Can you picture the sinking of the Titanic? There were 700 people in lifeboats and 1,500 in the water, screaming for help. Now, imagine there was a ship nearby immediately sent to save the survivors in the water. But the crew of the rescue ship is untrained and asleep. The captain refuses to wake the crew to do their duty. He does the best he can by himself, which is not very much at all. Thus the ship slowly drifts among the survivors offering almost no help. After screaming and begging for help, survivors in the water go unconscious from the freezing cold temperatures. They eventually die from hypothermia while their rescuers sleep, and very few are saved.
This is a sad picture of what the church in America is like today.
Everyone around us is dying but the vast majority of us are not lifting a finger to save them. I believe this is because we are not being equipped for ministry nor being taught and expected to actually obey Jesus's commands (including the command to make disciples).
I know this may sound wrong to our modern ears, but please hear me out.
In the Great Commission, Jesus tells his disciples “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.” - Matthew 28:18-20
There are two important things that we often miss when we talk about this:
1) Jesus is not commanding them to simply evangelize and make converts. He's commanding them to make disciples, teaching them "to obey everything I have commanded you." Sadly, the general culture of the Church in the US is that we don't know Jesus's commands and we are not trying to grow in obeying them, nor are we trying intentionally to teach others to obey them. In fact, we seem to lean the other way, saying we have no need to grow in obedience, because we are saved by grace and not by works. Amen we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works, but that does not nullify the many scriptures that encourage us to grow in obedience to Jesus. Jesus himself says "If you love me, you'll obey my commands." (John 14:15) "Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?" (Luke 6:46) "everyone who hears my words and does not do them is like a fool who built their house on sand ... and it collapsed" (Matt. 7:26,27).
Not training disciples to obey everything Jesus commanded does have consequences. Sadly, we see this in the results we are getting: mostly lukewarm believers who look mostly like the world and not much like Jesus. No wonder the United States and Europe largely reject Christianity; we don't actually follow the God we tell them that they should follow.
2) The second very important thing we miss: all disciples are called to obey his commands and his last command was to make disciples. Therefore, all disciples are commanded to go and make more disciples, teaching them to obey and make more disciples. It's recursive. We should multiply. And in this way the whole world will have the opportunity to know Jesus. BUT, currently, billions of people have never even heard of Jesus.
Jesus did not command us to attend a weekly worship service and forget all about what we learned 30 minutes later, and then try to be "a good person" during the week. Jesus did not command us to get a good education, or get a good job, or buy a house, or take amazing vacations, or to feel fulfilled in our career. No, Jesus commanded us to trust him, to seek first his Kingdom, to give up all we have, to store our treasure in heaven, to lay down our lives and take up our cross, to love our neighbors, love our enemies, love God most of all, and go make disciples.
Our lives are very short. Therefore, he tells us, it's actually wise to give up our lives in service to him--that's how we'll find true life.
"He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. . . . And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. . . . So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us."
2 Corinthians 5:15,18,20
