BEGIN AGAIN
THE GREAT COMMISSION
"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
—Matthew 28:19-20
A few weeks earlier, all 11 of the guys Jesus was saying this to had run for their lives when He was arrested. They all deserted Him (Matt. 26:56). Peter would even deny knowing Him.
Now He's standing in front of them, very much alive, resurrected, and Matthew tells us something I love: when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some of them doubted (Matt. 28:17). That's the team: worshipers and doubters, and all who left Him high and dry at His arrest.
Think about that. The people Jesus was trusting to join Him in His ongoing mission had all recently failed Him. And Jesus chose those 11 to kick off His post-resurrection mission to make disciples of all the nations. No buildings. No budgets. No mission team strategy retreat at a state park resort. Just 11 followers who had run away when things got difficult.
Back to our DOMINO EFFECT from last week. That mountain conversation with Jesus, His challenging directive to go and make disciples, rippled out across two thousand years and every continent, and it landed right here in Delaware, Ohio, in the chairs you're sitting in. Somebody discipled somebody who discipled somebody who eventually reached and discipled you. You are part of the fruit of 11 people who said, yes, we will go and make disciples.
That’s why many of us are here today. We want in on that. We want our lives to count as disciple makers. We want to be the person who helps a friend, classmate, or coworker find their way to Jesus. None of us in this room is hoping to leave zero footprints in the Great Commission!
If we're honest, making disciples isn't something most of us feel like we excel at. We don't have to look very far back to see ourselves in those 11. We've followed Jesus. We've doubted Him. And we've failed Him too. If someone followed us around for a week to learn how to follow Jesus, we would want to pick the week very carefully.
We want to make disciples.
We're just not always sure we're the kind of disciple worth copying.
And that's where Kristin is going to help us.
Read her testimony here: STRIPPED, SANDED, AND RESTORED
NOBODY REFINISHES JUNK
Kristin said something in there I don't want you to miss. The deconstruction is her favorite part.
Think about what that part actually involves. Chemical stripper that smells like it could take your eyebrows off. Scrapers. Steel wool. Rubber gloves. A whole Saturday over a dresser in the garage while everybody else is at the golf course or the pool. But all that stripping and scraping proves you haven't given up on it. You only scrape what you plan to keep and restore to its original beauty.
Refinishing is not a pleasant process. But the outcome! That’s what makes it worth it.
Listen to how the writer of Hebrews reframes this refinishing process: discipleship through discipline.
"And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, 'My child, don't make light of the Lord's discipline, and don't give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.' As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn't we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God's discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it's painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way."
—Hebrews 12:5-11
The Bible doesn't gaslight us about the discipleship of God’s refining fire. It's painful! And it’s evidence of belonging to the Father.
Malachi paints the same picture with fire instead of chemicals: "He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross (impurities, slag)." —Malachi 3:3
“Sit.” God doesn't light the fire under you and wander off to get a coffee. He stays by the fire, working and refining you, because He's restoring you to what He made you to be.
Removal, scrapping, and sanding aren't God giving up on you. It's God investing in you.
BEGIN AGAIN
As you’ll discover in our Become Groups and Life Groups this week, Peter had multiple opportunities to Begin Again. But what I want to bring to the front of our minds this morning is that Peter was making disciples and being discipled at the same time. He was leading others to Christ while still being sanded down himself.
Let’s jump back to the beginning where I started this morning. These eleven disciples, worshipers, recent failures and doubters, standing there hearing Jesus tell them, "Go and make disciples of all the nations". Jesus didn't wait until they were finished to send them. And He didn't stop refinishing them once they went.
That's our challenge for this series. Some of us have been waiting to get our own act together before we pour into anyone else. Others have been so busy serving and leading that we haven't let God put the sandpaper to our own grain in years.
Beginning again isn't about shame, and it isn't about trying harder.
It’s about making disciples while being a disciple at the same time.
Peter never got to separate the two, as you’ll discover in our groups this week.
Neither do we.
Remember the week we'd pick very carefully if someone followed us around? Maybe the week to pick isn't the one where your finish looks perfect. Maybe it's the one where somebody watches you blow it, own it, and begin again.
That's a disciple worth copying.
Link to Bible Study Leaders Guide for this Teaching.
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