Text: Matt 28: 18 – 20
Matt.28.18 – And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Matt.28.19 – 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,
Matt.28.20 – 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.
* When Christ said, “Go and Make Disciples”, he knew what he was saying and the original audience that he spoke to also understood what he was saying.
Because the discipleship system is not original to Jesus’s times, it was a system already in place for several centuries.
Looking at the historical meaning of discipleship, it is simply the system by which a learner learns from a master.
But the unique thing about this instruction of Christ was that this call to discipleship was to be for everyone. It was a call to replicating what has happened to you in the lives of other people, these people also replicating it in others, thereby bringing the life and ideals of Christ to all.
So it was a system to transmit the life of Christ to people.
Discipleship then will be a system through which the life of Christ is transfered to another person called the disciple through the hand of a discipler until this life is formed in them upon which they will also be a able to transfer this same life to others.
If we look at 2 Timothy 2:2, we will see Paul also giving the same instruction to Timothy.
*NOT A PROGRAM*
A thorough understanding of the explanation above will also show that discipleship is not a program that you can go through in a class and upon completion of the topics conclude that you are now a disciple.
While teaching topics in a class may be part of discipleship but that is not the totality of what discipleship is all about, Christ centered discipleship is the transfer of the life of Christ.
*NOT JUST BY ASSOCIATION*
While we have mentioned that it is a life transfer from one person to another, however we must also note that discipleship is not just by associating with someone that is a discipler so at to have a label called disciple.
The Christ centered discipleship starts with receiving the life of Christ– it starts with salvation. Until there is salvation as a life experience of an individual, discipleship doesn’t start.
An unbeliever cannot be discipled to become a matured believer except somewhere along the line they encounter Jesus and this cannot be assumed.
You cannot disciple a goat to become a sheep. By the virtue of the teachings and training, the goat may be behaving like a sheep but in its core, its heart, a goat is still a goat and one day that goat nature will come out.
So discipleship starts with a heart transplant. Where the hardened heart of stone is taken away and the heart of Christ is infused. This process is called SALVATION.
*Read Ezekiel 36:26 – 28*
*SALVATION IS THE BEGINNING*
As salvation is very key in the scheme of things, it is the beginning of discipleship it is not the end. We can see it as the admission qualification into discipleship but the journey has just begun.
Because Christ didn’t send us to ‘make converts’ rather he sent us to ‘make disciples’…
So when someone receives Christ, they must immediately be initiated into a life of discipleship which in actual fact is a life long experience.
The goal is to BECOME LIKE CHRIST and how this is achieved is that the disciple is introduced to the curriculum which is Christ as well.
The goal is Christ
The curriculum is Christ
The method is Christ
People will see you and without you making any announcement, they will say “We perceive that you have been with Christ.”
This was the reason believers were called Christians in Antioch. They lived and preached Christ.
The life of Christ oozed out of their lives and started “infecting” others.
*What does Jesus have to say about discipleship?*
We must again reiterate that discipleship as practiced in scriptures and as commanded by Christ to the disciples was a system already in existence for many centuries. It was the means by which a student become like his master.
It was a training system.
It was an empowerment system.
It was a system to make an individual fit for life.
It was an educational system.
It was a trade training system.
It was a life moulding system.
It was a family system for developing an individual.
We must also say that whatever the discipler is will be what the disciple would become.
Christ said in Luke.6.40 “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.”
Matt.10.24 – 25 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!
So the heart of discipleship is for the disciple to be like his master and this is a practical matter and not just a theological matter.
It is this practicality that makes it good, when it is done right and also dangerous when it is done wrongly.
Because the sample of what the disciple will become is the discipler.
Look at this example in Acts.4.13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
So the people saw a difference in the unlearned Peter and John and their conclusion was because they had been with Jesus.
They knew something happened to them because they were with Jesus.
On the other side if the discipler is Beelzebub as mentioned in Matt 10:25, you can be sure that the disciples produced will also be Beelzebub.
Christ said in Matt.23.15 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
