We, as a
Church, exist to make disciples.
We have a
commission from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
After He
was raised from the dead, He met with His eleven disciples on a mountain. At that meeting, He said, “I have been given
all authority in heaven and on earth.”
(Matthew 28:18) Then He said,
“Therefore.” “Therefore” based on His
authority, based on His position, Jesus gives a command. He assigns His followers a mission. He says, “Therefore, go and make disciples of
all the nations.” (Matthew 28:19)
The command
here is to make disciples. This is why
we say we exist to make disciples. Jesus
commands us to make disciples.
This is not
as mysterious as it sounds. Jesus gives
us an outline of the process. He says,
“. . . baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Teach these new disciples to
obey all the commands I have given you.” (Matthew 28:19)
Baptizing
them assumes conversion. This is the
preaching of the good news. In Mark
16:15 Jesus says, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” This is the first step in the disciple making
process.
A disciple
now is the same as a disciple was in Jesus’s day. A disciple is a follower of Jesus. A disciple is a learner, a student of a
particular teacher. In Luke 6:40 Jesus
says, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully
trained will be like his teacher.”
(ESV) The point of discipleship
is to become like the teacher, to receive training from the teacher and to
become fully trained.
This is the
second part of the outline that Jesus gives when He says, “Teach these new
disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”
This
teaching takes many forms. It takes
place in Sunday School, and in Worship.
It takes place in books and articles.
However, none of this is enough.
A disciple must be a follower of the Master. In order to do this, each person must learn
to follow the Master for his or her self.
Jesus challenged anyone who would follow Him with these words:
“If anyone would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24, ESV)
The Apostle
Paul told his young disciple, Timothy:
Work hard so you can present
yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be
ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
Both Jesus
and Paul are pointing to the need to follow Jesus daily. This starts with making time to be with Him
daily. Make time to read the Bible every
day. It does not have to be huge chunks;
even a little bit will help. This will
lead to correctly explaining the word of truth, and if we are listening to the
word of truth, we will know what cross we are to take up.
Being a
disciple is not a hobby, a career or an interest. It is a decision and a commitment. It is who we are when we accept Christ. All Christians are disciples. When a person accepts Jesus as Savior, he or
she becomes His disciple. Some are poor
learners and there are plenty of wayward disciples. No matter where you are on the journey, if
you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are His disciple.
The command
or commission we have from Jesus is to make disciples of all nations.
What does
He mean by all nations?
The word
translated “nations” here is the Greek word “ethnos.” It is from this
word that we get our word, ethnic. It means forming a culture and refers to
people joined by practicing similar customs or common culture. The Jews of Jesus’s day used it to refer to
unbelieving Gentiles (non-Jews).[i]
In
Revelation 5:9, the angels and elders sing a song to Jesus saying, “Your blood
has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and
nation.”
This has
been God’s plan all along. Even as early
as Abraham, God was already saying, “All the families on earth will be blessed
through you.” (Genesis 12:3)
The early
church immediately set out to obey this mandate from Jesus Christ. Thus, we have in Acts 13:1-3 the beginning of
the first missionary endeavor. Jesus had
sent His disciples out in pairs to preach, and by this means had taught them
how to do missionary outreach. Then in
Acts 13 we have this account:
1Among the
prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon
(called “the black man”), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (the childhood companion
of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. 2One
day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
“Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” 3So after more fasting and prayer,
the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
Although
the history is long and complicated, our missionary movement started on that
day. Jesus told His disciples:
“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.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)
It is our
privilege to see in our day the gospel reaching to the ends of the earth. However, the task is not finished. Of the 16,300 ethnic groups in the world,
6,550 are considered unreached, and of those, some 3,000 are unengaged. Unreached means less than 2% Christian, and
no indigenous community of Christians able to evangelize the rest of their
people group. Unengaged means there are
definitely no missionaries, in all likelihood no outreach, no church or
fellowship of believers, no Christian materials, and few if any Bibles in these
people groups.[ii]
Lest we
think these are small insignificant people groups, the unreached people groups
account for around 40% of the world’s population.
We, as a
church, stay connected with missionaries because it is part of who we are. We are concerned that our neighbors hear the
gospel whether they are near or far.
[i]
http://biblehub.com/greek/1484.htm
[ii]
https://joshuaproject.net/resources/articles/has_everyone_heard
Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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