The Great Commission

June 2006

The Great Commission is unquestionably the most important command ever given to the church.  It was Jesus’ last words – and a person’s last words are very important. It is repeated (in some form) 5 times in the New Testament……(Mt. 28:19-20, Mk. 16:15, Lk. 24:46-49, Jn. 21:15, Act 1:8) No other command has this much press in all the Bible. But just what does a disciple of Jesus look like?

Most of our churches would be hard pressed to describe a “disciple” of Jesus in any detail.  A description might sound something like this, “a person who expresses belief in Jesus as the Son of God, seeks a personal relationship with and has asked Jesus to save him, and submits to water baptism as an outward sign of initial obedience.” I am sure that many of us are familiar with this description. But just what does a disciple of Jesus look like?

Discipleship is about transformation, on-going, life-long change at the heart, head and habit level. The kind of change in a person’s life that is revealed in what they do because of who they’ve become. Careful study of scripture paints an indelible picture of a disciple of Jesus Christ.

In 1871, AB Bruce published his classic book, “The Training of the Twelve”. In the forward to this book, Bruce stated that in his training, Jesus carried His disciples through several sequential and distinctly different training phases. Each phase had a different dynamic and intent, and each one built upon the last. This same observation was recognized by Bill Hull in his book “New Century Disciplemaker.”

In Hull’s book he describes four distinct phases. Hull calls these phases the “Come and See”, “Follow Me”, “Be With Me” and “Remain in Me”.

The first phase, “Come and See” of Jesus’ training of His disciples is recorded only in the book of John, chapters 2-5 and lasted approximately 15 months. It was a time when Jesus attracted disciples to Himself.

The “Follow-Me” phase lasted approximately nine months. During this time;
Jesus taught – and the disciples listened, Jesus healed – and the disciples watched, Jesus went – and the disciples followed, Jesus ministered – and the disciples marveled.

The “Be With Me” phase lasted approximately two years in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Two-thirds of all the gospel passages on discipleship fall into this phase. Jesus intended that the disciples be with Him and that they now lead ministry.

After three years of apprenticeship to Jesus, we might expect Him to say to His disciples, “Congratulations, you’re finished now”. But, at the end of His ministry, He was saying things like… “I have many more things to tell you, but you can’t bear them all now.” “Continue to remain in me as the branch remains in the vine,” and “I will be with you always.”

The point is that disciplemaking is not a simple process of filling in the blanks in several curriculum books. Disciplemaking is “a lifetime process” of filling in the holes in a life. It is never finished, and it is always intentional. Peter almost missed this point, as he decided to bail out of the process and return to fishing. But Jesus appeared to him and set him back on track. This is a phase that is carried out even though Jesus is not physically present.

When Jesus made disciples, He used an intentional, sequential process.
Disciplemaking is not an event. It is a process. It is not just revival, it requires reformation.

Most of us want to see our churches make the kind of person Jesus commanded us to make. We honestly desire a process that consistently turns out this kind of disciple, yet we also often feel ill equipped or overwhelmed when contemplating such a task. Your association and state convention can provide help in this area. To learn more about how you can help transition your church from convert making to intentional disciplemaking, contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or (316) 204-5632.

God bless you as you lead and serve.

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