Make Disciples

Heavenly Father, thank you that you speak to us through the Bible. But we need the help of your Spirit if our minds and our lives are to be changed by what we hear. So please give us that help now. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“Make Disciples” is my title and we’re going to be looking at 1 Thessalonians 1.1-10, which is on page 1186. Please have that open in front of you.

A certain manufacturer of razors promises “the best a man can get”. But there’s more to life than a close shave. Jesus said:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

That’s in John 10.10. And that’s why this evening series is called “Living Life to the Full”. We’re aiming to give an overview of the fullness of life that Jesus gives.

So far we’ve seen that the key to it is totally radical. It is not to live for yourself at all, but to live for Christ. We can only do that by grace through faith – forgiven for our sin through the cross of Christ and empowered to change by the Holy Spirit. And how then do we live for Christ? We believe God’s Word – which is this book. And believing means not just intellectual assent, but putting it into practice.

So if we live for Christ and believe and obey God’s Word, what do we find ourselves doing with our lives? That’s what the rest of this series will be unpacking. We’ll make disciples, use God’s gifts, get right our approach to sex and relationships, love our neighbour and fight the good fight of the faith. And we’ll do all that with suffering, yes; but above all with joy.

Making disciples is our focus this evening. The risen Jesus said to the disciples that he had made:

…18All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and 20teaching 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)

That’s Matthew 28.18-20, and three things are clear. First, we make disciples only by the authority of Jesus and in the power of his Spirit with us. Without him, it won’t happen. Secondly, we’re called to make disciples everywhere and for all time until the day Jesus returns. And thirdly, we’re called not just to make converts who have professed faith, but mature disciples who have learned to believe and obey all the commands of Jesus.

So what does making disciples look like? Of course it’ll work out differently for each of us. It’s not something we do in isolation – the whole church works together to make disciples where God has put us. We all have different roles to play in the process.

But we do need a picture in our heads of what that process looks like. And what we have in 1 Thessalonians 1 is like a case study. Here is a vivid, powerful and inspiring example of what making disciples is all about.

The situation in Thessalonica is one of joyful faith standing firm under trial. Hard times did not quench the joy of the Thessalonian Christians. In fact their joy was born in suffering. Verse 6:

in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

And there immediately is a good test of the reality and the depth of discipleship, not least our own. Is ours fair weather faith, crowd following faith? Or is it faith founded on the rock of Christ, unshakeable, immoveable and joyful, however atrocious the spiritual climate?

This letter from Paul is written only a relatively short time after the church began, as a result of Paul’s pioneering preaching of the gospel. It’ll help to take a look at the background and to see what happened maybe a year or two before this letter was written.

Keep your finger in 1 Thessalonians, and turn back for a moment to Acts 17. That’s on p1113. Paul has just come from Philippi where he’s been preaching, accompanied by Silas and a newly recruited member of the team, Timothy. In Philippi they’d been flogged and imprisoned before being allowed to go free. From there they made their way to Thessalonica, which was the provincial capital of Macedonia. Acts 17:2 takes up the story:

2As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ," he said. 4Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. 5But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the market-place, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9Then they put Jason and the others on bail and let them go. 10As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea.

What happened next? Paul immediately started making disciples in Berea. The Jews who’d attacked him in Thessalonica heard about it. They travelled over to Berea to stir things up there. Paul moved on again, leaving Silas and Timothy behind.

Paul made his way to Athens. While he was there, he instructed Silas and Timothy to go back to Thessalonica to see how the young church was doing under conditions of great pressure. Paul went on from Athens south to Corinth, where he stayed for a couple of years, planting a church there.

Silas and Timothy met up with Paul again in Corinth and reported to him. In response to what he heard from them, Paul wrote a letter to the Thessalonians to encourage and strengthen them in their discipleship. And we have that letter here. So turn back to 1 Thessalonians – page 1186. This is how it starts:

Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.(v1)

So this comes from the front line of Paul’s disciple-making activity. It’s an amazing window right into the minds and hearts of those engaged in spreading the gospel in those early years. The rioting in Thessalonica and the conversion of Jason and the others is fresh in Paul’s mind. In this letter there’s a glorious sense of excitement about what God is doing. There is also here a tender anxiety for the Thessalonians in case they lose sight of what they learned from Paul.

He’s all too aware of the pitfalls that they’re facing as Satan tries to destroy the work of the Holy Spirit in them. Timothy and Silas have just alerted Paul to some potential problems. Basically the news is very good. The church is faithful, and growing. Paul wants to make sure they stick with it. That’s why he is writing.

His letter is very positive, and it’s full of encouragement. But that’s not so they’ll be able to pat themselves on the back. Paul is arming them for the struggles that lie ahead. So here’s Paul’s line of encouragement for new disciples in 3.4:

In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted.

There’s no pessimism there. Just realism. So he goes on:

And it turned out that way, as you well know.

The greatest struggle of those new Christians would be the battle with discouragement in the face of opposition and suffering.

It’s important for us to realise that persecution is nearly always easy to avoid. All you have to do is one of two things. Either keep quiet about Jesus and the gospel. Or compromise the gospel in order to remove its offence. Shut up or change your tune, and you can lead a quiet life. And the progress of the gospel will stop dead. No disciples will be made. But stand firm in Christ and amazing things will happen.

Chapter 1 speaks of three keys to disciple-making. First, disciples are made by the power of the gospel. Secondly, disciples are made by the power of faith. And thirdly, disciples are made by the power of example. Paul talks about all three of them as part of his strategy of encouragement.

First, DISCIPLES ARE MADE BY THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

Look at verse 4 and the first part of verse 5:

4For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

And then on to the second half of verse 6:

in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

The whole process of making disciples is compressed into those verses. This is the way God is gathering his people from every corner of the earth, and in every age. First century Macedonia, or Tyneside in 2010 - the process never changes.

It is God himself who takes the initiative. The Father loves his people and determines to save them from condemnation. He sends his Son to die in their place and opens the way for them to be forgiven. He raises Jesus from the dead and sets him on the throne of heaven.

He explains what he is doing to his spokesmen the apostles – not least Paul, the apostle to the gentiles. He pours his Holy Spirit into their lives, transforming them from within, empowering them to live for him whatever the cost, convincing them in every fibre of their being that the Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of the world. They are God’s primary agents for making disciples of all nations. They define the gospel for all time, on God’s authority.

As the apostles proclaim the good news of Jesus, God pours out his Spirit on their hearers also, and transforms them from within, so that they believe that Jesus is indeed their Saviour and their King. And they give up their hard-hearted rebellion against God’s rule, and find forgiveness and peace and an unquenchable joy.

And then they in turn begin to tell the gospel to others – they are God’s secondary agents for making disciples, teaching what it is to live out the gospel defined once for all by the apostles.

And so more and more disciples of Jesus are made throughout the world and down the centuries. The gospel is communicated (verse 5):

with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

If our disciple-making is to be life-giving and effective, that is what it must have. God-given words, God-given power, and God-given conviction in our hearts. We have to talk to people about Jesus. And we have to have spiritual power.

Disciple-making without the work of the Holy Spirit is a contradiction in terms. That work must take place within the disciple-maker. But then it must also take place within the new disciple. Verse 6:

in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

That’s why Paul is so sure that God has set his love upon those Thessalonians and saved them. The gospel was explained to them with truth, and power, and conviction. And they believed, and received Jesus, and rejoiced. That is the power of the gospel that makes disciples. It is all the work of the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, DISCIPLES ARE MADE BY THE POWER OF FAITH

Verse 3:

We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

God-given faith in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus inevitably brings in its wake both love for others, and hope for the future. You cannot truly have one without the other two. Hopeless faith is no faith. Loveless faith is dead faith. But loving, hope-filled faith is powerful. It inspires us to consistent hard work for the Kingdom of God. It makes disciples.

So in this letter Paul’s love for the Thessalonians, and their own love, shines out. 2:8:

We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

3:12:

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

Do you love those you seek to influence? There is no way that God will use us to make disciples of others if we don’t first love them. Without that love, we’re going nowhere. Who are you wanting to influence for Christ? Let’s be praying that the Lord will make our love increase and overflow.

And what is the nature of the hope which accompanies faith and love? It is a patient longing for the promised return of Jesus. The Thessalonians turned to God (verse 10):

to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

This is a letter saturated with faith in what Christ has done in the past, love for others in the present, and hope in the Second Coming of Christ.

Faith, hope, and love are the armour worn by the effective, disciple-making soldier of Christ. 5:8:

since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

When those three are present in us, then our lives will have an impact for Christ. God will use us to make disciples.

Paul and his team were a living example of that. 2:9:

Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.

And the result? 1.9:

… you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

Disciples are made by the power of faith – and the love and hope that flow from it. And what Paul says there also illustrates the third thing that is so clear from our passage. So:

Thirdly, DISCIPLES ARE MADE BY THE POWER OF EXAMPLE

The gospel, through faith, empowers us to become imitators. Disciples are imitators.

First, we become imitators of Jesus. His self-giving love becomes the pattern for our lives.

Secondly, we become imitators of the apostles. The message they preached becomes our message. Their dedication to the gospel impresses itself on our lives. Verse 5:

You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord...

Thirdly, we become imitators of other believers who are more mature than us, who have been in the battle longer than us. 2:14:

For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus…

So the lives of other Christians, and of the apostles, and of Jesus himself make their impression on the new disciple. Their example becomes compelling to us.

And then, in turn, by the grace of God, we can become an example to others. Verse 7:

And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

And the tidal wave of the gospel spreads further and further. That’s how it’s always been. That’s how it is today. I’m so grateful for the many faithful Christians around me from whom I have drawn inspiration and encouragement over the years. So the challenge to us is that we should be living for Christ in such a way that our lives make a deep impression on those who are not yet believers, or who are younger than us in the faith. That kind of disciple-making life is a life lived to the full.

The gospel, communicated with truth and power and conviction, makes disciples. A faith that works, allied to love that labours and hope that endures, is powerful and makes disciples. The example of those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus is powerful, and make disciples.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we praise you that through the gospel, and through challenging examples of living faith in the lives of your people, you are making disciples. Please make us into mature disciples, full of faith, who will keep obeying you and rejoicing in you in spite of whatever suffering comes our way. Deepen our love for those around us. Enable us to tell others about you. Empower us to be examples of what it means to live for you. Please, Lord, use us to make disciples. For your glory. Amen.