How to Make Disciples? Matthew 4:18-25

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Matthew chapter four, verses 18 through 25 reads: "And as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.' Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. And he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Jesus was going about in all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

The news about him spread throughout Syria, and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and severe pain, demon-possessed people, people with epilepsy, and people who were paralyzed. And he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan."

Jesus calls his followers into an extraordinary life. Jesus's call to these first disciples was not, "Come and watch my extraordinary life". Instead, Jesus said, "Come, follow me, and I will make you something greater". "Come and follow me, and you'll become... you'll be transformed from a mere fisherman to someone catching people for God's kingdom". This is the same call he has for all of us. Jesus didn't call them merely to come and observe, like most rabbis did.

These disciples participated with Jesus in the announcement of the gospel of God's kingdom. But this required them to let go of their old lives, to leave their stable careers as small businessmen, leave their families, to simply follow Jesus. Now, while we might not have to leave our families and change our jobs, what this does show us is that the call of Jesus is not to simply sprinkle him on your life. He's not giving you a bottle of glitter for your life and saying, "Here's some Jesus glitter, now it's all better". He's not saying, "Here's a new hobby for you to do". The call of Jesus is not a new philosophy and not even a new religion. It is an entirely, radically different life into which Jesus beckons us. While you might be able to describe this gospel as a religion or new philosophy, if we only leave it there, we will never access its full power. What Jesus calls us into is a radically different life.

He didn't say to these disciples, "Okay, now that you're following me, as long as you show up once a week at this time to this place, you're good". "As long as you give me five, ten, 15, 30 minutes a day with prayer and scripture reading, you're set". "As long as you show up to these class times, you're set". No, no, no. For the next three-plus years, these men followed Jesus wherever he went. They were with him every moment of every day. Again, not just simply observing the amazing things Jesus did, but doing amazing things following his example, exerting the power which Jesus gave them over the world.

This is the same call we enter into today. Because when Jesus ascended into heaven, this deep and intimate relationship and strong power which the disciples possessed during Jesus's life on earth did not end. I would argue it deepened, because Jesus went from being with them to being in them through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. After three years with Jesus, when Jesus was arrested, they all abandoned him. But a few decades later (and for some of them, a mere few years later), when they were put under threat of death or torture, they did not recant their claim that Jesus was the risen King of the universe. Through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, they were living greater and deeper lives in intimate relationship with Jesus than they did even when Jesus was on earth. We now possess this same empowerment and transformation which transformed those cowards on the night of Jesus's crucifixion into strong leaders of the early church. We have this same power, this same authority, which was given to them: God's Spirit in us, transforming us.

Ephesians chapter two, verse ten tells us, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we could walk in them". So, we're created in Christ Jesus in two ways. First, God creates all life in Jesus, as we see in the creation, with all three distinct parts of the Trinity being involved. All life and all things were created in Christ Jesus. But the "created anew" which Paul is talking about here is more like what Paul discusses in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that "we are a new creation in Christ Jesus." Some people say we all have good works prepared for us because we're all created by God. That might be true in God's general will. But what Paul wants us to see here is that when we declare our loyalty and allegiance to King Jesus, we are transformed to carry out the good works of living a self-sacrificial life, to point the world to the gospel of God's kingdom.

This is what Matthew 4, verses 23 and 25, which we read today, are showing us: immediately after Jesus calls these disciples, they get to work. They don't have classes. They don't wait. Jesus doesn't say, "Okay, here's what you need to know". They just begin to go do this and live this extraordinary life. When we, accept Jesus' call to follow Him we are empowered to do great and mighty acts.

And what is that great and mighty act? Am I saying we should go and try to do something elaborate and extraordinary? The most self-sacrificial act you can do is give someone your time. In a day and age where people are isolating themselves rather than opening up, where people more and more are closing themselves off, worrying about their lives and their dreams and their finances... when we as God's people open up our lives and invite people to join us in living life together as the church, that will speak volumes. And that is what discipleship is all about.

The extraordinary thing to which God is calling us is the call he makes in the Great Commission. "All authority in heaven has been given to me," Jesus tells us. "Now go and make all the nations into disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And look, I am with you every single day to the very end of the age". Matthew 28:18 through 20. This is the extraordinary call that we all have. Making disciples is not something that only the pastor does; it's not something only the Sunday school teacher does. This is the vocation of every follower of Jesus. That's what's extraordinary. That's the task we have now been given.

Making disciples means not only leading people to Jesus but then helping them to become better, more passionate, and more obedient followers of him. How we do that starts with living the extraordinary, paradoxical life Jesus calls us to: a life of self-sacrifice, of generosity, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—all those beautiful fruit of the Spirit. Because when you look at our world today, I don't see a lot of that going on in the news. I don't see these fruits of the Spirit just manifest everywhere around us. When we start living lives that look different than the world, people are going to ask, "Hey, what's up with them?". "Why do they have so much joy?". "Why do they have so much fun?". "Why do they love so passionately?". "Why are they so generous?". "Why has this church, two times in the last three months, come out and just freely given away some snacks?". "What's the point of that?". "Why, every time I see Linda in the store, is she so kind?". Why? Fill in the blank with what you do in your everyday life.

I use these elaborate words like extraordinary, phenomenal, great, paradoxical because things that we just take for granted as followers of Jesus are going to blow the world's mind. Like, "Oh no, you actually live that generosity thing out". "Like, you actually go and put others before yourself, and you don't think about yourself all the time?". "And you don't go into every relationship and every situation thinking, 'How does this benefit me? Does this help my social status? Does this in any way, shape, or form advance what I want right now?'". "You really actually live a life of service to others?". That is genuinely extraordinary.

It sounds simple because we've heard these teachings, we've heard great messages, we've read the scripture for so long. But to the world, that's what they're looking for. That's what people need. Even people that claim to know the scriptures and be a Christian, when they see people actually living this out, it will be inspiring to them, and they will want that life. All it takes is for you to be living this out every day of your life and making sure people know it's because of Jesus I live the way I do. That is the first step of disciple making.

The second part of making disciples is you've got to do is start inviting people into your life. It can start with inviting people to your church, but it shouldn't end there. This is what I hope and pray I'm helping facilitate as well: you need to be in everyday relationship with this person. Now, I'm not saying you have to start letting people come live with you and follow you around like Jesus did. But what I am saying is that when you're discipling someone, when you invite them into your life, it looks like this: you don't have to talk to them every day, just talk to them multiple times a week and have intimate conversations with them. Talk with them about what they're struggling with, what sins are entangling them, how can you pray for them. And if you feel confident in your knowledge of the Bible, even start reading scripture with them, explain the scriptures. At the end of the day, no matter what, you should be able to at least start this conversation about the scriptures. Then, what Starla and I are here to do is take that a step further in continuing to pour into you and the people you're discipling.

Discipleship is all about finding someone younger in the faith than you and then saying, "Watch me". Because what I hope is that when you talk about your pastor, you're more inspired by the things you've watched me do than anything I've ever said.

So, what I want you to know is that discipleship is not for the elite Christians. That's not the pinnacle of Christian status. It's not: "Well, you get saved, then you go to church for a while, then you start doing some things with the church, and then, like 15 steps down the road, you start discipling people". No, no, no. When you get saved and you become a follower of Jesus, immediately after some time (you know, make sure you're actually living this thing out), once you've lived the life, start looking for people. Honestly, when you're living this life of generosity, living this life of joy, of love, people start coming to you. It won't be, "Oh, I want you to disciple me." It's not going to happen like that. But you're going to start getting questions about your life.

So when you're looking for people to disciple, ask: "Who do I have regular contact with?". Whether it be the person who cuts your hair, your banker, the person that has the same shopping day as you, and you run into them at the grocery store. You start building a relationship with people, and that's inviting them into your life. They get to watch you for a little bit. But then what you start doing is taking steps further to maybe teach them some scripture, explain to them the gospel, and so on. That's what discipleship is. It's not this big, scary thing that only I do as the pastor.

Now, I do it on a greater scale because who I am now given to disciple is all of you. But then I take it a step further. Even now, people at work—I'm less than three months in—there are people who ask me questions about life. There are people who pick my brain about what Christianity is all about because they knew me first... I mean, when they asked, I told them I was a pastor, but I didn't go in with a badge on my chest telling everyone, "Hey, I'm pastor man, listen to me". I just was normal. I just lived it out. I just was fun. When they said, "Hey, what do you do?" "Well, I'm actually a pastor". And then some were like, "Really?" But not in a bad way, it was because I was fun, I was joyful. I looked and acted normal too. Like, they thought, "Oh, that's a normal guy just having a fun time in life". It was a good "Really?".

So what I want you to know is that when we see Jesus in these calls to his disciples, it's not, "Well, that's good for the pastor". "That's good scripture for the pastor to make sure he's reading and making sure he's doing discipleship right". "That's good for Starla to read". No, this is an example—and the rest of the life of Jesus watching how he interacts with these 12 men and his followers—of saying, "How can I then follow this out in my life?". "How can I lead people to Jesus and help people become better followers of him?".

But what that first requires is, man, you've got to take a look at your life. Because if you start trying to tell people stuff and they come back at you with, "You're no different than me, I don't want your life," that's not going to go well for you, and then you're never going to disciple anyone ever again. So, I want you to first take an evaluation: "Am I living the gospel life?". "Am I actually following Jesus?". Because Paul gives us a good line to think of discipleship in First Corinthians chapter 11, verse one: "Follow me as I follow Christ". So, are you following Christ? Is your everyday life consumed with the life of Jesus?. I'm not saying you have to be perfect. But I am asking you, are you being loyal to Jesus and living in faith in your everyday life to the best of your abilities?. Because that's all God asks for is your best, and he's going to do the rest in that transformation work.

And if you can say, "Yes, I'm doing my best," your next step, then, is to start looking for people to invite into your life, to go through experiences with you, to watch how you follow Christ so they can start doing the same. Because God has empowered you to do this. Like I said, you don't have to be a super Christian. You don't have to be the best Christian ever. You just have to give God your "yes," because God has given you everything you need through the empowerment and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus not only lived as an example for us to follow, but he lived as our representative, living a life that was sinless, claiming authority over sin and death, finishing that work and giving us that life by dying on the cross, abolishing the forces of sin and evil once for all. Then rising from the dead as the firstborn of the new creation and welcomes us all into His resurrection life.

Therefore, we can live out the first installment of new creation here and now, that we could be made into a brand new Kingdom of God person and share this life and light with the world. You can do this because God has given you everything you need through the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit for you.