Impact: Making Disciples

Matthew 28:16-20

A Few Reminders About the Process of Church Membership…

We are not shopping for the best product.

We are not competitors looking to compare with the church down the street.

We are a community passionate about advancing a Kingdom.

We glorify Christ BY MAKING DISCIPLES of all nations.

The command is clear…

• Two words: Make Disciples
• Biblical community and biblical mission are inseparable.
  • Disciple-making is about sharing life in Christ.
  • Disciple-making is about multiplying the life of Christ.

The command has been compromised…

• We are tempted to do everything except the one thing Jesus told us to do in the Great Commission.
  • Jesus never told us…
    • Start Sunday School
    • Form classes
    • Create programs
    • Construct church buildings
    • Build colleges, universities, and seminaries
    • Organize conventions
    • Hold conferences
  • Jesus did tell us to…
    • Make disciples in every part of the world.
• We have two options…
  • Self-directed strategies that hope for God’s blessing.
  • A Christ-directed strategy that is guaranteed God’s blessing.

The command in Christ…

• John 17:4- “I have finished the work…”
  • In John 17, Jesus never mentions the miracles He performed or the multitudes to whom He preached, but over 40 times He mentions the men whom God had given Him out of the world!
  • Jesus’ strategy was to revolutionize the hearts of a few and in the process turn the world upside down.
• Disciples cannot be mass-produced.
  • Jesus spent more time with his disciples than with everybody else in the world put together.
  • Jesus devoted Himself to a few men, rather than the masses, so that the masses might be saved.
• People are God’s method for winning the world to Himself.

The command in the church…

• Share the Word.
  • We go with confidence in the sovereignty of God.
  • We go living out the Gospel of God.
  • We go empowered by the Spirit of God.
• Show the Word.
  • The world longs to see a demonstration of Christ that accompanies our explanation of Christ.
  • Disciple-making is not about going to a class; disciple-making is about sharing our lives.
  • We devote our lives to the process of disciple-making for others’ sanctification.
  • We are dependent on the process of disciple-making for our own sanctification.
  • Making disciples is living for the glory of God in others.
• Teach the Word.
  • We are constantly receiving the Word.
  • We are subsequently reproducing the Word.
• Serve the World.
  • We lock arms with one another as we lay down our lives for the world.
  • Are we discipling or disinfecting Christians?
  • Disinfecting isolates Christians in a spiritual safety deposit box called the church building and teaches them to be good. This results in…
    • Decent church members with little world impact.
    • Disobedience to God’s command to reach the entire world.
    • Wasted lives.
  • Discipling propels Christians into the world to risk their lives for the sake of others. This results in…
    • Disciples of Christ with total world impact.
    • Obedience to God’s command to reach the entire world.
    • Abundant lives.
• The question we must constantly ask as the local church…
  • How can we most effectively make disciples of all nations?
• Based on the precedent of Christ and the pattern of the early church, the primary avenue for disciple-making to occur is in the context of small groups.
• We want to see small groups of disciple-makers all over the planet.

The question for you…

How are you going to multiply the Gospel with your life?