Disciples of Jesus bear fruit. Fruitfulness
So if we have asked and answered the question “Am I a Disciple of Jesus” we must include in the answering of that Question truly seeking the Lord with this question in mind: Am I bearing Fruit in line with my desire to be a disciple? Am I making-Disciples?
Jesus command in the great commission of Matthew 28:18-20 did not call us to get people saved, He called us to make disciples, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go 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, 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.” Amen.
This is not a once and done thing like we see in the the church today: Here say this prayer and you’ll be saved and then go to church. Conversion is in fact a part of discipleship but conversion itself it is not discipleship. If you remember from our last teaching we discovered that Jesus called those believers to a deeper walk in John 8. As we looked at Acts chapter 11 and Romans 10 we learned that Discipleship consist of three distinct parts: Conversion, Baptism and a lifelong commitment to denying ourselves, Taking up our cross and “Follow and Obey”, Jesus’ use of the word ἀκολουθέω (akoloutheō) (Ah-Ko_Loo_Thao) and a lifelong commitment to Abide in His use of the word μένω (menō)
But here in lies the rub: How do we do that?
Conversion involves the proclamation of the gospel: See Mark 16:15, Romans 10:14-15 and I am not called to preach;
Baptism involves a creedal confession of faith and immersion in water. The pastor’s do that, I am not a Pastor.
Teaching them to obey all that I have commanded: But I am not called to teach (Ephesians 4:11), I do not have the spiritual gift of teaching (Romans 12:6-8)
I often hear these very responses, especially in response to calls to evangelize. The truth is, we are actually all called to be proclaimers of the Gospel. Does that proclamation need to come from the pulpit? No, but it does need to happen. 
There is a quote often ascribed to Francis of Assisi, albeit it is not his quote at all. It says “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words” and has become a famous meme floating around social media, perhaps you have seen it. There are two problems with this:
There is a quote often ascribed to Francis of Assisi, albeit it is not his quote at all. It says “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words” and has become a famous meme floating around social media, perhaps you have seen it. There are two problems with this:- It is contrary to scripture: Read Romans 10:14 or the passage we discussed in our last teaching from Acts 11:12-26 The word here for “Preaching in vs 20 is εὐαγγελίζω (euangelizō) (E-Von-Gel-Ezo) and it is the Greek word that we get our word to evangelize from and it means to “Proclaim the good news”
- This assertion creates a “one or the other” dichotomy between proclamation and action that is nowhere found in scripture. Scripture calls for us to proclaim the Gospel and to live out the transformative power of the Gospel in our lives through our actions. The idea presented here with this quote smacks of works-righteousness and justification by works, after all that is what it models. Justification is by grace alone, through faith alone (Sola Gratia and Sola Fide)
The Gospel must be proclaimed, and proclaimed, and proclaimed over and over and over again throughout our discipleship.
When we are asking the question am I a disciple-maker we must start with the question – “Do I proclaim the Gospel?” If not then the starting point to becoming a disciple-maker is to begin to preach the gospel. And preach it using words.
In regards to baptism and the response that the pastor is the one who does that I would answer while that is typical of today’s church, it is not actually Biblical that only an Elder (Pastor) does the baptizing. See Acts 8:12 and Acts 8:26-38 as some example of someone other than the Elders Baptizing someone. It is indicated in John 4:2 that the disciples were the ones who did the baptizing in Jesus’ ministry.
Ultimately it’s not whether you perform baptisms or whether you, in your discipleship of another ensure that they have followed the Lord’s command to be Baptized and if not encourage them to follow through in being baptized.
It is really in this third area of teaching and the common response of not being called to teach and not having the spiritual gift given by Holy Spirit to teach as a reason for not teaching.
First, let me describe for you how teach/teaching is applied to the Ekklesia (the church) in the New Testament:
- The first is what we would call the office of a teacher. This is an Eldership calling defined in Ephesians 4:11 and also in 1 Timothy 3 & Titus 1Elders/Pastors/Those with a 5 fold calling must be able to teach. It is part of the calling and the responsibility of an overseer (Bishop, Pastor, Elder; All terms used synonymously)
- The second is The Spiritual Gift given by Holy Spirit to teach. This spiritual gift of teaching is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to communicate scriptural truth to the Body and its members in such a way that others will learn.
- The third description lends itself more to our understanding of discipleship. It is the teaching that happens through doing life together, through dialogue, expression, and praxis whereby teaching is accomplished.
It is described in Colossians 3:12-17 “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Notice here in Paul starts out in verse 12 by identifying whom he is speaking: the elect of God, holy and beloved. My friends the elect is the believers, Holy Spirit through the atemporality of scripture, meaning Scripture is timeless, it speaks historically in time past, it speaks today and it will speak in the future, speaks the same to you and me today. So this passage is speaking to the elect of God today. Now I want you to notice how verse 16 speaks to teaching and admonishing each other.
This… My Friends, Is the heart of Discipleship, doing life with one another, teaching and admonishing one another.
The author of Hebrews describes the dilemma faced in many contexts of discipleship in Hebrews 5:12-14 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
In other words, how can you be a disciple-maker “Teaching disciples to obey all that Jesus commands” if you are “unskilled” in the word of righteousness as is described here?
and this is the dilemma, so to answer the question “Am I a Disciple-maker” we must first answer the question am I skilled in the word of God?
Let’s jump back over to Colossians 3, just before Paul says “Teaching and admonishing one another” Paul says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom”
Sounds a lot like what we discussed last week when Jesus told us in John 15:7 to Abide in Him and keep His words abiding in you.
So let’s close this teaching with this recap:
To be a disciple-maker we must proclaim the Gospel and we must use words to do so:
To be a disciple-maker we must encourage our disciples follow in obedience to Christ’s command and be baptized, and;
We must be able to teach in a life-on-life context the basic doctrines of our faith: As the writer of Hebrews puts it those elementary principles of the faith.
We do this through personal study of God’s word – actively abiding in the word and allowing the word of Christ “to dwell in us richly” so that out of that abiding we can teach.
Next week we are going to take what we have learned these last few weeks and apply if to part 4 of this series where we discuss family discipleship. The greatest harvest field for making disciples, and the greatest impact you will ever have is the impact you have discipling your family and we’re going to talk about that next week. I look forward to seeing you then.