PvBibleAlive.com Parkview Baptist Church 3430 South Meridian Wichita, Kansas 67217
Discipleship
Matthew 28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [b]Amen.
We’ve been studying for a number of weeks in the area of church diagnosis. A couple months back we starting meeting to discuss our church’s future. We discussed possible pathways for our church. One of those possible pathways was titled “revitalization.” And the way revitalization was described to me was by comparing a particular church, say our church, to a tree.
Let’s say that you have a tree in your yard that is sick. You may notice the symptoms of that sickness. It may fail to produce fruit. Its leaves may be dead or dying. There may be dry rot in its branches. And you realize that if you don’t find out and address the disease, that this tree is going to die.
Our church is that tree, and we began the process of diagnosing the problem.
The first thing we did is have some meetings to acknowledge the problem. They say that the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. Jesus gave personal diagnoses to seven churches in the book of Revelation, and in each, after the diagnosis, He called on them to acknowledge their sin by repenting of it.
Well, in those meetings we did touch on some of the problems that we have as a church. But we didn’t really dig deep. So, the next thing we did as a church was to call on a tree doctor to analyze our problem. We began a devotional and prayer time over the next 40 days, asking God for guidance, and help in revitalization.
It was during that 40-day time of prayer that I was led by the Lord in two directions. The first was in preaching and teaching about the first church formed in Jerusalem after the coming of the Holy Spirit. Here was the first congregation, arguably the church that most closely fit the definition of what God wants a church to be.
So, we began looking at that church, and what it did, as a way of diagnosing our church. Are we being the church that God intended? They were a people “continuing steadfastly” in the Word of God, in prayer, in fellowship and the breaking of bread….and the Lord added to them daily those who were being saved.
I broke that down to three things; They were devoted to a vibrant relationship with the Lord by prayer and the study and application of the Word. They were devoted to an encouraging and exhorting relationship to each other. And they were devoted to “going out into the world and making disciples.”
Those are the three areas of diagnosis. Today we are going to look at the third area; our going out into the world to make disciples.”
I told you a second ago that during the 40 days of prayer that I was led by the Lord in two directions; the first was to preach about this first church, the second concerned making disciples. I came to believe, during those 40 days, that the greatest disease in our church concerns making disciples. Of course, we can do better in other areas; our dedication to the Word and prayer, our fellowship with each other. But of all the elements that should exist in a church, I do see Bible study happening, I see people praying, and people trying to love and help other believers in the church. But I don’t see much going on in terms of us “making disciples.”
And when I say, “us” I include myself as maybe the chief of sinners. We have become closed off from the world around us. We have limited our spiritual lives to our “safe zones” where no one will challenge us. Jesus made “making disciples” the ultimate command for His church. But I haven’t personally made discipleship my first priority. And our church hasn’t either. Now, a great deal of the blame for that lies with me. There’s a passage in the Old Testament book of Hosea that says, “like people, like priest.” What Hosea was saying was that the people became like their leaders. And the same holds true in the church. If the pastor is not making disciples, then the people will often follow suit.
So today is the really the culmination of a couple of things. That last attribute of an obedient church is that it is a group of disciples who make disciples. And we are bringing that together with thoughts and directions that God has led me to about how to treat this tree. We are going to begin studying Matthew 28:18-20 today. And it is going to bring us to a discipleship process that I believe God has led me to.
I am going to begin making changes in my life in order to become a disciple making disciples. And as we go through this passage, I will be teaching you what I have learned so that you can become a disciple making disciples. And my prayer is that I will be able to teach you in such a way that you to will be able to go out and make disciples who will make disciples. It’s a generational process that should not end.
Like in a family, the parents teach the children, the children the grandchildren, the grandchildren the great grandchildren and so on it goes. Except there is no time limits on this process. As disciples who make disciples you could start training the first generation of disciples this week, they could start training a second generation next week, and the third generation could be trained by the second generation the week after that.
Well, that’s the introduction to where we start today in Matthew 28. Let’s pray before we open our Bibles.
We are starting with Matthew 28 because it is a central command for the Christian’s life and the church. But we are also starting here because this is the passage that God used to inspire the Southern Baptist missionary Ying Chai to develop a discipleship process that we will be using in our church.
I told you the story of Ying Kai a few weeks ago, but let me refresh your memory. Ying Kai is a Southern Baptist missionary along with his wife Grace. They wrote a book about their experience entitled “Training for Trainers.” The book was first printed in 2018 but it describes events that began in October of 2000.
The Forward to his book says, “If you knew there was someone God had used to bring two million souls to salvation in Jesus Christ, and as a result new believers were baptized into 150,000 new churches in 10 years time, wouldn’t you want to know more?”
This is Ying Kai’s story in a nutshell. He and his wife have been missionaries in Asia for 21 years for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. In the beginning of their missionary work, in Hong Kong, the two of them were able to lead almost 200 people to faith in Christ and start 3 new churches in 5 years-time.
But in 2000 they were going to be sent to a neighboring country. So, in October of 2000 they were sent to some training in Singapore. At that training they were encouraged to develop a 3-year plan for reaching people for Christ and starting new churches. This was a discouraging task at first because in researching their new mission assignment they discovered that the new region they were going to had over 20 million unsaved people in it. And so, their bringing 200 to Christ, and starting 3 churches seemed pitifully inadequate.
So, after much prayer and Bible study, they developed a plan that they hoped would lead 18,000 people to Christ in 3 years and begin 200 new churches. They turned in their plan at the training and watched the disbelief in the eyes of the training director.
The long and short of it was this. Ying and Grace Kai worked on teaching people, training them to teach those who they lead to faith, who would then teach them to train those that they lead to faith.
It was a modern-day Acts 2 movement. No church buildings. The original missionaries just witness and then pass on lessons to other who pass them on to the next group. Now there are a lot of details I’m leaving out. Ying and Grace Chai originally in 2000, proposed that they might reach 18,000 for Christ and start 200 new churches in 3 years. Instead, they have kept records of close to 2 million coming to faith, and 150,000 churches started in 10 years.
Now I know what you are thinking. We are not in China where there has been spiritual darkness and oppression for generations. China is likely a spiritual field ripe for harvest. We are in America, where the citizens fat, happy, and satisfied. You may think, this kind of multiplication will never happen in the United States. But since when are we excused from obeying the command to witness because few people will listen?
We are commanded to “Go and make disciples.” So, for my part, I will take steps to begin to obey, regardless of whether it “works” or not.
So, what prompted Ying Kai to change the way he had been doing his missionary work? It was a time of prayer and the study of the Great Commission; Matthew 28:18-20. Let’s read it again;
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [b]Amen.
I have outlined this passage around 3 points; verse 18 the Great Commander, verse 19-20a the Great Commission, and verse 20b the Great Comfort
I. The Great Commander
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
A. Resurrected
The first part of the Great Commission concerns our Great Commander Jesus Christ. If we are going to get a feel for this passage, we have to first ask the question, “When did Jesus give this command?” He gave it after His resurrection and before His ascension. There were 40 days between Jesus’ crucifixion and His ascension. During those 40 days Jesus periodically appeared to the disciples and others and taught them. But His final command and lesson is what we call the Great Commission. It is the command from our Lord to take the Good News of salvation through Christ to the whole world.
Now that is a big command. Today we also talk about that command. And it seems overwhelming, even with our world having 2.5 billion professing Christians. Just think what it must have felt like for 11 disciples, and at best 120 others who called themselves disciples. The mission is to take the gospel to the whole world.
But there are two things that would have been empowering to the disciples, and to us. The first are the events that came before and after the Great Commission. The disciples could have easily been discouraged about the future of this movement. Jesus was leaving. He wouldn’t be there to guide them and give them strength. Peter could have easily thought about how he walked on water when he was looking at the Lord, but when his sight diverted to the wind and waves, he began to sink. He could have thought about how when he was with the Lord, he loudly proclaimed that he would die with Christ, but when he was out of Christ’s presence, he denied the Lord before a handmaiden.
So, what is empowering about the timing of the Great Commission? 37 days before the Great Commission something powerful happened; Jesus rose from the dead. He raised Himself from the dead. I know that some Scripture says that the Father raised the Son. But Jesus says in John 10:18, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
So, Jesus raised Himself from the dead before the Great Commission was given. What event happened just after the Great Commission? Jesus ascended to heaven. In a little over a month Jesus demonstrated power over the two greatest enemies of man; death and hell. Death couldn’t hold the Lord, Hell had no right to Him.
Up to his crucifixion when Jesus had said “Follow me” all the disciples could see was that following Him could lead to pain and death. But now they had been shown that the path of discipleship passes through death to resurrection, and then even this world couldn’t hold Christ. The path of discipleship would lead straight into the heavenlies.
Knowing that had to have given them a profound assurance about obeying the command of the Great Commission.
But if that wasn’t enough, He also gave them some reassuring, empowering instruction.
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
If it wasn’t empowering enough to know that the one who is commanding you has power over death and hell, that He could raise Himself from the dead and defy all laws of gravity space and time to ascend from earth to heaven, this statement should have been reassuring. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
What does that mean? It means that there is no authority in this world in this world that Jesus doesn’t have power over. It means that there is no authority in heaven that He doesn’t have power over.
So, as He sends them out into the world with the gospel, they shouldn’t be worried about kings, judges, rulers and authorities.
"And he changeth the times and the seasons; He removeth kings, and setteth up kings; he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things; he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him." Dn 2: 20-22
"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Romans 13
They shouldn’t worry about the devil, demons, and evil powers in the world because God is the one who cast them out of heaven at the start.
Jesus has all authority. As Paul would write later,
Romans 8:37-39 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That’s our Great Commander. So, as we go, in His name, into the world, we need not fear or apologize or quake before the powers of this world, for we are agents of the King of Kings.
II. The Great Commission
19 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
Now we are going to break this down as Ying Kai broke it down when he first asked God to show him a strategy to reach this new mission territory in China.
A. Go
The first thing he noticed about the Great Commission is that the command is to “Go.” We are commanded to go where the lost of the world are. It does not say, “Invite them to come.” But for most Christians our evangelistic efforts, if we’ve had any, came down to inviting people to come; to our worship, our Bible study, or our event.
And if they didn’t come, or they already attended another church or denomination, that we the end of our presentation of the gospel.
So, the first thing is that we have to change our strategies from “Come” strategies to “Go” strategies.
Parable of the Great Supper
Luke 14: ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them…. that my house may be filled.
B. Everyone
“make disciples of all the nations” The parallel passage in Mark says, “preach the gospel to every creature” Acts 1:8 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be [c]witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
We are supposed to make disciples of everyone. No one is excluded. We often do some presorting before we talk about church or spiritual things don’t we? We’re like Christian spies. We listen to people. We listen enough to figure out things about people. Well, that person is Catholic, so they’ve already decided. I’ll not share with them. That person is an atheist, well they’re already done for. That person has a big chip on their shoulder about religion, they won’t listen. And we pre-sort, looking for that perfect candidate to present the gospel.
But Jesus gave us a command to go, make disciples of everyone. Ying Kai used one of Jesus’ parables as an illustration here. We all know the parable of the sower and the seed. Jesus described a farmer who was taking grain seed out to plant. But it planted those seeds in an unusual way. He was just scattering them everywhere. He tells how the sower was scattering seed on the hard beaten pathways through the field, he was scattering in areas of shallow earth, in areas where thorns grew. And Kai points out that any farmer would have known better. He is familiar enough with the field to spread seed where the ground is prepared. But in the parable he didn’t. He spread the seed everywhere. Why? Because Jesus wasn’t just telling a story about farming. He was using this story to illustrate our spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. And a farmer is able to see the ground that is ready for seed. But we cannot see into people’s hearts. So, we don’t pick and choose who to share with; we talk to everyone.
Well, okay. But how do I know where to start and who to spend the time on? 3 rules. First is what we have already stated. You go to everyone. As we begin this process in our church, I am going to ask you to list everyone you know, and ask yourself if you’ve told them you salvation story, and Jesus’ story. The second rule regarding who to go to is this. If you are like me, listing everyone becomes a huge task. I know lots of people. And once I’ve listed everyone, it can be overwhelming to try and think of where to start. Here’s where you start. God has already placed people in your life right now. I believe that there are certain people that you are obligated to reach out to first. Your children, your grandchildren. There may be others that God has prodded you before regarding being a guide or mentor in their lives. I think you must first go to those for whom God has given you a responsibility. Most of you, if you think about it, have a handful of people come to mind that are dear to your heart. That’s where you start. Well, what if they are already Christians? The question isn’t whether they are Christians. The question is whether they are disciples making disciples.
What if you’ve already had a gospel conversation with them in the past? We will go over some details later.
The third rule is, “no means no.” How do you know who to train? Anyone who says yes to training. Someone can profess to be a Christian, but reject being a disciple who makes disciples. What do you do with them? Continue to pray for them. Spiritually encourage them when you have the opportunity. But move on to anyone who says “yes.”
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