Disciple The Nations

The last thing Jesus told his disciples to do, was "to disciple the nations." How do we do that?

First, we baptize them. Baptism has always been a symbol of washing away an old life, and moving into a new life. John's baptism was, specifically, a baptism of repentance. "To repent" means to "change one's mind." So, baptism is a symbolic declaration of choosing a new path in life. And if you are being baptized in Jesus' name,  you are choosing his path as you path.

So, part of making disciples is assisting in the mind-changing, new path choosing, process. There are a number of methods, plans and schemes, to accomplish this. Often, surrounding a campaign, or a celebrity. And I don't want to give the impression that these are necessarily wrong. They are pursued by people with good motives, good intentions, and right desires. I will remind us that we are all God's priests, God's ambassadors, and God's family. We all represent God to the world, and the world to God. Each child of God should have the ability to explain Christ's message, to facilitate a decision of repentance, a decision to follow Christ, and the public declaration of baptism. It should not necessarily be a campaign. It should be part of the lifestyle.

Part of making disciples is facilitating a change in the spiritual atmosphere. There is a war going on. The ultimate goal for God's family in the war is the proclamation, and demonstration, of God's glory. The demonstration has a number of parts — increasing the size of God's family is an important part — none of which the enemy wants to happens. So, the enemy lays siege to the family of God. He attacks, assaults, spies on, sabotages, disrupts supplies, and communications, harasses, and, in any way possible, works to prevent the proclamation of God's glory.

So, disciple making involves waging war in the spiritual realm. It involves prayer: to disrupt the enemy's tactics, and strategy, to strengthen his family, for the Father to act to move his kingdom further, and to celebrate what God has done, and what he will do.

Walking with Christ is both practical, and mystical. The life of God's family is simultaneously in both arenas. And they need to act in both arenas.

The second part of disciple making is to teach obedience. Knowledge is important. Acting on, or practicing, the knowledge is more important.

In many parts of God's family, knowledge is raised up. Expectations of participation in God's kingdom center in only a few areas. Again, we are all God's priests, and God's ambassadors. We all ought to practice every area of God's instruction. Some will be better in some areas. Some will have more opportunity in some areas. (And we are Christ's body.) But, there is no area of God's instruction — including disciple making — that we can say we don't have to practice.

Let me be clear. Knowledge, and understanding, are important. But, if it stops there, a person is not truly following Christ. God designed us. If it were not for sin in the world, and in our lives, we would act, speak, think, and feel like Jesus. We may not be able to do that. But that is God's aspiration for us. And it should be the same for us, the people in our lives, and all the family of God. My goal in sharing this is not to induce guilt. It is to encourage each of us to take serious consideration of what we are not practicing, and how we could start.