How Jesus Made Disciples

In Matthew 28:19 Jesus gives us as His people a command - Go Make Disciples.

How do we do that?

Jesus made disciples while He was physically here on earth. We as the church, the Body of Christ, are to continue Jesus mission of making disciples.

In John 17 Jesus prays about His disciples. He prays for those that were there then and for those, like us, who would become disciples through the testimony of those who were there then.

In this prayer Jesus tells us how He made disciples and thus brought glory to the Father. That was Jesus’ mission and ours.

John 17:2-3
Since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life that they may know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Jesus made disciples by giving eternal life to them.

We have defined eternal life as “going to heaven.” Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the Father and Himself.

If we look at eternal life as a relationship with the Father through Jesus and not as a place or an achievement, then a disciple is not just a person who is going to heaven when they die, but a person who knows God.

The only way you come to really know God is by surrendering your life to Him.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about sharing eternal life with others.

John 17:6
I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

John 17:8
For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know the truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

Jesus made disciples by revealing the Father and truth through the Word of God.

The Word of God is our sole authority for how to live. The Word of God is not just good stuff; it is Life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls  is about sharing truth, God’s Word with others.

John 17:9
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given Me, for they are Yours.

Jesus made disciples by praying for them.

Jesus didn’t pray for comfort for them or for them to be removed for the world or for wealth and health. He prayed they would become formed into His image.

We pray many times for people to be removed from difficult circumstances. Maybe we should be pray that God would use the difficult circumstances to make them more like Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about praying for other believers.

John 17:11
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one.

John 17:16
They are not of the world, just as I am not of this world.

Jesus made disciples by setting them apart. Jesus made them holy.

Disciples are in the world (they live and operate and have contact with the world), but not of the world (don’t buy into the ideas and values of the world).

If we are too attached to the world, we will love the world and the love of the Father is not in us. If we are too isolated from the world, we can’t relate to people and we are not effective in sharing God’s life with them.

We have to be connected with the people but reject the values.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being holy, set apart for God’s use only.

John 17:20-21
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

Jesus made disciples by giving them the understanding that allowed them to stayed connected with the Father.

We can do nothing disconnected from God. We only produce fruit when we are connected with God. Producing fruit glorifies God.

The message Jesus taught His disciples allowed them to understand the truth that they needed God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about sharing the truth and helping people to understand that they need God.

God is not an option for our lives. He is the essential.

John 17:22-23
The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and You in Me, that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.

Jesus made disciples by loving them.

God is love.

The Body of Christ is to be love.

The world will not be attracted to Jesus by our judging and condemning them. They will be attracted to Jesus as we, with godly standards, love them as Jesus loves them.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about loving people as Jesus loves them.

The way that Jesus made disciples is exactly how we are to make disciples.

We make disciples:
By Sharing Eternal Life
By Sharing God’s Word  
By Praying
By Being Holy
By Sharing the Message of the Need for God
By Sharing God’s Love

The purpose of all followers of Jesus is to glorify the Father.

The way we glorify the Father is by producing fruit.

The fruit that is pleasing to the Father is godly character that produces new disciples.

If we are going to be Jesus’ disciples, we have to die to ourselves so He can be born and live in us.

Luke 14:27
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be My disciple.

Making Disciples With Jesus by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe