Make Disciples (2)
The Essentials • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewIn today’s message we will learn how we are all called to make disciples of Jesus who can make more disciples of Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Handout
January 21st 2024
Series: The Essentials
Sermon Title: Make Disciples
Topic: Launching into the new year right. Focused on our mission.
Key Passages: Matthew 22:37-40, Matthew 28:19-20
Sermon Blurb: In today’s message we will learn how we are all called to make disciples of Jesus who can make more disciples of Jesus.
Green in sermons means illustration, something we are looking for a response from, or a picture that goes on the screens.
Yellow means what is yellow will be on the screens and in the handout.
Sermon:
Hello Family Church!
Family Moment –
Start with something personal to help people get to know you.
Celebrate salvation’s / re-dedications / baptisms last week.
Welcome back to the THIRD week in our series called “The Essentials!”
This whole month we are looking at how we live like a FULLY devoted follower of Jesus!
We are LASER focusing on the things….
The activities….
The habits…..
The Biblical fundamentals….
That we believe are most VITAL to our Christian faith.
This whole month we are talking about the things that we think all of us need to do if we are to become healthy, mature, growing disciples of Jesus.
PAUSE
Two weeks ago, we jumped into what it means to love God and how we can grow in our love for Him through reading and obeying the Bible and talking with Him in prayer.
Last week, we looked at Jesus’ command to “Love our neighbor as ourselves.”
This week we are going to talk about another command from Jesus on making disciples…..
PAUSE
Which reminds me of our missions statement!!!!
Anyone remember what our missions statement is?
Hopefully now that we are into week 3!!!!
That right…. Write it down again!
Family Church Mission: Love God, Love people, and Make disciples.
Repeat
Each week we will be talking about each of those commands, and how we can grow in each one of them.
Our entire mission statement originated with Jesus.
Let me show you….
Matthew chapter 22 verse 37 Jesus said this…
Matthew 22:37-40 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Right there in your Bible is where we get our “Love God” and “Love people.”
Then in Matthew28 Jesus said,
Matthew 28:19-20 19“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you, to the very end of the age.”
This is where we get our “Make Disciples.”
Love God, Love people, and Make Disciples.
These are the 3 primary commands given to us by Jesus Himself. These are His Essentials, and so they are ours also.
But that question is….
How do we do that?
How do we grow in our love for God?
How do we love other people the way God wants us to?
How do we make disciples of Jesus who can make more disciples of Jesus?
The GOOD news is that what we have been tackling ALL month!
And today we will ALL be challenged to go deeper and further by learning how Jesus called us to Make Disciples who could make Disciples!
So, are you ready???
PAUSE
To start….
Let's put Matthew 28:19&20 back on the screens and read it out loud together….
Verse 19 & 20 together...
Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
I have been a pastor for MANY years, and I can tell you that at some point or other, every Christian asks this question…
“What is God’s calling in my life?”
“What is God calling me to do?”
“What is my purpose in life?”
Let me help all of you with that answer…
The answer is in that passage we just read!
The answer if God’s calling on your life is to become a disciple of Jesus!
AND then go make MORE disciples of Jesus!!!
That is clearly what Jesus just said in Matthew 28:19- 20!
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living…
It doesn’t matter if you are a business person.
Or a stay-at-home mom…
It doesn’t matter if you teach in a school that says you cannot talk about Jesus!
It doesn’t matter if you are a student….
It doesn’t even matter if you are retired….
PAUSE
As a Christian, our calling from Jesus is to replicate...
All followers of Jesus are called to make more disciples of Jesus!!!
And this is a game changer, folks!
Some of us are waiting around for God to give us a sign…
For someone to tell us what to do….
For some BIG sign in the sky….
BUT…
BUT….. Jesus has already told each and every one of us what He wants us to do!
And that is for ALL OF US to Go and make more disciples!
PAUSE
And let me tell you straight out of the gate, you will be far more fruitful at it than I will because most of you are around lost people every day….
Unlike me….
My primary job, according to Ephesians 4, is to equip YOU all to do the works of the ministry!
And that’s what I love to do!
PAUSE
But that means some of us need a paradigm shift.
You need to see that from God’s perspective….
He wants ALL OF US to be disciple-makers!
The Kingdom of God doesn’t work on the 80/20 rule...
Where 20% of the people do 80% of the work.
No, the Kingdom of God works when 100% of the people do 100% of the work!
And I know there are a LOT of people in churches who think, “The Pastors, church staff, leaders, and missionaries are the ones who do the ministry.”
I’m here to say that we’ve had it all wrong!
It’s our job to equip, empower, and release you all to do the work of the ministry!
That’s what God wants because that’s the only way it can truly happen! We are ALL called to make disciples.
PAUSE
(Share personal story about when you became convinced Disciple Making is the goal)
Now, my life was changed when I went to Sierra Leone (in W Africa) where I met a church leader named Shondankeh Johnson, who’s whole ministry was about equipping and training the people at his church to be disciple makers who make more disciple makers.
Everyone I met would tell me that they were a disciple maker. It was their spiritual DNA, their identity. They would say, “I’m Mary and I’m a teacher but my real passion is disciple-making.” Or I’m Joseph and I coach soccer but more importantly, I’m a disciple maker. On and on it went.
Everyone I met saw their vocation as access to make disciples!
And the result?
They were seeing a Bonafide movement of people coming to faith in Jesus and growing to be disciples who replicated and even multiplied.
So much so, that they have seen thousands of churches planted in just over 10 years and their country go from being Muslim majority to Christian majority in the past decade!
How did they do it?
Every single person in the church owned their God given calling to make disciples, and then they spiritually invested in the lives of the people around them!
PAUSE
Let’s start by defining terms because there is confusion in our Christian church culture about what a discipleand disciple-making actually are.
It is important that we know what we are talking about and that we are all on the same page as we move forward.
So first, let’s define the word Disciple.
I got these definitions from Discipleship.org which is doing a great job equipping church leaders all over the world.
A disciple of Jesus is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus.
Repeat
Mark 1:17 is a helpful verse to provide a framework for our previous definition…
Mark 1:17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Let’s leave this verse up on the screen.
Here we find the 3 aspects of our definition:
1. Follow Jesus.
2. Be changed by Jesus…..aka make them into fishers of men…
3. Committed to the mission of Jesus.
PAUSE
Let’s dive a little deeper….
First, a disciple is someone who follows Jesus.
Did you know the word “Christian” is ONLY used 3 times in the ENTIRE Bible….
Did you know the word “Disciple” was used 296 times!!!!
Jesus said, “Follow Me” not go to church,
NOT follow your pastor,
NOT follow your parents,
NOT follow your spouse.
Disciples of Jesus are those who FOLLOW JESUS!
So, a good question to consider is,
Are you following Jesus? I mean truly watching Jesus, learning from Jesus in His Word, and then following in His footsteps?
But understand it does NOT stop at just following Jesus…
Look at that second thing you wrote down….
Second, as we follow Jesus, we allow Jesus to change us!
When Jesus said, “Follow Me and I will make you something new…”
I will make you into “fishers of men.”
Jesus was promising vocational transformation.
And when we read the disciple’s stories, that’s exactly what we see...
Think about Peter who was transformed from a rugged fisherman with “foot in mouth disease…”
Into a tender, compassionate evangelist/shepherd who led the church in Jerusalem!!!!
Then we have Thomas who was known as what church? A doubter.
Church history tells us that he ended up taking FUTHUR than any other follower of Jesus to spread the Good News of Jesus!!!!
All you have to do is watch The Chosen to see the radical change in the disciples as they follow Jesus!
So, although the world says, "people don’t change!”
When people start following Jesus they do!
So, a natural question to ask ourselves would be,
Are we being changed by Jesus? Are we different (more like Him) than we were last year?
BUT….
It doesn’t stop there either!
It isn’t just about following Jesus…
Or being changed by Jesus…
Look at what you wrote down again….
Third, the change Jesus works in our lives makes us more like Him...
Which includes a commitment to His mission to “fish for people.”
As every disciple of Jesus grows and becomes more like their Master, we learn to love the things that He loves and hate the things that He hates.
We learn how to share the Good News of Jesus with the lost and make disciples as He made disciples.
As we follow Jesus…
We are changed by Jesus…
As we follow Jesus and are changed by Jesus…
We become like Jesus…
And therefore make disciples as He did!
So, a good question to ask is
Am I committed to the mission of Jesus? Have I given my life for the lost, that others would know Him and that they would grow in their relationship with Him?
PAUSE
So there is a bit on what a Disciple is…..
Now…. Let’s define what disciple-making is and talk about how it’s different from discipleship.
Disciple-making is entering into relationships to intentionally help someone else follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and join the mission of Jesus.
Repeat
KEYWORD also in there is SOMEONE ELSE!!!!
This call to “disciple-making” is revealed clearly in the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20.
Let’s look back at that for context...
Matthew 28:19,“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
To Jesus, “making disciples”is the primary activity that we are to be about.
“As we are going” around in our daily lives…
We should be….baptizing people…
Teaching people……
And the teaching is NOT teaching them what YOU want…
It is very clear…
Look in your Bibles…
Teaching them what Jesus taught us!!!!
PAUSE
So, another way we could re phrase Matthew 28:19 could be
As you’re going about your daily lives, make disciples of Jesus by baptizing them and teaching them everything Jesus taught you in the Bible. (Family Church Revised Version)
Making disciples is not primarily about GOING somewhere...
We ALL are not called to go on mission trips, sorry pastor Bob...
But we ALL are living life, we are parenting, we are working, we are going to school, we are going to the grocery store….etc...
And Jesus EXPECTS us, as we are going wherever we are going, to be helping people come to know and follow Jesus…
To be changed by Jesus…
To help them become committed to the mission of Jesus.
It’s not primarily about baptizing or teaching either.
The primary activity of our lives ought to be making disciples....
And the going, teaching, and baptizing help us get it done!
Make sense?
Is everyone tracking with me?
PAUSE
Now, disciple-making is different than discipleship, too.
And this is really important.
Typically when church people think about Discipleship they tend to think about growing in our knowledge about the Bible.
Discipleship is about a Bible study or growing in spiritual disciplines.
Here is what I want to help you understand….
Discipleship is more about my own personal growth in Jesus.
Disciple-making is more about helping others grow in Jesus.
Do you see the difference?
Maybe you push back and say, “Well, what’s wrong with me growing in Jesus?
Isn’t that a good thing?!?”
YES it is!!!!
But here’s the cool thing...
As we help others grow, not only are we fulfilling our calling as followers of Jesus, but guess what?
We grow, as well.
PAUSE
Unfortunately, in the American Church, “Discipleship” has taken the place of “Disciple Making” ...
And the result is a self-focused, ineffective church rather than a strong, fruitful church that’s changing the world for Jesus!
Well, hopefully, you can see that God’s desire for each one of us is that we respond to His commission to be fully devoted disciples of Jesus who will make more fully devoted followers of Jesus.
That we are those who follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and become committed to His mission.
PAUSE
I want to wrap up our talk on Disciple Making with a little story. It’s actually a dream, so dream with me.
Imagine that you have a passion to see all of the people in West Michigan come to faith in Jesus.
Imagine….reaching all of the hundreds of thousands of people.
You think, “Man, if they could all just come to church and hear pastor Adam, pastor Keith, pastor Erik, then they’d follow Jesus for sure!”
So, you start to envision ALL of these people coming to Redwood, Grace, or EB Campus... and, just then that DREAM turns into a NIGHTMARE because you realize….
“We don’t have enough room... there’s not enough parking, no way we have enough donuts or coffee, not enough room in kids ministry, and no way our sanctuaries can hold all of those people!”
Just then it hits you, “No matter how many campuses we have, we can’t fit hundreds of thousands of people into our buildings!
No matter how many campuses we might have!
So, what do we do?
How do we fulfill God’s mission to reach all of West Michigan (and beyond) with the Gospel?
Brother and sister, we’ve got to go back to what Jesus told us to do!
He never said, “Go and invite everyone, everywhere to church!” No!
But He did tell you and I, “As you’re going, make disciples of everyone, everywhere!
Baptize them and teach them to obey everything I’ve commanded you!”
Do it in your homes,
in your place of work,
in the coffee shops and restaurants,
On the ball fields
In the gyms
On the trails and streams and lakes...
That’s how we can reach every single lost person in West MI and beyond!
It’s each and every one of us obeying the call to Go and make disciples and teaching them to do the same!
Can you see it?
Maybe you say, “I do see it. I get what Jesus is asking me to do... but how do I do it? How can I make disciples?”
Good question! I’m so glad you asked?
PAUSE
I’d like for each one of you to pull out the Disciple Making Growth Path Brochure that you were handed on your way in this morning. (Hold it up so people can see it)
If you don’t have one, pick one up on your way out.
I want you to see that we have created a path for each of you to follow which will lead you to becoming a healthy disciple who can make more healthy disciples.
Do you need to follow our prescribed path to make disciples?
No.
But we really believe if you did, you would be equipped and trained to do just that!
So, let’s walk through the path...open up to the Redwood Tree, which is our logo here at FC and is our visual for growth.
We want all of us to be like mighty Redwoods concerning our faith! That we would be strong, solid, and healthy followers of Jesus who can replicate!
Notice that the base of the tree starts at the point of salvation when we surrender our lives to Jesus.
Then our next step in growth as a follower of Jesus is to be baptized. As we read earlier, Baptism is part of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. That we are baptized into His Name.
If you haven’t been baptized as a believer, we would encourage you to take that step (provide details on next Baptism to attend).
Next you see the step of attending our Discover Family Lunch. This is a free lunch where you will hear more about Family Church, get to know the staff and we get to know you better too. It’s here that you will hear more about your next steps on the Growth Path... (give details regarding the next Discover Family Lunch)
Our next step is Foundations of Faith Class. This is a 5 week class where you will hear more about the Core Tenants of the Christian Faith from a Family Church perspective. Topics like the Bible, Prayer, Community, Baptism, Communion, Spiritual Gifts and more. This class is available for anyone to attend ONLINE... so you can watch the sessions and do the homework at your own pace.
Then we would encourage you to join one of our Serving Teams.
There are almost 20 different ways to serve here at FC from worship to kids to tech to café... we want you to use the gifts and talents God has given you to bless others in the Body of Christ!
Everyone is blessed when everyone does their part!
Btw, while we encourage everyone to follow the Growth Path, you can join a serving team at any point... just fill out a Connection Card in the seat back in front of you (or online) and turn it in to the giving box or Scooter table and we will get you connected on a team!
From there we would encourage you to join a Small Group at Family Church.
Most of the small groups discuss the weekend sermon here at FC, so you will be encouraged to dig deeper into the message at church and talk about how to apply God’s Word to your life.
You also learn and grow in the context of community which is essential for growth.
Did you know that Jesus had a small group? Yeah, He did His ministry with 12 guys... it’s like He knew the power of life in the community.
Check out the next step on the Growth Path... it’s our Disciple Making Class. This 5-week class is an in-person class where you will be equipped with tools and information to replicate! This is the best class to help you become a disciple-maker! We will be offering this class soon (have date here), so register asap!
Lastly, are our Disciple Making Small Groups! Once you are equipped through our Disciple making class, we want you to do life with others who are also ready to replicate.
These small groups are very intentional and strategic... they meet to encourage one another, pray for one another and keep each other accountable to make more disciples.
ADAM’S BOOK IF READY….
PAUSE
Family Church, can you see it?
What if every one of us committed to obey Jesus command to “make disciples?”
What if everyone one of us committed to disciple just 1 person this year?
What if every one of us committed to growing as a disciple maker this year?
What could God do through our church if we all committed to investing our time, our talents and our treasures to making disciples?
We believe that God desires to use our church to radically impact the community around us! That our communities will be transformed as more people follow Jesus, disciples are made and more churches are planted.
We’ve given you some inspiration and we’ve even given you a path to follow... now it’s your turn! Will you respond in faith?
Life Application: Jesus commanded us to make disciples. Who is one person you can help begin following Jesus? Write down their name, pray for them, and commit to inviting them into a disciple-making relationship. I will ________________________________________.
Prayer:
Make sure to do a salvation call.
Offering Talk:
Thank you again for taking part of your weekend to spend time with us!
If you would like to give God your tithes or offerings, there at boxes by the doors as you exit that you can place those or any connection cards in.
Have a GREAT week!