Jesus...said to them, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20 HCSB)
Other than John 3:16, these verses are probably the most spoken verses in any of our churches. They have been used for the revival sermons, Sunday morning sermons, and certainly in our Sunday School lessons. But, sometimes I think we have missed the point of this overarching command of the Lord Jesus.
The actual understanding of this verse is not "go ye therefore," but as you are going, make disciples. Does that make sense? You see, that changes everything. It means that wherever we go, whatever we do, whoever we're with, we are to...wait for it... wait for it... MAKE DISCIPLES.
This is a game changer. It means that when we are at work, we are looking to make disciples. When we are at play, we are looking to make disciples. When we are with our family, our goal is to make disciples.
The importance of this verse is when you look at what the Bible says about our children, our wives, our husbands, those who are in our family, doesn't it make sense that our goal is to make disciples of them? What I mean is, if Matthew 28:18-20 is the Great Commission, then we must make disciples even with our family. I am using "even" as a word to describe how important it is that we disciple our families. It is a priority.
You see, this is what is called the "integration" of the Gospel into our everyday lives. The gospel is not only something that we teach on Sunday morning, preach at revival, or what we share do on visitation on Tuesday night. It becomes our life.
Here then is my point: the gospel is much more like Deuteronomy 6 than it is our modern 21st century idea of sharing the gospel or making a disciple in a church classroom somewhere. When the Word of God tells us that wherever we go, it means that. The example given in Deuteronomy 6 is this: when we go with our children on the road (our cars), sit down (at the dinner table), or when we lie down (put them to bed at night), we disciple them. It's what we shared a few weeks ago in our sermon and blog in what we called "God talk".
But, isn't it just more than talk? Sure it is. It means that not only does our speech reflect Jesus Christ living in us, it also means that our lives reflect Jesus Christ living in us. That is where true disciples are made. It is when our lives back up our speech. That is how we make disciples.
Now, read this with me:
Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so they won't become discouraged. (Colossians 3:21 HCSB)
So, when you read this verse keeping in mind that we are to make disciples of our children, it makes sense that we shouldn't make them angry and frustrated with us. This is what the Bible terms as "exasperate" them. Why don't we do that? Because we are making them disciples. It is much more important that our children become disciples than it is we raise them to make us happy, or to give them a great place on the soccer team, or to make sure they get first chair in the orchestra. Truth be told, we are placing our emphasis on all the wrong things. Our children's eternal decision to recieve eternal life is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. That is so much more important, infinitely more important, than any extra-curricular activity that we could get them into after school. Compared to discipleship, aren't those things rather silly?
As parents, you and I are building disciples for the kingdom of God. As important as it might seem right now, getting A's is not near is important as making a disciple. As critical as it might seem right now that your child become a great baseball player, it is much more important that we teach our children to be disciples than to catch a fastball. Can these activities help us make disciples? Of course they can. But it's more about spending time with them for the purpose of discipleship, not about forming a new skill for them to be good at. Really, your child wants you and your time, not the accolades and trophies.
So, how 'bout it? Are you ready to become a disciple-making parent? Are you ready to change the way you think about your children? You can start today with these resources: Simple memory verses & Building families.
Let's start a movement together. Let's be those disciple-making parents.
Pastor Trey Rhodes
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