Disciple Yourself

Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came up and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Therefore, as you go, recruit new followers from all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age."


The Messiah Jesus here gives us what is called the “Great Commission” or “Grand Charge”. Like a general commanding HIS army the Messiah Jesus now tells HIS followers that they are to go out and convert the world. Every nation, every tongue, and every people are to be challenged to become HIS followers, enroll in HIS school of thought, and align their lifestyles with HIS teaching. The claims of Jesus’ Messiahship are to go global as they are acted on locally.

What is a commission? It is a job or task given to a person or a group, especially an order to produce a particular product or piece of work. In this case it is also the authority granted to a person or organization to act as an agent for another. The CHURCH is here given authority by Messiah Jesus to act as HIS agent in the world for recruiting new followers and training them in HIS way of life. This is to create a “community of the KING” that reflects the kingdom of God into a broken world. The church acts as an embassy of peace from the kingdom of heaven offering reconciliation to all who will come and submit to the KING and learn HIS ways.

This is very hard to do in practice. First, most disciples are at best partially discipled. Most believers in Messiah Jesus have not been “trained in everything that the Messiah taught” in a way that leads to practical life change in every aspect of life. They became Christians and did not enroll themselves into any clear and disciplined school of instruction and life training. So the first person that we must make a “disciple” is ourselves.

What would this mean? It could mean many things but here are a few that I think would worth considering if we are to make ourselves disciples aimed at learning how to consistently live for Messiah Jesus.

1. Attending church every Sunday ready to fully participate in worship by arriving early and having a bible and a notebook ready to take notes on the sermon. If you were taking a college course and arrived at the course without a notebook or text book what would that normally mean about your focus and dedication to the class. The “key lecture” of the week takes place on Sunday and this lecture is to form the “key application” for the next seven days. How alert should you be to make sure you understand the message and use it in your life?

2. Get involved in every learning activity you can at your church. How many hours do you watch television? Compare this to how many hours you spend learning the ways of Messiah Jesus. If the church’s purpose is to train followers of Messiah Jesus to live for Messiah Jesus this can only be done when the followers show up to the training classes. Are you showing up to get trained? How could you train others to get trained if you have never become trained yourself?

3. Prayerfully decide on what abilities and passions you have. What can you do? What do you want to do? Now look at the various ministries of your church and choose one or two that could use someone with your abilities and passions. A ministry would be a broad area of service in the church such as “Outreach” or “Education”. If you are not sure then talk to your pastor and get his guidance. Once you have chosen a ministry then look at all the activities that have to happen to make this ministry function and then commit yourself to doing these activities. This will put feet on your faith. The best way for us to learn to be a disciple is by learning on the job in some particular ministry where we can apply what we are being taught.

4. Take your faith to the rest of your life. After each sermon ask yourself these key questions.

How does what I have learned today ask me to make personal changes in my own life? How can I use this in my private worship and spiritual growth process?

How does what I have learned today ask me to make changes in how I treat those in my family?

How does what I have learned today apply to how I treat those at work or in my neighborhood?

How does what I have learned today impact how I act a member of my community, city, state, and nation?

Sometimes our faith does not seem very real to us. One of the reasons for this is that we have compartmentalized our faith into a very small space in our lives. Church is one hour a week on the weeks we make it. There just is not a whole lot of “space” in our schedules or lifestyle for faith. We have already committed this “space” to other concerns, desires, and interest.

If we are to grow in our faith we must give it more “space” in our lives. If our faith is to become real we must have a reasonable plan to make it the ultimate concern of our lives. So how discipled are you in your life? Where could you improve your own discipleship? This will be the first step in making other disciples. We must first learn to disciple ourselves.