MAKING DISCIPLES
Pastor Eric J. Hanson
August 1, 2010
Over the last few Sundays, we have focused on the difficulties, the trials, the heartbreaking things that come into people’s lives. We have explored ways to get through these things, and to do so without losing our faith, and even without losing our joy as followers of Jesus Christ. This topic has been an important one, and it has resonated with many who are sitting here this morning, because the truth is, a lot of our people are doing through lean times financially, and also other types of serious matters. The CDs and tapes of these last several weeks are highly recommended for your use, and also to share with others who need to hear them.
Today, however, we are going to turn the page, so to speak. The topic we shall consider now is of the very highest importance. It is, in fact, the heart of our mission as believers in Jesus Christ. I am speaking of Making Disciples. In fact, the last thing that the Lord Jesus spoke about to his disciples, just before he ascended to Heaven, was this very thing. He said to them, “ Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do all that I have commanded you; and note this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Ladies and gentlemen, we are still in the age Jesus was speaking of. It is the church age. It will only end upon His return. Therefore, these marching orders still apply to all of us who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
Let’s do a little exercise of the imagination to drive this home. Let’s all stand together and imagine being there on that mountaintop, Mount Olivet in Galilee, where the disciples were standing when Jesus spoke the words we have just considered. Now close your eyes and imagine yourself standing there.
The Lord Jesus Christ himself is standing before you. He has been resurrected from the dead, and has been teaching you on and off for the last 40 days since his resurrection. As you look at Him, you can see once more, the scars where the spikes penetrated His wrists and his feet. You imagine how inside of His robe, there is the scar where the Centurion’s spear had been driven into the Lord’s side. You listen very carefully now, because you know that every word the Lord is about to speak must stay with you and guide you for the rest of your life. Quiet now, the Lord is about to speak, so you listen and hear these words: (now repeat the above scripture).
Just as you are letting this sink in, and trying to understand all the implications of what the Lord just said to you, and amazing thing happens. Before your very eyes, Jesus begins to rise up into the air. Higher and higher he goes. Soon he disappears into a cloud. You sense that it is no ordinary water vapor cloud. After all, you have been taught the Hebrew Scriptures your whole life, and you know that God appeared as a cloud to lead the whole people of Israel through the wilderness for some 40 years. You also know that a great cloud of God’s presence appeared on the day that Solomon’s Temple was dedicated. That cloud filled the Temple. So this cloud today, with Jesus Christ, Lord of All disappearing into it, seems right, It seems fitting.
Suddenly your reverie, your thoughts, and your wonder are interrupted by voices. Two men (Where did they come from?) are speaking in unison saying “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into Heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into Heaven.” (Acts 1:10-11) These men dressed all in white, have startled you back to Earth, so you head down the mountain, and back into Jerusalem. (You may be seated again.)
Of course, we were not there. We did not see and hear these things, but it is very important that these things be real to us. Jesus did say that this commission extends till the end of the age. The end of the age has not come yet. You and I might as well have been standing there.
When I first became a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ, one of the first things I was taught was the importance of telling others how to have their sins forgiven too. From the first week after I received Jesus Christ, I began attending a college age Sunday School class. Some of the first Bible verses I ever committed to memory, under the guidance of my Sunday School teacher, pastor Larry Wiles, were verses that drove home to me, that Jesus Christ is the one and only savior, and He is Lord indeed.
Consider John 14:6: Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father, except through me.” Now how clear is that? There are not many roads to Heaven. There is one portal. Jesus Christ is the only way in.
We were warned about churches which have departed from the clear words of the Bible; churches who do not believe that people have a sin problem. Within a month of becoming a believer, I memorized also Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned, and fall short of the Glory of God”. Along with that, I was shown several other verses from Romans, which nail down the facts that every single man, woman, and child is a sinner and needs Jesus Christ as their savior. I memorized much of John Chapter 3 where Jesus taught that each one must become Born Again, in order to enter Heaven.
I was also taught, from the start, that the natural fear of rejection and ridicule, which stops many from sharing their faith, can be overcome by depending on the Holy Spirit. He is the one who brings people under conviction. Our job is just to tell them about their need of Jesus Christ. We have a supernatural ally who works on the inside of people. We were taught how Peter was afraid to even admit that he knew Jesus at all, but after the Holy Spirit came to live in believers, this same man was fearless, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ clearly.
Within a month of becoming a disciple at age 18, I had a sense of mission, and began to share my faith with friends, and especially with family members. Were any offended? Yes, but some were receptive from the start. Soon, my car was filled with young people on Sunday mornings, and again for youth group. Several of them soon gave clear testimonies of trusting Jesus as savior and desiring to follow Him, to become disciples. I encouraged them to learn the same things I was learning, as quickly as possible.
Within months I was the new guy at work. I had been following the Lord for 4 months when I was hired at Ripley & Fletcher company. In the rough and tumble of a large car garage, many of the older guys did not want to hear anything about Jesus. I found that their constant using of the Lord’s precious name as a swear word angered me, and a couple of times I confronted it like an Old Testament prophet confronting and evil king. Full of adrenaline and remembering my street fighting days, I was ready to slug it out a few times. In those days, I listed weights regularly and loved to work out on the heavy bag. Yes, at first I was rather “in your face” and quite ineffective in witnessing about Jesus to these guys, but I learned many valuable lessons there about what not to say, and about listening of the Lord’s guidance about how and when to speak. I needed to let the Lord be strong, and me be out of the way. I gradually learned about dying to the natural me, and living in the Lord.
With the passing of time, my older relatives saw this process happening, and they listened as the gentleness of the Lord gradually became my reality. My mother came to faith in Jesus Christ at around age 66. She passed away five years later. It’s now been 20 years. My older brother, who had ruined his life through heavy drinking; my brother who had ridiculed my new faith in 1972, came here in 1985 and while sitting in the back row, raised his hand repent and to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The next year, at age 43, he was dead of a congenital heart defect.
In a few days, I shall mark a full year of my part time job at the South Paris Irving Circle K. I am going to celebrate that anniversary by personally giving a copy of the great booklet, steps to peace with God, to each of the other employees. I will let them know that I now celebrate a full year with them, by sharing the best and most important thing possible with them. Between now and then, I am praying for each one of them to come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; in short, for each to become a disciple.
We are indeed called to make disciples. You are indeed called to make disciples. Of course, if you have not yet made the clear choice to follow Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you need to do that first. Then you can invite others to follow Him along with you.
In closing today, I bring two challenges. First, to anyone here who has not yet asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior and Lord, I mention, you need to be Born Again, or you cannot enter Heaven. Jesus said this clearly as recorded in John chapter 3 and verse 3. Today is your opportunity to become Born Again. How does this happen? (read John 3: 16-18) Do you believe in Jesus Christ? You can meet Him as Savior and follow Him as Lord starting right now. Please repeat the following after me… (sinner’s prayer)
Now, you who have been believers in Jesus Christ, perhaps for many years. You are called to make disciples. I was not a pastor when my Sunday School teacher taught me these things and I went out and started doing them immediately. We are to share the story of Jesus with friends, relatives and co-workers. We are to use our web of relationships to cast a net for God. It is not too late to start, or to re-start in this making of disciples. We are to also bring them into the church family and teach them God’s word, just as happened for me in 1972. This is making disciples!
Finish the challenge…
Close in prayer.
