Go and Make Disciples of all Nations

Published on Updated on Discipleship, Jesus Christ

The Lord Jesus calls us to go make disciples of all nations. We are to bring people into faith in Jesus. And then we are to train them as disciples.

 

 

This study is based on the following two verses:

Matthew 28:19. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 19:20. teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Here is our exploration of those verses:

 

Go

Previously, they had sequestered themselves into the Upper Room. But now it was time to stop hiding their faith. Jesus Christ commanded them to GO. They were to leave their Upper Room. Their faith in him was to no longer to be a secret.

They were to go. They were to go out into the world. They would no longer be confined to a certain locale and culture. Now, the message would propagate outward to the world. Jesus Christ is for both Jew and Gentile, male and female. He is for people of every culture and race, language and tongue. It is incumbent upon us to go should his message from the rooftops of every nation on earth!

Their faith in Jesus Christ was not to be locked up or hidden away. It wasn’t to be kept a secret or a private matter. No, their faith was to be a light that shined everywhere. It was meant to be shouted from the rooftops.

How about you? Do you keep your faith in Jesus Christ a secret? Is it finally the time for you to go? Is it time for you to start talking with non-Christians about Jesus Christ? Is it time for you to do evangelism?

 

make disciples

They were to train people in the ways of Christian discipleship. That is comes in two parts: baptism, and then teaching:

 

baptizing them

The first step in becoming a follower of Jesus Christ is to make a public proclamation of your faith and get baptized. Jesus commands his disciples to baptize. They are to lead non-Christians to faith in Jesus Christ and baptism. This is the ministry of evangelism.

Sure, one can have a private intellectual faith without baptism. And sure, people arrive at an internal faith prior to the moment when they get baptized. Otherwise, they would not get baptized.

But here, Jesus commands baptism. This is a both-and approach. There is an internal faith, which is coupled with an external action. Baptism is the starting point of discipleship. Baptism is followed by discipleship, as the next verse says.

In the ministry of evangelism, we share the news of Jesus Christ with people who don’t know him yet. Some of those non-Christians will wish to become his followers. We lead them to faith in Jesus Christ and baptism.

Jesus himself tells us how to baptize people into the faith: “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

That’s called a Trinitarian baptism. It is done in the name of the trinity.

Some churches perform baptism “In the name of Jesus” only. But this is not biblical. It does not obey what Jesus commanded.

Jesus himself refers to all three Persons of the Trinity.

How about you? Do you desire to do that? If not, how can you develop a desire to do it? What practical steps can you take to evangelize others?

he Lord Jesus calls us to take his Gospel to the whole world. Here are the key Bible verses about this »

 

teaching them

After people get baptized into the faith, we are to teach them. We are to mentor new believers to walk with Jesus Christ, in full obedience to his will. This is the ministry of discipleship.

Teaching takes on many aspects:

  • Individual mentoring
  • Individual study
  • Small Group discussion
  • Listening to great preaching

Many people believe that Jesus is talking here about one-on-one mentoring. That’s the process where an experienced disciple individually mentors a brand new believer. Or perhaps where an experienced disciple mentors a long-term believer who has recently been awakened.

How about you? Do you have any believers that you are mentoring? If not, how can you develop a desire to do it? What practical steps can you take to disciple others?

 

to observe all things that I commanded you

This tells us what we are mentoring people about:

  • It isn’t necessarily the intellectual content of the faith, even though there’s a lot of that and its great.
  • It isn’t necessarily the thousands of tidbits about one’s denomination of choice.

No, we’re helping people learn to walk with Jesus Christ, in full obedience to his commands.

Are you familiar with the commands of Jesus? Here are the commands we have found in the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, and the Gospel of John.

 

I am with you always, even to the end of the age

The LORD God promises to be with us always, even to the ends of the world. Read more »

 

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.