Consider the last few verses of Matthew\u2019s Gospel \u2013 what we frequently call \u201cthe Great Commission.\u201d The risen Jesus says:<\/p>\n
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.\u00a0 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).<\/p>\n
The primary command in these verses is to \u201cmake disciples of all nations\u201d or (perhaps better) to \u201cdisciple all nations.\u201d Whatever Jesus means by this command, it includes preaching the Gospel so that unbelievers of all nations come to faith and are baptized, and it includes instruction in biblical life and doctrine.<\/p>\n
Question: Where do we see such discipling taking place in the New Testament?<\/p>\n
Everywhere! Consider a couple of specific instances:<\/p>\n
You, however, know all about my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra [this is Timothy\u2019s home town]–which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.\u00a0 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,\u00a0 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:10-17).<\/p>\n
Paul (as well as Timothy\u2019s mother and grandmother) have taught him the Scriptures, and he has thus been reproved, corrected, and trained by them. Furthermore, he has seen the Scriptures lived out in Paul\u2019s life through patient endurance, through persistent faith in the face of suffering \u2013 even when he was left for dead after being stoned, perhaps right before young Timothy\u2019s eyes (Acts 14:19). As a result of this process, Timothy himself now is thoroughly prepared \u2013 that is, he is discipled, equipped for every good work. Paul, therefore, goes on to \u00a0solemnly charge his son in the faith to preach that same Word, \u201cwith great patience teaching all doctrine, \u2026 endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Gospel, fulfill your ministry\u201d (paraphrase of 2 Timothy 4:2b and 5b).<\/p>\n
And the New Testament examples do not end with these two! Indeed, every epistle is an example of this discipling process, as Peter, Paul, James, John, Jude, and the author of Hebrews flesh out what the Old Testament Scriptures and Jesus Himself imply about God and man, about sin and forgiveness, about marriage and family, about work and possessions. Every New Testament author is engaged in the discipling process as he writes.<\/p>\n
But look back again at Matthew 28:18-20. Does Jesus instruct His followers to \u201cteach them all that I have commanded you\u201d? No. He tells His followers to \u201cteach them to observe<\/em> all that I have commanded you.\u201d Jesus is concerned not only with passing on a body of teaching, but also with joyous, heartfelt obedience to that teaching. And He means here not only, \u201cTell them that they must obey<\/em>\u201d but \u201cShow them how to obey<\/em>; display for them what obedience looks like.\u201d\u00a0 This is what Jesus had done for them; this is what Paul does for Timothy; this is what Paul exhorts Timothy to do for others.<\/p>\n So: We have seen that fulfilling Matthew 28:18-20 requires at least four strategies:<\/p>\n This broad, biblical view helps to clarify several common misconceptions about discipleship, such as:<\/p>\n Biblical discipleship may \u2013 but need not \u2013 include meeting together with a mentor. It will necessarily include instruction in doctrine and Christian living, but that can take multiple forms. It will certainly include dealing with sin in our lives.<\/p>\n But there is a key, underlying error that is common to all three of these misconceptions: Discipleship is not primarily about YOU!<\/em> Jesus commands us to disciple all nations not in order for each of us to improve. Jesus commands us to disciple all nations so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea <\/em>(Habakkuk 2:14). He commands us to make disciples so that those from your people group together with those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation will sing, \u201cSalvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:10).<\/p>\n What then does it mean to be discipled? Consider this definition:<\/p>\n Learning what the Scriptures teach and command; With this understanding we are faced with four key questions:<\/p>\n Different churches will answer these questions differently \u2013 there are several possible structures within which biblical discipleship can take place. But we must begin by aiming at the right goal if we are to have any chance of achieving it.<\/p>\n What does that mean for us at DGCC?<\/p>\n We praise God that this already is happening among us. And we encourage you to see to it that it happens all the more. Ponder how we can both step out individually and organize ourselves corporately in order to live out biblical discipleship more fully. We welcome your ideas and initiatives. But clearly living this out includes:<\/p>\n Will you pray that this church might fulfill this biblical calling? Will you commit yourself to living out these mandates? Will you step out in faith \u2013 so that we might disciple one another, and disciple all nations?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Consider the last few verses of Matthew\u2019s Gospel \u2013 what we frequently call \u201cthe Great Commission.\u201d The risen Jesus says: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,16,18],"tags":[2184,2181,426,2187,2188,613,675,2182,2180,2179,2185,1133,2186,2183,1585],"class_list":["post-2914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","category-evangelism-blog","category-missions","tag-child-in-the-faith","tag-disciple-all-nations","tag-doctrine","tag-example","tag-fill-the-earth","tag-glory-of-god","tag-great-commission","tag-lystra","tag-make-disciples","tag-matthew-2818-20","tag-mentoring","tag-paul","tag-preach-the-word","tag-son-in-the-faith","tag-timothy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2915,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions\/2915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nlearning and seeing how to live out those truths;
\nand getting feedback as you live out (and fail to live out) those truths
\nin your family, in the church community, and among unbelievers,
\nso that together we might build up the Church through increased faithfulness and
\npowerful witness, reaching all peoples to His glory.<\/p>\n\n
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