by George
Davis
_________________________
As the time of Christ's departure from earth grew near, He said to His followers who had been with Him from the beginning, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, which I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20 WEB)
The commission to go and "make disciples" (literally, make learners) of all nations is based upon the power and authority given to the risen Christ by the Father. In Ephesians 1:18 through 23 we see that the "greatness of God's power toward us, operates according to [or in accordance with] the power that He worked in Christ." That power and authority had a twofold manifestation. One: He raised Christ from the dead. Two: He made Christ "to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come."
Because of Christ's
obedience and exaltation, God "put all things in subjection under His feet, and
gave Him to be HEAD OVER ALL THINGS for the assembly, which is His body." To the
end, that God might fill all things with His Son, who fills all in all. (See
Ephesians 1:18-23, 4:10). In the
All authority has been given
to Christ that He might be head over all things. The concept of delegated
authority does not apply here. Authority is not given to make us head of
anything but power is given to enforce His headship and authority over all
things. God's Spirit is ceaselessly working toward this end. So when Christ
said, "all authority has be given unto Me. . .go and
make disciples, it is clear that it was with this end in view. That He might be
all and in all--Lord, teacher and King, and that all things in our lives and
ultimately in the world be brought to a kneeling position at His feet. He did
not send anyone out to rule in His absence. This will become crystal clear as we
go along. The perverted human tendency to take these scriptures and read into
them the idea that Christ gave authority to individuals so they could rule over
others in His name is antichrist and dangerous.
Historically, we are led to
believe that the apostles went forth and set up schools of discipleship, over
which they presided like village schoolmasters. Timothy is said to be Paul's
disciple, Polycarp is said to be John's disciple and
so forth. To the honest historian this is clearly a revisionist view. As
legitimate as this reasoning may seem, it is clear from the teachings of Christ
and the apostles that the discipleship Christ spoke of is something very
different. Failure to understand this discipleship has led to great harm and
disorder among God's people and has resulted in a general climate that is
antagonistic to the nature and outworking of the new Covenant. Before we can
understand true discipleship, we must first understand the limitations and
demands that the New Covenant places upon it.
When Jesus cried from the
cross "It is finished," certain things were done away with and a new and
different covenant, constituted upon better promises was established. An
understanding of the differences between the old and the new covenants is
imperative if we are to make disciples of Christ. The Old Covenant was
facilitated and maintained by intermediary anointed prophets and special
priests. In the New Covenant, the anointing of priests is poured out upon all
believers. Under the old covenant the prophetic anointing was poured out on a
select few prophets. Under the New Covenant the prophetic anointing is poured
out upon sons and daughters (see Acts 2). Under the Old Covenant there were many
intermediary priests. Under the new covenant there is only "one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1Timothy 2:5). He is "The mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises" (Hebrews 8:6).
Christ is one mediator among many. He is the mediator the only one. In
the new covenant all believers are priests and can come boldly into the presence
of the Lord, in the Holy of Holies. We enter by a new and living way consecrated
by the blood of the holy Lamb of God. (Hebrews 4:16,
10:19-20). "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father" (Ephesians 2:18). Under the Old Testament the schoolmaster was the law,
which was taught in a scholastic manner. Under the new covenant, God himself is
the Teacher. The author of the book of Hebrews makes this point by quoting the
following passage from Jeremiah.
"For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of
Who does the teaching in
this new covenant? The One who established the Covenant. It is God who writes on
the minds and hearts of men. The promise to the faithful is that their children
will be taught by the Lord (See Isaiah 54:13).
Regarding this teaching, God
said, "I will. . .They will not. . ." Man is not the teacher under
the New Covenant. He is merely a herald declaring that school is in session,
pointing to Him who leads believers into all truth. The work of God is greatly
hampered where it is considered necessary for man to continually say "know the
Lord." If we were fully living out what Christ died to purchase on our behalf,
such language would be about as silly as a stranger introducing my wife to me at
a dinner party. I already know her! Our hearts are joined. I know her innermost
thoughts and aspirations. For many years we have wept and laughed together.
Likewise God desires that all His children should know Him in an even
deeper and more lasting bond. This intimate knowledge of God cannot be revealed
by flesh and blood for only the Spirit of God knows the things of God. Only the
finger of God can write them upon the hearts and minds of men. If God's children
fully understood and embraced this truth, much superfluous teaching and
sermonizing would be dispensed with. The desperate need of this hour for all
God's children is that we would be strengthened with might by God's Spirit in
the inner man, so that we could comprehend and know what no man can teach.
To the end that we could know Christ's love, which surpasses
knowledge and be filled with all the fullness of God (see Ephesians 3:16-19).
A failure to understand this
basic New Testament principle has led to great intermediary interference by
those who mistakenly believe that their continual teaching (which more resembles
nagging) is necessary for others to truly know the Lord. Certainly we should
preach the gospel at every opportunity. Some teaching is required also, but only
enough to introduce the new believer to the real Teacher. For only one Teacher
is equipped to lead them into all truth, and that teacher is Christ. As Jesus
taught His disciples about the evils of exalting themselves through honorific
titles, He offered the following reason for not calling one another Rabbi or
Teacher. "But don't you be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your Teacher, the Christ,
and all of you are brothers [siblings]" (Matthew 23:8).
Siblings are best taught by
their parents. When they teach each other it usually leads to mischievousness,
bullying and insobriety (a prideful view of ones self).
This very problem pervades
contemporary Christianity, because the system has ignored the teachings of Jesus
on this matter and has reconstructed the old intermediary system and special
priest class that raises one man ito the status of
the ever-present and all-knowing mediator and dispenser of truth. To further
facilitate this disorder, forbidden honorific titles are lavishly and freely
bestowed upon ambitious men. And as usual, the victim of this megalomania is
brotherhood. How sad! This disorder effectively shuts up the kingdom of heaven
against men, in that it neither enables nor allows anyone to go in. Rather than
allowing the sheep of God's fold to "go in and out and find pasture" (John
10:9), as the Good Shepherd does, these elevated men pen Christ's sheep up under
their own control and dole out stale crusts of bread, calling it a banquet.
Real discipleship consists
of one beggar showing another beggar where to find food, not setting up soup
lines over which power-hungry men
bogart the ladle.
George Warnock wrote,
"The purpose of all ministry
that proceeds from the exalted Christ is to so minister the Truth that the
sheep of God's pasture might come into direct, unhindered personal union with
the Lord. Ministers of the New Covenant are not to be "mediators" as Moses
was, or as Jesus is. They are rather "servants" (Greek, "doulos"
or "bond-slave") Slaves have no right to call anything their own... not even the
ministry that God gave them. . .It is simply a trust that has been given into
their care. They make disciples for Christ, but they must have none of their
own." (Feed My Sheep - Emphasis mine)
How do you make disciples
and yet have none of your own?
We are not commissioned to
go and make our own disciples that are taught by us continuously, but to make
disciples that are taught directly, moment by moment, by the living Christ. Paul
warned the Ephesian elders that after his departure
there would be a falling away or apostasy which would result in men rising from
among the brethren and teaching perverse things in order to draw away disciples
after them (See Act 20:30). These vicious wolves, as Paul called them, would
come in the spirit of him who first thought to exalt his throne above the mount
of the congregation (Isaiah 14:13), who, in leading away a third of the hosts of
heaven, was the first to make disciples to himself. This is the mystery of
iniquity, in which man follows the spirit and example of Satan and "exalts
himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as
God in the
Our job is to do only what
is required to bring disciples into living union with Christ and encourage His
preeminence in their lives, not to supplant the Holy Spirit by leading them away
after us. We are not to be preeminent or sit as God in the
What is True Discipleship?
Now let's take a brief look
a discipleship as Jesus taught it.
In John chapter fifteen
verses five through eight, Jesus taught his followers what true discipleship is.
"I am the vine. You are
the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for
apart from me you can do nothing. If a man doesn't remain in me, he is
thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into
the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you,
you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. In this is my
Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so will you be my
disciples."
Discipleship is much, much
more than simply being taught about Christ. True discipleship is being taught
directly by the life of Christ within us. The Father is glorified only in the
produce that He plants and cultivates. As we abide in Christ, the Vine, and He
abides in us, the life of the vine flows through us, we are
discipled, transformed and made fruitful unto God. In this is the Father
glorified.
As we abide in Christ and He
in us, only then are we the Disciples of Christ. Only then are we living the New
Testament life. Such were the disciples that the early apostles went forth to
make. Jesus makes it very clear that in this way we will be His disciples. "So
(in this way) will you be my disciples."
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