“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.””
??Matthew? ?28:18-20? ?ESV??
In “the Great Commission” Jesus talks about our purpose as disciples. The Great Commission is just the fancy term for the command that Jesus gave to his followers after he was resurrected from the dead, and right before he ascended to be at the right hand of the Father. Jesus’s words can be found at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew. Take careful notice that he says go into all the World and make “disciples” not “converts”.
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In college I read a pretty life changing book called “Spiritual Mothering”. Long story short it gave you the heart behind, and practical considerations for how to disciple someone younger than you. Let me be clear this doesn’t discount discipling someone spiritually less mature than you but maybe older.
For my audience who may be asking, “what does it mean to “disciple” someone? I thought there were only 12 and they were those guys who hung out with Jesus?” That was my thoughts my freshman year when an upperclassmen asked if I would consider being disciples by them? So let me break it down. It’s not weird. It’s essentially what was said in the beginning, “Spiritual Parenting”. It’s joining alongside of someone and making them more than just a convert. More than someone who just walked down the isle and said the prayer. This is taking someone from THAT baby step, and showing them, “this is what it looks like to be a Christian”.
That means by the power and authority that Jesus has given you (Luke 9:1; John 14:12 by His Holy Spirit (Matthew 10:20), by the will of the Father (John 14:26),
you teach them how to pray,
you teach them how to study the word of God, you teach them how to hear the voice of God, you teach them what it looks like to walk in line with Holy Spirit,
you teach them how to evangelize,
you teach them the importance of community,
you do normal things of life with them:
eat and play,
you serve them as Jesus does,
you teach them and show them through example how to be a follower of Jesus.
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So then the question that must be asked is, what makes you a Christian?
Well let’s start with what it is not.
It is not what you are because you said a prayer once when you were 7 after walking down the isle because you were scared of hell. It’s not just saying “Yea, I believe in Jesus, he died for my sins.”
What being a Christian is, is being a disciple, following Jesus, striving to be like Him. What I don’t want you to hear me say is that you have to be perfect or that you will be sinless. But I learned a long time ago your actions follow what you believe. So if you believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior AND Lord you’re a Christian.
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So let’s unpack that. Let’s define what it means for him to be Savior and Lord.
Savior means he saved us from ourselves, the world, and Satan. That means apart from God as sinning humans, we are in need for a perfect human, Jesus (fully human, fully God) to take the place of our punishment. Most of us wrap our minds around this pretty well. So, what about Lord? I went my whole life until college with Jesus only as my Savior, but not as my Lord.
So, Jesus’s name and role as Lord means He’s in control of your life. That means you’ve realized you do not have the ability to control your life, that you actually don’t play a very good God. Jesus as your Lord means you’ve given your life over to Him and choose His ways instead of your own. It took me having a failed relationship, a failed dream, and my hiding place (comfortable people that I went to in times of distress) taken away for me to realize that I really can’t control my own life. It was heartache, and undesirable. I hope you don’t have to go through that to understand who Jesus is, but if it’s what brings you to Him and gives you eternity in His presence, than let it be.
“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.””
??Matthew? ?28:18-20? ?ESV??
