Discipleship

So I was thinking about Jesus' command to "Go and make disciples." Jeff and I got to talk this evening, and I was really filled with astonishment. Look at this verse again.

Matt. 28:18-20

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Look at the progression in the passage. The reason for this command is Jesus' authority.

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."

All authority is His. That is why we do whatever He says next.

"Therefore, go and make disciples," (emphasis mine)

We are not commanded to evangelize in this passage! We are supposed to make disciples! There's a big difference. In fact, it's the difference between God and evangelism as a priority, a number one priority, and God as the Only Thing in life.

If we see our task here on earth as evangelism, that's what we will focus on. Reaching other people and getting them into the Kingdom becomes our goal. This is a tremendous burden, and engenders a lot of guilt.

On the other hand, if your goal is seeking God as the Only Thing, the One Thing in your life, you have a totally different purpose. All you want to do is seek God in every activity, comparing each thought, action, and emotion to what we know God says about this. Now, this also takes work. You must know what God says, and that also takes devotion. But there is no burden on you to save people.

In fact, you can't save people. Let me say that again. You can't save people. And you say, "Yeah, yeah, of course I can't save people, I'm not God." But when we are trying to evangelize, it is so easy to slip into the mindset where I am doing the work, I want them to be saved, I must reach them so they are not condemned for their sin.

Do we dare think that we want people to be saved more than God does? Does our heart encompass more pain than His? What have we really ever done for the world. What can we really ever do? The world is a mighty big place, and we are mighty small. (You can quote me on that, though I think the original thought came from Ecclesiastes).


So what are we to do? Jesus tells us to go! But He doesn't tell us to go and evangelize. He tells us that all authority is His. Not ours, but His. Thus, we seek Him. We seek Him, and His true Word, as the only thing. The One Thing. And in seeking Him, we will go and make disciples. We will not win large numbers of people. This life is not about winning. And I mean that both ways. This life is not about winning any game. And this life is not about winning people. It's about responding to God, pursuing God, seeking intimacy with God. And as a result of that, God will bring people into our lives who He will make our disciples. If nothing else, that knowledge scares me into seeking Christ as the only thing. I don't want to be caught napping when He wants to work in someone's life, and use my pursuit of Him to do that working.

Father be praised.

In His Time,