Matthew 28:18-20, Doing Discipleship (Part 1)

Doing Discipleship

 

            Illustration:  My first year in college I needed an elective and so I chose percussion.  I had never played an instrument in my life, and, I in no way have been gifted in this area.  The teacher of this class was an eccentric older guy. 

One day he wanted all the percussionists to practice for a certain piece they were going to play in their upcoming concert.  It was a strange piece.  Everyone was going to make noise in a different way.  Someone would crinkle newspapers.  Another person would bang on a pop can.  Another would shake some wobbly sheet metal.  Still someone else would actually play the drums, the congos, a cymbal, some chimes and so on.  It was a strange assortment of “instruments”. 

Well, everyone would be playing according to sheet music, but everyone was going to play to their own time.  I was brand new to music, and I didn’t understand this.  So, I’m sitting there with one drum stick and I’m supposed to bang on a metal arm chair. 

Well, the “song” begins and it’s very boring:  a crinkle here, a thwack there, a glittering chime here, a bong there.  It all sounded so random to me, I really thought the whole exercise was stupid.  Remember, I still didn’t know that each noise was deliberate according to each person’s song sheet and the time they were keeping individually.  So after about 2 minutes of “random” and seriously boring noises, I decided to put a little excitement into the piece.  Up until that point I was only doing a single or a couple of little taps, just enough so no one thought I was sitting out, but, not enough to seem like I was not weird.  Boredom took over and so I started to bang very fast and very loud on that arm chair. 

I was in my own world for about 2 seconds, imagining myself to be Buddy Rich in the middle of one of his legendary solos.  Then, in the middle of my solo I realized that everybody else had stopped and was looking at me.  Then the teacher, with a very annoyed and puzzled look said, “What are  you doing?”  I just looked around and finally said, “I don’t know.” 

 

            If the music paused, and Jesus turned to us at EFC, and He asked us, “What are you doing?”  What would we say?  Are we keeping time with Him?  Are we playing the notes He has written on the page?  Would our answer have anything to do with the Great Commission He has given us?  In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said these words.  [Read]

 

            Now, today I want us to look at what we are to be doing.  Each of us should clearly see the business that we should be busy with.  Disciple.  Do discipleship.  Jesus says “Go”, but He is telling us to go wherever you have to go to make disciples.  He says to baptize, but, that’s part of the command to make disciples, because disciples are baptized.  He says teach them to obey everything I command, and that is the essence of discipleship.  A disciple is someone who obeys the commands of Jesus Christ.  A disciple-r is someone who teaches someone else how to obey the commands of Jesus Christ. 

 

Jesus said lastly, “I will be with you to the end of the age.”  I would argue that in at least one way He meant He would be with us in the sense of approving and supporting us.  Well, if we want Jesus to approve and support us we see that He says this right after commanding us to go and make disciples.  My conclusion is this, if we want to have the support and the approval of Jesus, if we want Him to in essence say, “I’m with you in what you’re doing”, then we should be doing discipleship.  “What are you doing EFC?”  I want us to without any reservation know what we are supposed to be doing, and, be busy with it.  Discipleship.

 

            Let us look at this issue of Discipleship from 6 questions:  Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. 

 

#1:  Who is a Disciple?

            As I said last week, we can define a disciple as someone who obeys the commands of Jesus Christ.  You might hear other language like someone who “follows” or “adheres” to His commands.  But I like obey.  It is a hard word to use in our culture of autonomy and rebellion.  But it’s the best word.  Obey conveys the idea that we are submitted to an authority.  It conveys that the way we are living is governed by someone else; that we don’t live life on our own terms but someone else’s.  Is there someone else better to be submitted to then the Lord Jesus Christ?

 

The word disciple does however have a broader meaning.  It means a learner, or, one who is taught by another.  A disciple is someone who listens to someone else in order to imitate them, to think like them, and to have their worldview shaped by them. 

 

Now, you can see how this concept of discipleship is not restricted to the Biblical world.  People can be a disciple in many different contexts.  In the business world you could be a disciple of some successful business mogul.  In the trade world (electrical, plumbing, carpentry, HVAC, etc.) an apprentice is a disciple to the journeyman who is teaching them.  You can be a political disciple too.  Let’s say your political views are shaped by Fox News or CNN, or by Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin, or NPR, you would be a political disciple to them.  There are military disciples too.  There are certain schools of thought on how to wage war which many times are based on historical military geniuses – Napoleon, Alexander the Great and so on.  There are cultural disciples as well, meaning that they learn from cultural influences around them – musicians, actors, and even friends (remember 1 Cor. 15:33?  Bad company corrupts good character).  Then there are disciples in the homes because children are disciples of their parents.  They learn from them. 

 

Now back in the Bible you see disciples.  People were disciples of Moses (John 9:28).  They were disciples of John the Baptist too (John 3:25).  They studied, learned, followed and obeyed their teachings.  The way they saw the world was molded by the ones they learned from. 

 

The kinds of disciples we are though are the NT church disciples.  We’re the one’s Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 28:20, “Go and make disciples of all nations…”  We’re descendants of disciples like the ones in Acts .  We have obeyed the Gospel, meaning we believe it and are saved.  We are now characterized by obedience to Jesus Christ.  Disciples of Jesus Christ are those who obey His teachings.

 

Logically, the more devoted a disciple follows someone over time the disciple is going to be progressively more like their teacher.  This means that the more time someone has been a disciple, the more they should look like their teacher.  That was the implication in Hebrews 5 when the writer was chiding his readers for not being further along in the faith even though enough time had passed. 

 

This does bring up an important point:  There is no retirement from discipleship.  In our culture the labor force lives to reach retirement age so that they can leave work behind and enjoy the fruits of all those years of labor.  We must be careful that a cultural mindset does not transfer over to our biblical view.  In other words, we are disciples for life, and, there is never a time when we can say I’m all done with this discipleship thing.  The irony of spiritual growth is that the more you grow the more you realize how much you have to grow.  No one can say they have arrived.  Paul is a perfect example in this.  In Philippians 1 he makes a couple comments that we should listen to.  [Turn to Philippians 1]  He knew discipleship and growth were never going to end in this life.  In Philippians 1:6 he said, “I am confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  God is not retiring from working in us, who are we to quit?  Then later in chapter 3 he says he has not achieved perfection yet, and so he continues on in his own personal growth to keep getting closer.  In chapter 3 verses 12-14 he says, “…” [read].  The point here is this:  Discipleship is for life. 

 

Let me point out one more important point:  There are both true disciples and false disciples.  Every true believer is a disciple, but, not ever disciple is a true believer.  There were false disciples with Jesus in John 6.  They followed Him everywhere and ate up all His teachings.  They were making tremendous sacrifices to follow Him.  Until John 6 when the teachings got real tough.  It says that they all began to turn away from Him until only the 12 were left.  Judas was a disciple, but, a false one.  Paul said he was in danger of false disciples in 2 Corinthians 11:26. 

 

When we ask the question:  Who is a disciple?  The answer is:  Someone who trusts in Jesus Christ for salvation, who obeys His commands.

 

#2:  Why do we do discipleship?

            First of all because Jesus commands us to.  That is Jesus Christ’s command in the Great Commission:  to disciple.  “Go therefore and make disciples.”  “Make disciples.  Baptize them.  Teach them.”  Why go?  To make disciples.  Baptize who?  New disciples.  Teach who?  Disciples.  The Great Commission is centered on the task of discipling.  Even evangelism is not an end in itself.  The goal is discipleship. 

 

            Secondly the reason why we disciple is to present mature Christians to Christ.  Turn to Colossians 1:28.  This could very easily be my Pastor Passage – the verse that encapsulates the pastoral task.  [Read].  Notice the end that Paul was working for:  to present everyone perfect in Christ.  He had the end in mind, not here and now.  In Paul’s mind was the Judgment Seat of Christ, where he hoped to be able to present those he ministered to as perfect in Christ.  The word perfect actually means complete, finished, brought to the desired end.  It has the idea of finishing a project.  The project is our personal holiness.  This maturity is repeated in a variety fo ways throughout the NT.  For instance, I love the language Paul uses Galatians 4:19 [turn there] it

 

            Third, to make disciples effective servants for Jesus Christ.  Turn to 2 Timothy 3:16-17 with me.  [Read].

 

            Fourth, we disciple because it prevents confusion from taking over the church.  Fundamental to Christian discipleship is teaching sound Biblical doctrine.  And if the Church is busy doing this, then the Church is less vulnerable to being taken in by false teachers.  Turn with me to Ephesians 4:13-14, [Read].  That was also the problem with the Christians in the book of Hebrews 5:11-14. [Read]. 

 

The point here is not missed on us:  an immature church whose unaware of anything other than surface teachings of the Bible is at great risk for being duped by false teachers.  I’m not going to labor this point today as we have in the past, but, let me simply say this:  We are living in a day where the church is possibly as confused as it has ever been.  Let me quote from the book I handed out today, The Gospel Unplugged, by J.B. Hixson.  On page 20 he says, “Our world today is far more comfortabale with vagueness and ambiguity than at any other time in human history.  In fact, there has been a profound abandonment of certainty in the hearts and minds of most people.  Any principle or belief that is asserted with dogmatism and certainty is instinctively questioned and usually dismissed out of hand.  Anything that certain must not be true!” 

 

That’s because of the post-modern idea that what’s true for you isn’t necessarily true for me.  People think truth is relative, not absolute.  So, we can never say anything is absolutely true.  You know what that leads to?  First, a deterioration in the dogmatic belief that the Gospel is the only way of salvation, and second, a growing acceptance of other beliefs that are in opposition with Scripture.  That’s why issues are IN the Church that are unimaginable.  Who would have thought there’d be a need to argue IN the Church whether or not homosexuality is a sin?  Who would have thought that social activism would replace the Gospel?  Who would have thought that joining together with Roman Catholicism and Mormonism and Islam and any and every other religion would be so mainstream? 

 

I am saying that the superficial and shallow condition of so much of Christianity today is because the Church is not discipling the next generation.  The next generation is confused about Biblical doctrine and when you combine that confusion with a tendency to not think anything is really true – it leads to a church that is seeking experience – through musical highs, mysticism, entertainment and so on.  And confusion is the result.  The Great Commission by our Lord did not say, “Go and make consumers, entertaining them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey their own itching ears.”  He said “Go.  Make Disciples.  Baptize them, and teach them to obey what I have commanded.” 

 

When Christians are discipled they become more in line with the Bereans, who according to Acts 17:11, “were more noble than the Thessolonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul ssaid was true.”  Gullibility is a mark of confusion, and the Bereans weren’t.