Churches coming out of COVID have made disciple-making more important than ever.

 

Jesus’ instructions are clear: Matthew 28:19 “Go and make disciples of every nation.” Somehow we’ve become very tribal over the very thing we are not to be tribal over; The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every church and pastor can be guilty of this, wanting to make disciples focused on our church or denomination. But the fact remains that after Jesus tells of to make disciples of every people group, He makes sure that we teach them the things He wants to be done, which is defined as obedience to Him.

 

Think about this; when Jesus spoke these words, those hearing them were in their little group. Jesus wanted them out of their group, so gradually, He worked in their lives to make that happen: The Day of Pentecost when different Jews from the Diaspora heard The Gospel Message from these men. 

 

Peter, in Acts 9, going into Simon the Tanner’s house to end the stigma of being around “unclean things.”

 

Let’s Challenge our Disciple making with Two Radical Thoughts:

1. It is not our responsibility “to make people ‘Christians’” and get them baptized into a particular denomination, but rather to help people decide to follow Jesus and his radical message. Maybe this is why the New Testament writers only use “Christian” three times but “disciple” on 269 occasions!

2. Discipleship should focus on following Jesus. No horse gets anyone anywhere until he's harnessed. No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara ever turns anything into light or power until it is tunneled.

 

No life ever does great things until it is focused, dedicated, and disciplined.