Alright, well welcome to Christian Life Academy this morning, and this morning we are in our practical or applied theology track, which is the application of what we learn in the other branches of theology, namely biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, as we learn from these different disciplines, what God has taught us in his word, we're seeking to apply all of that to the Christian life. And so we're taking that knowledge that we have gained and trying to put it into action. And so for the last four or five months, our subject has been the subject of evangelism. and we defined evangelism as the proclamation of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ by repentance and faith. So proclaiming the gospel, the good news of Jesus to those who have not heard it so that they might be brought to repentance and faith in him and thereby be saved. That's the idea of what evangelism is. Where we're going next is that next month we'll begin a course in apologetics being taught by Doug Hodge. Apologetics is not apologizing for the faith, but rather answering objections and offering proofs for the faith. That's where we're going to be next. So I thought this morning, as we're kind of drawing evangelism to a close, and apologetics really serves as a part of evangelism, but I wanted to ask a question regarding evangelism and try and answer it. So if you've got your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew chapter 28. And you can imagine what we're looking at here in Matthew chapter 28, given the subject of evangelism. We're going to look at what is commonly known as the Great Commission at the end of Matthew chapter 28. So this is after Jesus' death, his resurrection, before he is ascended into heaven. He gathers with his disciples there in Galilee and he gives them one last bit of instructions before he is taken up into heaven. And so this is what it says, Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So what, as we consider this, and we often look at this passage when we think about evangelism or missions, but as we look at this passage, it doesn't mention evangelism anywhere. Not specifically. What does it say? What is the main command or instruction that we're given here? were to make disciples. This is the instruction. Go and make disciples. How are we to do that? We are given two actions that we are supposed to do in regard to making disciples. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. and teaching them to observe or to obey all the things that Christ has commanded us. What I want to suggest this morning is that evangelism should begin with discipleship as its goal. that the goal of evangelism is not simply to make converts, but rather to make disciples, to make knowledgeable, obedient followers of Christ. That is the goal. Evangelism really is the first step in discipleship. The two are one and the same. Discipleship is not something that comes after evangelism. Evangelism is part of discipleship. So, if we think about this idea, and we think about while we're in the church, as we do Christian Life Academy, or even preaching on Sunday morning, our various functions together, fellowships, and different things that we have, our goal is that we're making disciples, that we're discipling one another. So, what is a disciple? How would we define what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Well, let's just look at the very next page, the first chapter of Mark, and see what we can learn about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. So we'll just begin, and we're gonna read Mark chapter one, verses one through 20. So Mark one, beginning in verse one. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, as it is written in the prophets. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, There comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, and he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered to him. Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. And as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. they immediately left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little further from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets, and immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him. So, we see here at the beginning of Mark's gospel the introduction of Jesus' public ministry and the calling of the first four of what we typically refer to as the disciples or later as his apostles. And I think that as we look at this passage, even beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist and then specifically Jesus calling these disciples, I think there are four characteristics that we can see here of a disciple of Jesus. And again, if the Great Commission instructs us that we are to go and make disciples, not go and make converts, go and make disciples, then we ought to know what a disciple is. And so here are the four characteristics that I think we see of a disciple here in Mark 1. The first thing is that they heard the call of Jesus. They heard the call of Jesus. The second is that they respond to that call in repentance. The third, with belief in the gospel. And the fourth, that they follow Jesus obediently. So those are the four characteristics of a disciple. Hearing the calling of God in Christ, responding with repentance and belief, and following Jesus in obedience. So let's look at each of the four of these characteristics as we see them displayed here in the Gospel of Mark. So the first one is that they hear the call of God or the call of Christ. The gospel, as we have said, is good news and that we are to proclaim that good news to others. That's the act of evangelism is proclaiming that good news to others. And so this is news. It's news that must be shared with other people. And so this is our work as we go out to make disciples. The first step in discipleship is to proclaim the gospel so that others can hear it. But simply hearing our words is not the same as them having heard the call of Christ himself. What we're looking at in this case, is that internal call of God on the spirit of man. And so discipleship begins really with the call of Jesus, not, as we often would think, after a person has made a decision. So we see evangelism as one thing, and then discipleship starts after evangelism is done, after this person has made a decision for Christ. Then we think, okay, now we need to disciple them. But we can see here that discipleship and evangelism are all part of the same thing. Evangelism really being the first step in discipleship. And so discipleship begins with the call of God on a person's soul. And Christ's call on a person includes the power to respond to that call. So I'm gonna read some other passages, but you can stay there in Mark chapter one. But in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 1, beginning in verse 18, we read this, for the message of the cross, the message, this is the news about the cross of Christ, is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now, the message, the good news of Jesus, his crucifixion, his death, his burial, his resurrection, that the gospel message of Christ is the power of God, Paul says, to those who are being saved. So, the call of Christ internally to a person includes the ability to respond to that call, and so we can see that the call of Christ on a person is entirely the work of God. We just proclaim the message, it's the message preached, but that call is internal by the power of God and so it really has very little to do with us. We are the means that God uses as we proclaim the gospel, but we can have confidence that God will work sovereignly by his spirit and so we don't have to get too bound up in our methodology as we proclaim the gospel. Did we do it just right? Did we create the right appeal? Did we convince this person? It is not up to us to convince them, but merely to proclaim the gospel and leave the convincing to the Holy Spirit. We see this in our own confession of faith in chapter 10 where it talks about the effectual calling. And it says this in paragraph one of chapter 10, those whom God has predestined unto life, he is pleased in his appointed and accepted time effectually to call by his word and spirit. And so those that God has predetermined that he is going to save, in his appointed time, he will call them effectually. That means that the call will have the effect it's intended to. The person will repent and believe. And he does that, it says, by his word and spirit. So our task is to proclaim that word, and then the spirit's task is to apply that word and issue the call to the person's internal soul. It says, enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ. yet so as they come, most freely being made willing by his grace." So we, no matter how we say the message of the gospel, no matter what words we use, we cannot turn someone's heart of stone into a heart of flesh. That's the work of the Spirit to do that. So we proclaim the gospel, but that effectual call in the Spirit of man comes from the Spirit of God. So, evangelism, as we think about the subject of evangelism, it should not focus on salvation, on conversion apart from discipleship, but rather it should focus on the call to follow Christ as Lord, because that's That's what Christ is going to issue, that call in someone's spirit. So as we proclaim the gospel, we shouldn't just try and get this person to make a decision to follow Christ, but rather we should proclaim the gospel in such a way that we're clearly issuing an explanation of what Christ has done and the fact that he has commanded all men to repent and believe and to follow him in obedience and then let the spirit work in a person's heart so that they hear that effectual call. So that's the first characteristic of a disciple. They have heard the call of God internally. The second characteristic of a disciple is this idea of repentance. And we can see that even John, it says here in Mark 1 verse 4, John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And so this was what John was doing as he prepared the way for Christ. And then we see that when Christ himself begins his public ministry and begins to preach, it says down there in verse 14, Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel or the good news of the kingdom of God and saying, so here's what the good news that he's preaching is that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. And so, Jesus himself is issuing a call to repentance. So, the idea here of repentance, as most of us are probably familiar with, is the idea of turning, right? Turning away from our sin and turning towards God. Turning away from the world, turning away from those things that we would, in the natural course of our fallenness, turn into idols, turn away from those and turn towards God. And so the idea of this call of God on our life is not that we're simply living our life and doing all these things that we're doing and then we're going to add Jesus to that. That's not what repentance is. Repentance is not adding Jesus to our current life, but instead to turn from our sin, turn from ourself to Christ as of supreme worth. And so the idea is that we're turning our back on other things. and turning towards Christ, not that we're simply adding him into what we're already doing. And even here, as we've seen with the idea of proclamation, we proclaim or speak the good news of the gospel, and yet it is the spirit of God that must work in a person's heart to bring them to hear that internal call. The same is true with repentance. As we proclaim the gospel, Part of that, as we see here, John is preaching a baptism of repentance. Jesus is preaching a message of repentance. And so, as we proclaim the gospel, it should include a call to repent, but for a person to actually do that, they're not going to do it because we have convinced them with our words, but rather because the Spirit has convinced them. So, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, we see Paul instructing the young Timothy, and telling him that a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance. so that they may know the truth. So even the act of repentance, of turning from our sin and turning to Christ in faith, is a work of the Spirit internally in a person. So for a disciple is someone who has heard the call and then has repented. They've turned from their sin and turned toward Christ. It doesn't mean that they stop sinning entirely. We wish that were the case. Simply not. true though. But repentance does mean that we've turned from our sin and made Christ, recognized Christ as supreme in our life and that we are trying to put to death that sin, put it behind us and keep Christ before our eyes. So a disciple is not someone who has simply added Jesus to everything else they already had going on in their life, but instead they have made Christ supreme in their life by turning to him above all else. The third characteristic of a disciple that we see here is belief in the gospel. Jesus says this in verse 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. Now what is this gospel that we're supposed to believe in? Jesus is preaching the gospel, it says in verse 14, of the kingdom of God. What does that mean? He's preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. And what does he preach? He preaches that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. In what way is the kingdom of God at hand as Jesus is preaching this? Because we think about the kingdom of God and we think, well, at some point in the distant future, or in the future, Christ will return and set all things right. And then he'll establish the kingdom. So 2,000 years ago, though, Christ was preaching that the kingdom of God is at hand. So in what way is the kingdom of God at hand? It was at hand because the king had come. Christ is the king. The kingdom is a kingdom because it has a king. Christ is the king and he had come for the purpose of saving his people and so the kingdom of God was here. It was breaking into the world as Christ had come. to offer himself to save his people. And so we can preach the same thing, that the kingdom of God is here. Christ has come. He has redeemed a people for himself and he will return in victory at some point in the future. But the kingdom is not some far distant eschatological hope. It is that, but it's also a present reality that the king has come. God's King, the Anointed One who reigns in righteousness forever, is establishing His rule in the hearts of His people. And so what are we to believe in? If we're to believe in the gospel, believe in the good news, well the good news was this good news of the kingdom. It's a kingdom because Christ is the King who has come, so what Christ is issuing here is a call to believe in Him. to believe in him as the anointed one of God, the Messiah who would come and begin to reign in the lives of his people. So even though the kingdom has not been established in its fullness yet, it has begun in the hearts of those who believe. And what does it mean to believe, to believe that Christ is the King, the anointed one of God? Well, In the scripture we have two words that are used, the word idea of belief or believe and the idea of faith. Faith is a noun and believe is a verb and so they're related concepts, but the difference between the two is the action that's involved with the idea of believe. So I can have faith that this chair would support my weight, but if I truly believe it, I'll actually sit in the chair and trust it to support my weight. So, the idea of Christ calling us to believe in him as God's anointed one, as the Messiah, is that we put our trust in him, that we actually depend upon him to be the one who redeems us, who deals with our sin, who forgives us, who shows us mercy, who accepts us into his kingdom as his servants and citizens. So, a disciple is one who has not only heard the call of Christ, and responded in repentance, turning away from their sin and turning towards Christ. But that repentance involves this act of putting their trust in Christ. Not themselves, not their own actions and their own works, not the church, but in Christ alone. Christ is where our trust is. And so we can see organizations like the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses or different groups that might claim to be Christian, and yet if we were to look at how these people are living their lives, where is their trust? Well, their trust is not in Christ alone. It may be in their own effort, in their own works, in their own practices, and then Jesus is something that's added to that. A true disciple of Jesus is one who puts their trust in Christ alone, depending upon his finished work. And then, the fourth characteristic of a disciple is that after that, they follow him in obedience. The obedience, the following Christ comes after repentance and belief. not before it. But we are to follow him in obedience. Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom and called people to repent and believe, but then look at what he does next. It says in verse 16, and as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. So the idea is that there's an obedience that comes in the wake of repentance and belief. They're following Christ. Christ issues that call. It is a call, he says, to follow me, not to follow some other guru or teaching, not to follow an institutional organization, but to follow Christ alone. We can see what he means by this if we just turn over a few chapters to Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8 and here Jesus is teaching and going about his public ministry and he pauses at one point with his disciples and he asks them this question in Mark 8 beginning in verse 27. Now, Jesus and his disciples went out of the town of Caesarea Philippi, and on the road, he asked his disciples. So, they've been about Jesus' public ministry, and they're traveling, they're walking on the road, and as they're walking, Jesus is teaching. He's interacting with his disciples. He's discipling them. This is discipleship. And so, he asked them, saying to them, who do men say that I am? So, he's asking them. What's going on in the public sphere? What is the discussion around the water cooler? Who do people think that I am? So they answered, John the Baptist. But some say Elijah and others, one of the prophets. And so, this is the crowd is going, well, Jesus seems to be some sort of prophet, whether he's John the Baptist or Elijah returned to us, or whether he's another prophet of some kind. But this is what the people think. And then Jesus says to them, but who do you say that I am? So now he's asking his disciples, those that he has been instructing, to see if they have actually understood the truth. Peter answered and said to him, you are the Christ. So Peter gives the right answer. You're the anointed one. You're the king. You're the one that God has anointed to be this king who will reign forever in righteousness. Verse 30, then he strictly warned them that they should tell no one about him. Now look what happens next. Verse 31, and he began to teach them that the son of man, and so now he's using this term for himself taken from the book of Daniel and the book of Ezekiel and the Old Testament. that the son of man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And so here he is, he's teaching them that what he's going to do as their eternal king is to offer himself as a sacrifice in their place in order to redeem them from their sins. This is, he spoke this word openly, but then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. So just imagine this, Peter is arguing with Christ. It's funny, Lorne and I have been reading through Acts in our Bible reading, and we got to the place where the sheet descends down and Peter's told to rise and kill, and Peter argues with God. He says, no, Lord. Three times he argues with God. Peter's interested in his boldness and his willingness to argue even with the Lord, but Peter rebukes him. But when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. So now Christ is rebuking Peter, saying, get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. So Peter's saying, no, listen, Jesus, we don't want you to die. We don't want you to offer yourself in that way, to be killed, and then What did Jesus say was going to happen? He was going to suffer, he was going to die, and he was going to be raised again. And Peter's saying, no, we don't want that to happen. And Jesus says, listen, you're not thinking about the things of God. You're thinking about the things of men. You're wanting a king who's going to conquer here on earth, and yet I need to offer myself and look at what God is planning to do. He's going to raise me from the dead. And then it says in verse 34, when he had called the people to himself, so now Jesus is gathering the crowd with his disciples also, he said to them, whoever desires to come after me, so here's the fourth characteristic of a disciple, we're going to follow Christ. Whoever desires to come after me, whoever's going to be a disciple, here's what you have to do. Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. So what does it mean to be a disciple and to follow Christ? Well, it means to deny yourself. What does it mean to take up your cross? It means to endure suffering, to follow Christ even in His willingness to suffer for our sakes. That we are to suffer, not not in a redemptive way, the way Christ did, but he says, for Christ's sake and the gospels. So, if we're willing to suffer for the sake of Christ or for the sake of the gospel message, and we see this later in the Apostle Paul as he is willing to endure hardship and suffering for the sake of taking the gospel and proclaiming it to those who have not yet heard. So, Discipleship is costly. It's not all fun and games and dancing in the rain and wildflowers in the meadow. Discipleship is costly. It involves denying ourself, taking up our cross, following Christ in his pattern of suffering, his pattern of being a servant rather than coming in order to be served. And so for a disciple to follow Christ To follow our master means beginning to look like him, learning to live the way he lived, serving others for the sake of proclaiming the gospel and for the sake of Christ's name being made glorious. To deny ourselves, this is part of what it means to repent, right? To turn away from our sin, away from ourself and turn towards Christ. So to deny ourselves, to suffer and to follow him. So discipleship, as we think about this, is not simply one category of the Christian life, right? It's not that, oh, I'm a Christian now, and so here are, you know, I do this and I do this, oh yeah, and I'm involved in discipleship. No, discipleship is the Christian life. It's the whole of it. It's the process of becoming like Christ. The disciple would become like his master. He would follow him. He would listen to his teaching. He would do the things that his master did and learn to become like his master. And so that's what it means for us to be disciples of Christ, is to learn to be like him. So if you encounter someone that says, oh, I'm a Christian, but I have no desire to deny myself. I don't want to die to myself. Well, they're not acting like a disciple. So that's a huge category error, because this is what it means to be a Christian, is to be a disciple who denies yourself, takes up your cross and follows him. From first step to last, the entirety of the Christian life is to be directed by the message of the gospel into following in the footsteps of our master, in the footsteps of Christ. As we think about, perhaps, Psalm 16, where it talks about him treading the path of life through death to glory. We're to follow him on that path. We are to follow in his footsteps. And so as we think about the gospel message in its entirety, We often consider evangelism and we simply think about the idea of justification, right? That what we call salvation, even though salvation is a broader term, but we think about that moment when someone believes, has faith, repents, and is justified, right? They're saved at this point. But our salvation is more than just that, right? Where's our justification happen? It happens in the death of Christ on the cross. And so we preach Christ crucified, but Christ doesn't stay on the cross. He doesn't stay in the grave. He's resurrected to new life. Well, what is that new life when we consider the message of the gospel and to what it means to be disciples? Well, that's our sanctification. That's the new life that we begin to live in obedience to him and in following him, imitating him. But then we also have the fact that Christ didn't just rise from the grave. but he ascended into heaven after he gave this great commission. And so his ascension into heaven is a promise of our coming glorification. And so our discipleship throughout the course of our lives as Christians is preparing us for that. So the gospel really is the death, the burial, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ. And the entirety of what it means to be a disciple is wrapped up in those things. Discipleship includes as well teaching, as said in Matthew 28, teaching them to observe or to obey all things that Christ had commanded, and that includes the Great Commission. All things that he has commanded us includes the Great Commission. Making disciples and teaching them to obey involves teaching them to go make disciples. Discipleship is not something that is simply a program that the church has. It is not simply something that is left to Paul and Brant because they are the elders. They are the ones that are supposed to disciple everyone. This is what it means to be a believer. We are discipling We're growing in our own discipleship, and we're involved in helping other believers, whether that's our children, our grandchildren, others that we interact with in the church. We're all involved in the act of making disciples, because that's what it means to be a disciple. And the first step, of course, in discipleship, after hearing the call, responding with repentance and faith, is then to follow Christ in obedience. And the first step in that obedience to him is often the act of baptism and acts chapter eight. This was something that Lauren and I read a little while ago in our Bible reading, and it was kind of interesting to me. Remember the story of the Ethiopian eunuch? And Stephen, or Philip, I'm sorry, is instructed by the Spirit to come alongside this man, and he's in his chariot, and he's reading from the book of Isaiah. Here he is reading this Old Testament prophet. And so Philip asks him if he's understanding what he's reading. And the man says, well, how can I understand unless someone explains it to me? And so he reads the scripture. And here's what he's reading from the Old Testament prophet. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb before the shearer is silent. So he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth." So here we're hearing this part of the gospel that involves the death of Christ. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man? Then Philip, opening his mouth and beginning at this scripture, preached Jesus to him." Now that's an amazing sentence. Beginning at this scripture, Philip preached Jesus to him. And I think, what does that involve? What does that mean? He begins with this passage in the Old Testament prophet. and explains Jesus to him, and then listen what happens next. As they went down the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? How did they get from this passage in Isaiah to baptism? Presumably, the eunuch wouldn't come up with the idea of baptism on his own. Somehow, the process of preaching Jesus from this Old Testament passage included a call not only to repent and believe, but to follow Christ in obedience, beginning with baptism. To me, that's kind of an astonishing move on Philip's part to do such a thing. How often would we, in our first conversation with someone explaining the death of Christ, get to baptism that quickly as an act of obedience and following Christ? So that's interesting to me. This is the basic idea is that if we considered evangelism over the last several months, that evangelism really is not a separate program from the rest of the Christian life. It is really just the first act in the whole of the Christian life, which is to make disciples and teach them to follow Christ obediently. And so then beginning next month, we will move on to apologetics. Let's close this morning in a word of prayer.