These Last Days (4)

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”  Matthew 28.19

Priorities and practices
Any economy of any kind has priorities and practices which sustain and advance it. Those priorities and practices, taken together, describe the mission or purpose of that economy.

In the Kingdom economy, where the overarching objective in these last days is to bring God’s beauty, goodness, and truth to light within human culture and society, all our activities must be directed to this end. It will make our task more fruitful if we attack our responsibilities and duties in the divine economy according to some graspable categories.

There’s just so much to do, and so many ways that we might glorify God!

Every believer’s calling
Three primary categories of activities define our lives and callings within the divine economy in these last days.

First and pre-eminent among these is that which Jesus described in our text: Make disciples. All believers, as those taught by the Lord, are called to this Great Commission of making disciples. This duty and calling should define everything we do, in any area of our lives, whether we are engaged with other Christians or are interacting with our unbelieving neighbors and associates.

Every believer, who is by definition a disciple, needs to be encouraged and strengthened in that calling. And every nonbeliever, at the very least, deserves our every effort to show them the life of discipleship and to explain the way into it. Every follower of Christ engages with believers and nonbelievers; thus we must learn what making disciples requires of us with all the people to whom God sends us each day.

In our calling to make disciples, we are never off duty, and we never lack for opportunities to contribute something to someone. As we do, this contributes to the flow and advance of the divine economy. Each of us has been sent to a Personal Mission Field, in which Jesus intends to fill all things with Himself through our faithful and obedient lives (Eph. 1.15-23; 4.8).

Two questions
But we don’t want to take anything for granted in this calling. Since making disciples is what we must be about as our first priority in stewarding the Kingdom economy, we need to ask two important questions.

First, what is a disciple? And second, what’s involved in “making” disciples? Unless we understand these aspects of this, our Kingdom mission in these last days, we will have a difficult time fulfilling our stewardship.

A disciple, in the simplest of terms, is one who has made the Kingdom turn, who follows Jesus and learns from Him. Every disciple of Jesus is called to deny himself, take up his own unique calling to serve, and be busy about the task of ministering the grace and truth of God to others.

As followers of Christ we must first learn from Him (Matt. 11.28-30). We learn from Jesus by listening to Him in His Word, communing with Him in prayer, and gathering with other disciples to study and discuss His calling on our lives.

In addition to learning about Jesus, every disciple must begin to live as He did (Eph. 4.17-24), to show the love of God to one and all, go out of our way to serve others, and pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12,14; 2 Cor. 7.1).

Every disciple of Jesus will also be involved in encouraging others to consider Him. With our fellow Christians we will worship, pray, study, share, and take up works of service. With our unbelieving friends we will show the love of Jesus and share the stories of what Jesus has done for us, explaining the teaching of Scripture concerning His saving and redeeming work on our behalf.

A disciple of Jesus – a follower of the Lord – will thus evidence an abiding passion for His concerns, a determination to live after the pattern of His life, and a desire to serve others with His grace and truth.

Discipleship is a full-time calling. If we think that being a Christian means only that we have confessed our sins and are going to heaven when we die, then we grossly misunderstand the Lord’s calling for all who would follow Him. As we labor together at being disciples of Jesus Christ, we will find it the great joy and the noblest calling of our lives to work at helping others follow Him as well. Making disciples involves being together in the Lord, sharing what we’re learning, encouraging and edifying one another, bearing one another’s burdens, and making the most of every opportunity to demonstrate and teach what it means to follow Jesus.

In the Kingdom economy of these last days, we will get nowhere fast unless we embrace being and making disciples as the defining mission of our lives.

For reflection or discussion
1.  How would you explain to a non-believing friend or colleague what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?

2.  What is involved in the work of “making disciples”? Whose job is this, anyway?

3.  “Discipleship is a full-time calling.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

Next steps – Demonstration: How would you describe the state of your own discipleship at this time? How about your work of disciple-making? Talk with a church leader about these questions.

T. M. Moore

This week’s ReVision study is Part 10 of a 10-part series, “The Kingdom Economy.” You can download “These Last Days” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.