What We're All About

I'm cheating a little bit today.  This might be familiar if you've been reading since we started, or if you browse the oldest posts here.  I was feeling the need to re-post some of the first real post we had here.  To repeat and reintroduce the ideas of what M28 is all about.

It's about living the Great Commission.  In our everyday lives.


The Commission

There is a physicality and movement to the command “go.”  There is nothing sedentary about it.  The command is simple.  Matthew 28:18-20  (NASB)

"And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Go.  Make.  Baptize.  Teach.

Verbs.  Actions.  Jesus’ last words to his disciples, his students, were a call to action.  Some were still struggling with belief of what had happened after his death.  Yet he tells them to go out.  They have believed, in faith.  Now they were to teach, in faith.

I’ve heard it said that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.

Jesus’ students are told to go into the rest of the world and told to; wash, rinse, repeat.

Step 1:

Go, move, leave where you are to be somewhere else.  Next door, or around the world.

Step 2:

Make students.  People who will grasp things that are separate.  Like Sin and Grace.

Step 3:

Baptize them in the name of God:  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Step 4:

Teach them to obey, follow, adhere to, the commands Jesus gave.  Including, Go.

Step 5:

Repeat.  Because 11 people didn’t make disciples of all nations on the first go.

This isn’t meant to be a formula or code to follow.  I’m just breaking down the verbs of the Commission. 

Discipleship

Discipleship is not a 3 week class held on Sunday mornings for 30 to 45 minutes.  It’s not a book with a clever plan on “how to.”  As a disciple of Jesus we never stop learning or growing.  There is no graduation or achievement levels.  There is no standardized testing, with multiple choice and No. 2 pencils.

Discipleship is a way of living.  It is continual learning and growing in our relationship with Jesus, and others whether they share the same faith or not.

There are many books and teachings about how to disciple.  I won’t really recommend one over another partially because I haven’t read enough of them to offer opinions on the methods.

What I will tell you is this, discipleship is both simple and complex.  The way to do discipleship can be very simple and uncomplicated.  But there will be complex conversations and questions.  And the very nature of what is being taught is complicated.

Jesus was our example of how to teach disciples.  He pulled it off with out a single youtube video, powerpoint presentation, sporting arena, or even a megaphone.  He taught from his heart what he knew the Father wanted us to know.  It’s all laid out for us in scripture.

Making a disciple requires very few physical things.  A teacher, a student and a Bible.  It can be that simple.  There also needs to be a desire to learn and grow in both parties, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.  It’s the Spirit that makes the growth happen.  It’s the Spirit that opens up the complexities and mysteries of the Word to the hearts of both teacher and student.

Teach the Word.  Not traditions.  As one teaching, you must be as deep or deeper in the Word than the one being taught.  Dive in.  Breathe deep the fragrance of life that springs from it’s pages.  Teach others to be like Jesus by living the way Jesus lived.

You must first be a disciple if you want to make a disciple.

To be a disciple of Jesus is to take hold of the grace and promises of God and join them to what is separate from them, our sinful nature, our hearts, minds and souls.  This is only possible because of what Jesus accomplished for us through his death and resurrection.

Jesus didn’t wait for humanity to come to Heaven.  He left everything he was took on the pain and suffering of being human so he could be with us.  He wanted to be with us so he could teach us how to live, and love, and serve the Father.

He came to us.

And so those who follow him, must also go, make, baptize, teach…repeat.


grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

Rhythm: Part III - Cadence

Now, I'm not a music theory expert or anything, but I'm basing the concept of this post on this:

"a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution
[finality or pause]."

 A sense of repose or resolution.

We've talked about Mary, and the shepherds.  This final post, which has been deliberately delayed...is about the magi, or 'wise men.'  Mary's rhythm was her heartbeat.  The shepherds was the sound of all their feet rushing to see Jesus.  The magi, their rhythm is a little thing called: the long haul.

Now, we don't know exactly when they arrived to see Mary and the child.  According to Luke, they were in a house.  So, that doesn't mesh up with the traditional scene of the family with the shepherds in a cave as the wise men approach.

Probably cause they didn't arrive that first night.

From some of the other parts of the story, when Herod wants every male child under two, and when the magi tell him when the star appeared, we can make some assumptions, but that is all they are.  Jesus could have been anywhere up to about 2 years old.

These guys didn't have the little run that the shepherds had.  They had to plan a journey.  That means time, money, food, support staff to set up camp cook the food and all that stuff.  It wasn't just a whim weekend road trip.

Neither is it for us today.  The journey for us to meet Jesus, and the one that continues on after.  It's a long road, full of rough and bumpy spots, beautiful places, and lots of other people.

This is a road, a path, a journey that does not end while we are alive.  Nor after for that matter.  I don't believe we ever get to that point in life where we can firmly say we have "arrived" at the best place with Jesus.  There is always something more to learn.  A new sight to see, a new portion of that road to discover.

The magi saw something that caught their attention.  The planned, studied, and then set out.  We don't know how far the traveled.  I think they came from a part of the Babylonian empire that the Jews would have lived during the exile, so that they would have had access to knowledge of the prophecies.

But where someone starts out from on their journey is not the important thing.  What matters is what someone does after they set out on the journey.  The cadence is each foot fall.  Each wheel, hoof, sneaker, boot, spring, leap, stumble, sprint, tear, laugh, and breath of every single person on the journey together.  We might be in different places, but we are all going the same direction.

Toward Jesus.

When you're done reading this, take a moment and close your eyes.  Picture a road.  Maybe it's green and lush and alive.  Maybe it's dusty and worn.  Perhaps rocky and cold.  Think of all the beauty and perils that each road will provide.  The temperatures.  The insects or animals.  Sounds.  The sun or wind on your face.  Weather.  Imagine where that road will go.  What is a head.

Then, think about this.  That you might be walking alone.  Or feel like you are.  But you are not.  And you are not the first person to tread that path.  Someone has gone before you.  And Jesus is right there with you as you go.

I'll leave you with this poem from J.R.R. Tolkien:

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.”

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse