Before Jesus left this earth he left the disciples and us in turn with the command: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Let’s see how we are faring in the obedience of this command.
1. Jesus said “go” but today the majority of people are “staying” failing to recognize the fact that the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so that they might not see the light of the glorious gospel message. ( 2 Cor 4:4 ). Instead we have become “couch pew sitters” willing to touch our wallets but not the hearts. Why are we failing? It is because we have allowed the Jezebel of the “deadly d's” such as
discomfort to creep in rather than throwing them over the wall and allowing the dogs to devour them. We no longer see the urgency that the time is near for His return.
2. How is the church doing in measurement of making disciples? Once again we are failing. A benchmark of a church’s success should be the answer to this question: How many disciples are we making by asking others to intentionally follow Jesus, by walking as He walked, talk as He talked. You chose to do it but are you, like Christ, intentionally building relationships, stepping out of your comfort zone ministering and helping another grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? ( 2 Pet 3:18 ). The church is failing because we have allowed the “deadly d” of
distractions. The church, and us in particular, no longer see this as our day of opportunity and have complicated our lives with the things of the world but not the things that we will carry into eternity. Jesus told a parable about this very scenario and called the person ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (Luke 12:20).
3. How is the church doing in baptisms? A recent news clip: The So. Baptist has had the lowest number of baptisms in 60 years.
Echoing concerns, Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay, stated, “I pray that all of us will see the urgency of the moment. We must make the Great Commission the heart of all we do and say. These latest numbers should be received with a broken spirit and a God-given determination to reach people for Christ…. Later Mr. Rainer also said: “As we look upon fields white unto harvest, we should be ever aware that it is critical that we proclaim Christ to our neighbors and those we come in contact with on a daily basis,” he added. “It is critical for our churches to not just get people in the door, but to also train them and disciple them in how to share their faith.” What could be the problem; not just for So. Baptists, but churches in general? Could it be that we have failed in steps one and two and thus step three, the deadly d' of
delay has ruled our day's routine. We must recognize God’s order because He is not the author of confusion: 1 Cor 14:33. He wants us to follow His order not our order! We must train and the way we train is to intentionally build relationships and intentionally show our disciples how to live a Christ like life. As we are doing that we are training them to multiply themselves.
4. Now the last step is to teach them to observe all I have commanded you. How does the church measure up? Today as you go to conferences what is before you are the glossies (for the lack of a better word) put out by the big name publishing companies. What is their goal? On the surface they say to fulfill the Great Commission but in reality if you look at their material it is all geared to entertain. Children and Adults alike do not need entertainment, they need to be taught sound doctrine as Paul admonished Timothy “Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” . Jody Capehart in her blog "Engaging Learning for Growing Minds" accurately spoke to this entire problem.
See:
http://blogs.bible.org/heartprints/jody ... wing_mindsThe greatest need in the church today is to follow God’s order and steps and teaching is the last step. Perhaps God put that last because of what the writer of Hebrews reminded his reading audience “But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.” Heb 5:14. Thus when we have arrived at this step we can now engage, equip and empower people to study the scriptures which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith. 2 Tim 3:15.
The church today has
disobeyed the command and has lost the vision to go, make disciples, baptize and lastly teach and prepare and has replaced this with programs and numbers. We must get back to the order that Christ has given to the church. Once you have walked that order you are ready to learn how to study, learn how to interpret, learn how to apply the principles in His Word. 2 Tim 2:15 Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately. Whether we teach before a class, before a family, before our co-workers we all teach in some capacity. Therefore as a believer we are commanded to learn how to study, interpret, and apply the principles taught throughout scripture.
If you are willing to be obedient and desire to hear one day “well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord”, come along and join us in the journey of being obedient to Matt 28 and prepare yourself by immersing yourself into His Word so that you can “go, disciple, baptize, teach others”.
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