We Go: Discipleship - Go Make Disciples
Focus: Jesus came to make disciples of every people group on earth reconciling them to the worship of the one true God through the cross.
What do we do when the lost are found through the gospel?
We make disciples.
Making Disciples
Making Jesus Known Amongst the Nations
Monotheism Matters
Making Disciples
We go to make disciples.
This is why we go on mission - to make disciples.
The Great Commission is a call to go and tell people about the love of God and to show people the power of God.
Each gospel account ends with a version of what Christians call the Great Commission.
In Mark, Jesus said, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel" and expect supernatural signs and wonders.
Mark 16:15-20 ESV
“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]]”
"Go and make disciples" is a mandate for every believer in every nation for all time.
Preaching the gospel is part of the Great Commission, but not all of it.
Responding to the gospel is a first step in a lifelong discipleship journey.
Jesus alone saves lost people, but he delegates discipleship to humans.
Discipleship is not a course, a class, or a program.
It is a relationship on three levels: a relationship with Jesus, with other believers, and with people far from Jesus.
In the Bible relational discipleship was always a group activity.
Making Jesus Known Amongst the Nations
We go to all nations.
This is where we go on mission - to all nations.
All of the Great Commission accounts include 1) a call to go on a mission, 2) a message to take to the nations, and 3) the promise of supernatural Holy Spirit empowerment.
In Luke, he told the disciples to go on mission, but not until they were "clothed with power from on high".
Luke 24:45-49 ESV
“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Yes, we make disciples locally, but also globally.
We go to our neighbors, to our campuses, and to our cities.
We also go to the nations - not just those that are open to the gospel but also those that are hostile.
The Great Commission is a call to make disciples in all nations.
Today, when we think of nations, we think of flags representing a nation - states and maps representing geographic boundaries.
But the word that Matthew uses for "nations" is the Greek word "ethnos," which is a body of persons united by kinship, culture, and shared traditions.
It is related to the English word ethnicity.
When Jesus called his disciples to go to all nations, he called them not only to specific geographic regions but also to different ethnolinguistic groups of people.
Monotheism Matters
We go exalting the one true God with his Word and the promise of his presence.
This is how we go on mission - with God’s truth and a promise of his presence.
Jesus' strategy for his global mission is discipleship.
Matthew's is the most famous of the four Great Commission accounts and has a similar three-fold focus of mission, message and the promise of Holy Spirit empowerment.
Matthew 28:18-20
"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."
Discipleship comes with a message found in God’s word, breathed out by the Holy Spirit.
Discipleship begins with teaching people the truth about the one true Creator God - and in doing so to obey all that he has commanded.
Amongst a pluralistic and relativistic global society, the message of the singular worship of Yahweh, the one true God of the Jews, who is revealed fully in the person of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, is of utmost importance.
Isaiah 48:1-11 ESV
“Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name. “The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’ “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel. “For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
It is not enough to just be spiritual.
God is looking for those who will worship him and him alone in Spirit and in truth (John 4).
The power of the Holy Spirit through the administration of spiritual gifts, signs and wonders testify to the person and truth of Jesus’ own life, miracles, death, burial and resurrection found in his Word.
*Discipleship means that we learn how to put God’s word into practice.
It means that you embrace your new identity in Christ, cultivating your relationship with God, and the world through his eyes.
It means that you learn how to be a godly family member, neighbor, co-worker and citizen, speaking and doing all things to the glory of Jesus.
It means that you engage new patterns of how you use your time, talents and resources for God’s kingdom ends.
It means that you embrace your new community, the church, and commit to being an active participant in the family of God.
In doing so you find the strength and grace to live as a disciple.
God is calling people to something greater than a TiK-Tok spirituality, where they give no more than a passing emotional thought to what they approve or disapprove based on their most recent amusement, dopamine hit and the violent roar of the masses.
So, what are some of the ways in which we need to learn to put God’s word into practice - in our present climate and applying his word to present issues?
Though not an exhaustive list, here are some examples that bold men and women of God have addressed in love:
We are to worship the Creator not created things.
Exodus 20:1-3 ESV
“And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ESV
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
Romans 1:18-23 ESV
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-7 ESV
“Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “Lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.”
All other presentations of deities come in the name of a god but represent a different person or entity with a different character representing demons, not God.
1 Corinthians 10:18-20 ESV
“Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.”
Leviticus 19:31 ESV
““Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.”
Isaiah 8:19-20 ESV
“And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”
In Scripture and in history, many who go to the nations on mission with such a message are met with persecution, prison, and sometimes death.
Suffering and sacrifice are part of the mission mandate.
But Jesus calls us to go anyway.
While Jesus never promised that the mission would be easy, he did promise his presence to those who go.
"I am with you always, to the end of the age."
What a promise!
When we go on mission, he promises to go with us no matter where we go or what we face as we do.
Galatians 2:21 ESV
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
But Jesus did die for a purpose.
Jesus is God in the flesh who came to live perfectly for us, take the punishment on the cross that we deserve for our rebellion against his life-giving commands and rise three days later according to his promise for the forgiveness of our sins.
As we turn away from man-made philosophies, demonic ideologies and rebellious living, we can not only be reconciled with God through faith in Christ’s finished work, but have the guaranteed hope of eternal life in him as he restores creation and makes all things new!