Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19 is the Great Commission, and I would wager a guess that pretty much every Christian at least knows the verse, if not the book or the chapter and verse number. It’s likely mentioned frequently when talking about missions work, especially in other nations. It’s a command that all Christians should know and strive to follow each day, but do you know how to make disciples?
I reckon that almost everyone knows the Great Commission from Matthew 28:19, but do you know that’s not the entire command?
Here’s the whole thing from Matthew 28:19-20: “Go, therefore, 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
A lot of times, Christians translate this verse to, “Go, therefore, and make believers of all nations.” But that’s not what it says. It says to make disciples. And a disciple is so much more than someone who just believes in something. A disciple is a student, a deep studier of someone’s teachings. They are experts in the knowledge of their master or teacher. Everything the master has ever taught, the disciple knows.
There’s a footnote for my Bible from the word “disciple,” that adds a few words, making Matthew 28:19 say this: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of, and disciple, all nations.” Disciple is as much a verb in English as it is a noun. When you disciple someone, you teach them everything you know with the goal that they will be able to teach someone else all that you know.
We, as Christians, as the Church, are incredibly good at making extras out of nonbeliever converts. Extras as in movie extras. Here’s what I mean: In a church, the pastor, deacons, and a few members tend to be main characters—they’re always involved in some way—and the rest of the congregation are just unnamed characters who fill out the void space in the movie so it doesn’t look like it was filmed in a vacuum. If you ever read the credits, they don’t even have names: they’re listed as “extra 1, extra 2,” etc.
And there are so many “extras” in the Church. They don’t speak, they don’t participate, they don’t really contribute, they just fill up the empty space in the pews. And when they die and they go to the credits, the Lamb’s Book of Life, their name won’t be there. And it’s not because they didn’t have a chance to be there; it’s because no one bothered to give them what they needed to become a main character.
Extras and background characters don’t know much about the plot of the story. One may be there to show a character along, to be a stepping stone, but they generally know nothing and serve little purpose to the theme. Main characters, on the other hand, have a deep knowledge of the workings of the story and are contenders and participants in the plot.
As Christians, as evangelists, as teachers and leaders and disciples of God, it’s our job to teach new believers how to step away from the role as an extra and become main characters. Because that’s what a disciple is: a main character. They have to know the plot that God’s writing, know how He works, understand what He teaches so that they can be active participants.
So many new believers are convinced to leave the Church, to not follow God, because they are confronted with the world and are unable to combat that with the teachings of Jesus. They don’t know enough about Him to deny the accusations and grasp of sin. They don’t know enough to resist temptation; some don’t even know they should resist temptation. They’re left hanging high and dry with scavengers picking at them, the sun burning them, and they can’t help themselves off the hook because they don’t know how.
And why is that? Because they weren’t taught how. It’s going to hurt, but I truly believe we, as believers, have a real habit of just believing that getting someone into church is enough, getting them to show up is the end goal. But it’s just not. We’re way too lazy about the work we’re here to do.
The end goal is more than getting someone into a pew or a Sunday School classroom. It’s teaching, instructing, loving, caring for, and preparing them to leave the safety of the church with the knowledge they need to protect themselves, and go out fishing for a person of their own to bring back and disciple in the same way.
We’ve frankly forgotten how to spread the Word of God like Jesus, Peter, and Paul did. God doesn’t care about the number of people sitting in your pews. He cares about the number of souls destined for Heaven. And it’s time we stop being lazy and start caring for souls the same way He does.