Discipleship Disentangled
If someone held a gun to my head and asked me: “what is the purpose of the church?” I would respond back with something like this: “The church gathers to glorify God by making disciples who will make disciples of all the nations.” That about it!
OBJECTION
Now, you may object and say that The Church exists to:
Preach the Word of God,
Teach Biblical doctrine,
Baptize believers
Administer the Lord’s Supper
Sing praises,
Have fellowship,
Evangelize the lost,
Serve the community,
All of these are thoroughly essential! And I am sure you could list off a million more things that the church should be doing. But all of these things are actually symptoms of Spirit-filled discipleship.
Let me say it this way, a church filled with Biblically trained disciples will strive to do everything God has called the Church to do. A church that isn’t, however, will struggle to do anything God has called the church to do. That is the difference.
So I will say it again:
“The Church gathers to glorify God by making disciples who will make disciples of all the nations.”
That sounds straight forward enough, but the real question is how do we do that? What does it mean to be a disciple? What does it look like to make a disciple? And how does discipleship fuel evangelism to the ends of the earth?
In this post, I want to explore just that. I want us to untangle the web of what discipleship is in order to help Christians get involved in their God-designed purpose. To do that, we will be looking at the most famous passage on discipleship in all of the Bible and we will be drawing seven non-negotiable observations.
Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says:
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.
This passage is known as the great commission, but in American Christianity it has looked more like the great omission. For decades we have focused on evangelism, hoping that lost people would be saved, but when they are saved, we have done little or nothing to help them grow. This must change!
Every Christian is called to be a disciple who makes disciples. Jesus did not ask or suggest this... He downright commanded it. And in order for the American Church to be revived from her slumber we must have a revival of discipleship. It is essential.
Thankfully, He left us clear instructions on how to do it. Let’s explore those instructions together.
7 essential truths about discipleship.
1. Discipleship Defined
A disciple is someone who was chosen by God, to be saved by Jesus, indwelled by Holy Spirit. to begin imitating Jesus Christ. It is someone who used to live in their own power and strength, but now is living under a new power and strength; The Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit power not only causes them to grow, but it changes their hearts and minds to make them want to grow. That is the essence of being a disciple. A person who joyfully wants to grow in obedience to Jesus.
This is what every Christian is called to without exception.
2. We Surrender To His Authority
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
After Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, a feat no other human being could accomplish, He states the plain and obvious: “I have all power. I have all authority. Not just on earth, but in every realm from here to heaven.”
He could say this, not only because He is God, but because He came to the rebel world that Satan perverted and He defeated him on the cross. He bound the strong man and was now prepared to plunder his rebel kingdom (Mt. 12:29) by making us His citizens.
You see, before returning to heaven as a victorious King, where He would rule over His Kingdom from His throne, Jesus installed human beings with a role to perform in His Kingdom. This means He did not die to make us powerless subjects or an uninvolved citizenry; He died to make us a part of His administration; as His emissaries and ambassadors here on earth. His goal was that we would extend His Kingdom until it won back all the nations Satan stole. Then, He would return.
Therefore, the first aspect of being a disciple of Jesus is understanding that He has infinite authority and power over our lives. He is King, we are citizens. He is master, we are slaves. He gave us this role that we cannot refuse. Why? Because He calls the shots and He defines the terms of our existence. Not us! If He wants us to be disciples who make disciples then the matter is firmly settled. Our opinions on the matter are invalid.
And this is because being a Christian, right from the very start of it, looks nothing like an American democracy. We live in a world where majority rules, we get votes, we can filibuster (at least for now), and we have legislative processes to have our voices heard. The same is not true when we are talking of King Jesus. He is our maximally powerful Sovereign. We have no votes. We have no overriding opinions. He is gracious to us and loves us. Yes! But make no mistake, He intends us to lay ourselves down to follow Him.
And following Him means being prepared to be discipled and to make disciples.
3. Carry Him With You
Go therefore… to all the nations
In light of His resurrection from the dead and His inauguration as King, we must be a people who are on the go! Jesus is saying, "don’t just stand there looking at me... start moving! Go out and tell the world who I am! Find ways of bringing me up to your families. Have the courage to talk about me with your coworkers at your job. And keep being vocal about my Gospel until all the nations have heard and I return to claim my Kingdom!
Because of the Holy Spirit in us, we carry the Spirit of Christ with us wherever we go. Our new life goal is not to think of ourselves and our own interests, but to be mindful and looking for opportunities to build up His Kingdom! That is why we introduce people to Him. Because He is now our purpose for living and our new strategy in life is to make Him known.
Give yourself that freedom!
If He is the light of the world, then we take Him wherever there is darkness. If He is the bread of life, then we carry Him anywhere people are hungry. If He is the way, the truth, and the life and if no one can come to God apart from Him, then we must bring Him to where lost people are, where spiritually dead people are, so that they may live!!
So just to recap, discipleship begins with being saved by Jesus in order to imitate Jesus. That causes us to joyfully live under His’ authority and to joyfully share His power with everyone we can. But that is not all discipleship entails. Next the text tells us to:
4. Be Baptized
“...and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
Before we can make disciples of Jesus we must first be a disciple of Jesus. And to do that faithfully requires not only being saved by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it also means responding with obedience to that salvation and being baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Think about it this way, while baptism is not salvific, it is the first act of obedience to Jesus once we are saved. It is the first real way we get to imitate Him, ceremonially participating in His death, burial, and resurrection, by going down into the waters and being raised up again as a symbol of new life.
So if you want to be His disciple, you must be baptized.
5. Learn To Obey ALL Of His Commands
...Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
The fourth non-negotiable aspect of being a disciple is learning obedience to everything Jesus commanded. Not just to some of the things Jesus said, but to ALL of Jesus’ commands. How do we do that? Well, we must begin with the Biblical understanding of obedience.
God commanded perfect and joyful obedience in order for us to be in relationship with Him. One sin, one act of rebellion, brings all of that crashing down, resulting in eternal punishment. And since all have sinned, all deserve that punishment.
But that is not the end of the story. While we could not obey God, Jesus came down and did. He perfectly and joyfully followed the law, breaking the power of the curse. To redeem us, He took our penalty and punishment on Him. To restore us, He gave us His righteousness. And to reinvigorate our purpose, He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us grow in obedience!
Jesus took away all of the penalty and punishment and provided us with a new power to live obedient lives; the Holy Spirit. So when He commands His disciples to obey in Mt. 28:18-20, He is not talking about obedience to be saved; He is talking about Spirit-empowered and salvation-enabled obedience to everything that He has commanded.
On this side of heaven, we will never obey Him perfectly. But the character trait of a disciple is that they are striving to grow in obedience over a life time. They want to be more submitted to Jesus next year than they were this year. They want to be more like Jesus in every aspect of their lives. And with the Holy Spirit at work in a disciple, this kind of obedience will begin to naturally grow.
6. Rest In His Presence
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
As we submit our lives to this all-powerful King, we will grow to imitate Him in our character and behavior; we will learn to take Him wherever we go and share Him with those we know; we will follow Him into the waters of baptism, and then we will learn how to follow Him onto the path of obedience over a life time. And, while doing everything that discipleship requires may sound like a thoroughly busy life (it most certainly is!!) it is also the only way to have true rest.
Jesus doesn't promise health, wealth, and success if we obey Him. And He does not promise true rest if we neglect His commands. Instead, He promises to those who will be His disciples that He will be with them. His presence will never leave them. His presence is our reward! When we follow after Him, we get Him!
And while being a disciple will cost you your life, your time, your goals, your plans, and your comforts; it is totally worth it because we get Him! And not just in a general way, Jesus is promising that to those who will make disciples, they will experience Him in an extraordinary way!
7. Teach Others To Do This
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.
The final command of Jesus, before He went back to heaven, was for you and I “to make disciples”. So, if we are going to obey all of his commands we will soon find our way to this one. The final command. The command to make disciples.
SO… How do we do this?
When you become a Christian, the church will become an essential resource to help you along the way. A faithful church will help you understand Christ’s authority and power in your life. A church will assist you in your baptism. A church will help you grow to obey Him in all aspects of your life. And, a faithful church will also challenge you to get involved in discipleship.
And when that happens, all you have to do is take another person where you have already traveled. Back through the steps Jesus laid out in this great text!
7 STEPS TO MAKE A DISCIPLE WHO MAKES DISCIPLES
You ensure they are submitted to Christ alone for their salvation.
You help them understand what Jesus’ authority and power means for sin and repentance in their life.
You help them understand what it means to take Jesus with them wherever they go
You encourage them to get baptized in a faithful church
You teach them everything Jesus commanded and help them grow into maturity
You point them to the truth of Jesus’ ongoing presence and comfort in their lives, especially in making disciples.
And when they are ready, you joyfully challenge them to go out into their world and to do these same things for others.
This is what being a disciple is. This is what it looks like to make disciples. And this is how a multiplying movement of disciples-making-disciples will impact all the nations. Because as the church gathers to train men and women to be disciples, the church will also scatter unto the nations to make disciples, which is multiplicative!
My prayer is that Christians would read this post and be encouraged to enter Jesus’ mission. I pray you will follow His 7 steps. I pray you would feel His nearness and presence. And I pray you would take these things and multiply them for His Kingdom, honor, and glory!
-Kendall
