• Published September 13th, 2011
  •   by: Steven
  •   with 0 Comments

A few months ago (I know it's been forever,  I'm a terrible blogger!)  I posted on how we all need to be discipled so that we may grow in grace (2 Peter 3:18). Today, I am going to share why we not only need to be discipled but that we also need to be disciplers. 

We all need to be discipled, to grow in godliness.  As we grow in grace, we should start to feel a tug to do likewise in the lives of others. As the Gospel is being worked out in our lives, we begin sharing the Gospel, and we get opportunities to make more disciples.

Here's 5 Reasons We Need to Disciple OTHERS:

 

1) Jesus commanded it

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, jbaptizing 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.”

(Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

Matthew 28:18-20 is one of the most used and least understood verses in all of Scripture. This isn't simply a plea from Jesus to go make more "converts". It was a call to identify, invest in, and develop people to count the cost and follow Jesus.  Jesus has given us, as the church, authority to take the Gospel to an unbelieving world. This is also not, specifically, a call to the mission field. Go therefore should be understood as "as you are going". As you are going about your daily life, God has providentially placed you in a neighborhood, job, and family to make disciples out of those people.

 

2) We will hit a point of maturity that necessitates making disciples

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. (Matthew 10:5-8 ESV)

There is a point in our spiritual maturation that we need to start making disciples. Jesus had walked with these twelve men for a long time. But His discipling of them wasn't simply to give them knowledge about the Kingdom of God. He discipled them so that they could advance the Kingdom of God with the Gospel by making more disciples. As we truly begin to understand the Gospel, we see our sinful state and God's glory in the Cross. This should give us a desire to see unbelievers drawn out of darkness by the Holy Spirit and become followers of Jesus.

 

3) Discipleship is about reproduction

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:10)

Built into the DNA of the church should be a desire to grow, for more people to praise Jesus. Paul's very ambition as an apostle was that those who did not know Jesus, who were far away, would draw near and know Him.  I think this highlights a major disfunction in our modern day understanding of evangelism.  The Gospel is not good advice, a new set of principles or a list of rules for prospective converts to buy into for a "better" life.  It's about redemption.  Do we, functionally, believe that the Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation"?  Do our lives bear out the reality that Jesus literally SAVED us?  Paul had an ambition to share the Gospel because he understood what Jesus had done for him and wanted to reproduce that in the lives of others.

 

4) You grow WITH those you disciple

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
(Philippians 1:3-11 ESV)
 
When you take the time to invest in the lives of others, it causes you to focus on Jesus.  Paul prayed earnestly for the Philippians and it had an affect on him.  He had great joy because of the partnership they had in the Gospel.  He was driven to worship because these people he shared his life with were living out of the hope they had found in Jesus.  When I disciple guys in our church, I get really excited when they "get it".  I can see them starting to live out what the Bible teaches.  This makes me want to strive even more.  A guy in our church has been praying for and engaging a neighbor from India.  He told me today that they are going to spend time together tomorrow.  He's being missional!  That makes me want to go be on mission!  You grow WITH those you are sharing your life with.

 

5) Missional/Gospel Communities and churches are formed by discipling each other

A consistent pattern in the New Testament was Paul and Barnabas go to a place, preach the Gospel, people get saved, they are trained (discipled), elders raise up, and a new church is formed.  This happens time and time again from Antioch to Pisidian Antioch to Lystra to Derbe and so on.  Imagine this.  You invest your life into two new believers.  As they grow the 3 of you now invest your lives into 2 new believers apiece.  As they grow, the 9 of you invest your lives into 2 people each.  You are now at 27 believers living out the Gospel in community together.  That's how churches are formed!  

So, who are you discipling?  

 

 

Steven's picture

Written by Steven

Pastor of Ardent Church