Disciple Making Part Two:

The One Discipled

In our last study, we were reminded of the Jethro principle. This principle comes from the fact that when the father-in-law of Moses witnessed the schedule of his son-in-law, he rebuked him for his lack of wisdom. No one man can answer the questions of everyone (even though this world is not short of “know-it-alls”). What Jethro recommended was not that Moses give them more laws, but rather that he secure more help. What Moses needed were godly men who knew the laws that God had already given and could wisely apply them to the complexities of human circumstance.

The scribes and Pharisees of the New Testament stand in remarkable contrast to this principle. With their endless rules and regulations, they determined how many steps taken on the Sabbath would be considered too many, and thereby be categorized as work resulting in a violation of the God-given law to honor the Sabbath. When the wisdom of God meets the foolishness of man, the sterling truth of God turns into the nonsense of human ingenuity.

We discovered last week that there is a good reason why the Bible does not contain a passage on how to disciple people. The answer is that people are too different from one another. There are not enough words in any language to write a discipleship manual that meets every new convert’s need. There is no “one size fits all” program available. Instead of a program or a manual, what the Bible gives us is a procedure.

The procedure is rather simple and straightforward. First, we are to “baptize” the individual. This is a rite of initiation. It is a public statement of the person’s intent to follow Jesus Christ. Through it, accountability is created, and the person’s heart is exposed. Without a pure heart, no amount of work from the outside will produce lasting changes in an individual’s life.

The second element is the teaching of the commandments, once received. This means that the person doing the discipling has to have some history with the Master. This is a dangerous, yet necessary truth. It is dangerous, because it often keeps individuals from discipling until they reach some nebulous maturity level. For this individual, we need the reminder of the blind man in John nine. Fresh out of the womb of regeneration, he is challenged by the religious leaders of his day. His response is to fall back on his expertise and experience. He is the world’s foremost expert on the transformation from darkness to light. Everybody needs to start where they are, not where someone else is or wishes they were. We must be certain that we are further along in our walk with Christ than the one who is looking to us for leadership.

Disciple Making

Part Two: The One Discipled

Matthew 28:19

1. The scope or field

A. The yoke

B. The bond

C. The sacrifice

D. The objective

2. The first step — public identification

A. Baptism

B. Baptism

C. Baptism

D. Baptism

3. The second step — roots

A. Truth

B. Truth

C. Truth

D. Truth