Make Disciples

1. Read: Matthew 28:18-20

2. About the Text:

1) The apostles had been disciples of Jesus for three years.

2) They saw Jesus crucified, die, be buried, and resurrected.

3) What did He want from them?

4) Jesus wants to build His church/kingdom (Matthew 16:18).

5) We do this by making disciples.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. This is the Greek verb – μαθητεύσατε (matheteúsate).

1) It is the verb μαθητεύω (mathēteúō).

2) It is an imperative verb – verb of command.

3) It is in the second person plural – All of you.

4) It’s meaning is “to make disciples.”

5) Some translations say, “Teach,” but this is not the word for teach.

6) The Greek word for teach is διδάσκω (didáskō).

2. This is the only imperative verb in the great commission.

1) The word “go” is a participle.

2) Jesus Christ wants us to make disciples.

3) A disciple was more than just someone who learned.

4) A disciple was one who learned and followed a teacher/master.

5) “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master” (Matthew 10:24-25).

6) “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).

3. How do we appropriate this command?

1) For our own lives?

2) For our families?

3) For our community?

1. Jesus expects us to make disciples of Him, disciples of Jesus Christ.

1) I am not to make disciples of Kevin.

2) You are not to make disciples of yourself.

3) We do not make disciples of any particular family group.

4) We do not make disciples of any particular local congregation.

5) We do not make disciples of any so-called “religious body.”

6) “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’” (Acts 14:21-22).

2. Consider some of the things that Jesus says about being His disciple.

1) “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

2) “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).

3) “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33).

3. Christ wants all of us above all else.

1) This is an all or nothing proposition that Jesus is giving us.

2) “So He said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life’” (Luke 18:29-30).

3) “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8).

1. Become Christians (little Christs) – “And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26).

2. How?

1) “Baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

2) “Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”

3) These are participles that describe how to make disciples.

3. We’ve got to make the commitment to be disciples.

1) It’s a commitment to growing into the image of Christ.

2) We don’t want cheap conversions.

3) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

4) The church must be committed to people.

4. Restoration to who God made us to be.

1) “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).

2) “and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:10).

3) We admire everything about Christ!

4) Do we admire Him enough to conform to His image?

5. Transformation of humanity.

1) What do we want humanity to look like.

2) If you were to take your life and use it as a model for humanity, what would the result be?

3) Would you want everyone to live the way that you do?

4) What needs to change?

1. Jesus’ directive to “make disciples” entails…

1) A Command

2) An Expectation

3) A Purpose

2. Invitation