“Be with Me” – Mark 3

How many of you are parents? How many of you parents remember when your child took his or her first steps? That was a big day, wasn’t it? Does anybody want to tell me what you remember about that time? Where were you and what were you doing? Any good stories?

I think for most people, a common scenario would involve both parents in the living room and one is holding the baby and the other is encouraging the baby to walk to them just a few feet away. That may not be exactly how it went with your kid, but that’s probably pretty common.

Your baby’s first steps were probably not toward the mailbox with you encouraging the kid to go get the mail. You probably did not encourage the kid to leave your arms and walk to the stranger walking down the street. My dad tried to get me to go mow the lawn for my first steps. He kept saying something about pulling my own weight around here but it was a couple of years before I could do that.

No, I’m sure my parents were just like you and your parents at this important time. They got on the floor and stretched out their arms and said…what do you think they said? They probably said, “Come here” or “Come to me.” Did you tell your child “Come here” just to see if they would be obedient? Did you encourage them to walk to you so they would bring you something? “Bring me the remote control.”

Probably not. You just wanted them to take the next step literally and figuratively in their physical development. You wanted them to mature and grow big and strong and normally. Obedience is part of it but that’s not the reason why you wanted them to walk. Trust is another aspect of it. You wanted them to know that you would catch them if they fell and that it was going to be okay.

You didn’t want the babysitter to be the first one your child walked to because it’s important who they walk to first, isn’t it? It’s a big deal when they walk to mama or daddy. It’s a proud moment. You know your child is developing normally. He may or may not be a world-class athlete with those legs but you know some things are going right.

There are a lot of similarities between a baby’s first steps and the third step in the discipleship method Jesus used. In making disciples, Jesus was intentional. He didn’t just hang out with some guys and hope they caught what He was teaching. So, as we have seen in the last few weeks, Jesus started first by just engaging the people that were curious. As He went, some people showed more interest than others and so He told them that if they wanted to know more, they should just, “Come and see.” He knew not everybody would stay with Him, but the first step was just engaging those that were interested.

The next step was to get them connected. Jesus said, “Follow Me” and He connected with them and they showed their connection with Him by being baptized and also connecting with other believers. They also made connections to the community and good causes around them. That was the second step; making connections.

Today, we look at the third step which, for Jesus, involved teaching them to obey Him, but also involved seeing them mature and growing in their faith. Do you see how all of this comes together in Matthew 28:19-20 with the Great Commission? It says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

1)     As you go, engage them.

2)     Baptize them to connect them.

3)     Teach them to obey to watch them grow.

Let’s look at one specific time that Jesus called the disciples to be with Him. It’s almost like He was down on one knee calling them to walk to Him. “Come on. Come to me, little one. Trust me. Obey me and grow.”

Turn to Mark 3:13-14. At this point in the ministry of Jesus, things were starting to heat up. Lots of people were interested in what He was saying. Some wanted to hear more. Some wanted to shut Him up. But He was attracting a lot of attention. Verse 7 of this chapter says there was a large crowd following Him so He knew it was time for His disciples to step up and step out.

Mark 3:13-14 says, “Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.” Stop right there.

This was an important step in their discipleship. It was important that they were obedient to His call but that was not the main reason He called them. Obedience is obviously important. You can’t become a disciple and you can’t disciple somebody else if you aren’t obedient. But the main thing Jesus wanted for them right then was just to be with Him.

Now, that sounds funny because the end of verse 14 says He was going to send them out to preach. But they couldn’t preach; you can’t preach; I can’t preach without first…just being with the Lord. Jesus said in John 15:4-5, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. ⁵"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” That has not changed. I like the way the King James says to “abide in”. Abide means to rest, to take comfort like you are at home. It means to hang out in Jesus. Just live there surrounding yourself with things of Him.

Does that sound like you? Oh, I know. You have work, kids, hobbies, stuff going on and I’m sure that Jesus meant to abide in Him except when you are at work or at home or doing other stuff, right? But, then again, He did use the word, “abide” or “remain”, so…there’s that.

Do you know what it looks like when you abide in Him? When you truly remain in Him and He is in you, there are three specific things that you, as a disciple who makes disciples, will remain in or abide in. The first way you abide is in His strength. This is wonderful news but it is counter to everything we are taught by the world. The world, the news, our culture, our families, our history and even what we call “common sense” tells us that we have to be strong. We have to try harder. We have to be better and tougher. There’s no free lunch and the only easy day was yesterday. No pain, no gain, blah, blah, blah.

How’s that working for you? Oh, you may have some good days where you are able to overcome and be strong but you will struggle with that all of your life. And it’s not necessary. Jesus said, “apart from me you can do nothing.” Isaiah 64:6 says that the best you can do; all your best, righteous acts where you are tough and you are strong and you try hard are like filthy rags apart from God.

If God is not doing it through you; if you are strong enough; if you are tough enough, then God is not getting the glory and you might as well offer Him a filthy rag as a gift. But I’m telling you this is good news because nowhere in scripture does it say you have to try harder and you should be glad because when it comes to making disciples, it is difficult. It is time-consuming and I know some of you are worried as we talk about this that you won’t be able to do.

Well, don’t worry because you can’t do it. Doesn’t that sound strange? As my brother-in-law likes to say, don’t just do something. Stand there. Abide in Him. Let Him do it through you and He will get the glory and you will be obedient and you will be blessed as you mature and grow.

The next way that you will abide in Him, after abiding in His strength, is to abide in His Word. I didn’t make this up. Jesus said in John 8:31, “‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.’” So, what does it mean and what does it look like to abide in His Word? First, the word is singular, “my word,” not “my words.” This means that Jesus is thinking of the sum of all that he has taught. (www.desiringgod.org/messages/if-you-abide-in-my-word-you-are-truly-my-disciples) He is talking about reading, knowing, memorizing and loving the Bible. What do you pick up to read when you get bored? When you can’t sleep at night, what do you do? When you are scared, worried, happy, confused, your first reaction ought to be to go to scripture. How else can you truly say you abide in His Word?

I said last Sunday that I never want to try to guilt you into anything and that’s true and that is not the purpose of this story. But I’m afraid this story will guilt you into reading your Bible if anything is going to. This is supposedly a true story.

A man in Kansas City was severely injured in an explosion. Evangelist Robert L. Sumner tells about him in his book The Wonders of the Word of God. The victim's face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He was just a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in braille. Much to his dismay, however, he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been destroyed by the explosion. One day, as he brought one of the braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, I can read the Bible using my tongue. At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had "read" through the entire Bible four times. (Robert L. Sumner, The Wonders of the Work of God)

I know. I know. It’s just not fair to tell such stories. Who can compete with that? Right? It brings new meaning to “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8) The good news is that this isn’t a competition and I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I just want you to know the Word of God is a book that, once you get started, it will change your life. Simon Peter told Jesus, “Where else would we go? Your words are eternal life.” (John 6:68)

I don’t know if I would consider him a great theologian or not but Ronald Reagan once said, “Within the covers of one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that face us today--if only we would read and believe.” We all have a lot of questions in this life and the Bible will help you with those questions but it’s not going to answer who you should marry or what job you should take. Don’t expect scripture to tell you if that shirt matches those pants. But if you want wisdom, if you want truth, if you want help, abide in His Word because His Word tells about Jesus and you will have what you need when you abide in Him and His Word.

As a disciple wanting to make more disciples, you will abide in His strength, His Word and, lastly, His will. What is God’s will for your life? Do you know? Do you believe He has a will for your life? Is it the same for everybody? Well, it is God’s will for all Christians to be disciple-makers but is there more?

Karen Sanford told me the other day that she and Bruce were golfing down there in South Padre, celebrating their anniversary and as Bruce approached the first tee, a hazardous hole with a green surrounded by water, he debated if he should use his new golf ball. Deciding that the hole was too treacherous, he pulled out an old ball and placed it on the tee. Just then he heard a voice from above say loudly: "Use the new ball!" Bruce thought, “This must be God’s will” so he replaced the old ball with the new one and approached the tee.

Now the voice from above shouted: "Take a practice swing!"  With this, Bruce stepped backward and took his usual, untalented swing.  Then he approached the tee when the voice again rang out:  "Use the old ball!"

Do you ever feel like you just wish God would audibly tell you what his will is? Sure, you do. We all do. It would be so much easier. Romans 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

There have been thousands and thousands of sermons preached just on those two verses and I am not going to do them justice today but if you want to know God’s will, you have to sacrifice your will and also your feelings and your “common sense” and what you think you know and just focus on the Lord. I know that sounds churchy and like what the long-winded preacher is supposed to say but it’s true.

Focus on Jesus and getting to know Him more, sacrificing yourself, and the questions will gradually be answered. The better we get to know a person, the more acquainted we become with his or her desires. For example, a child may look across a busy street at the ball that bounced away, but he doesn’t run after it, because he knows “my dad wouldn’t want me to do that.” He doesn’t have to ask his father for advice on every particular situation; he knows what his father would say because he knows his father. The same is true in our relationship to God. As we walk with the Lord, abiding in His strength and obeying His Word, we find that we are given the mind of Christ as it says in 1 Corinthians 2:16. We know Him, and that helps us to know His will and we just abide in that will until He tells us to do something else.

That’s what it means for us today when Jesus says, “Come be with me.” It means to know Him, study Him, hang out with Him and make Him look good. Just abide in Him and you will start to make more disciples of Jesus. You can’t help but do it when you abide and you can’t do it unless you abide!

1 John 2:5-6 says, “By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.” We might say today that if you are going to talk the talk then you have to walk the walk. If you are going to make disciples, you can’t do it on your own and if you could, it wouldn’t be worth doing. You have to be abiding in Jesus with Jesus abiding in you, filled with God’s Spirit, sacrificing yourself for Him.

Look, I’m not against secular music and secular movies, necessarily. I’m not saying you have to live like a monk and cut yourself off from the world; not at all. But, if you surround yourself and immerse yourself and abide in the world, then you aren’t abiding in Jesus.

Let me put it this way. Let’s say Jesus is the entree and the world is the salt and pepper. You don’t look forward to dinner so you can fill up on salt and pepper. You want just a little bit of that to be part of the main dish. If you are putting a pinch of steak on your salt, you’re doing it wrong. And that is exactly what it looks like when you go to church a few Sundays a month when it’s convenient. Putting steak on your salt is what you are doing when all you listen to is secular music or watching secular TV all week and then you show up to church for an hour and a half and expect to grow and mature and make disciples and have peace and live a full and abundant life. It’s not going to happen.

Just this week, I had a guy come to me and ask for help with his anger issues. He wanted to know what to do. I thought about it for a minute and I told him if he would read James chapter 3 and Philippians chapter 4, he would be greatly helped. And he just hung his head and sighed. You would have thought I told him to go dip in the Jordan River seven times. Read two chapters in the Bible? Oh, no! What torture.

“Where else would we go? Your words are eternal life.” (John 6:68) Peter was right and we need to abide in His strength, His Word and His will and allow Him to make disciples through us. That’s good news. Take the next step in discipleship today by doing that.

The even better Good News is that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. (Romans 5:8) If you have never accepted Jesus to be Lord of your life, all you have to do is believe that and allow that Good News to change your life. Admit that you are a sinner in need of a Savior who will save you from Hell and confess your sins to God and ask Him to forgive those sins and He is faithful and just to do that. Make that connection to Him and we will connect you to the church in baptism and you are on your way to taking the steps necessary to be a disciple and then start making disciples yourself. Do that today as the music plays.

“Follow Me” – Matthew 4:18-20

Have you ever been to one of those Brazilian steak houses where they bring the different kinds of meat to your table? Some friends took me to Texas de Brazil in Ft. Worth one time. It was amazing! They bring to the table every kind of meat imaginable. I think it comes with some kind of vegetable but I don’t remember. The star of the show is the meat. They bring out chicken and ribs and – this is dangerous to bring up since now you’re all thinking about food – they have t-bones and prime rib, lamb, filet mignon, and sausage and everything is off the charts wonderful. And they will just keep bringing it out until you are as full as you want to be.

Now, imagine if somebody brought a little baby to Texas de Brazil. Let’s say he is six months old, maybe a year. They sit the kid in a high chair and plop a big ol’ t-bone down in front of him. What’s going to happen? Probably not much, right? If the kid did manage to get hold of it, he couldn’t eat that. He is not old enough. He is in a wonderful steak house surrounded by tons of meat and he’s going to go hungry.

Now, let’s say that kid goes back, I don’t know, 16 years later. If you have ever had a teenage boy, you know that kid could do some damage at Texas de Brazil. He’s at the age where he can put away some meat. But let’s say he sees the salad bar. Now, the salad bar at Texas de Brazil is as big as this room practically and it has way more than just salad. The kid puts some salad on his plate with all the fixings. He adds a baked potato and there’s some sea food and some bread and some pudding and pretty soon his plate is as big as his head.

Now, if you have ever been there, you know he just made a big mistake. Because as good as the salad bar is, it can’t compare to the meat that will be brought to the table. This is world-class beef and if you fill up on the salad, you can’t eat the meat. Yes, the young man can eat a lot but he has a limit. It’s a rookie mistake to fill up on the salad bar.

Okay, I have to stop with this illustration. I’m starting to drool. You get the picture though. It’s also a picture of someone who is young in the Christian faith. Someone that has only been a Christian a short while needs somebody to cut their meat up for them so it is easier to chew. They may even need milk instead of meat if they are very young in the faith. They just aren’t old enough to understand things so it has to be made easier. Nothing wrong with that at all. We have all been there.

As they get a little older, they may be able to feed themselves but they might do it wrong by taking something out of context or not understanding exactly what is meant. Those are rookie mistakes that could be avoided if somebody had just come along beside them and explained it to them. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul tells the church at Corinth, “Brothers, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.”

Now, in the church, whose job is it to feed the church? Whose job is it to make sure that all the people are getting fed scripture and understanding it and digesting it, if you will? You might say that it is the job of the pastor and you wouldn’t be wrong at all. But let’s go back to the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20. What does it say? Jesus tells His disciples to go and make more disciples.

What are disciples? A disciple is simply one who learns something from Jesus and then tells somebody else what they have learned. It involves furthering the mission of Jesus and becoming more like Jesus and we are all called to make disciples. All of us have the responsibility to make sure the other church members are partaking of scripture rightly and correctly. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

That phrase “rightly dividing” is the picture of cutting up a steak for somebody else. We are to understand and explain what we have learned and share it with somebody else. That is what us churchy people call “discipleship.” 😊 When Jesus told His disciples to go and make more disciples, He said it after modeling to them what it looked like and He was the perfect model.

We saw last week that Jesus had a four-part plan for making disciples and it is found right here in Matthew 28. Last week we saw how Jesus started out by just engaging the people that were curious. He said, “Come and see for yourselves.” As Jesus was going, people were curious about what He had to say and He invited them to come and see. He knew that not all of them would follow through. Not everybody today that shows some interest in Jesus continues to follow Him but if you want to make more disciples – if you want to do what God has called you to do and equipped you to do, then the first step is just to engage them.

The next step is to connect them. Matthew 4:18-20 says, “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." 20At once they left their nets and followed him.” First you engage the people that are curious and if they choose to continue on in the process, then you connect them. Let me show you what I mean. In the Great Commission, Jesus said, “As you go, make disciples, and then baptize them…” Let’s leave it there for a minute.

Why baptize them? What does that do for them? Does baptism save you? Do you have to be baptized to get to Heaven? When asked how to be saved, Jesus, and His disciples, Peter and Paul, all said, “Repent and be baptized” or “Believe and be baptized.” So, what is the big deal about baptism?

Let me tell you a story to illustrate. I had the great honor of getting to baptize several men at Wise County Jail one time. Let me just say that I love going to the jail. Some of you may not feel that way because we go for different reasons but I love going to the jail, if for nothing else but it gives me great illustrations! I think there were 7-8 guys that said they wanted to be baptized so they brought out a galvanized stock tank and filled it with water in the gym area. But before I dunked any of them, I asked each one privately why he wanted to be baptized. I wanted to make sure they understood and they all had good reasons but I came to this one guy and I asked him and he said, “Well…I’m not sure but I read in the Bible that Jesus got baptized…and it says that we should be baptized…and I guess I just want all my friends to know that I love Jesus and follow him.”

I just had to hug that guy! That’s the best response I have ever heard. He didn’t do it because the church told him to or his parents told him to or as part of something he had to do to get to Heaven. He did it to be obedient to what scripture said and to be connected to Jesus. He wanted to be like Jesus. He wanted to identify with Jesus. He wanted the world to know that he was with Jesus from now on.

Jesus died on the cross and was dead in the ground for three days but He rose again and lives today. So, as a symbolic act of that we are submerged in water – because that is what the word “baptism” means, to be submerged or dunked – and then brought up again. And when you are baptized, it connects you with Jesus. That is the first connection that needs to be made. Connect with Jesus. Baptism identifies you with Jesus and that’s important.

The next connection that needs to be made is to connect with a local church.  Because we all know that you have to go to church to be saved, right? Of course not. Just like baptism doesn’t save you, church membership doesn’t save you either. Yet Martin Luther once said, “Apart from the church, salvation is impossible." Not that the church provides salvation; God does. But because the "saved" one can't fulfill what it means to be a Christian apart from the church, membership becomes the indispensable mark of salvation. (Charles W. Colson, The Body, 1992, Word Publishing, p. 70.)

I have said before that I don’t want to hear you say you love Jesus if you hate the bride of Jesus and the bride of Jesus is the church. Revelation 19 says, “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8  it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” That’s the church.

Romans 12:5 says, “So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” As a Christian, you know belong to the rest of the body. You are not your own. It is for our own good and for the good of others that God wants us in fellowship with other believers. We need each other to grow up in the faith, to learn to serve, to love one another, to exercise our spiritual gifts, and to practice forgiveness. Although we are individuals, we still belong to one another.

I could go on and on but let me give you one more. Need one more reason to go to church? Jesus Christ, our living example, went to church as a regular practice. Luke 4:16 says, "He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom."

It was Jesus' custom—his regular practice—to go to church. The Message Bible puts it like this, "As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place." If Jesus made it a priority to meet together with other believers, shouldn't we, as His followers and His disciples, do so also? (learnreligions.com/the-bible-on-church-attendance)

You know, I say all the time that this church reminds me of the first church in New Testament times but did you know that the first church met every day? I’m not suggesting we go back to that necessarily but a connection with the church; an identification with the church happens when you do more than just show up on most Sunday mornings. There is so much learning to be done on Sunday nights and Thursday nights and so much opportunity for discipleship as well. You can’t do much discipling on just Sunday mornings.

We need to connect and be identified with Jesus and the church. The next connection a disciple of Jesus will make is with the community. I remember when I first started as pastor of this church and we were over in Runaway Bay. For a Wednesday night meal, somebody had ordered a pie of some kind from the One Stop there next to the church and asked me to go pick it up. Sure, no problem. So, I bebop over there and tell the owner I’m there to pick up a pie for First Baptist Church.

You would have thought I told him I was there to murder his family. Just the name of that church sent this guy into a rage. He had been done wrong in the past by some of the people that were there and he was ready to take it out on me. I finally got him to settle down and understand that those folks were gone and we became friends but I’ll never forget the look on his face when I just mentioned our church. That’s not the kind of connection we can afford to make.

Again, I go back to the jail for an illustration and I’ve told you this before but I told a group of guys in there one time that I was from Christ Fellowship and a man said, “Oh, I know of that church. That’s the church that helps people. My wife lives in the RV Park down the road and she told me.” That’s the kind of connection we need to make with the community. But it takes time and it takes consistency. And we can’t do it with just three or four people. We need your help and we need your connection.

The last connection a disciple will make is with a cause. There are lots of good causes out there. You can connect with the Red Cross or Save the Whales or Save the Tacos or whatever but our church is called to minister to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated. We didn’t choose that demographic. God chose it for us and placed us here and gave us the abilities we have and the gifts we have to minister specifically to them.

We do that one way through a food pantry that feeds people for free almost every week. We don’t advertise it but if somebody in the church or in the community needs some help, we may not be able to pay their bills but they won’t go hungry. It is so much fun to be able to help people with a little bit of food. The vast majority of people are very grateful and they don’t take advantage of it. They may never become believers or even come to our church for anything else but that’s not why we do it. We are called to minister to them and we are called to make disciples and a disciple will connect with Jesus through baptism and through the church.

If you don’t feel called to minister to the poor, addicted and incarcerated, I understand. This church is not for everybody. There are lots of other churches that minister specifically to other people. Some minister to schools or to the military and that’s wonderful. Maybe you feel called to connect and minister through one of those churches but everything we do ministerially is filtered through our calling as a church. And as a member of this church, you need to connect with it.

Maybe you want to be part of the jail ministry or give to the food pantry. Maybe you have a heart for the addicted and want to start a class to help them. Whatever it is, it’s time to connect. I don’t just mean walking the aisle and praying a prayer and calling that good as you make it church when it’s convenient. That’s not being a disciple and it is certainly not making disciples.

But I’m going to stop. I’m not going to beg or try to make you feel guilty. I really don’t want to do that. Because none of that is going to do any good…until you get desperate. Until you are desperate for God to work in the lives of your family and your friends and even those in the community and around the world that you have never met, you will never really connect with any of these and you will never really start to make disciples because making disciples is hard work. It takes time and effort and money today and tomorrow and next month and next year. And it’s too hard for people who aren’t desperate.

Do you know why ministering in jails and prisons is so fulfilling? Because most of those people are desperate. They are desperate for help for themselves but they are also desperate for their friends and their families to not make the same mistakes they have made. So, they do whatever it takes to not let that happen and it comes out in their quiet times and it comes out in their corporate times of worship too. When you become desperate for the eternities of your friends and family, you will start to make disciples. All you have to do is learn from Jesus and tell somebody else what you have learned. Engage the curious people around you and then connect them to Jesus, to the church and to the community and to a cause. It’s what Jesus did and has commanded us to do.

If you have never started your walk with God through His Son Jesus, then today is the day. Just ask God to forgive you of your sins, turn away from those sins and believe that Jesus is God and died on the cross to pay your price into Heaven. Jesus said to believe and be baptized.

**Robert’s baptism**

“Come and See” – John 1

Let me ask you a question. If I stood up here this morning and told you that I didn’t have time this week to work on a sermon, what would you say? If I told you that I was too busy cleaning the church and mowing the lawn and doing paperwork to actually spend any time in prayer and research to develop a message to deliver, what would be your response?

I think I know how you would respond. I think you would probably be forgiving and loving and overlook it as we all gave testimonies or sang some extra songs and we would still have a good and worshipful time.

But what if it happened again next week…and the next? Then how would you respond? Let me assure you that is not the case and some of you may be disappointed to learn that I did prepare a message for today.

Now, what about this scenario? If you went to work tomorrow at the widget factory where you work and you got there early and you had a good attitude and you were all prepared to work with a clean and sharp work space, all the tools you need were in order and ready to go and at the end of the day, your boss asked you how many widgets you made. “Well, sir, I didn’t actually make any widgets today but I got here early and look how clean my tools are. I’m ready to make some widgets now!”

What if you went to school tomorrow and the teacher asked for your homework that was due? You tell the teacher you didn’t actually do the homework but your desk is straight and your number 2 pencil is sharpened and you have a fresh sheet of paper to make notes on. What is she going to say?

How about if you are a soldier deployed to the front lines but you never engage the enemy because you are too busy cleaning your weapon and practicing your marching? What do you think the sergeant is going to say?

Do you know what would be worse than having to answer to an angry sergeant? Having to answer to Jesus when He asks how many disciples you made. “Well, Lord, I never really made any disciples, per se, but I invited several folks to church. I tithed 10% of my check every week. I prayed every day. I even mentioned your name to several, well, a couple of, ok, one person, sort of…that one time...”

Yes, I think I would rather have a sergeant scream at me than to have to be in that situation. Because making disciples is your homework. It is your job. It is your mission. It is the one thing Jesus told His disciples to do. Go make more disciples. Okay, let’s review. What is a disciple? A disciple is simply one that has learned from Jesus and then tells somebody else what they have learned. It involves continuing the mission of Jesus and becoming more like Him in the process. It’s not complicated…but it’s not necessarily easy either.

The good news is that we have a model to go by. We are going to see that – believe it or not – Jesus is the best model for making disciples. He had a plan and He worked the plan and He developed men who had no background in spiritual things into disciples who looked and acted like He did and He wants us to do the same thing using the same method.

It’s not a program. It’s not one more thing to add to our busy schedules. It’s not about following a curriculum or reading a book. It goes right along with what we are already doing. Turn to Matthew 28:19 and let’s read the command of Jesus. At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has risen from the grave after three days of death. He has shown Himself to lots of people and told the original 11 disciples to go to Galilee and He will meet them there.

It is there that He gives them and us one last word; one last command; one last bit of encouragement. He has poured out His life for them and into them and taught them everything they need to know to carry on His mission. Now He gives them one last and greatest commission. Matthew 28:19-20 says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I heard the story of a mother who sent her two little boys outside to play and she watched them and could hear them from her kitchen window. She watched them start to dig a big hole in the yard and listened as some other boys came over as her boys were digging. She heard her boys say something about digging a hole to China and the other boys made fun of them, saying that was impossible.

But one of her boys picked up a mason jar full of bugs, ants and worms and excitedly said, “Well, it may be impossible but look at what we have already found along the way!”

The Great Commission of Jesus may seem impossible for us but in being obedient to what God has called us to do and gifted us to do and entrusted us to do, we will find lots of wonderful people along the way. Most of you know that when this verse says to go and make disciples of all nations, a better translation may be “make disciples as you are going.” It means that as you are going to the store, to work, school, on vacation, and even to church, make disciples as you go.

But how do we do that? That’s a great question. And what better model than Jesus to answer that question? I want you to see that Jesus used four steps in His disciple-making. When Jesus told His future disciples, “Follow Me”, that includes us following Him in discipleship. That 11 men carried on the mission of Jesus to their deaths with a passion for making other disciples was no accident. He didn’t just introduce Himself and hope they would stick around and hopefully, maybe pick up on some of what He believed. He was intentional about it and we should be too.

His first step was to just to engage the curious. Look at John chapter one with me for a minute. In John 1, John the Baptist is baptizing people out in the middle of nowhere. He is preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was coming and they should be asking God for the forgiveness of their sins. Then, right in the middle of his sermon, John is distracted by someone. Let’s pick it up in John 1:35-39.

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" 37When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means "Teacher"), "where are you staying?" 39"Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

“Come and you will see.” And who did Jesus say this to? He said it to two men who had decided to follow Him already. You can’t make disciples out of people who don’t want to be discipled. Discipleship is for believers; believers that want more than to just walk the aisle and pray a prayer.

Some of us got into a great discussion the other night – it happens a lot on Sunday nights - about the word “disciple.” It sounds so churchy, doesn’t it? We discussed using several other words instead like “mentor” or “teacher” that don’t sound so churchy and I have no problem using those if you are talking to unchurched people but when we talk about discipleship, we are usually talking to churchy folks.

We don’t talk to non-believers about “evangelism”. We just evangelize them. We don’t say, “Hello. I’m Todd and I’m here to evangelize you.” No, we say, “Hey, let me tell you about what Jesus has done for me.” It’s the same with disciple-making. We don’t talk to non-believers much about discipleship because they aren’t ready. It might come up, but we don’t have to use that word with them. They aren’t to that point yet and that’s okay. When they say they want to be a follower of Jesus, then we tell them, “Come and see.”

Come and see who Jesus is and what He is really about. Come and see what is going to happen as your life changes. Come and see the incredible glory of the scriptures and what they mean for you. If you are curious and if you want to know more, come and see. But we have to engage them. They don’t know that they need to be discipled any more than a baby knows he needs to learn to walk and talk.

If you left a baby alone, it would never learn those things because it would never know it could or should. It is our job to engage the new believer (the baby Christian) and encourage them to become more mature in the way of Jesus.

Can you imagine what life was like for those disciples the first few days they were with Jesus? Talk about drinking from a fire hose! Jesus said, “Come and see” and boy, the things they saw! They saw Him just in the next few days turn water into wine, run the money-changers out of the temple, speak amazing wisdom and truth to Nicodemus the Pharisee and then utter what would become the world’s most popular verse, John 3:16, that says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Don’t you know the new disciples just followed Jesus around with their jaws open? What is He going to say next? What is He going to do next? It had to be scary and fascinating at the same time. And do you know what? Nothing much has changed. Has it? Jesus and His message and mission is still scary and fascinating, especially to new believers.

That’s what makes discipleship so necessary but also what makes it a hands-on process.  If left to themselves, a lot of new believers will read scripture and not understand it or be scared to death by what they read. I met a guy in jail the other day who was covered in tattoos. His first question to me after starting to read his new Bible was, “Is it really a sin to get a tattoo?” He looked horrified. He probably thought he was never going to make it to Heaven with all his ink.

But we talked about how other scriptures teach that our bodies are temples and we should have respect for them but we are not under the Law any more like when that was written. And there are a lot of folks here this morning that are grateful for that! But this guy needs to be discipled. Without it, he won’t understand. He won’t know the truth and will fall away from the faith.

The first step in discipleship is to engage people who are curious and come along beside them saying, “Come with me and see Jesus. I will help you. I may not understand everything. Who does? But I know some things and I will walk with you as we both learn more. I don’t have all the answers but I know some other disciples that can help us too. So, come and see.”

Do you know what happens when you say that? If the person agrees to come and see, it won’t take long before they tell somebody else those same words. Look at John 1:45 and 46. It says, “Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.  And look at the words Phillip uses. "Come and see," said Philip.

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when we looked at the story of the woman at the well that Jesus talked to? When He revealed to her that He was the Messiah, the first thing she did was run back into town hollering, “Come and see! Come and see the Man who told me everything I had ever done!”

I tell people all the time that it’s worth coming to Christ Fellowship just for the view. When the sun goes down over the lake, it can be just gorgeous. If I see a beautiful sunset, the first thing I do is tell somebody else. “Hey, Lois! Come and see the sunset.” And do you know what she says when she sees it? She says, “Todd, sit down and quit interrupting Bible study!” No. She invites everybody else to come see the sunset. Come and see.

This may come as a shock to some of you but I believe that the average church today is full of mules. Mules work really hard. They pull heavy loads. They don’t complain much…but they don’t reproduce. That’s what disciples do. A true disciple WILL reproduce and make other disciples. The church today has often put church membership and church growth ahead of discipleship, but do you remember what Jesus said? Did He say, “As you go, make church members? As you go, get people to walk the aisle and pray a prayer? As you go, convince people to tithe?” No.

As you go, make disciples. Jesus said He was responsible for building the church. But do you know what happens when we follow Jesus’ model of discipleship? The church starts to grow. It starts to grow in numbers and in maturity. That’s invaluable. I’ve heard it said that the local church is the hope of the world. Well, if you want to be a superhero and save the world, you have to work at it and the first step is to engage the curious people around us.

Let me close with one more scripture from 1 Thessalonians 2:8. Here, Paul says, “Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.” That is why we disciple people and what discipleship looks like, all in one. We love other people so we want them to have what we have and therefore we pour our lives into them, one or two at a time. It’s hard work. It takes time and sometimes it’s hard.

Years ago in high school football practice, I remember seeing one of the coaches grab Jimmy Bowman’s facemask and scream at him that he better grow up! Jimmy was about 6’3”, 250 pounds in high school and I remember thinking if he grew up any more we wouldn’t have a uniform for him and that coach was about my height so it made a memorable scene. Have you ever wanted to just grab somebody and tell them to grow up?

Sure, you have. But do you know whose responsibility it is for that person to grow up? Actually, it is ultimately theirs. They have to be willing to change and grow but when they show an interest in growing spiritually, then it becomes our responsibility to help them by just coming along beside them and encouraging them to come and see Jesus as we go through life together.

If you have never started your relationship with Jesus, then don’t expect to grow spiritually. But when you turn away from your sin and ask God to forgive that sin and to come into your life to be Lord and Savior, then things will start to become clear. It is a lifelong journey so don’t expect to understand everything right away. None of us do. But we learn to have peace and joy even in the difficult times of this life and we start to grasp the glory of Heaven that is promised to us in the next life.

Does that sound like something you would be interested in? I invite you right now to come and see Jesus. Then we will learn more about Him together. Do it right now as the music plays.