Sunday
June 19, 2011
Matthew
28:16-20
Rev. Frances
Savill
Go and make disciples
According to Matthew’s
gospel, Jesus as he was preparing to leave his disciples, called them up on
a mountaintop.
In Matthew’s gospel, every
great revelation, every great momentous occasion happens on a mountain top.
Jesus commissioned the
disciples –
Listen to the words and
consider that Jesus has spoken these words to the church through the ages,
and Jesus now speaks them to us:
“Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded
you.”
How do you think we’re
doing in fulfilling our commissioning?
Probably there’d be
different thoughts about how the church – this church – the Christian church
in general – you and I as disciples of Jesus, are doing with our commission.
In some times and places
the Christian church has gone out and made converts – but that hasn’t always
led to discipleship.
In other times and places,
the church has taught a lot of information and people have learned about
God, but that teaching hasn’t always led to people obeying all that Jesus’
commanded.
Discipleship means
learning to be Christ-like, growing up into the fullness of the image of
Jesus, obeying Jesus’ teaching in every aspect of our lives.
It is a way of life that
leads us into a deep relationship with God – that draws us into the
community of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our lives, abiding deeply
in Jesus, in fellowship with God, then bear fruit – the kind of fruit that
Jesus bore.
Discipleship is a kind of
apprenticeship.
Some of you know that when
Mark and I moved here, Mark started a new chapter to his list of careers and
skills.
He couldn’t find work in
areas he’d already trained and worked in so he started an apprenticeship as
a sprinkler fitter.
Being an apprentice
–working with an experienced journeyman is supposed to prepare you and teach
you all you need to know to become a journeyman yourself.
The apprenticeship was 4
years.
During those 4 years Mark
watched other journeymen do their work, he learned the tools he needed for
the trade, he went to school and learned the building code that applied to
his work, he worked in his trade under the supervision of licensed people,
and by the end of 4 years through a lot of hard work he wrote the exams and
became a licensed sprinkler fitter.
Now he is teaching
apprentices.
There are some parallels
as disciples of Jesus.
We learn from others to
deepen our faith.
We learn the tools and
practices, and skills that they use- we get to see others maturing in the
faith and that encourages us to learn more, and grow further.
But we also have other
resources; we have the lives of great Christians as recorded in scripture,
and in spiritual writings that we can also learn from, and draw inspiration
from.
Our church library is
filled with books that will guide you in discipleship.
Discipleship is to
multiply – disciples are sent out to make disciples.
So if you find a book like
and decide you would like to grow in knowing God more closely, and
drink deeply of the living waters Jesus promised that we would find in
coming to him, then invite someone to share the book with you.
Many of the great books on
spiritual growth have study questions, exercises or questions for group
discussion included.
Or find someone who is
mature in their faith, who you see as an example in Christ, and ask him or
her to walk with you, mentor you, discuss these things with you.
Most of us find it easier
to take on new habits, learn new ways if we’re accountable to someone else,
or someone else is encouraging us.
How many of you have had a
personal trainer?
It’s so much easier to
make yourself go to the gym when you know someone is waiting for you, and
when you know he or she is going to cheer you on, when he or she is going to
encourage you and has put together a program that works and is for you.
A mentor, a spiritual
advisor, you can consider as a kind of spiritual trainer.
The goal of life in this
world, according to Jesus, is not ease, prosperity and success but intimacy
with God, maturity of character, and impacting the world for Jesus.
Those things only happen
when we commit ourselves to be disciples of Jesus.
Consider for a moment the
early church, those who first heard Jesus’ commissioning.
Many of them were
martyred.
From the stoning of
Stephen in the book of Acts, to the martyrs whose blood filled the streets
of Jerusalem through the first
decades of after Jesus’ commissioned his disciples, faith was costly.
The early Christians died
because they confessed Jesus as Lord.
Jesus’ lordship challenged
all other ultimate claims on their lives – wealth, status, power and Rome itself.
The early church believed
that Jesus tolerated no rivals.
When forced to choose, they chose to follow Jesus, no matter the price.
How they went to their
deaths astounded everyone.
They were so calm, so
filled with joy in faith, so confident in Jesus’ love and care for them, and
faced death with such courage that their martyrdom actually led others to
faith in Jesus.
Those seeing their death,
saw also the lives of other Christians, and wanted so deeply what they had,
that they became followers, disciples of Jesus, even at the risk of also
facing death.
Most of us will not have
to die for Christ, how we
live for Christ is the real
issue.
We all face moments when
we will have to choose between Christ and something else that vies for our
allegiance.
Discipleship –
apprenticing with Jesus, with the saints like those of the early church, and
other faithful Christians today prepares us for those moments of choice.
But it does much more – as
disciples we drink deeply from the well of living water which promises to
satisfy the deepest thirst in all of us.
We learn to dwell in the
fullness of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, caught up in the love,
captivated by the grace given to us, experiencing the abundant life that
springs forth even to eternal life.
The disciples of Jesus who
were commissioned were not perfect, but they had committed their lives to
learning Jesus’ way.
“When they saw him, they worshipped
Jesus; but some doubted.”
“Some still doubted”.
But they went anyway, they
went commissioned by Jesus, with his authority, to make disciples, to teach
and heal, and pray, and live, as they had with Jesus’, teaching others to
obey all that Jesus had taught them.
And Jesus was with them.
Our mission continues.
Thanks be to God!
Rev.
Frances Savill, Minister
Richmond
Presbyterian Church
Richmond
BC June 19,
2011