Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
At the end of his gospel, Matthew records Jesus’ final words before his ascension to be with the Father. We understand this as, “The Great Commission.” In it, he commands his eleven faithful apostles to do three things: 1) “go and make disciples of all nations.” 2) then “baptize them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit ” 3) and lastly “teach them to obey everything”
We understand from the book of Acts that the apostles obeyed Jesus’s teachings and fulfilled the great commission by spreading the gospel throughout the entire known world in the first century (Col. 1:23)!
We must understand that Jesus did not intend for the great commission to only be lived out in the first century, but he desires it to be fulfilled in every century, even in the twenty-first century (1 Tim. 2:3-4)! If we are to, “go and make disciples” of all the nations in our generation we must ask an important question: What is a disciple? In order to answer this question we are going to study three passages in the book of John that will help define this term for us.
Disciples Hold To Jesus’ Teaching
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:31-32
A major misconception in Christendom today is that all one needs to do to have a relationship with Jesus is to “believe in him.” However, Jesus explains to the “Jews who had believed him” that mere “belief in him” is simply not enough for salvation. He told them to “hold to his teachings” in order to be known as “His disciples” and thus be “set free” from sin- in other words be saved (John 8:34)!
There are three parts to holding to Jesus’ teachings: First, we must listen to His Word. This comes from reading the Bible daily for our “quiet times” (Acts 17:10-12), from listening to sermons or from group Bible discussions, studies or “discipling times”. Second, we must meditate on His word. We see many examples of this in the book of Psalms, note the following verses, Psalm 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 97, 99, 148. Meditating includes, but is not limited to, thinking about the scriptures, memorizing scriptures (Ps. 119:11) or even singing about the scriptures! And Third, we must apply the scriptures to our lives. As James says in James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” We must be students of the word, taking detailed notes and making daily decisions on how we are going to apply the scriptures to our lives personally. I recently found an excerpt in a book that helped explain this concept. The book is called: Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry by Milton Jones. When speaking of holding to Jesus’ teachings, Jones states, “Abiding in the Word is similar to a plant in the soil. A plant must abide in the soil and continually draw sustenance from the soil. The plant cannot live apart from the soil. Abiding is also like a fish in the water. In order for a fish to live, he must be abiding in the water, drawing out oxygen for his gills. If the fish is removed from its element, water , it will die. A disciple’s element is the Word. If a disciple is removed from his element, the Word, he is like a fish out of water and will die.” Let’s choose to be those who not only believe in Jesus, but have a lifestyle of “holding to His teachings” so we do not become, “fish out of the water!”
Disciples Must Love Other Disciples
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
At first glance this passage may appear confusing as God’s command to “love” was not a “new command” but an old one (Lev. 19:18). However, this was indeed a new command of love that Jesus gave and can be understood in three areas. First, this was a new commandment in object. In this passage the object is no longer to just, “love your neighbor as yourself,” but the object is to love disciples of Jesus! Of course we are called to love our neighbor today. However, we must understand that our relationship with them is limited as a Christian and a non-Christian do not have the same purpose, priorities or convictions and we each serve different masters. Therefore, our relationship with non-Christians will always be superficial to a degree. Therefore, to be disciples we must make sure we do not become isolated Christians, but that we are continually growing in our love for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. All of us should be fighting to build deep, meaningful and lifelong friendships with disciples in our congregations.
The second area that this commandment is new relates to the “measure” of love. Jesus commands us to “love, as he has loved us”. People in the world today have a limit of love that they are willing to give. Love is only given when it is earned or convenient to the giver. This love completely contradicts the purpose of the love Jesus calls us to. When we study the life of Christ, we see no such way of thinking but Jesus setting a consistent example of what true selfless love looks like.
The last area where this is a “new command” is in its purpose. Jesus explains that the purpose of us having this “new love” with our fellow disciples is to show the world that we are “really {His} disciples!” The only way the world will really know we are really following Jesus is by our selfless love for one another. We must decide to never, “draw lines” in our love for one another but learn to “love one another” and choose to have the correct, “object”, “measure” and “purpose” in our effort to fulfill this command of Jesus!
Disciples Must Bear Fruit
“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:8)
Lastly, John teaches the way we can, “show ourselves to be His disciples” is by bearing fruit to the glory of God! In John 15:1-2, Jesus teaches that if we remain in Him we will bear fruit, and he goes on to tell us in verse 5, “by ourselves we can do nothing”. Therefore we understand we are totally dependent upon our relationship with Jesus to bear fruit. Now the big question is, what does it mean to bear fruit? There are three schools of thought on this. The first is that bearing fruit is the fruit of evangelism, “baptizing” people. However, according to John 15:17 Jesus says, This is my command: Love each other”. Therefore, this “fruit” involves a deeper relationship and can not just mean the fruit of evangelism. The second school of thought is that Jesus is talking about the “fruits of the Spirit” that Paul speaks of in Galatians 5:22-23 which is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness and self-control. This does not line up as Jesus speaks of the world hating us in verse 18. The world does not “hate people” for having love, joy or peace. As well, Jesus says in verse 16 to, “go and bear fruit”. It is impossible to go and bear the fruits of the Spirit because these are fruits that the Spirit will grow in us as we mature in our walk with God. And the last school of thought is the fruit Jesus speaks of is the fruit of, making disciples. Which makes sense as Jesus says to, go and bear fruit and in His great commission he tells us to “go and make disciples!” As well, to make disciples requires us to rely on Jesus, love deeply and persevere which are all covered in John 15! Therefore we can safely say, the fruit of John 15 that we must bear to bring glory to God is the fruit of making others into disciples!
Our original question at the start of this article was, “what is a disciple”? Now we can say with confidence that we know what a disciple is! We know disciples hold to Jesus’s teachings (John 8:31-32), disciples love other disciples (John 13:34-35), and disciples bear fruit! To the members of the Denver International Christian Church, the call of the hour is for all of us to evaluate our discipleship and fight to grow in all three of these areas and bring glory to God in the Rocky Mountains like never before! If what you read today is a new teaching for you or you are not yet a disciple, please reach out to one of the members of the Denver church and ask their help in being made into a disciple of Jesus Christ. I can promise you that there is not a greater decision you can make!
To God be the glory,
Jason T. Woody
Evangelist
