Matthew
28:16-20
Many years ago, some sharp guy told me that Baptists have a unique
way of dealing with programs that aren’t effective. They don’t change the program; they change
the name of the program.
At the recent Southern Baptist Convention, messengers voted
to allow churches to begin calling themselves “Great Commission Baptist
Churches.” This move was taken because
it was believed that the name Southern Baptist offended some
people. When I first heard that
suggestion a few months ago, I had some reservations about it.
First, I’m not sure “southern” is the word folk are put-off
by in the phrase “southern Baptist.” I
know that the elitist northeast looks down its nose on the South (and the
Midwest, for that matter) but I think it’s “Baptist” that most people associate
with narrow-mindedness and a judgmental spirit. And they don’t care if those Baptists are
from Tupelo or Toledo. I think that’s
unfair but this is not the place to argue it.
Second, I find it just a little dishonest. It almost seems like a cult tactic. It’s like accepting an invitation to the
“Jonathan Swift Society for Improving Children’s Taste” only to discover it’s
an organization promoting cannibalism.[1] Of course, we Southern Baptists aren’t that
bad but while the eventual reveal will cause some folks to abandon their
prejudices; it will cause others to feel tricked.
And, third, we aren’t the only Christians with an interest in
the Great Commission. It’s not just
Baptists that speak of the Great Commission.
It’s not just evangelical denominations that are inspired by Jesus’
challenge to the church. There are
people in almost every denomination calling for a return to the evangelistic
work of the church.
What is the goal of the Great Commission? Knowing that will help answer the question, Who Are We?
--Bigger churches?
That might be a result but that doesn’t seem to be the goal.
--More people who are willing to check “Christian” on any
forms asking about their religious affiliation?
If every American who claimed to be a Christian were to come to church
on a given Sunday, every church in the country would have to bring in more
seats.
--To tell everyone about Jesus? Indeed, Wikipedia defines the Great
Commission as “… the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to his
disciples that they spread his teachings to all the nations of the world.” Certainly telling people about Jesus would be
involved in fulfilling the Great Commission, but that is really the means, not
the aim or goal of the Commission.
Jesus sent the church out to “make disciples.”
The simplest definition of “disciple” is “learner,” but being
a disciple is far more than just an intellectual accomplishment. In the ancient world, at least, the learning was
done while actively following the master.
This morning we’re going to look at our identity as
disciples.
Apostles and Disciples
But, first, since so many use the terms as if they had the
same meaning, I want to distinguish between a disciple and an apostle.
In secular Greek, apostle
refers to “one who is sent,” sent as an envoy with authority, as a
messenger of the one who sends the apostle.
The word could also be used for a teacher with a divine commission.
In the New Testament, apostle was originally applied to the
Twelve whom Jesus specially called to travel with him during his earthly
ministry, then to Matthias who replaced Judas who had forfeited his place as an
apostle by his betrayal of Jesus. Of
course, Paul was called an apostle. And
there were others described as apostles, including James the Lord’s brother and
the otherwise unknown Andronichus and Junia, a man and woman mentioned in
Romans 16.
With the exception of some small denominations where pastors
are called “apostles,” the church has generally been very careful in applying
the term “Apostle” to anyone outside the New Testament period. When the title is applied, it’s usually given
to some pioneer in the field of evangelism or missions. For example, Patrick is called the Apostle to
Ireland, John Eliot the seventeenth-century New England pastor who translated
the Bible into Algonquin was called “the apostle to the Indians,” twentieth-century
missionary-scholar Samuel Zwemer who worked for half a century to reach the
Muslim world was called “the Apostle to Islam,” and James Aggrey a Ghana native
who worked to foster racial harmony was called “the apostle of cooperation.”
At the same time, “disciple” is used repeatedly in the New
Testament. It is used almost 600 times
in the New Testament to describe Christians in every place, while the term
apostle is used just 200 times usually for the same individuals. So, disciple is a term that is applied to all
Christians, apostle isn’t. To sum it up,
while all apostles are disciples, not all disciples are apostles.
Disciples by Invitation
How do we become disciples?
Very simply, by invitation.
Occasionally, Pat and I receive an invitation to a wedding that is
addressed to us specifically, written in the most elegant hand. Sometimes an invitation to the grand opening
of some local business arrives addressed, “To the Hickman’s or current resident
at…” In some way, the invitation to
become disciples is like the first. We
are important to God as individuals and he invites us according to what he
knows of our personalities. Yet, in some
ways, the invitation to become disciples is like that second invitation. In the words of the Authorized Version,
“Whosoever will may come.”
While each invitation may be different, there are some common
elements.
On several occasions, Jesus issues the invitation “Follow
me.” He continues to issue that
invitation to us, through the voice of the Spirit, using the voice of the
church.
Let’s review those occasions when Jesus issued that invitation to
those first disciples to discover what that same invitation means for us.
When we hear that invitation to follow Jesus we are being invited
to enjoy a life with a purpose that has eternal significance.
Matt 4:18 And
Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and
Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 19And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
It’s a reminder that being a follower of Jesus is not a
self-centered endeavor.
When we hear that invitation to follow Jesus we are being invited
to a life that challenges us to sometimes live contrary to social convention.
Matthew
8:21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, let me [first wait for
my father’s secondary burial]. 22But Jesus said unto
him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
When we hear that invitation to follow Jesus we are being invited
to place our lives on the line for him.
Matthew
16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples:
If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself.
You must take up your cross and follow me.
It’s a reminder that God’s all-out commitment to us should inspire
our all-out commitment to him.
When we hear that invitation to follow Jesus we are being invited
to escape our culture’s blindness and see as we’ve never seen before because we
have new life.
John
8:12 Once again Jesus spoke to the people. This time he said, “I am
the light for the world! Follow me, and you won’t be walking in the dark. You
will have the light that gives life.”
It’s a reminder that following Jesus shouldn’t be an exercise in
the ordinary.
When we hear that invitation to follow Jesus we are being invited
into a relationship with one who accepts our imperfections and failures without
losing sight of what we might be through him.
John
21:17 [After his dialogue with the Risen Christ] Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third
time. Peter said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus
said, “Then feed my sheep.
“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.”
Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”
“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.”
Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”
It is a reminder that we can’t claim weakness and failure as an excuse
for not following Jesus.
Once
we accept that invitation, what’s next?
Disciples Are Learners
To become a disciple is to become a learner. We learn what God did and is doing in the
world through Jesus Christ and what he wants to do through us.
How do we learn?
Disciples learn by hearing.
Jesus first fame came as a teacher.
He was known for his authoritative teaching that went so far beyond
anything the people were hearing from their own religious leaders. Yes, Jesus echoed some of what they said, but
he offered new insights that were so challenging.
He gave them new insights into God, the world, salvation, and
morality. He also led them to a new
vision of how God would keep the promise that had given birth to Israel in the
first place.
As disciples, we need to be hearers. We need to hear God speak to us in His
Word. We need to hear him speak through
the preaching and testimony of the church, even when those sermons are
sometimes dull and those testimonies are sometimes sprinkled with clichés.
Disciples learn by observing. If you’ve ever watched one of those cooking shows, you’ve
seen the host try to teach a novice something as basic as separating an
egg. The host goes though the process
again and again, each time explaining each step. This goes on until the host says, “Now you
try.”
For three years, the disciples had watched Jesus. They observed him confronting the
self-righteous and indifferent. They
observed him giving comfort to the broken-hearted. They observed him at prayer. They observed him teaching the simple and
confounding the wise. In time, they
would realize he was their greatest pattern for ministry.
Even today, we disciples learn by observing. We may be limited to “observing” Jesus as he
is portrayed in the Gospels, but we can still learn by observing our fellow
disciples. We can observe our fellow
disciples as they live for our common Master.
We watch and learn as they handle grief, as they face failure and
success, as they deal with doubt and questions.
With that in mind, no disciple can remain isolated from
fellow-disciples. We need the community
of faith, in part, so our opportunities to learn will be complete.
Disciples learn by doing. At one point during his ministry, Jesus sent some seventy-two
of his disciples out to carry his message of the Kingdom to the many villages
and towns of the land. Now, they were to
preach, they were to heal the sick, they were to set the demonized free. To finally be doing what Jesus had been
preparing them to do fill them with a raw enthusiasm. Luke reports, “The seventy-two
returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your
name!”
Jesus met their report with support
and affirmation when he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven.” Even today, disciples need the
encouragement of knowing that the work they do for Christ has a cosmic impact. As we take our tentative steps in work for Jesus,
we need to know that Jesus is watching and cheering us on.
All these ways of learning combine
to move us on toward a more effective discipleship.
The Hardest Lesson
As disciples, there are some lessons that are especially hard
to learn. One in particular.
Each of the Gospel writers includes some story of how the
apostles revealed their ignorance, at times in a big way—like suggesting
calling lightening down to fry some critics.
Sometimes Peter is the one who trips up, but he’s often just the
spokesman for his equally thick companions.
We get a laugh when we read these stories. But I wonder if that’s why Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John included them. Are we really
supposed to look at these stories, chuckle, and say, “Those apostles, they had
followed Jesus so long and still didn’t get it, weren’t they dim?” Instead, maybe we’re supposed to look at
these stories and say, “Those apostles, they had followed Jesus so long and
still didn’t get it, am I just as dim?”
We seem never to be at a place where we can declare ourselves
beyond the need to learn. And that lesson
seems hard to learn.
In some ways, the relationship of Jesus and his disciples was
like that of other Jewish teachers and their disciples. The Jewish disciples would follow their
master and learn from him. One day,
these disciples would leave their masters, become masters, themselves, and have
their own disciples. [2] Here’s where the similarity ends: Jesus’ disciples were to never stop following
him. In fact, as the later New Testament
uses the term, “disciple,” not only means learner, it means “adherent.” As Michael Wilkens explains, “the disciples were
committed more to his person than to his teaching. Following Jesus means
togetherness with him and service to him while traveling on the Way.”[3]
The New Testament pattern seems to be that disciples make
disciples. The disciple never stops
being a disciple. We are never ready to
walk away from Jesus, never able to say we know it all.
Back in the church I served in Texas there was a man who had
been in the church since its founding in the early 1940s. During a visit to his home, the home you
could see from my office window, he said to me, “You’ve probably noticed I
don’t attend Sunday school.”
I said something like, “Well, why is that?”
He said, “I’ve gone to Sunday school so much, there’s nothing
more for me to learn.”
If my parents hadn’t taught me to respect my elders, I might
have suggested he needed to review the lessons on humility.
The disciple of Jesus can never say, I’ve nothing more to
learn.
Disciples Still
In the modern church, we speak of “discipling”
believers. By that we mean mentoring or
guiding someone who is already a Christian toward spiritual maturity. I’m not sure the early church would have seen
such a distinction. For them, to be a
Christian was to be a disciple. In the
same way, they probably wouldn’t speak of first leading someone to Christ and
then doing follow-up. Making disciples
was a seamless process. You would no
more abandon a new believer to fend for herself, than you would abandon your
newborn daughter to fend for herself.
Of course, exposing female infants to the elements so they
would die was a horrific practice in the first-century world. Christians opposed it and risked their lives
to save these children. Thanks to the
early church, we no longer do that but the modern church does sometimes abandon
new believers to the elements. Some
churches seem to think that once someone has gone under the water and dried
off, our responsibility is done. If we
take the Great Commission seriously, treating the newly baptized that way is
not leaving the job half-done, it’s not doing the job at all.
It is our responsibility to get these new believers onto the
road to learning to live as Christ’s people, onto the road of
discipleship. And, of course, the only
real way to do that is to be on the road ourselves.
We walk that road with Jesus and his people because we are
disciples still.
[1] In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote a satirical
essay called, A Modest Proposal, in
which he suggested that the Irish could solve the problem of overpopulation by
eating their own children.
[2] M. J. Wilkens, Discipleship, in Green, J. B., McKnight, S., & Marshall, I. H.
(1992). Dictionary of Jesus and the
Gospels (187). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.
