Making Disciple-Making Disciples

Setting and Overview

Few ambitious Christians today grow up dreaming about a fulfilling ministry career of mentoring a handful of other believers into fruitful ministries themselves. Such a legacy hardly sounds as worthwhile as being a prominent author, famous evangelist, mega church planter, or even bold missionary who takes the Gospel first to an unreached people. That, however, is exactly the model that is envisioned in Jesus’ call to make disciples of every nation, and far from being a background complement to the seemingly earth-shaking alternatives already listed, the work of making disciples who make disciples is actually the backbone of a movement that will reach the whole world. The only question is whether the Church is willing to obey.

Exposition

In verses 19-20, the English translation seems to indicate four complementary commands: go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. There is really only one command, however, and that is to make disciples. The other three are expressed as participles, showing them to be important and necessary commands related to the core exhortation to make disciples. A disciple is literally a learner, a pupil who will study under a rabbi, following in their footsteps and absorbing both their teaching and example, and eventually becoming like their master (Luke 6:40.) Jesus himself gave a model for such calling of disciples, showing the blessings available to his followers (Matthew 4:19, 11:28, 8:2-3, 13, 9:2), making the extraordinary commitment clear (Matthew 11:29, 10:37-39) and even examining would be followers, some who passed the test (Matthew 15:21-28) and some who didn’t (Matthew 19:16-22.) He further calls his disciples in verse 19 to make disciples of all nations, not neglecting the mission to the Jews (Luke 24:47, Acts 1:8) but contrasting this mission to the previous one (Matthew 10:1-6) and showing the fulfillment of what was pictured from the beginning of the Gospel (Matthew 1:1, Genesis 12:3, Matthew 12:21.) To disciple the nations, of course, someone must go (Romans 10:14.) Even today when technology allows us to access people in a way that we never could before, the most powerful church movements are still built on personal relationships and interactions.

Bringing people to Jesus is not the end of the expectation, however. We are further called to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This command reflects a Trinitarian understanding and connects back to John the Baptist’s ministry (3:5-6) and Jesus’ own (John 4:1-3.) The baptism ceremony reflects an understanding that the disciple as has died to themselves and is now a new creation (John 3:3-6.) This is also a dangerous act for Christians in much of the world and reflects commitment to give even their lives to Jesus. The Christian community that participates in their baptism also is affirming the evidence of their faith and committing to support them as they grow in their obedience to the Jesus’ commands. This is also the final part of the command, as the Church is called to teach such obedience to other believers. While this will involve head knowledge (Titus 1:9) it can certainly not stop there (Titus 1:16) and must instead progress to teaching and showing other believers how to live (Titus 2:1-8) to the point that they will be faithful disciple-makers themselves. While this can be done in many settings, the example in Titus reflects a setting of a local church, which is also seen consistently throughout the New Testament, and is spelled out especially in Ephesians 4:11-16 with a picture of a community of transformative learning, which then equips the body to make disciples of the world.

Examination and Application

When Christians today hear the Great Commission, the focus is usually on going, either wondering if they are supposed to go, and/or hoping that they don’t have to. Not every Christian is called to go to another country as part of the Great Commission, though, while every one is called to make disciples somewhere (Matthew 4:19.) Are you making disciples who will make disciples? If the answer is no, then whatever else you are doing is likely to die out in a generation. If the answer is yes, then the impact of your work today will last for generations to come. We simply must obey.