Are You Discipled?


Discipled

The Great Commission

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Matthew 28:18–20 (NKJV)

This is one of many instructions from Jesus. Like a lot of His instructions, this one is generally truncated or ignored by the modern day church. There is a willingness to share and participate in the command to spread the gospel, and we have a whole denomination dedicated to the act of baptizing, but very little time is devoted to making disciples.

Sometimes this oversight is due to the fact that people don’t seem to understand what the word disciple means. Let’s look at some definitions of “disciple”.

To disciple is: To teach; to train, or bring up.
A disciple is: A follower; an adherent to the doctrines of another. Hence the constant attendants of Christ were called his disciples; and hence all Christians are called his disciples, as they profess to learn and receive his doctrines and precepts.

According to Webster, we should have an action by one or more that leads to actions or behaviors in others. Unfortunately, we have created a “have it your way” form of Christianity. We are under grace, so we are quick to argue that we are not bound by laws that would obligate us to act or behave in any particular way.

And unfortunately, this attitude is found in the teachers as well as those they are called to teach. In fact, there is a great deal more teaching of this “have it your way” brand of Christianity, than there is actually any making of disciples of Christ. There are even a lot of people getting baptized, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who have never been discipled! I was baptized at least 3 times before I had any idea about the significance of being baptized, but I was never discipled to follow Christ.

The good news is that God has given us His Spirit. I believe that He understood that teachers of the pure and sincere gospel would become few and far between. Jesus said:

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
~John 16:12-14 ESV

In the commentary titled Expositions of Holy Scripture, Alexander MacLaren says this about making disciples:

“He is to be the ‘Spirit of truth’ to all the ages, who in simple verity will help true hearts to know and love the truth. There are three things in the words before us-first, the avowed incompleteness of Christ’s own teaching; second, the completeness of the truth into which the Spirit of truth guides; and, last, the unity of these two.”

This commentary has a lot to say, but to keep this message short; we need to simply understand that we cannot use the inadequacies of our church leaders as an excuse for not becoming disciples of Christ. If we are sincere in our desire to follow Christ, and if we cannot find the necessary instruction in the natural, we need to remember and accept the fact that Jesus promised to disciple us by His Spirit!
~pk

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