teaching the Bible is not discipleship. Now, as I mentioned before, the context of the teaching can vary, but it must be there for it to be discipleship.
What Paul instructs Timothy to do is to entrust to faithful men what he has heard from him. In other words, what Timothy is is teach has a standard that guides it, and that standard is what he heard Paul teach.
We teach with a purpose. Elsewhere, Paul expressed some of this purpose:
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
If discipleship is teaching, and our aim in our teaching is those we teach would become obedient from the heart, then this authentic obedience is our aim in discipleship.
In our efforts to teach others, not only are we to aim to teach the Word so that people would respond in sincere, heart-felt obedience to God, but that they would gain a commitment to pour their lives into others the way Paul is calling to do with men of his church.
The faithfulness of those he disciples
18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
Here, Paul uses the same word as he does in our text in 2 Tim. entrust. In 1 Tim., Paul wrote of a command he has given Timothy for his strengthening. He uses the same word here to rally men to a commitment to this kind of ministry. This Word-centered, sacrificial ministry of discipleship.
Now what kind of men is Timothy to entrust with this ministry? Faithful men. Faithful conveys integrity in matters of faith and obedience. They will be faithful to what they have received, not just for their own sake and benefit, but for the sake of others.
Timothy is also to disciple men who will be able to teach others also. Be able means they will be up to the task. They will be competent and able to do what Timothy would delegate to them.
Calvin comments on this idea:
The Letters to Timothy and Titus A. The Appeal Renewed (2:1–13)
“Many are motivated by different kinds of ambitions, some by greed, some by malice and some are held back by their fear of danger, so that here special faithfulness is required.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
So we have a mandate to make disciples. This includes evangelism and discipleship. These efforts go together. When it comes to our efforts in discipleship, we should recognize that it is
Hard
Teaching
