Matthew 28:18-20 - 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.”
Jesus told us to go and make disciples. That is the charge He left us with when He was getting ready to ascend back to heaven. I think many of us have the wrong idea of what this command entails.
We will spend all of our time and energy to have a big evangelistic event and then notch our belts for every person that responded to the altar call and got ‘saved’. Don’t misunderstand me, these events are great, I enjoy doing them, but this is not what Jesus was telling us to do.
Discipleship goes beyond getting someone ‘saved’. It has to start with salvation, but once saved we cannot leave them to fend for themselves. We need to understand that people need help to walk out their salvation.
You see, discipleship is about relationship. It’s about teaching a person how to live the new life that were just born into. Really, it is about reproducing yourself in others, just as Christ has done in us. Like Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
Getting people saved is amazing, but that is only half the battle. Teaching people how to live like Jesus is where the full victory lies. Then, as we teach them to live like Jesus, they in turn will teach others to do the same. After that the increase in God’s kingdom will be exponential.
Jesus told us to go and make disciples. That is the charge He left us with when He was getting ready to ascend back to heaven. I think many of us have the wrong idea of what this command entails.
We will spend all of our time and energy to have a big evangelistic event and then notch our belts for every person that responded to the altar call and got ‘saved’. Don’t misunderstand me, these events are great, I enjoy doing them, but this is not what Jesus was telling us to do.
Discipleship goes beyond getting someone ‘saved’. It has to start with salvation, but once saved we cannot leave them to fend for themselves. We need to understand that people need help to walk out their salvation.
You see, discipleship is about relationship. It’s about teaching a person how to live the new life that were just born into. Really, it is about reproducing yourself in others, just as Christ has done in us. Like Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
Getting people saved is amazing, but that is only half the battle. Teaching people how to live like Jesus is where the full victory lies. Then, as we teach them to live like Jesus, they in turn will teach others to do the same. After that the increase in God’s kingdom will be exponential.
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