Matthew 28:16-20 September 12, 2004
Making Disciples
At the end of Matthew, you have this amazing tale of Jesus death. He is arrested, beaten, tried unjustly and sentenced to death by crucifixion. In the movie the passion of the Christ, I am amazed that Jesus survives the torture to even go to the cross. But he survives to die, and Matthew speaks of this cataclysmic event when Jesus does finally die. 27:50-54
50And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son[5] of God!"
The event is cataclysmic because the event is cosmic – this is not as simple as an innocent man dieing unjustly, or a great radical dieing for his ideals. No this is the very Son of God who came to be a man for the purpose of dying for us, that we might have life.
Jesus death breaks the wall that divides us from God, and the curtain that keeps us out of the holy of holies in the temple ripping in two is a great sign that Jesus has ripped access to god wide open through his death on the cross. The resurrection of the Saints at Jesus death is a sign of the life that Jesus has purchased.
Jesus own resurrection is an even greater sign and proof, that his innocent death has broken the hold that sin has on our lives, and loosened the grip that death has on all of creation.
Philippians tells us that Jesus obedience even to the point of death, is the reason that God lifted him up to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!
It is with this power and glory that the risen Jesus returns to his disciples. He tells them to go to Galilee where he will meet them. When they arrive he says these words to them: Matthew 28:18-20
18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[1] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Pray
These words are called the great commission. That day in Galilee, Jesus gave the church it’s commission – to go and make disciples of all nations with the power of Jesus backing them up.
Compare this great commission to Alec Baldwin’s speech in Glengarry Glen Ross. The movie is set in the recession of the early nineties - He walks into the office of real estate sales and begins to yell at the sales men because they are not selling. He calls them names, he swears at them,(which is why I didn’t use the clip), he questions their manhood, he tells the man getting coffee to put it down, not because he was interrupting, but because coffee is for closers – not for losers like him. He sets out a deal for them – prizes for the top sellers of the month – first prize is a new car, second prize is a set of steak knives, and third prize is, “You’re fired.” He turns over a chalk board with the letters A B C on it and he says that it is as simple as ABC A – always, B – be, C – closing: Always Be Closing, always be closing.
My problem is that I believe that over the last number of generations, we have taken our evangelistic methods, not from Jesus’ words in Matthew 28, but from sales models like we find in Glengarry Glen Ross.
The sales model of evangelism is damaging to discipleship – the sales method of evangelism turns people into consumers of religion.
Erwin McManus says when we bring people into the church as consumers, then we expect them to be participants!
In the sales model of evangelism, sermons on evangelism often sound much like Alec Baldwin’s speech on sales – preachers either encourage us to get out there and close the deal, or berate us for being such bad sales people.
But Jesus says this…
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
“I’ve won, I want you to join in the victory by making disciples, baptizing them and teaching them all you’ve learned from me. Oh, and I’m going to come along with you!”
An old method: Making Disciples
Jesus doesn’t commission his followers and us to be God salesmen, to sell Jesus, he commissions us to make disciples of Jesus.
Today I want to talk about how making disciples is a much healthier, much more sustainable method of evangelism than trying close the deal with everyone we meet.
In he book Dog Training, Fly Fishing & Sharing Christ, Ted Haggard is encouraging us to become diciplers. Often we think that discipleship begins after someone accepts Christ – you become a Christian and then you are discipled in the faith. Ted presents the idea that we start discipling people no matter where they are in their faith journey.
In 1975 James Engel published a scale that describes the faith journey, and the various states that people pass through on their way to God. It has been used by missions educators ever since and has become known as the Engel Scale:
DISCIPLING AT EVERY STAGE: THE ENGLE SCALE
-8 Awareness of a Supreme Being, but no effective knowledge of the gospel
-7 Initial awareness of the gospel
-6 Awareness of the fundamentals of the gospel
-5 Grasp of the implications of the gospel
-4 positive attitude toward the gospel
-3 Personal problem recognition
-2 Decision to act
-1 Repentance and faith in Christ
0 The person is born again, and becomes a new creation in Christ
+1 Post decision evaluation
+2 Incorporation into a local body of Christ
+3 A lifetime of conceptual and behavioral growth in Christ
- very cerebral scale – we want people to experience God
- very individualistic – body life only happens after conversion
Ted’s Definition of discipleship is taking people one step on the Engel scale
If they are believe in a God, but don’t get grace, we help them become aware of grace…
This has caused a shift in the idea of ministry or evangelism – Ted Haggards’ model of small groups & intentional discipleship
Fly fishing small group – covert discipleship
Yes responses to God
I think that we have another not so helpful method of evangelism – the hit and run method.
We’ve gotten to know someone and befriended them, and think it would be great if they would come to Jesus. We have all these mixed up feelings – guilt for not telling them about Jesus, desire to do the right thing, hope for their soul, fear of rejection and losing a friend… So one day we get our courage up and come loaded for bear, blurt out everything we know about God, call for a response, and wait for the rejection to come. Unless it really is the Spirit’s timing and our friend was just waiting for an opportunity to give their life to Jesus, they wonder who you are and what you’ve done with their friend. Often times the friendship is hurt by our evangelistic outburst and walls are built rather than knocked down.
We act like that slightly awkward person who has fallen in love with a friend, they finally blurt out their feeling and possibly ruin the friendship.
We are not trying to get our friends to fall in love with us, (they are our friends they already like us) we are trying to get them to fall in love with Jesus.
Another model: Spiritual matchmaking
Have you ever played matchmaker for two friends? – this is how you do it – first you talk about them in an off hand way in a good light. You may even say that there is someone you’d like them to meet. Then after giving enough glowing reports to each of them, you throw a party and invite the two with a bunch of other friends. You introduce them, and let them take it from there. If they hit it off, great! If not, you at least got to have a great party
I think that we need to become spiritual match makers – we think that Jesus is “just right” for all of our friends, so we should set about making a match made in heaven!
Share your faith in off handed, positive ways – talk about your prayer life and church life with your friends, not asking them to make a commitment or even a judgement, and then after much prayer, see about getting them & Jesus in the same room.
Through praying for them one on one, bringing them to church or a special event, Alpha & God at the Pub is a great way for people to get to know Jesus without making a commitment.
Jesus does pretty good on his own when we get people inn the room with him! We have to draw them in!
My love of mountain biking – took Fred, Doug, Roger, Pam, now they all own mountain bikes
This is not just about being a good friend…
Discipleship= Relationship + Intenionality
Jesus doesn’t call us to sell him, he calls us to introduce people to him, so that he might woo them into salvation.
He doesn’t leave us alone in this endevor – he will be with us to the end of the Age.
Questions
Does “making disciples & Spiritual matchmaking take some of the fear away from “evangelism?”
Think of three people that you would like to see move up the scale this fall.
