The Steps of Disciple Making - Matthew 28:19–20
There’s an old story of a man and his four-year-old son raking leaves in the front yard of their home, and as they raked, a flock of geese flew over. They stopped to watch them, and the father pointed out to his young son how they flew in a formation shaped like a “V.”
The little boy just stared in amazement, and when the geese had disappeared over the trees, the little guy looked at his father and said, “Daddy, do they know any other letters?”
How did you learn what you know? You can probably list many people and sources. But no matter who you are, you’ve been surrounded by teachers all your life. We’re always learning, and what we learn affects how we think and live.
In the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, Jesus says, “Learn from me.” We have so many sources of learning; why would we need yet another teacher?
Well, the Scriptures tell us that what we naturally know and follow are sinful ways
that provoke God’s wrath against sin. Ephesians 2 says we are “by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
But God sent Jesus into the world so we could know and follow His way. Through Jesus, we learn how to have peace with God. We learn the truth about God, ourselves, and our world. We learn how to think and live God’s way.
So we should follow and learn from Jesus. This learning and following is often referred to as being a disciple of Jesus. Today’s passage from Matthew has come to be known as The Great Commission. Notice verse 19 again. Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” He commissions His apostles to preach of the gospel, calling more and more people to repentance from sin and faith in Jesus, and establishing congregations of disciples.
But how are people made into disciples? There’s been a lot of discussion and disagreement over the answer to that question. This sermon is not an exhaustive examination of that. However, Jesus himself gives a simple and sufficient answer in Matthew 28. You can find an outline of what He says on page 6 in the Worship Guide.
How are people made into disciples? First, we are baptized, and then, we are taught. This order of steps is important for understanding what it means for anyone to be a disciple, but also, for understanding today’s baptism of little Charlotte Webster. So let’s look at this together.
You see two words there in the English translation of verse 19, “make disciples,” but only one word is recorded in the Greek New Testament manuscripts. It could be translated as “teach” or “train” or “instruct.” Jesus commanded His apostles to teach others to follow Him: to trust in Him, deny themselves, and turn from their sinful ways to learn God’s way.
Of course, not everyone who heard their preaching would want to be a disciple. The same was true during the earthly ministry of Jesus Himself. John 6 says on one occasion, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” So notice verse 19 again, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus’ words suggest a few things. One, they suggest that churches did not yet exist among the nations. There were not yet local covenant communities filled with disciples. The preaching of the gospel was necessary for beginning and building them. Two, that there would definitely be people who would respond in faith and repentance, and who would willingly submit to baptism because they wanted to be disciples of Jesus. And three, they suggest that baptism would be administered before teaching someone God’s ways.
Teaching was essential to making disciples, but baptism must come first.
Many years ago, one of our daughters studied the Suzuki method of violin. And her first teacher had a somewhat unique way of starting each lesson. She required her students to look at her before each lesson began and say, “Please teach me.” We always found this sort of humorous, but the principle makes sense. For the child to learn, they must submit to the learning process.
This kind of willingness is necessary for making disciples. And we see that willingness as we follow the history of the church after Matthew 28. The New Testament book of Acts records the church’s growth, and the first big growth event is in Acts 2, where Peter preaches to many Jews who respond with faith in Christ. Peter then commands them to repent and be baptized.
And just a few verses latest, the book of Acts says that these new disciples of Jesus “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” That’s the order we see in Matthew 28.
First, they are baptized, and then, they are taught.
This is what we call “believer’s baptism.” We practice it here at Good Shepherd. When someone has not previously been in the church and has never been baptized but repents and believes in Jesus, they should be baptized according to His command.
But Peter tells these new believers something important right after he tells them to be baptized. Peter says, “The promise is for you and for your children.” That statement has a very Old Testament ring to it. In Genesis 17, which we will look at in a couple weeks, God commands Abraham to be circumcised and to circumcise every male in his household, because in that household, and in that family, they would all be learning the ways of God.
The knowledge of God’s promise was for Abraham and for all those in his household to learn. Abraham received this sign of God’s covenant after he had faith, but his son Isaac received the sign before he had faith.
Now, as we go through the book of Acts, and we see the growth of the New Testament church, as people come to faith in Jesus, often we’re told that when a person believed, then he or she and their household would be baptized. This reflects the pattern established with Abraham. When the head of home professed faith in Jesus,now everyone in that household would be learning the ways of God.
You see, baptism doesn’t save a person from their sins. It doesn’t take away original sin. But it signifies admission into the covenant community and submission to learning God’s ways.
Baptism also proclaims that salvation is an act of God in which a person must be born again by the power of the Holy Spirit and share in the blood of Jesus as a sufficient sacrifice for sins. Some people come into the covenant community (the church) as adults, and some come in as children. Some receive baptism after they profess faith; some, like little Charlotte today, receive baptism before they profess faith.
If you have children, and you claim to be a follower of Jesus, you probably began teaching your children God’s ways before they could even talk. You do this in your home, and you expect the church to help you with it, as you should.
This has always been the expectation in the community where God’s ways are taught. In Deuteronomy 6 in the Old Testament, Moses told the Israelites, “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.” And in Ephesians 6 in the NT, the apostle Paul addresses the fathers, the God-ordained heads of the households, and he tells them, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Christian parents should teach their children to follow Jesus from the beginning of their lives. If you have decided to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and you have children, don’t you teach your child how to be a disciple as well? Of course you do.
This is why so many people who are raised in the church express that they don’t remember a time when they didn’t understand what it means to follow Jesus. This doesn’t mean they were saved from birth or have “always been a Christian.” As I read earlier, from birth, we are children of wrath, enemies of God because of our sin. Children born into Christian families are not automatically saved.
By baptizing little Charlotte today, we are not proclaiming that she is born again or that she certainly will be. Rather, her parents, who are followers of Jesus, are submitting her to being taught God’s ways.
Remember, learning first requires submission. James W. Scott, who served for many years in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, sums this up nicely in an outstanding article that he wrote on this subject. The article was very helpful to me in preparing this message. Scott writes, “Baptism begins the discipling process, which continues throughout one’s life.”
If you have been baptized at some point in your life, whether you remember it or not, God has graciously allowed you to be included in learning His truth and His ways. But someone else’s faith and repentance cannot save you.Someone else’s church membership cannot make you right with God. In 2 Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul tells the church, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”
Look into your heart. Are you applying in your life each day the truth that baptism represents, that only God can take away your sins, that His Spirit must make you new, and that those who are saved have been buried and raised with Jesus and should walk in newness of life, living for Him? Examine yourselves.
Now let’s look at the next step in making disciples, verse 20. Jesus says, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” This also has a very Old Testament ring to it. It sounds like what God told the Israelites when they were given God’s law. Over and over they were told, “obey the commandments.”
They were to believe and do the things God told them.
They were to live as God instructed them.
They were to worship as God showed them.
They were to behave toward each other in the way God laid out for them.
The teaching of the ways of God is central in the covenant community. Remember, we do not naturally know or live according to God’s ways. We must be taught. This is why when Paul gives qualifications for elders and pastors in Titus 1, he says an elder “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”
And in 1 Timothy 4, Paul tells the young pastor Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.” Then in 2 Timothy 2, Paul tells him, “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” All people learn throughout their lives. God’s people must learn His truth and His ways.
Recently I was in a public place, and I sat near what appeared to be a father, mother, and young daughter. And sadly, the language of the parents was very vulgar. The mother was angry about some situation, not angry at the dad but at someone else, and she complained with such obscenity. She showed no concern for saying these things right in front of her daughter, who looked to me to be about six or seven years old.
When you have a child and you raise that child, they learn from you. They learn good stuff, and they learn bad stuff! You pass along to them what you value; you teach them how to think and how to live.
Maybe you’ve heard of parents who say that rather than teaching their children a certain set of religious beliefs, they would rather let the children decide for themselves what they will believe. I don’t advise that. But even if you tried to be as objective as you possibly could when it comes to teaching your kids about spiritual beliefs or religion, that is still teaching something.
As long as they are in your presence, they will learn from you.
They are like little sponges, always absorbing. Sometimes they may say things, and you might ask, “Where did you hear that?” And maybe, they will say, “From you, Mommy. From you Daddy.”
You can look throughout our country today and see so many people passionate about what they believe, but they don’t believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, they don’t believe in Jesus Christ. And yet, they are disciples. They are following a way. Proverbs 14 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
Those who follow Jesus don’t want that for their children. They want truth and life for them. So they submit them to the instruction of God in the church, and the church gladly receives them from birth. The church does not say, “No, no, we aren’t teaching them. They need to believe first. Once they have faith, then we will teach them.”
We don’t do that. From the time they are very young, we begin the discipleship process with them. But – faith is required to include them. They are included based on the faith of their parents. This was the case in the Old Covenant, and it continues in the New Covenant.
In fact, James W. Scott points out that the way to understand the continuation in the covenants is to recognize the OC as the same covenant in a new form. This is why it is correct for the apostle Paul to say in Galatians 3 in the New Testament, “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” New Covenant believers are Abraham’s offspring, ultimately fulfilling those Old Covenant promises.
To be a disciple we must submit to Jesus and not resist. And you know, from what I’ve seen, it’s not the little babies, and toddlers, and small children who resist the truth of God. They are more open to the gospel than many adults. Adults think they know everything. Little children are more teachable. This is no doubt why Jesus says in Matthew 18, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Remember that when you see baby Charlotte up here in a few minutes.“Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
If you would say that you are a Christian, are you teachable? Is it your aim to learn and obey all that Jesus commanded? Because if you are not teachable, if you are not a humble learner of God’s ways, you cannot be Jesus’ disciple.
Now, to be sure, we all naturally resist the commands of God. Obedience to Him is not our automatic response. But when we look to Jesus Christ, we see the only One who responded to suffering and to success and to trouble and to blessing with perfect obedience. Hebrews 5 says refers to the suffering of Jesus on the cross, and it says, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers…with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. [8] Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. [9] And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”
Surrender to Jesus today. He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.”
Let’s bow together in prayer.