Making Disciples who Obey Jesus in Childlike Love

Our supreme Commander Jesus Christ orders us with all authority in heaven and earth to make disciples by teaching them to obey all His commands, Matthew 28:18-20.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 5.

The purpose of this chapter is to show why our supreme commander Jesus Christ commands us to teach believers to obey him in childlike love, and explain to them how to do it. He orders us with all authority in heaven and earth to make disciples by teaching them to obey all His commands in Matthew 28:18-20.

Find in Matthew 28:18-20 with what authority Jesus orders us to make obedient disciples:

Find in John 14:15 the correct motive for our obedience to His commands:

Several pastoral ministries grow out of Jesus’ general command to make disciples:

• evangelism,
• nurturing new believers,
• cultivating the spiritual life,
• teaching the Word and biblical doctrine,
• pastoral care and counseling,
• foreign mission work, pastoral training,
• children’s instruction,
• shepherding in general.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 5.

According to Acts 2:41-42, the new disciples in Jerusalem devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching from the beginning, starting immediately after their baptism. We must teach the new believer that God is bringing him into a family where we get to know each other intimately. We must live our new life with fellow believers, so that we can recognize barriers to the Spirit-filled life, repent and be renewed. Scoggins affirms, "The disciple’s journey is difficult but fun. What a privilege to labor in Jesus’ Kingdom! What joy! We were created—and re-created—for this! We help brand new believers to find real joy in serving our King. This joy of serving is not reserved for some elite clergy group."

As we grow in obedience, our actions and attitudes toward others keep on changing. In a church that makes true disciples, wrong motives for our behavior are exposed and new ones are developed in the power of the Holy Spirit. God keeps on healing us, freeing us disciples for more effective service, as explained in Galatians 5:13. We must carefully help new disciples to become part of the body and to enjoy its loving service. For adult believers discipleship normally starts with baptism. We should help them to covenant with other believers to obey Jesus Christ and his apostles together as a body. They will then become active in ministry and willingly accountable to a their Christian leaders, as we read in Acts 2:41-37 and Hebrews 13:17.

James 1:22 tells us not be merely hearers of the Word, but doers, or we deceive ourselves. We do not use the Bible simply as content for our teaching; we use it to guide all of our steps, every day.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 5.

If one merely makes a superficial, rational "decision" to "accept Jesus"—a concept foreign to the New Testament—chances of his remaining faithful are slim. Jesus told his disciples, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). Making disciples, from a biblical perspective, normally starts with witnessing to seekers. Those who put their faith in Christ become loving disciples, being added to the church through repentance, faith, and baptism, as reported in Acts 2:38-41.

As discipleship training continues, new Christians learn to obey the other commands of Christ and to serve their fellow Christians. Therefore, we must build all ministries on loving relationships.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 5.

Biblical truth is intensely practical. We must use it in teaching to build up the body of Christ, not just to impart knowledge. Good teaching applies God’s Word to people’s lives and ministries. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 reveals the purpose of biblical instruction: to equip believers for service. Biblical teaching has the clear objective of mobilizing church members for ministry, as explained in Ephesians 4:11-16.

God instructs us to use the gift of teaching in harmony with the other gifts given to the Body, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 5.

As churches mature, they make disciples on four levels:

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 5.

We must teach with Jesus’ authority, not our own. Our authority as leaders and teachers is real, and comes from Christ. We are to command with the Word of the Lord (1 Timothy 4:11). Our discipleship training will become weak and legalistic if we depend only on the authority of a human organization. We must not insist, "Obey me, because I’ve been named to this position over you!" Rather we teach our people to obey Christ and His apostles because they love Him. Please remember that He said:

Training with Christ’s authority requires a loving, confidential relationship between the trainer and those whom he trains, especially if they are pastors or elders. Unless it builds on loving relationships, excessively authoritative discipleship training stifles initiative. A good teacher of pastors listens to his students and shares responsibility for their effective ministry. Pastoral students will eagerly follow the counsel of such a teacher and will imitate such a teacher’s example.

We train leaders more effectively, when we look beyond them to focus on those whom they serve in churches and cell groups. Truly biblical teachers build up church bodies through their students, as we read in Ephesians 4:11-16.

We must not demand that our disciples do what we teach them because we are above them in the organization. Jesus condemned such leadership in Matthew 20:25-26.

They will obey us because we love them and they have confidence in us. They will see that we are helping them to develop a more effective ministry.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 5.

On a new field that lacks reproductive churches in the local culture, prayer, pastoral training and evangelism together lead to church reproduction. A wise church does four levels of discipleship training: the unsaved, new believers, growing believers, and leaders. Jesus spent most of His time giving discipleship training to leaders, to the twelve original apostles.

Training leaders the way Jesus and His apostles did almost became a lost art by the twentieth century. Church elders had come to see themselves as professional priests who did all aspects of church ministry; they were trained to do everything. This view contradicts 1 Corinthians 12 and other passages in God’s Word about spiritual gifts. It cancels out the interactive life of the church body. It undermines the health of Christian organizations. Wise pastors are those elders who oversee ministries and delegate full responsibility to others. For example, an elder oversees congregational worship by asking others who are more musical than he is to do it. He makes sure that they do a good job.

Elders in a healthy church constantly reproduce themselves in all that they do. They equip others to teach, counsel, lead meetings and make disciples. Jesus equipped his disciples to carry on church reproduction after he left. Good elders likewise continually prepare other newer elders, as taught in Ephesians 4:11-13.

Church planting task groups that work in a new field need at least one gifted teacher who has shepherding experience, to train new pastors on the job. Like Paul, we must commission to serve as elders, the more mature men that God provides. Paul sometimes named as elders fairly new Christians where there were no experienced leaders available (Acts 14:23). Some call these new pastoral leaders "provisional elders." In this case we must explain to them that they are too new to be confirmed permanently as shepherds or pastors.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 5.

This family focus is a powerful tool for training and mobilizing new leaders as pastors. Some churches have men who have been teaching their families. These men take turns teaching during Sunday worship on the same Bible passages that they have been discussing with their families.