If you were told by your mother to go and make your bed what would you do? You’d go and fix up the sheets on your bed, pulling them tight and straighten them up, wouldn’t you? I actually made my bed growing up. Literally. I made it out of scrap wood we had in our backyard. I am not sure that’s what mum was meaning when she told me to go and make my bed. The direction to “Make your bed” could be taken in many different ways, especially if we were culturally unfamiliar with the phrase. Jesus’ direction to “make disciples” can also taken in many different ways, our cultural context no doubt flavours it. What a tragedy it would be to miss the actual meaning of the great commission and think we were busy doing what we were asked, when all the while it wasn’t what Jesus had in mind at all!
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 ESV
The great commission gives us some great direction as to what we are meant to do in the disciple making process. We need to ensure we don’t get fixated primarily on the “make disciples” phrase, and treat the great commission purely as an evangelistic text. It’s more than that. It doesn’t just direct us to “convert” people, it calls us to disciple people by going to them, baptising them, and teaching them to obey Jesus’ commands.
Going – We are meant to move in order to make. To go and to make disciples, not just to stay and make disciples. This implies that disciples are to be made of those who haven’t yet become a part of your church or Christian group. This requires that we must invest ourselves in those that aren’t already in our Christian communities in order to make disciples.
Baptising – Baptism is the outward and public expression of the inward confession of a person that has trusted Jesus with their life. It should be the aim of disciple-makers to bring disciples to the point at which they are willingly and publicly able to declare that they trust Jesus as Lord and Saviour of their life. It is important for us to help people trust Jesus with their whole life, and to encourage them to show it in baptism. The best way to do this is to trust Jesus with our whole life and live for him as best as we possibly can. This helps people see him as “trustable”.
Teaching to obey – Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “teaching them to remember my commands” or “teaching them where to find my commands” (though both of these things would certainly be helpful). Jesus told his disciples to teach other disciples how to “obey”. Teaching to obey is practical. It is more than theory. It is embedded in the realities of life. They need to know how to obey Christ when things are going well and when they are going bad, when the unexpected has hit them and when things are going as planned. The way for his to happen best is to live closely with others. To let others into your life enough to see how real obedience to Jesus looks.
None of these things are easy. They are practical. They are costly. We must remember the "Jesus Sandwich" we have around us as we do it. The power slice on the top and the presence slice on the bottom. Disciple making isn’t done alone.
Lord help us to make disciples of you the way that you want them made. Amen.