Make Disciples
- Jerry Witham
- Mar 23, 2009
- Series: Sacred
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What is sacred? God’s people have a sacred calling. Our sacred calling is to share the gospel. Why should we evangelize? I pray that your joy and desire to share the gospel would be increased as we see what should motivate us in this great task.
But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful (Matthew 28.16-17). The eleven disciples go from Jerusalem and into Galilee where there were probably many people in attendance to see the Risen, Son of God, Jesus Christ, the great conqueror of sin, death and the enemy. This could very well be Jesus’ appearance to more than 500 that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15.6. The mountain could probably be the one He was transfigured on. They saw Him and worshiped Him, though some doubted. This might include Thomas until he sees Christ’s hands and until he puts his hand into His side (John 20.19-28). What a scene this is!
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28.18). While there Jesus speaks to His disciples. He speaks to them as their friend as He draws near to them. All authority has been given to Jesus by the Father, although He is not exercising all of it. He will manifest this power when He returns in all of His glory. Then He delivers to them the great charter of His kingdom in the world.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28.19-20). Here we have one main imperative, one command, to make disciples. This command was not just for these eleven original disciples. Acts 8.4 says, Therefore, those who had been scattered (throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles – 8.1) went about preaching the word. This was not the apostles, nor elders. This command is for all Christians, including each of us. God has chosen to use us in drawing the lost to Himself through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 43.10-13 says, “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. “I, even I, and the LORD, and there is no savior besides Me.” “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, and there was no strange god among you; so you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.” “Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?” God acts and saves, but He uses us as His witnesses to make the lost disciples.
Making disciples involves three steps: going, baptizing, and teaching.
Going. As you go through life, your days, as you go to work and about your work, as you go about in your neighborhood, as you go about running or working out, as you go shop in the mall, as you go to school, as you go through bad times and the good times, the ups and the downs, as you go here and there and everywhere you are to be a representative of Christ as His disciple. For some this means answering God’s call to vocational ministry. For others it may mean going to the mission field, whether local or foreign. For example, this past weekend I did a wedding of one of our members. I was not there to simply sign a license, but a representative of Christ, to share the gospel to all there. Paul says, Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5.20). That as we are going we would beg (literally continually and habitually) others on behalf of Jesus, to be reconciled to God through Jesus! We do this by sharing the gospel (1 Corinthians 15.3-4). That is why you and I have been put on this earth. This is our sole purpose, to represent Christ, so that others would come after Christ, deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him (Luke 9.23).
When thinking about this know that this is not necessarily easy. It takes time. It takes great effort. It might also take risks. So, let’s be mindful of what we are trying to do in evangelism. We are to cultivate. Mike Hencher builds this acronym with CULTIVATE:
Communicate
Understand the world
Talk and walk
Invest in common ground
Value the person
Answer the questions
Tell the truth
Expect God’s harvest
This does not happen overnight. It is a lifelong commitment. So, in our going, we are truly cultivating.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Not all will believe, but there will be converts and we are to baptize them. It was assumed that when a person trusted in Jesus as their Savior and Lord they were then baptized. The New Testament knows nothing of unbaptized believers. Baptism does not save, but it is very important and someone who is saved should want to be baptized. To be baptized is to identify oneself with Christ. It is to display on the outside the union you now have through faith with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. I thought about this yesterday. What if one of you were at lunch with someone and eating outside and you shared Christ with them and they trusted in Christ. Then you talk to them about being baptized. What if there was a big fountain near where you were eating and you baptized right then and there? Why not? Just a thought. Or why don’t we have people calling and saying, hey I led so and so to Christ and we need to baptize them this Sunday or what about tonight at my pool.
Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. What the disciples have been commanded they are to teach to others to observe. Paul says, And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4.11-12). Those who trust in Christ must be trained up and equipped. You are being trained up (we are all in development) for the work of service the Lord has given to you to edify and build up the body of Christ and His kingdom here on earth. This is why it is so important, as we saw Paul emphasize with the sharing of the gospel last week with his phrase, according to the Scriptures, to hear, read, study, memorize and meditate on the Scriptures. So you are trained to share and train up new converts. Mike Hencher in his book, Learning about Evangelism says, Say, this year you shared with a non-Christian who became a believer. You train them and then next year the two of you reach out and two come to Christ. You train them and now there is four of you. By the 5th year you multiply to 32. Year 10, the number increases to 1,024; after 20 years, 1,048,576; and by year 33, over 8,500,000,000 – the probable size of the world’s population early this century.
Who do we make disciples of? Of all the nations (peoples). For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 1.11). It is not a question whether God’s name will be made great among the nations. It will. The question is will you enjoy being a part of such satisfying task? This means that both here in the West and abroad that you and I are to penetrate even the darkest of places. We are to go to sinners worldwide, those whom Jesus came to save.
John Stott says, We are to go as Jesus went, to penetrate human society, to mix with unbelievers and to fraternize with sinners. Doesn’t one of the Church’s greatest failures lie here? We have disengaged too much. We have become aloof instead of alongside. We are to be holy and separate from immorality and sinful living, but may our separateness not become isolation. We are to be holy as Jesus is holy and at the same time obey our Master’s command to go into the world. I love what Mike Hencher says, God wants us insulated, not isolated. As we go to sinners of all people groups we are to put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6.10-20), literally put on Jesus Christ. Paul says, So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel (1 Corinthians 9.14). Joe Aldrich says, The more a Christian is like Jesus Christ, really like Jesus Christ, the more effective he is in evangelism. Jesus was a friend of sinners. Jesus said, The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Matthew 11.19) Mike Hencher in his writing, Learning About Evangelism notes that according to one count, The Gospels record 132 contacts that Jesus had with people. Six were in the Temple, four in the synagogues, and 122 out where the people were, in the mainstream of life. He had personal contact with sinners, yet He maintained a lifestyle of purity. As for us, Hencher says, When sheep are ‘out with the wolves’ they must obey and trust the shepherd, but when they hang around the barn [the church], who needs the shepherd? So, we must not be satisfied with being barn dwellers, but instead as Jesus prayed we would be in the world, but not of it (John 17.13-16)! Paul was a great model of this saying, To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. (1 Corinthians 9.22). The Living Bible paraphrase puts this verse like this: Yes, whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him. May we seek out opportunities as we go through the day to day, whatever we are doing, with whomever we are in contact with, that sinners, the nations, may become disciples!
So why do we evangelize? Because we have been commanded to and we must OBEY! The prophet Samuel said to Saul, Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams (1 Samuel 15.22). The Lord desires faith-filled obedience from us. Paul put it this way when it came to evangelism, For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me (1 Corinthians 9.16-17). I am under obligation (a debtor) both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Romans 1.14-16). To evangelize is to obey!
Faith-filled obedience is one motivation, another motivation is LOVE FOR THE LOST. Jesus said, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3.16). This is how God has loved all people, how then shall we love others? We have been objects of such saving love, so we should love others as we have been loved by God, with the same grace, mercy, and compassion. Jesus going through all the cities and villages saw the people and He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed (harassed) and dispirited (thrown down) like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9.36). The greatest extent of compassion and love toward another is sharing the gospel. St. Augustine said, ‘Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself’. Now you love yourself suitably when you love God better than yourself. What, then, you aim at in yourself you must aim at in your neighbor, namely, that he may love God with a perfect affection. For you do not love him as yourself, unless you try to draw him to that good which you are yourself pursuing. For this is the one good which has room for all to pursue it along with thee. From this precept proceed the duties of human society. We love our neighbor by sharing with them the gospel.
To share the gospel is a duty of every Christian, that is motivated by a love for others and the greatest motivating force is our LOVE FOR GOD. Our love for the lost will fail and will prove to be inadequate, so as it has been said by others, our love for God is the only sufficient motive for sharing the gospel. We obey God because we love Him and long to see Him glorified. Jesus said, My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples (John 15.8). We love God when we show and tell His creation the truth about their creator. When we invite others as David did to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34.8) because we have ourselves tasted and seen that He is the greatest. When we tell others as David did, blessed are those who take refuge in the Lord (Psalm 34.8) because we have taken refuge in Him and we are happy indeed. We tell them as David did, that God’s lovingkindness is better than life (Psalm 63.3), because we have found that He is better than anything this life or world could ever offer us. This is love for God, as we display His greatness to all peoples. To love Him is to glorify Him. Oh that we would love Him by sharing the gospel!
When we do we have a promise from Christ. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28.20). He will be with us as we set up His kingdom here on earth. He will not send us out and then leave us alone. He will be with us always. One has said, If we don’t go, no lo. But if we do go then lo, Jesus is with us always.
May we be a disciple making church, as we faithfully go, baptize and teach others.
