OPEN: A young American engineer was sent to Ireland for a year. When he left, his fiancé gave him a harmonica. She said, "I want you to learn to play this: it will help to keep your mind off those Irish girls."
He wrote to her often and told he her that he was practicing his harmonica every night. After a year she met him at the airport, he grabbed her to kiss her and she pushed back and said, "Wait before you kiss me, I want to hear you play the harmonica."
APPLY: That girl was no fool. She knew that the man’s love would be reflected in what he did. If he’d done what he’d promised – she’d know it by his actions.
I. What is it that God would like us to do to show our love for Him?
Good answers might be:
* by our church attendance
* faithfulness in prayer
* by regular Bible reading
* by loving each another
... and these are all part of showing God our love by our actions.
BUT the last request Jesus made of His disciples before He ascended into heaven was Matthew 28:19-20. And because this was the last command he gave his disciples before going to His throne in heaven, it would seem this was important to Jesus. I don’t know if this was THE most important thing to Him, but it was obviously important enough for Him to mention as his last minute instructions.
NOW, I want to please God.
And I know how to go to church.
I know how to pray.
I know how to read my Bible
and I think I’m getting the hang of loving others.
But, how do I do this? How do I make disciples? Isn’t that what preachers do? Isn’t that job of highly paid professionals with lots of training. Apparently not. Apparently God expects EVERY Christian to make disciples.
II. Why isn’t this the job just for highly trained professionals?
Turn to Matthew 13:3-9 & 19-23. There you will read the parable of the four soils. The farmer in the parable casts his seed on hard ground, shallow ground, weedy soil and good soil. Notice that those who "received the seed" – grew up as a crop. They were the harvest of the farmer’s labors. Those who were of the good soil heard & understood and… they produced a crop, a crop (I believe) of others who believed as they did.
What does that mean? It means that one of Jesus’ primary objectives in His ministry was to teach us the importance of making disciples. Producing a crop meant helping create new followers of Jesus.
III. Now, the good news is this – we’re not expected to do produce this crop by ourselves.
Speaking of how believers at Corinth had become Christians, Paul wrote: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
“The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. (I Corinthians 3:6-9)
What was Paul saying? He was saying that he didn’t disciple people all by himself – he worked with others like Apollos, Timothy, Luke, etc. Paul may have planted the seed, but then he handed off the new Christians to Apollos and others, who watered and nurtured converts into maturity.
Another way of looking at this is to notice that Paul described the church not only as “God’s field” and also “God’s building (vs 9).
ILLUS: Go to any building project & you’ll usually see more than 1 worker doing the labor. There’ll be one or two people hammering nails, another will be wiring the electricity, someone else will be doing the plumbing… etc.
When they’re done: they’ll have built home for someone live in. By asking us to disciple people, that’s what Jesus is asking of us. He’s asking us to work together as a team to build His House … a house for Him to dwell in.
That’s the good news. You and I don’t have to do disciple others by ourselves.
IV. The bad news (for some people) is – you and I have to do be involved in discipling.
If you and I are going to tell God we love Him - we do have actively disciple others. We have to learn to play the Harmonica… we have to learn to make disciples.
Jesus said:
“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:8
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit...” John 15:5
IN OTHER WORDS: A disciple makes disciples. A lover God will make other lovers of God. That’s how you and I give God His proper glory. That’s how you & I will show others that we are His followers.
Next week we’re going to talk about baptism, and in the weeks following that we’ll discuss what people should be “taught to obey.” But this Sunday, I want to focus just on discipling and what it means to do that.
V. Just how do we disciple someone?
Discipling is to teach someone to do what we do.
ILLUS: I just visited with my wife’s uncle & aunt last week. The aunt (Betty) talked about the family picnic that was coming up this summer. Betty said that this year she was going to take my wife’s mother along with her to the picnic area early, to help set things up for the family gathering. Apparently, Betty had spent several summers doing this with her other brothers and sisters – teaching them what needed to be done to get ready.
My wife’s mother was the last of the family Betty was taking with her for this kind of training. Next summer, she intends to turn the responsibility of setting up for the gathering over to one of those siblings she’s trained, with the intention that they would be the ones who would come in early and set up. And every summer after that – this aunt intended to assign which siblings would take their turn.
This aunt had discipled her family. She had taught to do what she knew how to do.
In this church, several of you have already done that
ILLUS:
David, one of our deacons, has set up a mentoring program where teenagers are “mentored” by working alongside the Sunday School classes.
At our Communion table, the leadership long ago decided that any male member of the congregation (who was willing) could do the devotions. These men are being discipled in how to share their faith.
In our Youth Group, our youth minister Brad has developed something he calls “y-groups,” or student led Bible Studies. One of those “student leaders,” has ended up baptizing a friend into Christ, because Brad thought it was worthwhile to “disciple” the youth group into leadership.
Every year, Bev puts together a Honduras team. A group of teens and adults who go to Central America to share the love of Christ to those who live there. She disciples them in this.
If you ever find yourself asking why something isn’t getting done in the church, it might be that it’s not getting done because no one has ever been discipled to do it. Since you sense the need, maybe you are the person to disciple someone else to do it with you.
VI. BUT, what if we don’t know anything to disciple others into?
THEN we learn. We find someone who does something we’d like to do and we have them teach you.
THEN we teach someone else to learn what we’ve learned.
CLOSE: Many of us Christians don’t do that. We don’t disciple others. I think its because we haven’t understood how important it is. But, I believe that so many of you love Jesus so deeply that just knowing how important this is to Jesus - you’ll find a way to do it.
ILLUS: Back in June of 1999, Eddie Stankey died at the age of 83. Time Magazine carried his obituary. It seems that in his day, Stankey (nicknamed “the brat”) had been a “pugnacious pennant-winning 2nd basemen for such championship teams as the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Boston Braves and the New York Giants.
The general manager of the Dodgers, Branch Rickey, once commented: “He can’t run, he can’t hit and he can’t throw, but if there’s a way to beat the other team, he’ll find it.”
Edward E. Hale made this comment:
I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
Remember- you & I don’t have to do everything
But you & I do need to do something
We need to expect to bear fruit…
… disciple others to love God as we do
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
Learning to Play the Harmonica = Matthew 28:18-28:20
Baptizing Into the Name... = Matthew 28:18-28:20
What Do We Teach? = Matthew 28:18-28:20
The Memorial Day = 1 Corinthians 11:23-11:34
