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Making Disciples, Not Mere Converts · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed thinking. I'm really glad you could join
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  us today for this this deep dive.
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  We are opening up our sources to look at a text that, I mean,
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  honestly, most of us probably think we have pretty well pinned
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  down. Oh, for sure.
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  We're looking at the Great Commission, you know, the
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  verses, Matthew 28, right at the very end of the Gospel.
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  Go therefore, and make disciples.
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  Exactly. It's the church's marching
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  orders. You see it on banners, on
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  T-shirts. I mean, it's the mission
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  statement for half the ministries on the planet.
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  It is, but that familiarity can be a bit of a trap.
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  We read those verses and we just, we skim, we here go and we
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  think we automatically know what the job is.
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  But here's the thing, and this is what our sources get into
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  today. When you actually sit down with
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  the Greek text and then you connect it to the Old Testament
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  background, you start to realize that what we treat as a familiar
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  slogan is actually, I mean, a complex cosmic claim to
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  authority. It really is our sources for
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  this deep dive, and we're mainly looking at the exegetical work
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  of Doctor Cott Callahan and then some practical strategy from
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  Philip F Foley. They argue that we might be
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  missing the point of the grammar.
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  And if you miss the grammar. You miss the specific nature of
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  the mission, so we're going to try to break it down.
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  Look at the what the exegesis of the text and then the how, which
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  is the strategy for actually doing it.
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  Right. We're trying to understand what
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  the Bible is actually demanding of the church here, and it kicks
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  off with a really a really interesting assertion from the
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  source material about the authority behind the whole
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  thing. Callahan makes this point that
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  the Church has exactly 1 singular mission, just one, not
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  5 or 6 competing priorities. Which is already a huge claim.
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  It is, and he says that this one mission doesn't just spring out
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  of nowhere. It's tied to a very specific
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  timeline in Scripture. That's right.
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  If you look at, say, Luke 24 or John 20, Jesus gives
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  instructions, but then there's a pause, a waiting period.
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  He tells them to wait. He tells them to wait for the
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  Holy Spirit, and the point is, the work of the Church is
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  strictly impossible without the supernatural power of the
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  Spirit. So the mission isn't active yet.
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  Not yet. It's only in Acts 1.8, once the
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  Spirit actually arrives at Pentecost, that the Go Command
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  truly activates. The church is born, and that's
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  when the Great Commission kicks into gear.
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  OK, but the foundation for all of that, the thing that
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  undergirds it, is what Jesus says right before the command in
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  Matthew 28 point. 18 The absolute bedrock, all authority
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  has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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  And this is where the textual analysis from Callahan gets
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  really, really cool. He points out that when Jesus
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  says heaven and earth, he's not just, you know, listing to
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  places. No, it's not a list.
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  It's a specific literary device. It's called.
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  Again, it's called mirrorism. A mirrorism.
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  It's where you state the polar opposites of something to
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  signify everything in between. Like saying I searched high and
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  low. Exactly.
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  You mean you searched everywhere?
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  So when Jesus says He has authority in heaven and on
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  earth, he is asserting total absolute command over the entire
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  created cosmos. So it's not just spiritual
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  authority and earthly authority as two separate.
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  Things. No.
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  It's one total authority. There isn't a single square inch
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  of existence, spiritual, physical, political, atomic that
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  is outside of his rule. It's a claim of total cosmic
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  dominion. And the grammar of that claim is
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  specific to that phrase has been given.
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  Yeah, that's important. It's passive.
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  So it implies someone did the giving.
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  It does. Scholars call it a divine
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  passive. It points to a giver, and in
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  this context that's obviously God the Father.
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  Jesus is saying this authority was granted to him.
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  OK. And this is where the source
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  material draws this massive line connecting Matthew 28 all the
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  way back to the Old Testament. To Daniel, specifically Daniel
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  Chapter 7. I love this connection because
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  usually when we read the Great Commission, our brains are just
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  parked in the New Testament. We're thinking about the post
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  resurrection context. Right.
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  But Callahan argues you cannot fully grasp the weight of
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  Matthew 28 without Daniel 7. So what's happening in Daniel 7?
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  Daniel has this vision, a cosmic apocalyptic vision, and he sees
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  his Figure 1 like a Son of Man approaching the Ancient of Days.
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  That's God the Father. That's God the Father and in the
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  vision the Ancient of Days gives this Son of Man figure dominion,
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  glory and a Kingdom dominion. OK, now here is the kicker.
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  If you look at the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation
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  of the Old Testament that was common in Jesus's day, the Greek
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  word used for dominion in Daniel 7 is exusia.
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  And that's the same word. It is the exact same Greek word
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  that Jesus uses for authority in Matthew 28.
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  Wow. So by using that specific word,
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  Jesus is basically looking at his disciples and saying, you
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  know that prophecy, that guy in Daniel's vision?
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  That's me. That's precisely what he's
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  doing. He is identify himself as the
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  apocalyptic cosmic ruler from Daniel's prophecy.
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  He isn't just speaking as a resurrected rabbi, he is
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  speaking with the full authority of the Ancient of Days.
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  And you have to look at the purpose of that authority in
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  Daniel. Then why was that dominion
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  given? Well.
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  Daniel 7.14 tells us it was given so that all peoples,
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  nations and men of every tongue might serve him.
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  So the Great Commission isn't just some new idea Jesus came up
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  with after the resurrection. Not at all.
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  Yeah, it is the direct fulfilment of that ancient
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  prophecy. The authority was given for the
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  purpose of gathering a global, multiethnic, multilingual
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  worshipping people. The Great Commission is the
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  engine that drives toward that end.
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  That completely shifts the perspective.
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  It goes from Let's Go pass out tracks to we are participating
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  in the cosmic enthronement of the King.
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  It's a huge difference, a huge why behind the mission.
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  OK, so that's the authority, the why?
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  Yeah. Let's shift gears now to the
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  what? The actual grammar of the
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  command itself, because I think this is where most people,
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  myself included, probably get tripped up.
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  If you ask the average Christian what's the main command in the
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  Great Commission, they'll almost instantly say go.
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  Almost every time and look in English, it certainly looks that
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  way. Go there for it sounds like
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  command number one, but. Callahan's analysis of the Greek
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  is, well, it's very firm on this point.
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  Very firm. He points out there is only 1
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  imperative verb, 1 actual command in the entire sentence.
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  Just one. And it is not go.
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  The one command is. Make disciples Methytusite in
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  the Greek. That is the engine of the
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  sentence. So everything else in that
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  sentence is just supporting that one main driver.
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  Correct. Make disciples is the central
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  command. The other action words we see
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  going, baptizing, teaching, those are all participles in the
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  Greek. And what does that mean
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  practically? It means they modify the main
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  verb. They describe how to make
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  disciples. They are separate commands.
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  They are components of the one primary command.
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  OK, let's unpack those 3 participles then, one by one.
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  Let's start with going. If it's not the main command,
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  does that mean we don't really have to go?
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  Can we just, you know, make disciples from our living?
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  Room. Not at all.
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  And this is a really important distinction.
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  Callahan identifies going as what's called a participle of
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  attending circumstance. OK, that's a mouthful.
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  It is a grammatical term, but the idea is simple means it's a
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  necessary prerequisite. It has what he calls an
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  ingressive force. Ingressive like it's the entry.
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  Point exactly. You cannot make disciples of the
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  nations if you are not among the nations.
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  Can you give an analogy? Sure, it's like saying driving
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  to the store, buy me some milk. The command is buy, but driving
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  to the store is the circumstance you have to be in to fulfill the
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  command. You can't buy the milk if you
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  never go to the store. That makes perfect sense.
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  No going, no disciples. No going, no making disciples.
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  The two are inextricably linked. But the source also takes a shot
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  at a pretty common phrase we hear in church circles all the
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  time. Every Christian is a missionary.
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  Yeah, he's not a fan of that. I've heard that 1000 times.
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  You know, you're a missionary to your workplace, to your school.
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  Callahan seems to think that's unhelpful.
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  He calls it a cliche that ultimately weakens the specific
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  call to cross cultural missiles. His logic is, if everyone is a
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  missionary simply by existing, then no one is a missionary in
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  the biblical sense of the word. It dilutes the meaning.
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  It does. The source argues that the
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  Church must physically move toward the nations.
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  There is a going involved that requires crossing geographical,
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  cultural and linguistic barriers.
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  So if we just spiritualize going to mean being a nice person to
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  our neighbors? We lose the urgency of taking
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  the gospel to people groups who have 0 access to it.
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  We satisfy ourselves with local kindness, which is good, but
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  it's not the going of the Great Commission.
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  The logic is just brutally simple.
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  No going, no making disciples. That's a hard truth, but it
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  protects the specific meaning of missions.
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  OK, let's move to the second participle.
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  Baptizing. And this is described as the
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  first participle of means. So it's one of the methods, one
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  of the means by which we make disciples.
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  Right, and here the source material gets very, very
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  specific about what baptism is and what it isn't.
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  And this is where it gets a little controversial for some.
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  It can be. Callahan, in his exegesis,
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  defines the Greek word baptisia strictly as immerse.
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  He argues that from a purely lexical standpoint, actions like
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  sprinkling or pouring don't actually fit the definition of
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  the word itself. So he's making a case for
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  immersion as the only proper mode.
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  That's the argument presented in the source, yes, but he goes
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  further and talks about the subjects of baptism, who gets
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  baptized, and the text is very clear that biblically,
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  repentance and faith must precede baptism.
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  He cites Acts 2.38. Repent to be baptized, everyone
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  of you. The repentance comes first.
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  Which leads him to a very specific conclusion.
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  It does. It leads him to state in the
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  source that infant baptism, or the baptism of anyone who is
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  unconverted has. And this is a direct quote from
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  his analysis, no biblical. Warrant and his reasoning is.
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  His reasoning is that baptism is the initiatory sign for a
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  disciple. It's the public entry into the
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  community of disciples. So if you're not yet a disciple,
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  if you haven't repented and believed, then the ritual is
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  being applied improperly. Now we we should be clear.
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  That's the argument in this source.
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  It's a significant point of debate in the wider church,
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  especially for those of us with a Reformed background who might
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  hold the covenant baptism. Absolutely.
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  We're reporting on Callahan's specific, actual argument here,
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  and for him it's about the integrity of the Great
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  Commission itself. He asked the question, if you
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  are baptizing people who aren't disciples, are you actually
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  fulfilling the command to make disciples?
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  That's a sharp question. It is, and he connects this to
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  the danger of pragmatism on the mission field.
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  What? Do you mean by?
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  That well, you see missionaries sometimes, you know, changing
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  the rules for cultural convenience.
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  Maybe they delay baptism for years to see if a person's faith
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  sticks. Or they re baptize people from
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  other traditions. Or in some cases, they abandoned
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  baptism altogether because it's so culturally offensive or
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  dangerous in a particular context.
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  Callahan's point is that we can't do that.
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  We don't get to edit the King's command based on what works or
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  what feels safe. It has to be biblical.
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  OK, biblical, not pragmatic. Let's move to the third
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  participle. The second means teaching, and
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  again, the source is clear. This isn't just teaching people
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  how to be nice or moral. No, the scope is absolutely
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  massive. Yeah, Jesus says teaching them
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  to observe all that. I commanded you all.
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  The source argues this means the entire Bible, the whole council
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  of God. The Old Testament points forward
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  to Jesus. The New Testament reveals him.
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  A disciple needs both to be mature.
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  And there's a distinction here in the source between baptizing
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  and teaching. A critical one.
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  Baptism is a one time event. It's the initiation.
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  Teaching, on the other hand, is a lifelong process.
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  It never, ever stops. You're never done being taught.
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  And the core of that teaching? The absolute center according to
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  the text. It's the gospel of
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  justification. It's vital to get this right.
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  We aren't teaching people a new set of rules to keep so that God
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  will finally like them. That would be.
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  Legalism. Exactly.
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  We are teaching them that a person is reconciled to God not
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  by their own law, keeping, as Romans 3.28 says, but solely by
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  Christ's perfect obedience in his atoning sacrifice.
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  We teach obedience, yes, but it's an obedience that flows
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  from faith, not one that tries to earn favor.
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  OK, so just to recap this section, we have the authority
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  which is cosmic and read it in Daniel 7 and we have the grammar
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  of the one command make disciples, which is accomplished
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  by the means of going, baptizing and teaching.
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  That's the core of it. But then there's this incredible
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  promise that Jesus tacks on at the very end of the verse.
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  And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
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  Callahan connects us back to the I AM statements, doesn't he?
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  He does. It's a beautiful bookend to the
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  entire Gospel of Matthew. Think about how the book starts
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  all the way back in chapter 1, verse 23.
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  The. Prophecy of Isaiah.
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  Right, the prophecy regarding Emmanuel.
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  Which means God with us. Exactly.
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  The Gospel opens with the promise that God is with his
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  people. Then when you get to the middle
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  of the book, Matthew 14, Jesus is walking on the water in the
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  storm, and what does he say to the terrified disciples?
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  Take courage. I am.
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  I am. It's an echo of the divine name
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  from the burning Bush. And now here at the very, very
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  end, just as he is about to physically ascend and leave
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  them, he says, I am with you. He's affirming that he is
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  Emmanuel. He is The mission is hard, it's
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  dangerous, it's impossible in human strength, But the presence
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  of the King is guaranteed. He stays with the disciples
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  until the very end of the age. And that presence is so key
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  because, as the source points out, this isn't just a job for a
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  few super Christians. This is a corporate
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  responsibility. That's a crucial distinction
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  Callahan makes. The command make disciples is
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  grammatically plural. It's given to the church as a
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  body, not just a gifted individuals.
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  So what does that mean for things like mission agencies or
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  pair church organizations? Well, the source argues that
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  while they are often very helpful and do great work, they
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  are not the bride of Christ. Their assistants, not the
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  primary agent. That's a good way to put it.
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  Jesus promised to build his church, not a mission agency, So
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  the ultimate goal of missions isn't just to set up a mission
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  station or a distinct ministry hub.
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  The goal is to plant churches. To plant full orbed healthy
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  local churches that will in time become sending churches
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  themselves. The goal is reproduction of the
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  church, not just the expansion of an organization.
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  But what about? When that seems impossible, I
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  mean, let's be real. There are nations today that are
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  close to the gospel. They actively ban missionaries.
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  If you go, you risk arrest, prison, or even worse.
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  And I think this is where the source is most challenging to
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  our modern safety first sensibilities.
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  For sure. The analysis here goes straight
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  back to the apostles in Acts 5.29.
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  We must obey God rather than men.
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  So political barriers don't count.
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  The sources argument is that political barriers do not
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  nullify the command of the king of the cosmos.
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  The church cannot simply accept that there are no go zones for
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  the gospel. We can't just shrug and say,
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  well, their government said no. Which circles right back to that
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  initial point about authority, if Jesus truly has all authority
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  in heaven and on earth. Then he has authority over those
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  hostile governments too. Your laws do not supersede his
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  Commission. And that leads right into this
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  whole discussion on the necessity of physical presence.
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  This is a huge topic for us today in our digital age.
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  A massive topic. Can we fulfill the Great
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  Commission over Zoom? Can we have a virtual church?
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  And Callahan is, well, he's pretty savage about this.
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  He has a line where he says screens literally screen out
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  parts of life. He does, and if you think about
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  it practically, it makes sense. Discipleship, as we're about to
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  see with Foley section, requires observing a person's life up
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  close. You have to see their reactions,
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  their character under pressure. All the things you can't see on
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  the screen. You can hide a lot of sin behind
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  a webcam. You can curate your online image
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  to look perfectly pious. But you can't hide for long when
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  someone is doing life with you. Exactly.
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  Real discipleship requires life on life observation.
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  So the source's conclusion is blunt.
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  If you can physically go, you must go.
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  Online communication can be a useful tool, but it is not and
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  can never be a substitute for going.
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  He says virtual presence is, in a very real sense, absence, yes.
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  And that's a heavy conviction for our digitally saturated
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  church to sit with. It really is so OK if we accept
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  the authority, the grammar, the mandate to physically go, what
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  do we actually do when we get there?
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  What does this life on life discipleship look like?
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  And that brings us perfectly into the second source, Philip F
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  Foley's analysis on practical strategy.
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  He breaks it down into 5 essentials.
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  Right. And Foley starts with the aim,
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  the whole point of the process. He gets it from Matthew 10.25.
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  It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher.
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  So we're not just transferring data, we're not just downloading
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  information into someone's brain, no.
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  We are aiming for the replication of Christ like
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  character. That's the goal.
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  OK, so let's run through these five essentials he lays out.
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  Number one is convictions. Convictions are about teaching
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  truth in a way that it applies directly to life.
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  It's not enough for someone to just know the doctrine of
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  justification, they have to know how that truth changes the way
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  they respond when their boss criticizes them.
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  So it's doctrine made practical. Yes, and Foley makes a really
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  interesting point here about adaptability.
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  How so? In a highly literate culture
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  like the US, for example, a book study or a systematic class
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  might work really well for teaching convictions, but what
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  about in an oral culture or with people who are illiterate?
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  You can't just hand them a book. You can't.
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  You need informal life on life mentorship.
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  You have to walk with them like Jesus did with his disciples,
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  and teach from the circumstances you encounter together on the
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  road. That flows right into his second
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  essential character, and Foley says this is the hardest part to
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  teach. By far the hardest because you
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  cannot teach character from a podium or a textbook.
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  The disciple has to see the mentor's life when things go
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  wrong. It's caught more than it's
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  taught. That's a good way to put it.
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  The disciple needs to see how you handle a flat tire, how you
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  respond to a personal insult, how you grieve A tragedy.
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  That's where character is forged and demonstrated.
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  And the source mentions a specific challenge here, the
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  honor shame dynamic. That was fascinating.
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  It's a huge barrier in many cultures.
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  The idea that admitting you have a weakness or a struggles is
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  deeply shameful. So if a disciple is struggling
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  with a particular sin, their instinct is to hide it to save
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  face. Which of course destroys any
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  real discipleship. It kills it.
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  You can't heal what you hide. So Foley's advice is that the
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  mentor has to be the one to break that barrier.
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  The mentor must confess their own sins and struggles first.
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  So the leader has to model vulnerability.
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  The leader has to model what it looks like to rely on grace when
• 18:58
  the mentor says. I really struggled with anger
• 19:00
  yesterday, and here's how I had to go to the Lord with it.
• 19:04
  It gives the disciple permission to be honest about their own
• 19:06
  brokenness. That's so powerful it just
• 19:08
  levels the playing field. We're all sinners at the foot of
• 19:11
  the cross, saved by grace. Exact.
• 19:13
  OK, so after convictions and character #3 is competence.
• 19:18
  Competence is about developing faithfulness in practical areas.
• 19:21
  Foley roots this in Luke 16.10. Being faithful in the small
• 19:25
  things. So you don't just hand someone
• 19:27
  the keys to the church on day one, no.
• 19:29
  The method is simple, assign a task, maybe it's something small
• 19:33
  like organizing the chairs or reading a scripture in the
• 19:35
  service. Then you observe them and after,
• 19:39
  and this is the key part, you give them constructive critique
• 19:41
  a. Feedback loop.
• 19:43
  It's a feedback loop of assignment, observation,
• 19:45
  critique, and encouragement. That's how competence is built
• 19:50
  over time. #4 is care. This is the relational glue that
• 19:54
  holds it all together. Foley cites First Thessalonians
• 19:56
  2.8, where Paul tells the church he was delighted to share not
• 20:00
  only the gospel of God, but his own life as well, because they'd
• 20:02
  become so dear to him. So it's not just a program.
• 20:05
  It can't be. Discipleship that is just a data
• 20:08
  transfer, is cold and sterile. It has to be fueled by genuine
• 20:12
  affection and care. It's about asking personal
• 20:15
  questions. It's about demonstrating love in
• 20:18
  tangible ways. And that leads to the final
• 20:20
  essential #5 reproduction. The cycle has to continue.
• 20:25
  A disciple is not a dead end. They're supposed to become a
• 20:27
  conduit. The goal is for every disciple
• 20:30
  to eventually become a disciple. And Foley notes that age can be
• 20:33
  a real barrier here. It can.
• 20:34
  In many cultures, age automatically equals authority.
• 20:39
  So how does a young disciple lead or teach older believers?
• 20:42
  He points to Timothy, right? Yes, the classic example.
• 20:46
  Timothy was young, and apparently some people look down
• 20:48
  on him for it. But Paul told him to silence the
• 20:51
  critics, not by arguing, but by setting an example for the
• 20:54
  believers in his speech, in his conduct in love, in faith and
• 20:59
  impurity. His godliness gave him the
• 21:01
  spiritual weight that his age lacked.
• 21:03
  Precisely. His character was his authority.
• 21:06
  So when we pull all of this together, Callahan's exegesis
• 21:09
  and Foley strategy, we get a very robust, very challenging
• 21:13
  picture of the church's mission. You really do.
• 21:16
  You start with the cosmic authority of Jesus, an authority
• 21:19
  that's rooted in the prophecy of Daniel 7.
• 21:22
  You obey the specific grammar of the text.
• 21:25
  A single command to make disciples carried out by going,
• 21:28
  baptizing, and teaching. You do this in the context of
• 21:31
  the local church, with the goal of planting more local churches.
• 21:34
  And the method you use on the ground is this deep personal
• 21:37
  life on life mentorship that builds convictions, character,
• 21:41
  competence, care, and ultimately reproduction.
• 21:44
  And it's impossible to miss the cost involved in all of this.
• 21:46
  I mean, neither source makes this sound easy.
• 21:49
  No, not at all. It's the opposite of easy.
• 21:51
  It involves the real risk of physical danger in hostile
• 21:54
  nations. It involves the hard emotional
• 21:57
  labor of walking through people's messy lives in
• 21:59
  discipleship. And it involves the sacrifice of
• 22:02
  your own self-interest. You have to apply Philippians
• 22:04
  too and consider others more significant than yourself.
• 22:07
  It is a heavy, costly call. It is, but as Callahan argued at
• 22:11
  the very beginning, it is the only call the church.
• 22:14
  Has It's the one and only mission that matters.
• 22:16
  You know, before we wrap up, I want to leave our listeners with
• 22:19
  a thought that really struck me while reading that section on
• 22:22
  virtual going. If the source is right, if
• 22:26
  virtual going is not really going at all, and if screens are
• 22:30
  so good at hiding sin, what does that say about how many of us,
• 22:34
  even those of us who aren't on a foreign mission field, are
• 22:38
  trying to grow spiritually? That's a great question.
• 22:41
  I mean, if our primary spiritual diet consists of digital
• 22:44
  content, you know, podcasts like this one, YouTube sermons,
• 22:47
  Instagram theologians, are we actually being discipled or are
• 22:51
  we just consuming religious information?
• 22:53
  And there's a world of difference between those two
• 22:56
  things. Information is not formation.
• 22:58
  Yeah, you can't get called out on your SIN by a download,
• 23:01
  right? You need a person, someone
• 23:03
  looking you in the eye who knows your life and who has earned the
• 23:07
  right to call you to holiness. You just you can't get that from
• 23:10
  a screen. You can't.
• 23:11
  It's a sobering thought. It is something for all of us to
• 23:14
  chew on. I would really encourage you the
• 23:16
  next time you open your Bible, flip to Matthew 28, but keep
• 23:20
  your finger in Daniel 7. Read them together and see how
• 23:23
  the King's authority changes the weight of his command.
• 23:26
  It changes everything. Thanks for joining us on
• 23:28
  Reformed Thinking We'll. See you next time.