Day 15 The Heart of a Disciple Maker

The Heart of a Disciple Maker

Why do you want to make disciples?  Have you ever asked yourself that question? The answer is incredibly important.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we should be focused on making disciples. But if we donʼt do it with the right motives, we are wasting our time. Worse yet, we could be doing more harm than good. Ministering to other people has been a deadly trap for seemingly godly people

throughout the ages. If God cared only about outward appearances and religious activities, then any effort towards ministry would please Him. But God tells us repeatedly that He cares more about the heart than the externals.

If God cared only about religious activities, then the Pharisees would have been heroes of the faith. They were continuously engaged in ministry: they vigorously pursued an external form of righteousness, they made sure the people around them kept themselves holy, and they diligently taught the law of God. And yet the Gospels present the Pharisees as villains. Jesusʼ harshest words were reserved for these religious overachievers:

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9)

The Pharisees devoted their whole lives to religious activity. They must have seemed so impressive to the people around them. Yet Jesus came along and declared that it was all in vain!  An important theme that runs throughout Scripture is this: “The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Clearly, God

wants us to pursue certain actions; but as we put Godʼs commands into action, our motivation makes all the difference.

1. Take a moment to examine your heart. In all honesty, why do you want to make disciples?

Day 14 Living As Disciple Makers

Working Together to Make Disciples

God wants you to view the other Christians in your life as partners in ministry. The church is all about working together for Godʼs glory. God has not called you to make disciples in isolation, He has placed you in the context of a church body so that you can be encouraged and challenged by the people around you; and you are called to encourage and challenge them in return.

As you begin this study, think about how you will proceed. Are there Christians in your life that you can study this material with? Are there mature believers that you can approach with the questions that will inevitably arise? I want you to think through this material on your own and let these truths saturate your mind, heart, and lifestyle. But youʼll get a lot more out of this if you have

other people to talk with, be challenged by, and work together with.

7. Who has God placed in your life that you can partner with in making disciples?

8. Spend some time praying that God will make you into a committed and effective disciple maker. Confess any feelings of unpreparedness and insecurity. Ask Him to empower you for the ministry He is calling you to. Ask Him to lead you to the right people to partner with and the right people to begin discipling.

Day 13 Living As Disciple Makers

Taking the First Step

Being a disciple maker means that you will begin to look at the people in your life differently. Every person in your life is created in the image of God, and Jesus calls every one of them to follow Him. God has placed these people in our lives so that we will do everything we can to

influence them. Following Jesus means that we will be teaching other people to follow Jesus.

Take some time to consider your first step toward disciple making. Who has God placed in your life that you can teach to follow Jesus? Maybe God is laying someone on your heart that you donʼt know very well. Your first step could be building a relationship with that person. Maybe itʼs someone youʼve known for years, and God is calling you to take that relationship to another

level. God has placed you where you are, and the people around you are not there by accident.

Keep in mind that the Great Commission calls us to every type of person, to those inside of the church as well as to those outside. Everyone needs to understand who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him.

6. Who has God placed in your life right now that you can begin making into a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Day 12 Living As Disciple Makers

Equipped to Do the Work of Ministry

Disciple making has become the exclusive domain of pastors (and missionaries). Salesmen sell, insurance agents insure, and ministers minister. At least, thatʼs the way it works in most of our churches.

While itʼs true that the pastors, elders, and apostles in the New Testament made disciples, we canʼt overlook the fact that discipleship was everyoneʼs job. Every member of the early church took their responsibility to make disciples very seriously. To them, the church wasnʼt

a corporation run by a CEO. Rather, they compared the church to a body that only functions properly when every member is doing its part.

Paul explains the function of the church in Ephesians 4:11-16:

He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Paul saw the church as a community of redeemed people where each person is actively involved in doing the work of ministry. The pastor is not the minister, at least, not in the way we typically think of a minister. The pastor is the equipper, and every member of the church is a minister.

The implications are huge. Donʼt think of this as merely a theological issue. See yourself in this passage. Paul is saying that your job is to do the work of ministry! Jesus commanded you to make disciples! This is the whole reason this material was written—to equip you to disciple

others. We have been encouraging you to work through this material with other people so that you can learn to take people through it and teach them to be disciples of Jesus.

Most Christians can give a number of reasons for why they cannot or should not disciple other people: “I donʼt feel called to minister.” “I just have too much on my plate right now, I donʼt have time to invest in other people.” “I donʼt know enough.” “I have too many issues of my own. Iʼll start once I get my life in order.”

As convincing as these excuses may seem to us, Jesusʼ commands donʼt come with exception clauses. He doesnʼt tell us to follow unless weʼre busy. He doesnʼt call us to love our neighbors unless we donʼt feel prepared. In fact, if you read Luke 9:57-62, youʼll see several individuals who gave excuses for why they couldnʼt follow Jesus at the time. Read the passage

and take note of how Jesus responds to them. It may surprise you. God made you the way you are; He has provided and will continue to provide you with everything you need to accomplish the task. Jesus commands you to look at the people around you and start making them into disciples. We all have plenty to learn, but the right place to start is by obeying.

5. What excuses tend to keep you from following Jesusʼ command to make disciples? What do you need to do in order to move past these excuses?

Day 11 Living As Disciple Makers

Just as baptism is more significant than we might think, so teaching people to obey Jesusʼ commands is an enormous task. Realistically, this will require a lifetime of devotion to studying the Scriptures and investing in the people around us. Neither of these things is easy, nor can these things be checked off of a list. We are never really “done.” We continually devote ourselves to studying the Scriptures so that we can learn with ever-greater depth and clarity what God

wants us to know, practice, and pass on. We continually invest in the people around us, teaching them and walking with them through lifeʼs joys and trials.

We never “finish” the discipleship process. Itʼs much like raising a child: though there comes a day when they are ready to be on their own, the relationship doesnʼt end. The friendship

continues and there will always be times when guidance and encouragement are still needed. In addition to that, God continually brings new people into our path, giving us fresh opportunities to start the discipleship process all over again.

Following Jesus by making disciples isnʼt difficult to understand, but it can be very costly. Jesusʼ teachings are often difficult to stomach. By sharing His teachings, we are often rejected along with His message. Jesus said:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember

the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (John 15:18-20)

Again, itʼs easy enough to understand, but it can be extremely costly.

4. Would you say that youʼre ready to commit yourself to studying the Scriptures and investing in the people around you? Why or why not?

Day 10 Living As Disciple Makers

More Than a Program

So what does disciple making look like? We have to be careful about how we answer this question. For many of us, our church experience has been so focused on programs that we immediately think about Jesusʼ command to make disciples in programmatic terms. We expect our church leadership to create some sort of disciple-maker campaign where we sign up, commit

to participating for a few months, and then get to cross the Great Commission off our list. But making disciples is far more than a program. It should be the mission of our lives. It should define us. A disciple is a disciple maker.

So what does this look like? The Great Commission boils disciple making down to two things: Baptize people and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded. Simple, right? This is incredibly simple in the sense that it doesnʼt require a degree, an ordination process, or some sort of hierarchical status. Itʼs as simple as encouraging people to follow Jesus (this is what baptism is all about), and then teaching them to obey Jesusʼ commands (which we find in the Bible). The concept itself is not very difficult.

But the simplest things to understand are often the most difficult to put into practice. Letʼs start with the concept of baptism. In your church setting, baptism may not seem like that big of a deal. Perhaps thatʼs why so many Christians today have never been baptized. But in the early days of the church, baptism was hugely important. Baptism was an unmistakable act that marked a person as a follower of Jesus Christ. As Jesus died and was buried in the earth, so a Christian is plunged beneath the surface of the water. As Jesus emerged from the tomb in a resurrected body, so a Christian comes out of the waters of baptism as a new creation.

When first-century Christians took this step of identifying themselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus, they were publicly declaring their allegiance to Christ. This immediately marked them for martyrdom—all of the hostility that the world felt toward Jesus would now be

directed at them. Baptism was a declaration that a personʼs life, identity, and priorities were centered on Jesus and His mission. Depending on where you live in the world, you may not see the same reaction to your choice to be baptized, but that act of identifying with Christ is essential in every context.

3. Have you identified yourself with Jesus through being baptized? If so, why do you think this was an important step for you to take? If not, what is holding you back from being baptized?

Day 9 Living As Disciple Makers

The Great Commission and the Church

So what comes to your mind when you think about Jesusʼ command to make disciples of all nations? Many read these words as if they were meant to inspire pastors or missionaries on their way out to the mission field. But have you ever considered that maybe Jesusʼ command is meant for you?

As we read the rest of the New Testament, we see Godʼs people working together in obedience to Jesusʼ command. They reached out to the people around them, calling them to obediently follow Jesus. The disciples went about making disciples, teaching them to obey

everything that Jesus had commanded and baptizing them. Some of them even moved to different areas or traveled around so that they could tell more people. They took Jesusʼ words seriously—and literally.

Reading through the New Testament, itʼs not surprising to read that Jesusʼ followers were focused on making disciples—it makes sense in light of Jesusʼ ministry and the Great Commission. The surprise comes when we look at our churches today in light of Jesusʼ command

to make disciples.  Why is it that we see so little disciple making taking place in the church today? Do we really believe that Jesus told His early followers to make disciples but wants the 21st century church to do something different? None of us would claim to believe this, but somehow we have created a church culture where the paid ministers do the “ministry,” and the rest of us show up, put some money in the plate, and leave feeling inspired or “fed.” We have moved so far away

from Jesusʼ command that many Christians donʼt have a frame of reference for what disciple making looks like.

2. Compare your church experience with Jesusʼcommand to make disciples. Would you say that your church is characterized by disciple making? Why or why not?