The Discipleship Cycle

Strange Outbursts

Every job has occupational hazards. One of the hazards of being a preacher is getting funny looks or strange outbursts from the people you are preaching to.

I’ve been preaching and teaching for more than a decade now. I’ve seen my share of interesting things in that time. I probably missed a good amount during the years I preached without glasses. I couldn’t really see past the third or fourth row. Now, I see it all.

The most hostile and aggressive hearers I’ve personally encountered are those who have heard me preach outside of the church building. Most hostile by far. When proclaiming God’s Word in the open-air you should expect a little more... colorful responses.

Preaching in the safety of your own church building tends to minimize the negativity and hostility. But not always.

Preaching Obedience

I clearly recall one Sunday morning in particular. I was preaching on everybody’s favorite subject: obedience. A young woman emphatically crossed her arms, made eye contact with me, then stuck her tongue out at me. Her body language perfectly communicated her distaste for the topic at hand. She wanted to make her dissatisfaction with my topic clear to me.

Message received. Loud and clear.

I get it. Teaching obedience isn’t popular. It can be labeled as being legalistic. But obedience is part of the Great Commission. Whether we like it or not.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, bold added)

To be clear, if we’re preaching obedience for the sake of obedience, then the charge of legalism may be accurate. However, I was preaching obedience on that Sunday as part of the discipleship process. That’s not legalism. It’s the Christian life.

Make Disciples

The Great Commission given by Jesus in Matthew 28 only has one command: make disciples.

This command is intended to continue in a cycle until the Lord returns. The activities in this discipleship cycle are explicitly defined by the three participles in the same verse. They should be understood and kept in the order we find them.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, emphasis added)

The three participles are all necessary. Each is involved in the process of the commandment to make disciples. In order to fulfill this commission, followers of Christ must:

Go.
Baptize.
Teach.

These tasks create a cycle. Check out our discipleship cycle coffee mug which can be a great reminder each morning to take part in this process for the sake of God’s great name.

Teaching to observe does not mean teaching people to be passive spectators. It means teaching them to keep the commandments of Christ. It is instructing them to obey Jesus. Part of this instruction includes the command for all who have believed to then go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all of creation. As more and more people believe and enter into the cycle, we see more and more going out into the world. The cycle repeats indefinitely.

These ongoing activities ensure that the process will continue until Christ returns. That is, unless we ignore the command and choose to treat the Great Commission as if it were merely a suggestion.

Go Evangelize the World

Making disciples is a process. It involves going. Some commentators take this to mean that we must go out of our way to make disciples. Other commentators would take it to mean while we are going on our way we are to have disciple-making on our minds. Either way, movement is required. You don’t make disciples by sitting alone in your room.

No matter how you take the going, it entails evangelism. The risen Lord Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus exercises that authority to tell His followers to go into an unbelieving world and call them to repentance and faith in Him.

Baptize Those Who Respond

Those who respond to this gospel call are then to be baptized. Baptism is an act of initiation into the community of believers. Baptism is a public testimony that they want to follow Christ and be identified as followers of the risen Lord Jesus.

Making disciples requires going. Making disciples also requires baptizing those who make a profession of faith.

But it doesn’t end here.

Obeying a New Way of Life

Those who heed the gospel are responding to a particular message. They are correspondingly baptized into something in particular. The gospel message is a call to repent and believe. Those who believe have responded to an exhortation to:

Stop living according to their own lusts and impulses; and
Begin living for the praise and glory of the living God.

They responded to a call to die to themselves and live for Jesus.

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, bold added)

This new way of life is not natural. If it were natural, a call to repentance would be meaningless.

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4, bold added)

Newness of life. That requires some instruction. It requires practice. It requires grace.

Put another way, we don’t become new creations in Christ by behaving a certain way. However, if we are new creations in Christ, then we must be instructed to walk in newness of life. This is a difference with great significance.

The Order Matters

Any attempt to make disciples that does not teach obedience is not genuine discipleship. It certainly must be made clear that you cannot make a disciple by simply cleaning up their behavior. This is why teaching obedience is the final aspect of the command to make disciples, not the first.

The difference between these two approaches is the difference between being Christian and simply being Christian-flavored. One is genuine, the other is counterfeit.

Christians must understand this. If we want to honor our Lord and Savior we must always remember that Christians are not called to go into the world and preach obedience. We are called to preach Christ. These proclamations are very different. Preaching Christ is life and peace. Preaching obedience (without Christ) is bondage and death.

When people are convicted by the Holy Spirit of their sin, of the righteousness that God requires, and the judgment to come, we urge them to be reconciled to God through Christ. We counsel them to make their commitment public through baptism. Then, and only then, do we instruct them in the way of holiness. In doing so, we make disciples.

Biblical discipleship is a call to come to Jesus, die to self, and be conformed to the likeness of Christ by the grace of God. Discipleship is not a call to come and sit in a church building most weekends. The difference between these two things is the difference between life and death.

Active Christianity is glorious. Passive Christianity is scandalous.

The Obedience of Faith

Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, understood the purpose of his ministry. He was called to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles. For the sake of God’s name.

How did Paul seek to fulfill his ministry?

This obedience was the fruit of faith in Christ. Paul preached Christ. To those who believed, Paul instructed them to be obedient to that faith. In doing so, Paul made disciples. Paul understood the biblical priority of these things.

Paul was not fooled into thinking that he could make people followers of Christ simply by creating external obedience to some set of religious rules.

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; (Romans 1:1-6, bold added)

Paul planted churches all throughout the Roman empire. (For a more in-depth look at the extensive church planting efforts of the Apostle Paul, check out Chapter 4 in my book The Forgotten Officer.) Writing to the same churches that Paul planted, the Apostle Peter likewise commanded obedience.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” (1 Peter 1:14-16)

The Apostles took discipleship seriously. So should we. The Great Commission wasn’t a passing fad. It was and is the mission of the church.

We are called to make disciples. In order to do so, we must go and proclaim Christ in all the earth. We must baptize all who respond to the gospel call. And we must teach those who are baptized to continue in the faith by being obedient to all Christ commanded. May it be so in our generation for the sake of His great name.

Get equipped. Obey your King. Glorify your God.