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Intro: When I went shopping at the mall for Christmas every year.
I would get 20$ to get presents.
What I heard was, get presents with this and what you have left is for you.
We're going to be looking at the Great Commission, which we looked at in the past, but taking a second look at it today.
Often, we will look at it and miss the truest point of what He is saying.
If you have a Bible, and if you don't have one there is one in the seat in front of you or it will be on the screen, we're going to be in Matthew 28:16-20.
Let's jump into Matthew 28:16-20.
Like I said, we're taking a second look.
Today, I want to try to answer a simple question for us.
It's a question that often goes unanswered, but it's the first question we should ask when we look at a text like this.
That question is: What is a disciple?
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
What is Jesus talking about when he says make disciples?
That's the question I want to try and answer today.
Read: Matthew 28:16-20
What is discipleship?
What is Jesus asking us to do?
As he speaks these last words to his disciples, what is he telling us to do as we go make disciples?
You see, often this text is used to command us to do other things other than make disciples.
Like go, teach, or baptize, but in the original language, those aren't the commands.
The command in this text is to make disciples.
Go, not a command.
Teach, not a command.
Baptize, not a command.
In the original language, the only command is make disciples.
It could be translated like this: As you're going, make disciples.
As you're teaching, make disciples.
As you're baptizing, make disciples.
The emphasis of this passage is on discipleship.
Often discipleship is misunderstood.
People will think, "If I could just know more of the Bible.
Or if I could just get my sin patterns more controlled.
Or if I could just…" fill in the blank.
That's what discipleship looks like to many.
How does Jesus define discipleship?
The term discipleship is used 269 times in the NT.
The word Christian is only used three times.
It would be easy for us to define what a Christian is, as least sub culturally in American evangelicalism, but can we define, the way Jesus would, discipleship?
I think, based upon this text, Jesus would say there are three things that are true for disciples.
Disciples have been adopted by God, disciples are being formed by God, and disciples are empowered by God for life and mission.
What does it look like to have been adopted by God? Look back at the text, verse 19:
"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…" Baptism.
If you have been here over the years, you have witnessed incredible testimonies of people of dying to self and now being alive to Christ.
That they were one person, but they are now somebody else, so they have received a new identity.
Illus: Jonah and Taylor.
They were once orphans in the world, separated from God because of their sinfulness, their wickedness, their rebellion, and their sin patterns.
They had rejected God.
The Bible is very clear that Genesis, chapter 3, has affected all of humanity, that all of us before God are sinners.
Another term we don't often talk a lot about is the Bible would describe us as orphans, fatherless in the world, lonely, desperate, and seeking to make an identity for ourselves by ourselves.
To be baptized in this text, though, literally means to be re-identified with the Father, to be given a new identity, to be possessed by God.
You see, this is harder for us to understand, perhaps, in the twenty-first century, but in the world of the Bible, one's identity and vocation are tied up with what their name is and who their father is.
This might make sense why often James and John are called the sons of Zebedee, because that was their identity.
Or Joshua would be called the son of Nun.
Right?
Who your father was, had everything to do with who you identified with.
They even say this about Jesus, "Isn't that Jesus, the son of Joseph?"
Because your identity was wrapped up with who your father was and what your name was.
We understand this a little bit in our culture.
Illus: Being the son of Jim Slack or my kids being mine.
If I am honest with you, I wish my kids did not have to carry the burden of a name with them.
I wish they could just be who they are in God and outside of me.
I’m not a big fan of Lebron James, but I respect what he said in an interview one time in dealing with his son.
He said in the interview, "I regret naming my son after me."
I understand that.
His reason was because at the age of 14 the media was already buzzing about the potential of his son and what he might be able to do in basketball.
Could you imagine those expectations?
To have the expectation of this being your father and that identity placed upon you?
So much pressure living up to that expectation.
I want you to look back at the text.
What does Jesus say a disciple is?
A disciple is somebody who has been baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
What is Jesus saying?
"Go into all the nations, find the orphans of the world, the sinners who are lost, needy, desperate, broken, separated from God, finding their identity in other things.
Tell them they have a Father in heaven who loves them, who sent his Son to die for them so they might receive forgiveness of sins and is ready to indwell and empower them with the Holy Spirit.
Tell the orphans I want to adopt them, they can come home and the expectations have already been met and cannot be changed."
What's different about this Father than that father who said, "I wish I hadn't given you my name," is this Father has already defined the expectations and it does not matter what the world thinks of you.
He says, "Give them my name."
An immovable name.
Here is what Jesus is saying.
"The orphans who find their identity in what they do, what they have, their greatness.
The orphans who are identified in their best accomplishments, their worst accomplishments, their best moment, or their worst moment, tell those orphans they have a better identity waiting.
Through conversion, through adoption, through baptism, they can become sons and daughters, and I will give them my identity.
They're no longer going to be known as an orphan.
They'll be known as a son or a daughter of the Most High King, Whose name is above all names"
You see, LeBron expresses some hesitation to name his son after him.
I expressed some hesitation to my children carrying my name because of unfair expectations.
Here is the thing though, God has no hesitation in adopting you as a son or daughter.
"Baptize them in my name, He says.
Give them a new identity, He says."
He freely and fully extends his name to you through the forgiveness of sins.
Disciples have received adoption and are given a new name, the name of God.
The first mark of a disciple is an orphan who has been adopted by God and is now a son or a daughter because they have been given a new name.
Disciples aren't just adopted by God, though, they are also formed by God.
We wouldn't just come into a new family but would begin to resemble and look like the family.
Jesus says in verse 20, "We don't just baptize them, we also teach them."
He tells his disciples, "…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."
We need to do some real talk for a second.
I believe one of the greatest challenges we face today as a church, whether we're talking about the contemporary church as a whole.
A big issue is we have put forward methods of ministry and a philosophy of ministry that believes discipleship ends with conversion.
We have removed the concept of learning, striving, imitation, growth, and development from our understanding of what a disciple is.
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