Matthew 28:18-20
Notes
Transcript
Review:
Kingdom Building
Our desire is to seek God advance His Kingdom in our community in us and through us.
Be watchful to guard against gospel drift
Fight the flesh by walking in the Spirit and bearing spiritual fruit
Persevere under pressure in:
Faith
Hope
Love
Because Jesus is worth it!
Then we looked at Jesus’ prayer for Unity for his followers.
Our ability to reach our community will always be directly tied to the measure of our unity.
Last week we saw in 1 Corinthians 12 how God desires to build his church through the diverse ministry of ALL his people using their various gifts for a common mission.
This morning we are going to examine this common mission.
Let me read for us the mission statement of Fishkill Baptist Church...
Fishkill Baptist Church exists to glorify God by making and growing fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ
The primary way that we will accomplish this mission is through discipleship. The relevant part of our vision statement which seeks to clarify HOW we will accomplish the mission is this...
We will become a discipling church that cultivates a heart for evangelism, developing leaders who equip the congregation to be a witness in the community—and to the ends of the earth.
If we are to become a discipling church we must ask our selves 2 questions...
What IS discipleship anyway?
And who’s job is it?
To answer this We are going to look at the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. So, grab your bibles and we’re going to get to work. Please stand with me if you are able out of reverence for God’s Word.
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.”
PRAY
Our 3 points will be the 3 primary verbs...
Make
Baptize
Teach
MAKE Disciples
MAKE Disciples
What is a disciple?
A disciple is someone who follows Jesus. This is why our mission statement states that we will make and grow fully devoted FOLLOWERS of Jesus Christ.
One error that many make with respect to the great commission is that it becomes all about getting people to pray a prayer or to make a decision.
The problem with this is that someone could theoretically say a prayer or check a box on a card indicating that they made a certain decision.
But if that is all the Great Commission is then we severely missing the point.
It’s not about accumulating converts. If we are only after making converts then we are only partially obeying this command and partial obedience is disobedience.
We’ve identified to this point that a disciple is a follower. But what does it look like to follow Jesus? To answer this question hear Jesus’ words in Luke’s gospel...
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Jesus is not saying that his followers must be willing to endure hard times. It means dying. The cross is not about suffering difficulty. It’s primarily about dying.
It means that we give up our rights to Jesus to show us how to really live.
So when we make disciples we are bidding people to come and die to their old way of living under their own destructive authority and to live for Jesus who loved them and gave himself for them.
Some are under the impression that there are different levels of discipleship.
There are the ordinary people who occupy a pew each week and read the bible a couple times during the week but largely their lives look no different from the rest of the world.
Then there are really committed disciples who are really sold out for Jesus. They go on missions trips, lead bible studies, share the gospel with others. And others rationalize why that person is not them by saying things like, “Oh, that’s just their gift”.
Then there are the really super disciples who serve Jesus vocationally…like missionaries and pastors.
But understand this, there aren’t degrees of dying — you are either dead or you are not dead.
You can be a faithful follower of Jesus who dies to themselves and be a middle school student, a bus driver, a garbage man, an executive, a home maker, or fill in the blank with whatever your vocation is.
The call to follow Jesus is a call to die to your self no matter what you do for a living.
And this brings us to our next point...
Baptize Disciples
Baptize Disciples
The meaning of baptism develops out of the meaning of discipleship. Because baptism is picture of the unseen reality of your death to self and your new life in Christ!
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
In this way your baptism is a declaration of the personal power of the gospel in your life.
Another thing about baptism is that it’s normative for every disciple. We see this in Acts 2:41
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Those who believed the gospel period — were baptized. Some used to think this way. I know I did growing up —
That baptism was some how a bigger commitment than just being a regular Christian.
It was for those who were really serious about their faith.
But the New Testament won’t allow us to think like this!
Baptism is basic and normative for all disciples and because Jesus commands it, it’s essential.
We also see in Acts 2:41 that those who believed and were baptized were ADDED THAT DAY. Added to what though? The context makes it clear that they were added to the church.
This is especially clear when you look down at verse 47 where it says,
The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Their number is a reference to the church — the fellowship of believers.
This is why we require baptism in order for someone to become a member of Fishkill Baptist.
I touched on this in last week’s sermon. In 1 Corinthians 12:13, it is clear that baptism not only unites us to Christ but also unites us to his body the church.
So, our practice of water baptism upon conversion points to this reality.
To summarize this point...
Baptism is the normal first step of obedience for any and all disciples of Jesus.
Baptism is a declaration of the personal work of God in your heart through the gospel.
And Baptism identifies you with Jesus’ body — the church.
If you claim to follow Christ and are holding out on getting baptized. Come talk to me about and I’d love to help walk you through overcoming whatever roadblocks are keeping you from obeying this command of Jesus.
So, discipleship — is a call to die to self and follow Jesus. And this includes obeying Jesus’ command to be baptized upon your profession of faith in Christ.
This brings us to the final point, TEACH...
Teach Disciples
Teach Disciples
Notice that Jesus says to teach them to observe ALL that I have commanded you.
Do you know what the Greek word for ALL means? — It means ALL — EVERY.
And since Jesus commanded his followers to make disciples then the work of disciple making is for ALL His followers.
This not reserved for people who have a unique gift. It is for every follower of Jesus who has received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Do you see that according to Jesus, to be a disciple means that you make and grow other disciples.
This is the basic and most fundamental ministry of ALL followers of Jesus.
Now I want you to imagine something with me. What if we hired a really gifted evangelist and he was able to reach 1 person for Christ every day for a year…that’s 365 new followers of Jesus in one year! Wow! Praise God for that!
But now consider the difference if just one person made 1 disciple in that same year.
And now there are 2 disciples instead of 1.
And the next year those 2 make 1 more each in the next year for a total of 4 disciples.
Let me show you how this compares to the evangelist as he continues to reach another one person a day for another year and so on. [SLIDE]
By year 13 the evangelist will have reached about 4700 people for Christ while disciples making disciples would make nearly 8200 followers of Christ!
Maybe the reason we don’t see more conversions is because we need to do a better job discipling the converts we already have!
I truly believe that we’d see more baptisms here on Sundays if more of us were committed to sharing the gospel Monday through Saturday.
So, how will we do this?
We could continue to offer a class on evangelism like we did recently. And I think there is value in that type of training but consider this...
What if discipleship were less institutional and more relational and intentional?
In other words what if we spent less time talking about how to follow Christ and more time modeling for someone what it looks like to actually follow Christ!
I could take a class about fishing and read a bunch of books about fishing
I could even buy some T-shirts about fishing and put fishing bumper stickers on my car.
Or I could listen to more fishing music on the radio.
I could study the Greek word for fishing and memorize the ethical code of fishermen.
But if I really wanted to learn how to fish, I would find someone who knows how to fish and ask them to take me out fishing.
Conclusion
Who’s job is it to make and grow fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ?
Making Disciples is OUR job - it’s YOUR job.
Maybe you’re here this morning and this terrifies you. You think that you’re not ready to show someone else how to follow Jesus — that’s okay. Maybe no one’s ever shown you and you need to find someone to disciple you first.
If this is you shoot me an email and I’d love to try to get you with someone who can come along side you.
Maybe you’re a veteran who’s been following Christ for years and you feel pretty confident that you could show someone else how to follow Jesus but you just aren’t for whatever reason.
If this is you reach out to me, shoot me an email because I’d love to try and match you up with someone.
Maybe you’re a veteran and your intimidated and not sure you can disciple someone else. Then take comfort in Jesus’ promise...
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age
This is an initiative that the elders are working on in an effort to be a church that makes disciples who make disciples.
We want to form micro discipleship groups of 3 where you commit to modeling, learning, and practicing following Jesus together for a season.
And at the end of your time together, those 3 people could start 3 more micro discipleship groups with others.
This may not look like much at first. We may even start with just one group...
Under the radar...
Not drawing much attention to itself.
(who knows) But we need to start somewhere. Because doing nothing is not an option.
PRAY
BENEDICTION
May the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.