How do we Make Disciples?

Intro: We are in week 4 of our sermon series called, “The Way” and we are discovering that purposeful discipleship must be the lifestyle of the believer… and the culture of the church…

And you should know: So much of this series was helped along by biblical insights I gained from a book I read over 3 years ago called The Trellis and the Vine…

It’s a book about embracing a discipleship culture in your church, and making sure that everything that you do as a church is for the purpose of making disciples...

So even the (path)WAY diagram we are using was adapted from that book…

But I remember, even when I was reading it a few years ago, finding the closing two pages of this book especially compelling and thought provoking… even more so now… and you’ll see why.

I’m going to read a short excerpt for you… see if you can see how this is relevant. (remember, this was written in 2009)… they write:

Imagine that a pandemic swept through your part of the world, and that all public assemblies of more than three people were banned by the government for reasons of public health and safety. And lets say that due to some catastrophic combination of local circumstances, this ban had to remain in place for 18 months.

How would your congregation of 120 members continue to function—with no regular church gatherings of any kind, and no home groups (except for groups of three)?

If you were the pastor, what would you do?

I guess you could send regular letters and emails to your people. You could make phone calls, and maybe even do a podcast. But how would the regular work of teaching and preaching and pastoring take place? How would the congregation be encouraged to persevere in love and good deeds, especially in such trying circumstances? And what about evangelism? How would new people be reached contacted and followed up?

(The Trellis and the Vine - Page 165-167)

They go on to lay out a potential plan to work through that 18 months and then regather... it was a theoretical idea for them so they missed some of the challenges and possibilities...

But as I revisited that paragraph at the beginning of this very REAL pandemic with REAL restrictions of our own, it became my prayer, “God, make us a disciple-making church that is resilient to whatever this world throws at us.”

Because I know that this pandemic has tested my resilience. And I know that it’s tested your resilience.

And it CANNOT depend on one person… or even a small group of people… I just met with the GC leaders and elders and their wives last night...

That group is fantastic… but they are not enough to disciple the whole church.

We need the Holy Spirit empowering every person in the body, inspiring a purposeful discipleship culture that cuts through every relationship and every program that we do.

Because if it’s not a pandemic testing our commitment to Christ and his Great Commission, it will be something else.

Divisions, distractions, disruptions, persecutions… the enemy loves to knock Christ’s church OFF of the path of making disciples.

And we have to FIGHT to keep our eyes on it.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been developing this discipleship (path)WAY to help us understand how to take our next step as a disciple...

[Definition above empty pathway] We started by defining, “What is a disciple?”… And we said that a disciple is someone who is growing in their dependence on and devotion to Jesus.

We want to emphasize that a disciple is NOT an extra level of believer… every genuine believer follows Jesus as a disciple, and every disciple is a genuine believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[Pathway portion 1] So that means that someone becomes a disciple when God reveals the gospel… and they respond in repentance.

God engages people… and evangelizes people by revealing the gospel through his Word, his empowered people, his Holy Spirit, in full convinction...

And to become a disciple, every person must respond in repentance and faith.

There is no such thing as a disciple of Jesus who has never seen their sin and repented.

[Pathway portion 2] But repentance doesn’t stop there… ALL of the Christian life is one of repentance… and so someone GROWS as a disciple as God KEEPS revealing the gospel and they KEEP responding in repentance...

We GROW when we SEEK our life in Christ… we grow when our position in Christ drives our practice in life… and we put to death our sin nature, and put on our new nature in Christ...

Putting off and putting on is the central activity of growing as a disciple… and that happens in the context of biblical community.

It starts in the life of a newly established believer as they learn the basics of following Jesus.

And it continues in the life of a growing believer as they see those things start to flesh out in their day to day living...

And sometimes along the way we get stuck and we need some extra help… but the important part is that we keep taking the next steps together.

But here’s the problem… so many people stop taking the next step once they’ve been established in the way of a disciple… once they understand the basics of the faith and how the gospel applies to their life...

They think, “Well that must be what discipleship is all about… ME learning more and more content… so I’m just going to find someone ELSE teach ME more stuff… I’m going to ‘go deep’ in my knowledge and think that I’m growing as a disciple.”

And they think it’s someone else’s job to keep THEM and others going in their walk, instead of seeing that their next step of growth is actually to help OTHERS take THEIR next steps.

The Great Commission of Jesus doesn’t just say, “Go, therefore and BE disciples...” he says, “Go therefore and MAKE disciples.”

When Jesus called his first disciples, he said, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

It is Christ’s intent... from the moment he calls someone becomes a disciple… that they would be SENT OUT to make disciples.

That’s how disciples grow best in their dependence on and devotion to Jesus.

For Jesus, he did this about 1.5 years into his 3 year ministry with his disciples.

The Apostle Paul started making disciples almost immediately after his conversion… but then went back and got more grounded in some of the basics.

In the churches he planted, he would establish the disciples for anywhere from a few weeks to a few years...

And then he would leave the task to the churches to continue the evangelistic ministry and he would move on somewhere else.

[Show pathway section 3] So as we get into this last leg of the pathway, we are going to see how we grow most by being sent.

Our mission statement as a church is to Proclaim Jesus. Equip Servants. Send Witnesses. to the Glory of God.

And as witnesses to the power of God in OUR OWN lives, Sent to edify… to build up... other believers in the faith… specifically those who are newly established, stuck in their walk, or growing, but not yet multiplying. Of course we edify one another on mission as well.

We are sent to both edify… and then also to evangelize… to proclaim the good news of Jesus… to unbelievers.

And with that in mind, we want to answer this question:

How do we make disciples?

What are the essentials for edifying other believers and evangelizing the lost.

And here’s the big idea answer for today:

Big Idea: We make disciples by helping others apply God's word in the context of relationship.

There are so many places in the scriptures for good examples of disciple-making… your reading plan had 5 of them this past week…

But one of my favorites is 1 Thess. 2 where your Bibles are open now.

Just 2 weeks ago we looked at the Thessalonians to understand, “How does someone become a disciple?”

In chapter 1, we saw their dramatic repentance from worshiping idols to worship the living God.

So in chapter 2, Paul turns the camera angle on that disciple-making experience... from the Thessalonians and their conversion… now to him and his team as they worked in Thessalonica in the early days of that church.

this is what his team’s ministry looked like that resulted in that dramatic conversion.

So read with me in 1 Thess 2:1-16.

We make disciples by helping others apply God's word in the context of relationship.

Today I want us to see:

Four Essentials for Disciple-Making

1) The Conviction - Relationship with God (v. 1-6)

Now, when I originally gave you the big idea for this morning and said, “In the context of relationship” I’ll be you weren’t thinking about your relationship with God, were you?

It’s so easy to get focused on my relationship with the person I’m discipling… and we’ll talk about that relationship in a moment… but if that relationship comes first, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Discipleship must come in the context of our relationship with God.

Paul demonstrates that his conviction and endurance as a disciple-maker was the product of his dependence on and devotion to Jesus.

Paul writes, “For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.

That implies that it COULD have been in vain… it implies that SOME PEOPLE COME in vain.... i

In fact, some people were probably accusing him of that very thing... having an empty and meaningless ministry for selfish reasons...

Maybe some people were accusing Paul, “You don’t care about these Thessalonians… you just want something from them! Your message and your ministry are just vanity!”

So Paul is like, “Our coming was not in vain. Here’s how you can know… because it cost us more than we gained from an earthly perspective.”

He says in verse 2: But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.”

He’s reminding everyone that when they planted the church in Thessalonica, they had just come from Philippi, where they were imprisoned, beaten, and run out of town.

How much do you want to get up and make more disciples after THAT experience?

Just put yourself in those shoes.

Maybe that’s time to lay low because you got “burnt out.”

But BECAUSE of their boldness in God… because of their RELATIONSHIP with their Lord and Savior… they went to Thessalonica, walked into town, and started preaching in the Synagogue right away for three weeks straight.

And their reception there wasn’t much better than Philippi.

There was tension with some of the Jews from day 1…

But even though there was opposition, many others believed… and so they relocated to meet in Jason’s house, and Paul kept establishing them in the faith.

And he did that until people attacked Jason’s household and Paul and his team had to leave suddenly.

And Paul is saying, “See… I don’t do this because of vanity… there are a lot of other ways to pursue vanity… I don’t do this because I love getting beat up. My conviction to do this comes from my relationship with God.”

He continues in v. 3… “For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive...

We aren’t trying to pull one over on you...

We aren’t trying to get you to follow a lie as some might accuse some Christians of doing.

We aren’t working to get gold stars on some chart in heaven somewhere based on how many people we can get to believe our lie.

He continues in v. 4… but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.

Listen: the call to make disciples is not about you EARNING approval from others OR earning approval from God… you already have all the approval you need.

Last week, we looked at our spiritual reality: that our lives are hidden with Christ in God through faith in his death and resurrection.

That when God SEES us, he sees the work of Christ for us and in us...

We don’t make disciples to EARN approval. We make disciples because WE HAVE all the approval we need!

We make disciples because the gospel is a stewardship of INFINITE VALUE with which we’ve been entrusted.

If we REALLY believe that Jesus is the ONLY Savior...

That he is the ONLY WAY to a right relationship with God… he is the ONLY WAY to live life the way it was intended to live… he is the ONLY WAY to be free from hell and to receive eternal life...

Then we MUST share that!

If you had the CURE (not just the vaccine, but the CURE) for COVID19 sitting in your basement and DIDN’T share it with anyone… you would be guilty of MURDER because of your negligence.

And we have been entrusted with a cure far more eternal and far more effective.

We have the good news that Jesus is SAVIOR… and we also have the good news that Jesus is LORD.

And if we REALLY BELIEVE that Jesus is the ONLY LORD and he deserves ALL WORSHIP in heaven and on earth and under the earth...

And he is PLEASED when his people tell others about his glory...

Then should’t we WANT to do that???

Not because we are GAINING our relationship with him… but because we HAVE RELATIONSHIP with him and we love to please him!

Like, don’t you enjoy pleasing the ones you love? At Christmas, isn’t it just natural to express your love through giving someone something you KNOW they will enjoy?

That’s the motivation for making disciples - our relationship with God.

But Paul also knows that our sinful tendency would be to ELEVATE our relationships with OTHERS… ABOVE our relationship with God.

He continues in verses 5 and 6 -

For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 2:5-6 ESV)

So he’s already mentioned deception as a potential motivation in verse 3...

Now he’s saying, “I also wasn’t motivated by getting you to like me.”

It wasn’t about flattery: just telling you what you wanted to hear to make you feel good so that we had a good relationship.

It wasn’t about greed: just teaching you so that I could have a job and pay the bills and drive a Mercedes… chariot.

It wasn’t about getting glory or praise from you or others watching me.

This wasn’t about me or you… this was about HIM.

Listen: when we make disciples, it’s not just a horizontal relationship… it’s first a VERTICAL relationship.

We aren’t trying to get other people to follow US. We are urging them to follow Jesus.

We want them to be dependent on and devoted to JESUS, not us.

And that’s such a subtle difference because WE are the hands and feet of Jesus in their lives…

People learn about his character by watching us… they learn his word through listening to us…

And it can be easy to let the horizontal relationship consume our attention.

But our discipleship of others must be the overflow of our OWN relationship with God.

That’s the only way we will endure the challenges that comes with disciple-making like Paul talked about in v.1-2.

Listen: if you don’t have a relationship with God… if you aren’t growing in your dependence on and devotion to Jesus...

You will burn out.

That’s the only way we will endure the challenges of disciple-making… the only way we will please our Savior and Lord… is by focusing our hearts on him.

That must be the source of our conviction to make disciples.

Apply: So if you are a disciple of Jesus, do a little heart check here: Has your faith in Jesus convinced you to make disciples?

Maybe you aren’t convinced at all…

Maybe you are so focused on your horizontal relationships that you just want to maintain the status quo by NOT saying anything about Jesus...

You keep quiet because you don’t want to look foolish or lose a relationship or threaten your livelihood.

That’s a concern. Because Jesus is TOTALLY WORTH telling others about.

It PLEASES your Savior and Lord when you make much of him.

Maybe you are convinced to make disciples… but it’s not your relationship with Jesus that is convincing you… it’s something else...

Maybe you want others in the church to think you are a good Christian.

Or you want the people you are discipling to look up to you.

Or even worse, maybe you think you still need to earn the approval of God.

Believer: know this - God fully approves of you in Jesus… and he has entrusted you with a rich treasure to give with others.

That’s what Paul did: “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.” (1 Thessalonians 2:7–8, ESV)

The conviction for making disciples comes from our relationship with God… but the context for discipleship comes from...

2) The Context - Intentional Relationship with Others (v. 7-10)

Explain: Notice that Paul’s disciple-making relationships were marked by DEEP, PERSONAL care.... he was gentle among them.

Like he said earlier, he didn’t try to deceive or manipulate… he carefully and gently applied the scriptures in a way that met them where they were at in their walk with Jesus.

He was like a mother nursing her infant child… these were unbelievers and new believers who were still infants in the faith.

So while he was clearly more knowledgeable than they were in the scriptures and more mature in Christ… that knowledge came in the package of parental care.

I love how Teddy Roosevelt put it: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Paul CARED… He was GENTLE… he was AFFECTIONATELY DESIROUS of them… he loved them like his own kids.

When we are talking about making disciples, we are talking about developing REAL RELATIONSHIPS… helping unbelievers and established believers take their next steps.

And it can be SO EASY to jump right to the content of making disciples without building the context of relationship… we can just overwhelm people with everything up front.

Take this image of nursing a baby: Imagine feeding a baby and putting a steak in front of them and saying, “Well, you are going to eat this SOMEDAY… you might as well learn to chew it now!” You are going to KILL your baby because it will choke!

That’s what we do sometimes when we make disciples.

We try to show the unbeliever all the reasons they are wrong in their views on sexuality… or abortion… or Creation...

When in reality, all of those things will sort themselves out AFTER they take the first step of saying, “I believe Jesus is Savior and LORD over all!”

They need to turn to Jesus, and THEN they will be able to understand what it means to follow his authority.

Sometimes we expect new believers to have it all figured out and immediately fix EVERYTHING that is sinful overnight...

When in reality, we OURSELVES have taken 20 or 30 years to grow.

Instead, we need to meet people where they are… showing DEEP, PERSONAL CARE… like a nursing mother with their child.

We want to help others take the NEXT step… not all the steps.

For relationships with unbelievers, this means we stay focused on proclaiming JESUS… wherever the conversations go, keep bringing it back to JESUS.

We need to stay focused on the BASICS with newly established believers… things like the spiritual disciplines, putting off and putting on, the roles and responsibilities of the 5 spheres… there’s a lot to learn… a lot to apply... so take your time!

We need to patiently help stuck believers out of their sin patterns and hangups.

We need to help those who are growing but not reproducing disciples by coming alongside them and showing them how.

In short, we need to CARE enough to HELP people take their NEXT STEP, but let the Holy Spirit do the work to move their feet along his path.

But this type of relationship is still going to take a lot of work… look at verse 9: “For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2:9, ESV)

The Spirit is doing the work… but he is doing it THROUGH his empowered people!

And so that is going to mean that making disciples makes us tired sometimes.

Paul is referencing the fact that he worked a day job when he was in Thessalonica… he made tents so that these new believers wouldn’t have to pay for his living...

AND he labored in giving them the gospel.

Discipleship relationships require WORK… they require care… AND they require transparency.

Look at verse 10 - “You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:10, ESV)

This was Paul’s pattern… hold nothing back.

His primary method of discipleship… just like Jesus… was life on life modeling.

It wasn’t classroom style teaching through a curriculum.

It was scriptures applied to real life… his life first.

This is what he modeled with Timothy as he reminds Timothy in his second letter to him, chapter 3 verse 8 (which was in our reading plan): “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.” (2 Timothy 3:10–11, ESV)

ALL of that was part of his discipleship method.

So understand this: If I come up to you some Sunday after the service, and tap you on the shoulder and say, “Would you disciple this new believer?”, I’m NOT asking you to teach a class or give him or her a series of lessons.

I’m asking you to walk side by side with them… YES study the scriptures, but do it in the context of real life.

Be transparent about your weaknesses and victories...

Be clear about the way you see the gospel transforming your life.

Be real about the hardships it causes.

The context for discipleship is intentional relationships.

Established, growing believer… seek to be that person in an unbeliever or a new believer’s life.

Look for them in your neighborhood or workplace.

Find them in your Gospel Community.

Seek them out, with the consent of their parents, in our youth group.

Parents, do this with your kids.

Unbelievers… newer believers… young believers… seek out that person in YOUR life.

The context for making disciples and growing as disciples is our relationships with others: it’s going to require care… work… transparency.

The conviction for making disciples comes from our relationship with God.

Now this:

3) The Content - God's Word Applied (v. 11-13)

Look at v. 11 - “For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:11–13, ESV)

Explain: So when Paul’s team was making disciples in Thessalonica, they were using the scriptures. The word of God.

And the response of the disciples was to receive it for what it was: the word of God.

We don’t disciple people to agree with OUR opinions or ideas.

We don’t disciple people to like OUR preferences.

We don’t disciple people with OUR words… we disciple people with the word of God.

We talked about this when we studied 1 Thess 1 - that they used the WORD when they declared the gospel.

We need the WORD to be the central content of our disciple-making.

I would urge you… in your own discipleship walk… get into God’s word.

Not a tiny sentence of God’s word followed by a human author going on about it for 2 pages...

Let God’s word itself be the food for your soul.

And don’t get me wrong… I LOVE resources and books… I grow so much through them… but I NEED God’s word first and foremost.

And so do the disciples we are helping walk with Jesus.

And if you are MAKING disciples… teach them that pattern.

Teach them to open the scriptures FIRST for their answers to life.

Teach them to read the scriptures as the very word of God so they can respond to him in prayer and HAVE that relationship for themselves.

TEACH them where to go in the scriptures to find their roles and responsibilities in every sphere of life.

Teach them HOW to read the scriptures...

To read a verse in context… and ask good observation questions.

Teach them to interpret that verse in light of God’s big story and in light of Jesus.

And then teach them to apply it carefully and prayerfully.

That’s going to require a lot of guidance from you at first… and maybe you will need the help of others...

But in time, it will produce disciples of JESUS… not disciples of us or some specific author or preacher… but disciples of Jesus.

Now as Paul taught these disciples the word, I want you to notice that it still wasn’t an intellectual exercise. It was applied to real life.

They were to WALK in a manner worthy of God.

(or like we said last week… their POSITION in CHRIST needed to drive their PRACTICE in life… they needed to live CONSISTENTLY with their spiritual reality).

So to help them take those next steps in their walk in Christ, Paul and his team applied God’s word using three types of communication (we see it there in verse 12): Exhortation, Encouragement, and Charge.

The first method of applying God’s word is exhortation

The word for exhortation means to come alongside...

It’s comes from the same root word as the word “Helper” which is a title of the Holy Spirit in John 15.

According to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, "It implies speaking in God's name and with the Spirit's power." (TDNTA)

So it’s not necessarily just telling them what to do… it’s helping them find the way to do it.

It’s helping them see where they need to apply the word, and then coming alongside them in the process.

The second method of applying the word is...

Encouragement -

The word for encouragement means "to comfort, console… to speak to someone in a friendly way" (TDNTA)

People don’t just need to be told what to do… discipleship is not a “to do” list… new disciples need to be encouraged with who they are in Christ.

They need the encouragement about their identity in Christ…

They need encouragement that GOD is the one at work in them.

John Piper says, “We need to teach believers what happened to them in conversion.”

We need to teach them that they were adopted… made God’s beloved children...

We need to teach them that they were indwelled by the Holy Spirit… God himself took up residence...

We need to teach them that they have been empowered by God with a spiritual gift…

We need to teach them that they have been blessed with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in the heavenly places.

Encouragement is so much more than, “Good job on your performance… or you look really nice today.”

Encouragement is speaking COURAGE into someone with the truth of the gospel.

Encouragement is saying, “I see GOD at work in you in these ways. Keep going.”

Make sure ENCOURAGEMENT is part of your disciple-making efforts.

Exhortation… encouragement… and then this last one that few of us like very much:

Charge

The word for charge means “emphatic direction.”

It’s saying, “I’ve shown you how this applies to life and offered to come alongside you… I’ve encouraged you with the truth of the gospel… now go live it out.”

It’s that direct action of holding someone accountable to the word of God.

For those of us who have made disciples, I think we probably each have one of these methods of communication that we prefer the most...

Some of us are exhort-ers who love to show people how the Bible applies to life… and we love to come alongside them and help them DO.

But sometimes we forget to encourage… we forget to root what we DO in who we ARE.

Or we forget to CHARGE. Like there comes a time when they just need to take the next step and we need to be more forthright with that.

Some of us are more encourage-ers. We love talking about the gospel and how we see it working.

But we don’t like to push people in exhortation or charge.

Some of us are more chargers… we forget the whole coming alongside and all the encouraging parts… and we’re like, “Just GROW already!”

That’s going nowhere fast.

Which one of these three do you favor the most? Which are you prone to avoid?

The truth is we need a balance of all three if we are going to effectively make disciples, because the Holy Spirit works in all three ways.

And our exhortation, encouragement and charge needs to come FROM the word of God… and applied to the entire walk of a believer… (the entire way of a disciple).

Now the Apostle Paul and his team applied ALL of these essentials in purposeful discipleship… and so we should ask… what was the result?

Verse 14 - “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!” (1 Thessalonians 2:14–16, ESV)

The gospel took root… and the church was established to the degree that it endured suffering as they KEPT making disciples of Jesus.

Making disciples can be hard. It’s labor and toil and suffering sometimes. And we need resilience to keep going.

And that resilience comes from the examples of those who have gone before us.

4) The Confidence - Examples of Resilient Disciple-making (v. 14-16)

Explain: The first example that they could look to was the churches of Judea.

Some of the first churches to receive the gospel had suffered tremendous persecution…

These were the places where Paul himself (before he followed Jesus) went to beat up and kill followers of the Way.

These were the churches who were surrounded by these more DEVOUT Jews and who really had to face opposition for saying that the Jewish Messiah came also for the Gentiles.

And the Thessalonians had received the same harsh treatment… the Jews there had beat them up and made their lives hard for making disciples of the Greeks.

And they could take comfort in knowing that the challenges of discipleship were nothing new… they were to be expected.

But it wasn’t just the other churches who faced opposition in making disciples… it was Christ himself.

The Jews killed JESUS…

The very WAY to become a disciple is to follow a man who died on a cross for our sin.

Aren’t we glad that Jesus came… and embrace suffering… and was resilient through death… so that he could conquer death and bring us life?

Now the churches and Jesus aren’t the only examples of resilience… he suffered the same death as the PROPHETS WHO POINTED TO HIM.

Consistently prophets pointed people to walk with God… and consistently they were rejected and killed.

Disciple-making is hard.

And not only the churches… and Jesus… and the prophets… but Paul’s own team...

The Thessalonians had watched for themselves when Paul’s team was run out of town...

And he says… those who oppose discipleship will be judged by God.

Upon them the wrath of God has come… it seems like there was some sort of vindication ALREADY.

But we also know the wrath of God is coming at Christ’s return.

There is no neutral ground… you either walk in the way of a disciple, or you oppose Jesus.

And the wrath of God will come upon you and the judgment will be eternal Hell.

And in that moment, EVERY true disciple will be vindicated...

Suffering now means vindication then.

And we can take confidence in the fact that opposition will come… and resilience will be rewarded… and Jesus will save his people.

We’ve seen it again and again throughout history… we see it right now all around the world.

Take confidence… disciple-making is not easy. It’s not clean. There are a lot of hurdles and challenges.

What challenges do you face in making disciples? How have you seen God work in other examples that can give you confidence?

I think of my brother Paul who is a GCC Pastor in India…

He’s navigating COVID in a 3rd World Country where the government officials want to blame CHRISTIANS for any outbreak.

He has 25 children, mostly through adoption… and he and his wife were both very sick with COVID back in October.

And he had to navigate the challenges of the Pandemic, the government, his family… and he did so, according to his wife, with selflessness and grace and happiness.

And all the while he sought ways to keep making disciples.

And I think of Paul and others like him around the world… and I think of the hurdles and challenges HERE to making disciples...

And I’m emboldened: Just keep going. This is not the end.

The challenges in discipleship are the opportunity to see God at work.

I know there are many hurdles…but I believe God wants you to take the next step:

Who has God placed in your life to call them to follow Jesus?

Maybe it’s a family member… a friend… a neighbor...

It might be an unbeliever or a new believer or someone who is stuck in their walk with Christ.

And the God who LOVES you and approves of you in Christ has entrusted you with his gospel to help that person.

He’s put you in the context of relationship with them.

He’s given you all that you need in his word.

And he’s put people around you who get it… who get the challenge and will support you and be an example to you.

Maybe you ARE the person who needs to BECOME a disciple… or you are a new believer and you need someone to guide you in these things...

That’s OK! There is no shame in that!

Find someone to walk with you. Reach out and say, “Will you show me what to read and how to follow Jesus?”

[Show Pathway diagram] We want to proclaim Jesus to the lost. We want to equip disciples to be established in the faith. And we want to send those disciples to edify other believers and evangelize the world.

So what’s your next step in the way of a disciple? Let’s consider that now in prayer.