First of all, understand that “To be a disciple-maker” is a UBFism. It is a phrase that means “live as a UBF loyalist every week and reproduce that obedience in someone else, preferably a college student.” The answer to this question, is no, I do not believe I am called to be a UBF disciple-maker.

However, I don’t believe the person asking this question meant it as a UBFism. No one else on the planet defines “be a disciple-maker” like UBF does. I believe that the person asked sincerely, and honestly based on Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples of all nations” as in Matthew 28:16-20:

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Here is my answer: No.

I do not believe I am called to be a disciple-maker as my personal task. In fact, I contend that no person ever was given the task of making disciples. What? Someone will say, what about the verse you just quoted? Bear with me and I will explain.

To whom was the command “to go” given? It was given to the Eleven. It was given collectively and publicly; it was given at least once when only the Eleven were gathered; it was given other times when other disciples besides the Eleven would have heard the command. At least one time when Jesus gave this command, it was on the mountain, according to Matthew.

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. — Matthew 28:16-17

And “make disciples” is not mentioned by Luke. But even Luke’s words in Luke 24:46-49 were given to “the Eleven and those with them, assembled together.” (Luke 24:33-34).

Therefore, I contend that Jesus’ command to make disciples is primarily a community command, not to be understood as a personal mission, but as a community mission. I believe God will give various gifts to individuals and then wants to use those individual believers for a collective purpose, in addition to their personal purpose from God:

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.  29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?  30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret?  31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way. — 1 Corinthians 12:27-31

What is our witness to the world as a community of believers? I believe that one person is not called to the task of making disciples. That is something we are directed to do together. The old saying fits well then: “It takes a village to raise a child.” I contend that “It takes the body of Christ to raise a disciple.”

Clearly, God gave the “go and make disciples” command corporately, so that the whole body of Christ would be a witness. God uses the community of believers to make disciples, as we see all throughout the book of Acts.

No amount of human effort or ambition will ever make even one disciple of Jesus. Only by the Holy Spirit will anyone believe (1 Corinthians 12:3). I believe this community witness to the gospel is something sorely lacking in Western Christianity. And it is something wonderful that I believe Korean Christianity can contribute to the body of Christ.

Is there, then, any personal calling related to making disciples? Yes! The best example of the personal direction Jesus gave is found in John 21: “Feed my sheep.” This command was indeed given personally to Peter, and in a private session.  Only some of the Eleven were present when Jesus said “Feed my sheep”. John records that in fact only seven were on that boat fishing that day (John 21:1-3). And it is likely, by observing the sequence of events in John 21, that only Peter heard all of Jesus’ words, though some others must have heard something of what Jesus said.

“Feed my sheep” was in direct relation to Jesus’ words earlier to Peter in regard to denying Jesus three times. This breakfast on the beach after a night of failure was an intensely personal moment between Jesus and Peter.

The command “Feed my sheep” is not equivalent to “go and make disciples”. The commands are different, they were given in different contexts, and they were given to different audiences for different reasons. Personally, Jesus’ direction is to take care of His lambs. Each believer does have a task of showing love to fellow human beings. When I understand “feed my sheep” without the UBFism “feed my sheep”, I see things quite clearly.

The command “go and make disciples” then refers to the work of the Holy Spirit among the body of indwelt believers who are feeding Jesus’ sheep.

The command “feed my sheep” then refers to the personal direction each believer has, that is to obey Jesus’ new command to “love one another”.

We learn to love; God makes disciples among us. There is but one Overseer and Shepherd of our souls (1 Peter 2:25).

I have gotten to know four ordained pastors lately, all of whom show evidence of being indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and all of whom have demonstrated a vibrant faith and love for God’s word and for people. All of them approach “making disciples” as the Lord’s work, something our Lord does. By watching them, I have learned that we are mere facilitators of our Lord’s work. We are important partners with Christ in this evangelistic work, but we are not called to individually “make disciples”.

What happens if we do enforce an individual disciple-making effort? The logical conclusion is that we then make disciples of ourselves, disciples of our program, disciples of our church or disciples of our philosophy. No matter how noble our starting intentions are, an individual view of disciple-making inevitably leads to propagating an ideology that we desperately want others to conform to. And we end up like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time: we necessarily redefine our neighbor as “God’s people” or only as “those nearby”. We end up loving ourselves.

Thoughts, concerns, questions?

Today I share a brief review of a paper entitled “THE HOLY SPIRIT” by J.C. Ryle (source). J.C. Ryle lived from 1816-1900 and wrote with elegant simplicty. In his own words:

“My chief desire in all my writings, is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him beautiful and glorious in the eyes of men; and to promote the increase of repentance, faith, and holiness upon earth.” (source)

In his introduction, he asks heart-piercing questions:

Now I ask every reader of this paper a plain question Do you know what you mean by these words, so often repeated—the Holy Spirit? What place has God the Holy Spirit in your religion? What do you know of His office, His work, His indwelling, His fellowship, and His power? This is the subject to which I ask your attention this day. I want you to consider seriously what you know about the work of God the Holy Spirit.

Then he presents five undeniable marks of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit:

(1) Where the Holy Spirit is, there will always be deep conviction of sin, and true repentance for it.

(2) Where the Holy Spirit is, there will always be lively faith in Jesus Christ, as the only Savior.

(3) Where the Holy Spirit is, there will always be holiness of life and conversation.

(4) Where the Holy Spirit is, there will always be the habit of earnest private prayer.

(5) Finally, where the Holy Spirit is, there will always be love and reverence for God’s Word.

He describes the leading and work of the Spirit with grace and truth, and a mind-stimulating appeal:

“I grant freely that the leadings of the Spirit, in some minute details, are not always uniform. The paths over which He conducts souls, are not always precisely one and the same. The experience that true Christians pass through in their beginnings is often somewhat various. This only I maintain—that the main road into which the Spirit leads people, and the final results which He at length produces, are always alike. In all true Christians, the five great marks I have already mentioned will always be found.

I grant freely that the degree and depth of the work of the Spirit in the heart may vary exceedingly. There is weak faith and strong faith—weak love and strong love—a bright hope and a dim hope—a feeble obedience to Christ’s will, and a close following of the Lord. This only I maintain—that the main outlines of religious character in all who have the Spirit, perfectly correspond. Life is life, whether strong or feeble. The infant in arms, though weak and dependent, is as real and true a representative of the great family of Adam as the strongest man alive.

Wherever you see these five great marks, you see a true Christian. Let that never be forgotten. I leave it to others to excommunicate and unchurch all who do not belong to their own denomination, and do not worship after their own particular fashion. I have no sympathy with such narrow-mindedness. Show me a man who repents, and believes in Christ crucified—who lives a holy life, and delights in his Bible and prayer—and I desire to regard him as a brother. I see in him a member of the universal Christian Church, out of which there is no salvation. I behold in him an heir of that crown of glory which is incorruptible and fades not away. If he has the Holy Spirit, he has Christ. If he has Christ, he has God. If he has God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, all things are his. Who am I that I should turn my back on him, because we cannot see all things eye to eye?” (source)

His conclusion is quite relevant to today:

“Finally, pray daily for a great outpouring of the Spirit on the Church and on the world. This is the grand need of the day—it is the thing that we need far more than money, machinery, and men. The “company of preachers” in Christendom is far greater than it was in the days of Paul; but the actual spiritual work done in the earth, in proportion to the means used, is undoubtedly far less. We need more of the presence of the Holy Spirit—more in the pulpit, and more in the congregation—more in the pastoral visit, and more in the school. Where He is, there will be life, health, growth, and fruitfulness. Where He is not—all will be dead, tame, formal, sleepy, and cold. Then let everyone who desires to see an increase of pure and undefiled religion, pray daily for more of the presence of the Holy Spirit in every branch of the visible Church of Christ.”

I had such a hard time in the past with studying the Holy Spirit because 1) pneumatology was not highly regarded by my church (and even despised) and 2) we always asked the wrong question. We normally asked “What is the Holy Spirit?”. So we didn’t really get the correct answers. We should have been asking “Who is the Holy Spirit?” and “What does the Holy Spirit do?”.

The pre-reading for this lesson was John 14:15-21 and John 16:1-15, as well as chapter 1 of “The Mystery of the Holy Spirit” by R. C. Sproul. The discussions centered around the names for the Holy Spirit, the nature of the Person of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit.

The memory verse for this lesson is John 15:26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”

This lesson 4 supplemented my own study of the Holy Spirit, which has been ongoing for several months now. I am convinced that a church body must introduce Jesus to people who don’t know him. And just as important, if not more, a church body must introduce the Holy Spirit to people who know Jesus. Yes, the Spirit is present the moment we believe, “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13-14) Yet it is possible to live many years as a Christian without meeting the Spirit face to face. We can keep the Spirit in the background of our lives, resisting (Acts 7:51), quenching (1 Thessalonians 5:19), grieving (Ephesians 4:30), insulting (Hebrews 10:29) or even blaspheming (Matthew 12:31-32) the Holy Spirit.

Christians can live (but don’t have to) like wounded soldiers, dwelling in the sacrifice and suffering of our Christian life, missing the greater joy, power, peace, purpose and hope our Lord wants us to have. When we hinder the work of the Spirit in our Christian lives, we are like Apollos in Acts 18 who was well-versed in Scripture, but only knew John’s baptism. It is clear to me that Priscilla and Aquila introduced Apollos to the Holy Spirit (or at least he met the Holy Spirit through their help).

Acts 18:24-28 “24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. 27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.”

When a Christian realizes the Holy Spirit is present, waiting to do amazing work, he or she is able to go beyond “speaking boldly in the synagogue”. A person who submits to the Holy Spirit is able to powerfully understand the Scriptures and prove that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person becomes a “great help to those who by grace had believed”. In other words, Christians can only be effective evangelists and disciple-makers when they submit to the Holy Spirit.

R.C. Sproul’s description of his intense prayer and vow to God to win his unbelieving fiancé to Christ is a similar story. R.C. tried so hard to introduce Christ to his unbelieving girlfriend. He wrote: “I locked myself in my room and entered into a vigil of intercessory prayer. I made the pleas of the importunate widow in Jesus’ parable seem mild by comparison.” He loved this woman so much! He had already proposed to her and she was now his fiancé. He desperately tried everything he could to make her believe before they were married so that they would not be “unequally yoked”. In fact he envisioned that he would write her name in the Book of Life himself! He reminded himself of Matthew 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” Yet she did not believe. Only when this woman went to a prayer meeting and met God herself did she believe. At that prayer meeting she said, “Now I know who the Holy Spirit is.” R.C. noted that these were not the words of a trained theologian, but the observation of a fresh convert to the Christian faith.

In looking back on this event, R.C. Sproul expounded on the Holy Spirit’s person and work in light of 1 Corinthians 2:9-14:

“9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”– 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

Names

The names of the Holy Spirit are fascinating. Just as Jesus has many names, so does the Holy Spirit: Names of the Holy Spirit

Person

The Holy Spirit is a person, the third Person of the Trinity (Genesis 1:2; Isaiah 9:6; Acts 5:3-4). The Spirit is not a “force” nor an “energy” (though power does come from the Spirit). In the Scripture, the Spirit is not referred to as an “it” or inanimate object, but as a person. We can lie to the Spirit (Acts 5:3) and we can grieve the Spirit by our actions (Ephesians 4:30).

The Holy Spirit indwells those who have trusted in Christ for their salvation (1 Corinthians 6:19). When people believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, they receive God’s Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), with whom they are sealed. This is a guarantee of the hope of eternal life (Ephesians 1:13-14). Jesus taught his followers that the Holy Spirit would be in them (John 14:17).

Works

Here is a summary of the work of the Holy Spirit (this is not intended to be a complete or comprehensive list):

1. To empower: The Spirit gives life, giving and sustainging human and animal life (Psalm 104:30), new life in regeneration for those who are saved (John 3:6-7), empowerment for service (Deuteronomy 34:9), power to witness (Acts 1:8) and grace distributed in gifts (1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4).

2. To purify: The Spirit purifies through convicting (John 16:8-11), sanctification (1 Corinthians 6:11) and bearing fruit (Galatians 5:22-26).

3. To reveal: In the Old Testament, the prophets were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). The New Testament apostles were guided into all truth by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13). The Spirit reveals and glorifies Jesus (John 16:14) and bears witness to Jesus (1 John 4:2). The Spirit guides (Galatians 5:16-26), manifests (Romans 5:5; Romans 14:17) and teaches (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:12).

4. To unify: The Spirit does not bring about uniformity but unity in the Lord (Acts 2:44-47; Philippians 2:1-2). When we put the Spirit’s gifts into our Lord’s service, we allow this unifying work to happen (1 Corinthians 12:7) in answer to Jesus’ high priestly prayer (John 17:1-26).

5. To testify: The Holy Spirit gives stronger or weaker evidence of the presence and blessing of God, according to our response to Him. The Spirit can be grieved. We are to set our minds on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:4-6) and walk according to His guidance (Romans 8:12-16).

Romans 8:12-17 is a fitting conclusion. Our obligation as Christians is to live according to the Holy Spirit (the wonderful guarantee and deposit and gift God has given!). This obligation is not just to overcome impure sins, but it is also to overcome religious sins. Why do we think we need to let the Spirit purify us, but don’t need to let the Spirit do ministry work? Why do we demand so much control over religious piety, insisting on knowing exactly what will happen through our programs?

“12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation–but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Christian Doctrine Series:
Lesson 1: Scripture – Be Armed! Lesson #1
Lesson 2: God – Be Armed! Lesson #2
Lesson 3: Jesus – Be Armed! Lesson #3