Discipleship for the Twenty-first Century
Discipleship as Jesus Commanded
What It Is
Jesus’ command remains the same now as it has always been.
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. As you are going, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:18b-20a)
Did you catch all that? The two actions of discipleship are both sacramental and catechetical. To make disciples the disciples (to whom Jesus gave this commission) are told to baptize and teach the nations. Let’s be super-clear about all of this.
The command itself (a.k.a. the Great Commission) is given by Jesus. Those to whom Jesus gives this command are His disciples. The command Jesus gives them has as its objective to make disciples, and the scope of their work of making disciples encompasses the whole world (all nations). The manner in which they are instructed to do this or the method Jesus gives them to make disciples is further described by Jesus Himself to include two separate but related actions: baptize and teach. Easy-peasy, right?
Baptize the nations
For those who have never thought of Baptism as a sacrament, or for those who doubt or reject the idea that Jesus gave such a sacrament to the world, please see here. Baptism into Christ’s body the church is a biblical truth that should not so quickly be discarded, as Jesus clearly intended to give us this new identity in this particular way.
Of course, the devil has done much to discredit, dillute, or distract from the ongoing, central place of Baptism in the Christian life, precisely because that is what Jesus ordained that it be in the Christian life. Baptism is Christ’s gift whereby the individual is brought into Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:26-27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14). It is not a work of man. It is not a good work that you or I must do to be saved, because, quite simply, it’s not your work, and it’s not mine. It’s God’s work, for God commanded baptism in His name and in His authority (Matthew 28:18-20), and so God works through it (Ephesians 5:25-27; Titus 3:4-7). It has God’s promise attached to it, for it conveys the grace of God in the Gospel individually to real sinners, who are plunged into Jesus’ death for sinners when they are baptized into that death of Christ on the cross (Romans 6:1-11).
Teach the nations
All that God has revealed in the Holy Scriptures must be included in the task of teaching, for Jesus excluded none of it, not even the smallest part.
Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle shall in any way pass from the law, until all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore discards one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others [to do] the same, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches [them], he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-19)
Today there are many would-be teachers of Jesus’ doctrines, but, sadly, many of them remain reluctant to teach certain doctrines that are less palatable to human reason such as Jesus’ teaching about His own sacraments, which are precious, life-giving gifts from Jesus given for the comfort of poor sinners in the Gospel. However, our teaching must align with Jesus’ teaching, even when this teaching is at odds with secular philosophical thought outside the church or at odds with human reason among so-called Christian teachers.
As Christ’s people we must uphold all of Christ’s teaching even when that Christian doctrine becomes unpopular. Christ calls us to a bold confession of His name and of all His teaching and doctrine in all of our lives. We daily bear witness to what Jesus has accomplished by His death on the cross for sinners—His death for a world of sinners. Each of us is called to live our lives in accord with the Word of God, and that means that (as we are going) our particular vocations are the primary circumstances in which we carry the teaching of Jesus to the world around us.
As we go - In our vocations
By living faithfully in the world as a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, etc., we carry the Word to our families as we go, just like Jesus said in the Great Commission (As you are going, therefore, make disciples…). By living faithfully in our work places, in our schools, in our churches, and wherever we find ourselves in life, we carry the Word to people, our neighbors, our co-workers, our fellow students and teachers and to all people as we go, just like Jesus said in the Great Commission.
Whatever our normal, God-given vocations happen to be, whether in our family life or our interpersonal relationships or our secular professions, each of us has been given these Christian vocations (callings) by God in order that we might be salt and light to the unbelieving world. These are the normal paths of disciple-making, the normal and yet miraculous, God-given occasions Jesus sets before our feet as we go, so that we can put these normal vocations to use and carry the Word with us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This isn’t showy. It won’t draw in big crowds. But quietly, and as it were unperceived by the masses, and quite in contrast to the chaotic, news-grabbing, attention-seeking forces of religion, entertainment, and politics observable everywhere else, the Holy Spirit uses that simple Word of truth in the lives of normal, simple Christian folk to deliver His grace and forgiveness to sinners. That Word has the power to bring the dead to life, so there is a great and mysterious, Divine power at work in and through the people of God—normal people (who are both sinners and saints), who carry that Word into their normal social circles and business-related activities in the world to serve and be a blessing to others.
What It Is Not
Many evangelism gurus out there cause a lot of churn (and make a little money too on the side) with their gimmicky ideas about a better way to make disciples, but their focus on other methods, programs, or emphases have one common denominator—they would obscure these truths about how God is at work among normal Christian people, who are witnesses to Christ in their normal vocational situations in life.
One fashionable way to talk about making disciples these days by some evangelism experts is to taut the importance of relationship-building in the task of world evangelization. But, again, this focus and emphasis can erode the importance of the Word within that model of making disciples. By talking about normal vocations (above), in which God the Holy Spirit is at work in normal Christian walks of life, we do not intend to reduce all disciple-making to that of building relationships with people. Sure, it includes that, but that’s not nearly enough. This is subtle, but very critical for us to understand.
Discipleship is not just about building and fostering relationships (despite anthing that was said above), although, to be sure, our relationships with people in all our vocations are inevitably involved in the two subtasks of making disciples of all nations.
Relationships in general are very important in the life of the church, as surely as the members of the same body are important to each other (and this is obviously true on many levels). Moreover, in a more specific manner, we should understand Gospel ministry as the ministry of reconciliation, but again, this is first and foremost a reconciliation between God and sinful humanity (2 Corinthians 5) and only secondarily between humans now reconciled to God.
Relationships are thus very important in the Christian life. However, equating discipleship with relationship-building tends to highlight one aspect of Jesus’ teaching while obscuring other parts of that teaching.
For example, the sacramentarians love to focus on the theology of the body of Christ (our living relationship with one another) but ignore, de-emphasize, or reject the foundational understanding of Jesus and the apostles about the Sacramental nature of our fellowship (or Communion) with one another by partaking in bread and wine consecrated by Jesus’ own words and actions in our midst, so that they are His true Body and His true Blood for Christians to eat and to drink as one. Our connection to each another (in Comm-union) could not be more real, could not be more physical and spiritual, could not be more here-and-now and eternal, than it is when we share in Christ’s true Body and His true Blood in the Holy Mass.
The Holy Spirit works through the Word. Christians need to receive that Word regularly and liturgically to be ready to carry that Word with them.
Churches today spend a lot of time, energy, and resources trying to engage people through various means (programs, events, or even strong digital (online) strategies—think social media posts, live-streaming worship experiences, forums for group discussion such as cell groups, table churches, etc.), and while there may be a place for some of these things in certain situations, can any of them replace the Scriptural understanding of our life in Christ and in the Community (the church) that He is building? At best, these extras are just that, extras. The essentials of our life together (the Word as conveyed by the Holy Spirit through the Liturgy and shared in Holy Communion) and our witness to the world (in our various vocations and anywhere else that God may place our feet, as we are going) remain the same as they have always been.
There are simply no replacements for our fellowship (sharing) together in the actual Body and Blood of Christ which unites us eternally with Christ and with the whole Assembly (Church) in both heaven and earth.
Dispensing with or minimizing the importance of the sacraments is exactly what some advocates of new-fangled strategies for discipleship expect us to do. But we cannot follow them in their teaching. Instead, we together stand on the Word of God which abides forever—VDMA (Isaiah 40:6-8; 1 Peter 1:22-25). Our discipleship activities are really no different than that of the disciples Jesus called in the New Testament. We go, we baptize, and we catechize (Matthew 28:18-20). We steadfastly do these things, and we steadfastly receive one another as Christ has received us. After all, this is how the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples, by our love for one another (John 13:34-35).
So, while we encourage relationship building in church, such relationships in the Body of Christ can be fostered, maintained, and protected in no better way than in the way Jesus prescribes. That means that we live as one Body. We share in one Body. We share in one Cup. We forgive and forbear one another. We lay down our lives for one another. And all of this is the (super-)natural outflow of our ongoing, foundational Communion with one another in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.