As You Go

Memorial Day

John 15:13 ESV

13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Introduction

Acts 1:6–8 (ESV) 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

ILLUST - Ever leave a child with a task only to come back and find they became distracted?

Teacher gives instructions, leaves the room, comes back, and no one has followed the instructions? For me:

Superballs

Waterguns

Scratch art pens

Rubber bands and Paperclips

*What’s your life mission?

Of course, being in church you’re thinking of something spiritual:

— Glorify God, Love Jesus and love people, Be the hands and feet of Christ, etc.

All of this flows to and from that concept of making disciples.

Matthew 28:16–20 (ESV) 16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 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.”

The mission of your life, of my life, is to glorify God by making disciples of Christ.

Not just to make disciples of Christ, but to make disciples of Christ who make disciples of Christ

How to make disciples:

1. Be a disciple

The first step in making disciples is to BE a disciple.

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them,

We are called to be disciples as we make disciples.

You can’t lead people to a place you are not willing to go yourself.

*If people follow you - in a sense imitate everything you do - where do you lead them? Toward being more like Jesus or no?

*If people follow you — if they imitate the things you do — if they model their life to be like yours, will they become more like Jesus or only more like you?

What is a disciple?

To follow Christ, to be a disciple is to be:

- Intensely devoted to the person of Jesus (“come after me”)

Context is the confession of who Christ is.

- Intensely devoted to the place of Jesus in your life. (“deny himself”)

To deny oneself is to give something else the place. It denotes submission to Christ.

- Intensely devoted to the purpose of Jesus (“take up his cross”)

Taking up a cross implies suffering but not random suffering, suffering for the cause of Jesus, the mission

- Intensely devoted to the transformation in Jesus (“follow me”)

You can’t lead someone to someplace that you are not willing to go yourself.

“of all nations” = of all people groups

meaning not just your friends or only people around the world

 “A barren Christian is a contradiction. A tree is known by its fruit. . . It was observed as the thing lacking in the lives of the Sadducees and Pharisees that made them so wretched in his sight (Matt. 3:7–8; 12:33–34; Luke 13:6–9). In various ways, and among all kinds of people, Jesus called men to evaluate the product of their lives. . . . practically everything that the Master said and did pointed to this principle.”

— Robert Coleman, “Master Plan of Evangelism”

It has been said that on average, it takes 85 church attenders to make one disciple. But how can this be if we are each called to make disciples?

the average person needs to hear the gospel 20x before they believe it.

2. Accept Jesus’ mission

This mission is Jesus’ mission. This is important for two reasons:

1. Jesus commands this mission

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

“All authority” is given to Jesus:

The word “all” is used four times in this passage (All authority, all nations, observe all teaching, with us always )

The word here used for “all” in the original means ALL

In heaven.

There is no greater spiritual authority than Jesus. His resurrected body proves Satan cannot own you. He speaks from God as God.

On earth.

Jesus is Lord of all nations. There is no nation that can or will stop the spread of the gospel. There are no laws or dictators that can stop the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

The implication, then, is that Jesus also has all authority over YOU.

Over you.

This is what it means to be a follower of Christ. You don’t live for yourself anymore. He is your life. You have been bought with a price.

Hear me - Jesus is the authority in your job. Jesus is the authority in your family. Jesus is the authority in your marriage. Not you.

To claim Jesus as “Lord of your life” means he has a claim on every part of your life. We surrender to his will for our lives; he does not surrender to ours.

This means you go where he says to go and you do what he says to do, no matter the cost.

For some we need to stop right there. If you don’t acknowledge who Jesus is in your life, you will not do what he says to do with your life.

2. Jesus accompanies this mission

20. . . . And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You may think you have no idea what it fully means to make disciples or how in the world to accomplish it, but we don’t do the mission alone.

ILLUST - There are certain tasks that Christine does not leave to me. (pick out clothes for picture day, take the boys to the army/navy store)

Exodus 3:12 ESV

12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Exodus 4:12 ESV

12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

Joshua 1:5 ESV

5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.

Joshua 1:9 ESV

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.”

Judges 6:16 ESV

16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

Jeremiah 1:8 ESV

8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”

Jesus’ mission is YOUR mission

*You either accept it or reject it.

Think about it. The risen Christ left

There is no Plan B for the spread of the gospel.

God did not say that if we were unable or unwilling to accomplish the mission, he would come and take over the job of evangelism.

One of Satan’s biggest ploys (at least in America) is to keep Christians casual and complacent.

“A few weeks ago you had to tempt him to unreality and inattention in his prayers: but now you will find him opening his arms to you and almost begging you to distract his purpose and benumb his heart. He will want his prayers to be unreal, for he will dread nothing so much as effective contact with the Enemy [i.e., God]. His aim will be to let sleeping worms lie.

………

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy [God]. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.”

— C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

If he can persuade Christians that one hour a week is sufficient to be a fully functioning member of the Body of Christ then he has crippled the Body.

If he can keep Christians focused on satisfying their own comforts and “spiritual needs” he can distract them from the 2.8 billion people around the world who have not even heard the name “Jesus” and slow the mission of God.

If he can fool Christians into thinking that following Christ is something that we “fit” into our lives instead of something that consumes our lives, then he has succeeded in compartmentalizing the Christian walk.

Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators.

The curse of today is that we are too busy. I am not talking about being busy earning money to buy food. I am talking about being busy doing Christian things. We have spiritual activity with little productivity.

. . . today we have a lot of pew-sitters — people think that if they are faithful in church attendance, put good-sized gifts into the offering plate and get people to come, they have done their part.

I wonder how money, time, and energy in the church is focused on maintaining programs and people who already know and follow Jesus (These are good things); instead of resources intentionally focused on equipping and making disciples and disciple-makers.

3. Live everyday on mission

What are the verbs you see in this passage? Go — make disciples — baptize — teach

— In Greek there is one main verb, “make disciples” — one word

— three other participles that are a part of making disciples

Going

- Note this is not a command to “wait for people to come,” but a call to GO.

- Jesus never meant for the church to be stationary.

- Go into “all the world” – lit. “all ethnos” – all ethnicities.

- The statement is lit, “as you are going.” For some, this will mean you will need to GO. But we are all going somewhere. We are to make disciples as we go – Lifestyle evangelism

- We were called to make disciples to go into the world, not disinfect believers from the world.

This is evangelism. Whatever your Whatever your job, talent, skill it is to be leveraged for the gospel.

In this passage, in the church, in all of life, everything should be centered around making disciples

The stated problem, however, is that we are busy.

busy making excuses

I’m not knowledgeable enough

I’m not mature enough

I don’t know how this is what the church is for

Busy following distractions

chasing things that claim to add to or be the purpose for our lives

The reality is, Jesus is NOT saying GO DO MORE and make disciples. Instead, he is saying AS YOU GO, make disciples.

ILLUST - Pie - many of us divide our time like a pie. You hear me say, “Make disciples” and you think — I have no more pie to divide. What we need is to understand that Jesus is not asking that we divide more of our busy lives up for disciple-making; rather, He calls us to intentionally be on mission in all of the spaces of our lives — or “as we go” (like a circle of whipped cream on the center of the pie)

Evangelism is not the job of professionals - it’s the call of every Christ-follower.

Do you have the name of one person in your sphere of life who does not know Jesus?

Pray: for an opportunity to speak to them about Jesus, for the courage, for the words.

Baptizing

Baptism is:

• Identification with Christ

• Entrance into the Church

Bring them into the community of God.

Teaching

We are to be teaching “to obey” - which means we are with them enough to know if they are obeying.

Teaching them to:

Study Bible

Pray

Make disciples

*If someone walked up to you today and said they would like to become a disciple of Jesus, what would you say?

Are you learning for the purpose of managing your own faith, or are you learning in order to teach your faith?

*Where are the place you are going this week? What are the spaces you’ve divided on the pie of your life? How can you be on mission in those spaces?

Have your quiet time at lunch and see if others will join

Invite your neighbor over for dinner and begin to hear their story

Ask the person you see at work, or at the store, or at the restaurant who looks like they are struggling if you can pray for them.

Do life with gospel intentionality

Live daily life from and for the gospel

“As you live like Jesus, call people to commit fully to Jesus and teach them how to live like Jesus.”

Conclusion

Let me ask you,

Are you a disciple? Are you making disciples?

If NO to either, why not?

Are you making excuses or following distractions?

Maybe you’re doubting

Doubting that Jesus can really use you

Doubting that Jesus is still at work

What is distracting you from the mission Jesus gave you?

Name one person you want Jesus to be with you as you live on mission to see them become a disciple.