Back to the Basics: Making Disciples Every Christian should involve and invest themselves in making disciples. Why? Jesus commanded it. It’s called the Great Commission. Jesus modeled it. Jesus spent most of his 3 ½ years of ministry investing in 12 disciples. Jesus planned it. The Master plan of Jesus is to “MAKE DISCIPLES that MAKE DISCIPLES” until the end of the age. There is no other plan to reach the whole world. What Does It Mean to Make Disciples? Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB), “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” • There is only one command in this great commission, to “make disciples.” The going, baptizing, and teaching are three participles in the Greek – giving direction to the command. • “What is a disciple?” A disciple is more than a convert or a church member. A disciple is a learner, a follower of Christ, a pupil, an apprentice. A disciple identifies as a Christian publically in Baptism. Disciples habituate themselves in spiritual disciplines, in order to conform to Christ. • Jesus commands that disciples must be made. They don’t drop out of the sky. Disciples cannot be mass produced, they must be custom-made, home-made, hand-made through the intense and personal investment of one life to another. • A. B. Bruce, "The careful, painstaking education of the disciples secured that the Teacher's influence on the world should be permanent, that His Kingdom should be founded on deep and indestructible convictions in the minds of a few, not on the shifting sands of superficial impressions on the minds of many."' • When is a disciple made? A disciple is made when the disciple fully obeys all that Jesus taught. Why do we Make Disciples? Two reasons: Jesus has ALL authority (28:18) and He is ALWAYS with us on this mission (20). • The command to “make disciples” is bookended by two very important doctrines of Christ. His universal authority and His universal presence. Without these bookends, the command to make disciples would fail. • When we adjust our priorities so we are spiritually investing in others, teaching and encouraging others to follow Jesus, you will know His presence and His power like no other time. How do we make disciples? 2 Timothy 2:2 (NASB), “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful people who will be able to teach others also.” • The goal is not just to make disciples, but to make disciples who are faithful to make other disciples. • There are four generations of disciples in this verse: ME – Paul. YOU – Timothy. FAITHFUL PEOPLE (the ones Timothy will disciple), and OTHERS (The 4th generation – the ones the faithful will disciple). • The goal is to build a chain. Someone linked up with you to disciple you. You link up with another and discipled them, and they link with others. Making disciples keeps on making. IF everyone is faithful, the links, the chains, are strong and impossible to calculate. • Greg Ogden, “Discipling is a relationship where we intentionally walk alongside a growing disciple or disciples in order to encourage, correct and challenge them in love to grow toward maturity in Christ.” FINALLY, Where do we Make Disciples? • Disciple-making begins in the home and church, and also to all the nations (28:19)! Don’t think of nations as political borders, but as ethnic groups, tribes, language groups. • There are 3,100 unreached language groups in the world today. Tribes where there are no churches, no Bibles, no Christians, no missionaries working in that culture and language. They have no access to the Gospel. Jesus said, make disciples there too. CONCLUSION: • Jesus wants His church on the offensive. We do this by involving and investing ourselves in making disciples. • Start with your family. See that they are being fed the Word of God. • Invest in your church. Serve and give and pray that disciples will be made here. • Look to your friends and neighbors… is one ready and willing to be discipled and are you the one to help them? Robert Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism, “The world is desperately seeking someone to follow. That they will follow someone is certain, but will he be a man who knows the way of Christ, or will he be one like themselves leading them only on into greater darkness? This is the decisive question of our plan of life. The relevance of all that we do waits upon its verdict, and in turn, the destiny of the multitudes hangs in the balance.”