When Jesus called His disciples to go and make more disciples, He gave clear and achievable goals for the mission. However, the task would be difficult, and would meet resistance often.
Text: Matthew 28:20
Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…
Discipleship requires instruction. People do not put obedient faith in Jesus without being taught the gospel. New believers do not grow to maturity without being taught the doctrines and disciplines of Christlike living.
These 11 disciples had learned about sacrifice, about going to other places to obey, and about baptising the new believers from any nation. And now they were to become teachers on Jesus behalf. They would not have thought of themselves as teachers. They had no teacher training, no instruction book, no classrooms, and no students. They were dependent upon the Lord for every resource needed, and Jesus was returning to heaven.
Their students would come from the people they taught the gospel to, and they would teach them everything that Jesus had taught them over the past 3 years.
They were to equally teach Jew and gentile, saved and unsaved, religious, and irreligious people alike. They were to receive and teach everyone, no matter their past, or where they came from.
They were to pass on everything they had received from Jesus, even the things they did not fully understand themselves.
They were to teach from the Old Testament as Jesus did, and explain the parables as Jesus did. There was to be no subject overlooked or shied away from.
They were to be permanent students themselves. Always learning how to teach better on Jesus behalf. Always growing in their understanding of the Scriptures and how to explain God’s Word better so others could obey better.
This would require faith, determination, unity, a willingness to share resources, and a willingness to help each other as they work together for Jesus.
And finally, they were to teach their students to go and sacrificially do the same, making disciples on Jesus behalf.
