Therefore Go and Make Disciples
Jesus kept the disciples rather busy during his time of ministry. He had them baptizing believers, driving out demons, and feeding thousands of people, among many other things. Jesus’s last moment with the disciples was not any different.
Matthew 28:18-20 (niv)
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go 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 I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Go and make disciples. This is our assignment from Jesus. Not just the original disciples' task, but our task, too.
Now that we’ve established that our hope is in Jesus—his death, resurrection, and continual work in our lives—he makes it clear that we are supposed to share that hope with other people. This hope is so transformative that we were never meant to keep it to ourselves. Peter reiterates this idea later in the New Testament:
1 Peter 3:15 (niv)
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
Are you prepared to give a reason for your hope at any given moment?
We all have people in our lives that don’t know Jesus yet. They could be neighbors, coworkers, friends, even family members. And we are doing them a great disservice by not telling them what Jesus has done in our lives. You might say, “I don’t know how to make disciples!” but overthinking this concept is an excuse that many of us use as a cop out.
As mentioned above, making disciples is a clear commandment from Jesus. We often think that discipleship has to be this established relationship between two people where they meet every other week to drink coffee and talk about Jesus.
But it doesn’t always have to look that way. It could be simply sharing what Jesus has done in your life, and then inviting them to church. Or asking someone if they have a home church, and then inviting them to church if they don’t.
I stress inviting people to church because there are two times of year that people are most likely to accept an invitation: Christmas and Easter.
Easter at the Vineyard is going to look different this year. When we originally wrote this Reflection series, a pandemic wasn’t anywhere on our radar. But now we must adapt to the times ahead of us. Many churches have moved their services online. Communities have been advised to stay in the confines of their homes. Friends can only see each other at a six foot distance.
This year, there will be no packed churches nor Easter egg hunts. None of this has been easy, and we still have a long time to wait before things can remotely go back to the way they were.
While we may not be able to invite others to a physical gathering, that doesn’t negate our call to be the church. We must reach out to the lost, the hurt, and the broken in the ways we are allowed right now.
Check in on your neighbors. Ask what you can provide for them, whether it be groceries or a listening ear. Ask to pray for them, and then do it. Invite them to Vineyard’s on-demand services by sending them the link on Facebook. Let them know that there’s a church home for them when services are allowed back in the mall.
If we step up to the plate now, can you imagine what the turn out could be like when churches are reopened? I don’t mean this in a numbers-only mentality, but I mean the overall effect this could have on our community. People coming out of social distancing will be starved for human interaction and involvement in something outside of their homes. If we do our job now, then we could bring Madison County one step closer to knowing Jesus, even during a pandemic.
So at the end of our Easter Reflections, we leave you with this last question:
In a time where hope is so desperately needed, who will you share the message of Jesus with?
You can find all the reflections from this series at vineyardrichmond.com. Use them to prompt yourself to focus on your faith in a fresh way. If what you are learning is meaningful to you, click one of the share buttons at the top of these posts to share it with your friends. Let this be a time of personal reflection and careful examination of our own hearts and minds.