The Call to Make Disciples – Part II

 A day is coming when Christ centered/Christ proclaiming churches will be overflowing with brand new converts and with people who have roots in Christ, but fell away and now are repenting. What so excites me about revival and awakening history is how it/God can change the spiritual atmosphere almost over night, and things we and others prayed for for decades all of a sudden are coming to pass.

But what sobers me is - how we will steward this rapid growth? What will our focus and response be to standing room only in our buildings? Perhaps one of the sad aspects of the history of the great revivals and awakenings is – they eventually dissipate. Some quicker than others. One of the reasons for that is the lack of effective and focused discipleship.

So in light of that I want us to return to the discussion about making disciples, because “only disciples change the world”. In “The Call to Make Disciples – Part I” we confined our discussion primarily to the gospels. Today I want us to explore some of what is revealed in the epistles.

The apostle Paul was never satisfied with rooms full of people and seekers. Numbers meant little to him. He took the call to make disciples very seriously, which can be reflected best perhaps in his letter to the church in Colossae,

“We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”  Colossians 1:28,29 

Healthy discipleship always starts with proclaiming a person and that person is not the person trying to make disciples. That person is Jesus. To the Corinthians, Paul declared this commitment when he said, “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.” II Corinthians 4:5

Next please notice that three times Paul used the phrase “every man”. Every moment he spent with every person in any and every circumstance revolved around this primary purpose of making disciples or presenting them “complete in Christ.” Converts are great, but Paul never settled for a room of immature babies. He knew their destiny was conformity to Christ – Christ likeness in every aspect of life. When he was with family or relatives his interaction with each one of them was with this overarching purpose in mind.

Every person that ever spent a moment or more with Paul probably was admonished and instructed in one way or another. I’m sure Paul learned as he matured how to do this with ever greater wisdom as he mentions in verse 28. Wisdom finds a way and an opening and a manner that works with every individual.

Making disciples is hard work and thus Paul refers to his “labor” in vs. 29. But while we work hard to make disciples we do not do it in our own power. Paul said as he sought to make disciples God’s power worked “mightily” within him. When we are about what God is about we can bank on His power to accomplish what we could never accomplish on our own.

Lest we be tempted to think “well Paul was God’s appointed apostle to the Gentiles. Of course he was effective at making disciples”. I want to remind you that Paul often exhorted the churches he ministered to to follow his example:

“Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. “ I Cor. 4:16

“Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”  I Cor. 11:1

“The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Phil. 4:9

And he can reasonably expect us to do so because he is an imitator of Christ. And “practicing these things” comes with a wonderful promise that “the God of peace will be with us”. I realize in one sense He is with all of us whose names are written in the book of life. But this promise I believe goes beyond that and will increase in depth of experience as we increase in being about what our Savior is about.

This promise has actually become very dear to me as making disciples has required me to make some very tough decisions over the years on whom I invest in and make time for, and thus whom I don’t. It is possible Timothy had that challenge as well, and thus Paul gave some very helpful guidance/instruction to him about how to make hard discipling decisions. We find that instruction in II Timothy 2:2,

“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  II Tim. 2:2

Paul expected Timothy first to again imitate Paul’s example and to repeat his instruction to others. Second, he expected Timothy to discern by the power of the Holy Spirit who he should invest his primary time and energy to or in and who he shouldn’t. And that would depend on the level of faithfulness and ability and commitment to turn around and teach others the things Paul had taught Timothy and Timothy had in turn taught this person. In other words, Timothy was to focus on people who had proven they were faithful in the little and the big things. People who were FAT = faithful, available and teachable.

All kinds of things battle against we pastors taking this instruction to heart. Some of the challenges and difficulties we face in carrying out the focused making of disciples are:

-       Some of us were never discipled and thus we haven’t experienced this first hand.

-       There is tremendous pressure on us to relate to everyone in our congregations equally, not in relation to how faithful they are and apt they are to turn around and teach these things to others.

-       There is tremendous pressure on us to pull off an amazing Sunday service that will cause those present to want to return to our church instead of someone else’s. And thus that "production" gets our focus more than making disciples does.

-       Sometimes in our denominations there is not the emphasis and example from the top leaders of making disciples there ought to be. Instead other things are emphasized and pursued.

-       Sometimes there is a high expectation in our given congregation that we will be there every time someone is in the hospital or that we will be quick to meet other pressing practical needs that ideally deacons should be meeting.

-       Effective discipling only comes forth from effective or intimate ever growing relationship with Christ. We pastors often are so busy trying to please people and keep the machine going – little is left of us to make disciples of Jesus.

Now let’s be clear - - all we believers are called to make disciples – regardless of what our pastors are doing or are not doing. But because pastors have a lot of influence in the church in general and because I be one, I wanted to address some of our particular issues.

So how can we all do a better job or be more effective in making disciples of Jesus?

Well here are a few suggestions:

1.        Give more attention to our own growth in godliness. Few if any of us are as focused on our own growth as we ought to be. Jesus made disciples out of a deep well of His own deeply cultivated life in God and He didn’t have sin to deal with!

2.        Pray for all of those you have any influence over often. LeRoy Eims – one of the early Navigator leaders – and one who spent decades making disciples – once said something to the effect of, “The top three keys to making disciples are: 1. Pray. 2. Pray. And 3. Pray.”  The longer I go the more wisdom I see in this statement.

3.        Depend on the Holy Spirit, not programs. God can use a program. But programs can also be our worst enemies in that our dependence and hope can easily become in the program instead of in the Holy Spirit.

4.        Ask God to free you from the fear of man (especially if you are a pastor).

5.        Remember how much we all need all the gifts and all the offices of the body for healthy discipleship. “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith….” Eph. 4:11-13 No one person can make a healthy disciple.

6.        Remember (especially if you are a pastor) – they are His sheep. They do not belong to us. “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.”  John 21:16

7. Our spouses and children should never be neglected to help make disciples of others. They should be at the top of our list!

God bless each of you as you seek to be more like your Savior in this all important work of making disciples!