We’re going to kind of pick up where we left off on our previous Little Lesson, as we were talking about the erroneous idea that there are two categories of Christians: those who are believers in Jesus, then the higher class of Christians, the real committed Christians, those who are disciples of Christ.

I began to expose the error in that type of thinking, because it’s just completely unbiblical. Any honest person who studies the Bible is going to come to that conclusion. This is not some difficult thing to figure out from Scripture. It’s just amazing though that more people aren’t talking about this.

The Goal of Every Single Minister in the Entire World

But I’m asking the question on this lesson, what should be the goal of every single minister in the entire world? I think the goal should be whatever Jesus’ goal is, right?

He is the Head of the church, and all of us who are ministers are under-shepherds, under the great Shepherd (see 1 Peter 5:4). We’re supposed to be imitating Him, we’re supposed to be obeying Him, we’re supposed to be pleasing Him.

Surely, our goals should be aligned with whatever His goals are. His goals aren’t difficult to find, and it has relation to this topic that I’ve been talking about previously and now today: the whole idea of being a disciple.

Jesus’ Goal

Listen to what Jesus said and what is so commonly known in the 28th Chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Here’s Jesus’ goal, and this ought to be the goal of every single minister who professes to be a Christian minister in the entire world:

And Jesus came up 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – vv. 18-20

What is Jesus saying? He’s saying “I’m the lord, I’m the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. God, the Father, has given me all the authority.”

We know all authority is from God. Paul wrote in Romans 13 that the authorities that exist, exist because they’re established by God. He’s talking about governmental leaders, and that we ought to submit to them for that reason, because they are put in place by God, and they represent authority that God has given to them.

As long as they’re not calling on us to disobey God, we ought to be submitted to the earthly authorities. Because all authority is from God.

The Highest Authority

Did you hear what Jesus just said? “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” “I’m above everybody.” The clear message is everybody ought to be submitted to Him, because He’s the highest authority. He has all authority.

Should you submit to a policeman? Yeah. Should you submit to a judge? Yeah. Should you submit to the President? Yes. All those government leaders, because God is the one who has given them their authority. He can take it away anytime He wants. He gave it to Jesus.

We’re not surprised by the next thing that Christ says in Matthew 28, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

Did you get the gist of that? “I have all the authority. Let Me start off here by giving a commandment. Go, get out there. Where do I want you to go? All the ethnic groups.” That’s literally what it says if you dig in the Greek just a little bit, “All the ethnic groups of the entire world. Go and make disciples of those people. Make disciples.”

Make Disciples

He begins then to help us understand what a disciple is. No, He didn’t say “Go make believers, go get people to pray the sinner’s prayer. Go get people to say they believe in Me, go get people to sign a statement to join the church.” No, “Go make disciples, baptize them.”

That’s huge in itself. “You baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” As you baptize, you’re confessing over the baptismal, the candidate there, who it is that is the Lord of their lives.

You’re supposed to be submitted. We’re doing this, not in the name of Zeus, not in the name of some organization, some human institution, we’re baptizing you in the name of the Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We’re putting you down under the water. That has a little bit of symbolism, you’re dying. We’re bringing you out of the water. You’re coming back to life as a new person, because now you’re in Christ. You’ve been washed, cleaned, because the water washed some of that filth off of you, and now you’re resurrected in Christ.

The Goal of Every Minister Should Be to Make Disciples

“Teaching them—teaching those people you baptized—to obey everything I’ve commanded you.” What should be the goal of every minister? The goal of every minister should be to make disciples, wherever you are amongst the nations. Of course, you have to figure out where God sends you.

If God sent you to Winnemucca, Nevada, then you need to be making disciples.

“Well, I’m not a pastor.” Okay, so what are you? “I’m an evangelist.” Then, do your part in making disciples.

You see, if the goal is to make disciples—people who recognize that Jesus is Lord and are endeavoring to obey Him—naturally, evangelism then is very simple. Evangelism is calling people to repent and follow Jesus, because they believe in Jesus.

“ Evangelism is calling people to repent and follow Jesus, because they believe in Jesus. —DAVID SERVANT

You’re getting them set off on the right journey. Maybe a pastor and a teacher can pick up after you’ve left town.

But if you’re just calling people to pray little sinner’s prayers, or calling them to believe that Jesus died for their sins…

The Way the Apostles Preached the Gospel

I recommend that you read through the Book of Acts and look for how many times you find the apostles, when they’re preaching the gospel, mention the fact that Jesus died for the sins of the audience.

You’ll be shocked to find there’s not a single example. They were endeavoring to get people to repent and believe in the King, the Lord, the Messiah, the One who was raised from the dead. The One who was the Judge of the living and the dead.

They were trying to make disciples. That was reflected in the initial message of the evangelists and the apostles.

All right? Your goal, if you’re a minister, should be to make disciples, that is people who obey all that Christ commanded. Well, you can’t make a disciple unless you are one. I’m going to close on that thought! Hope to see you next time. God bless.

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We’re going to talk about the idea that there are two classes of Christians: the believers (that is, all those who believe in Jesus) and then the disciples who are often defined as the really committed believers.

I’m going to just spill the beans right off the bat here. That’s false and unbiblical teaching!

If you read through the New Testament honestly, you could never come to the conclusion that there are two categories of people whom God considers Christians, the believers and then the more committed believers, the disciples. No, no, a thousand times no!

In the book of Acts, everybody who believed in Jesus was a disciple. Jesus expected everyone to repent and believe in Him, thus becoming a disciple.

Where This Separation of Faith and Discipleship Comes From

The reason that some have come up with this erroneous idea is because they’ve read about Jesus’s very stringent requirements to be a disciple.

So they say, “Well, wait. That can’t be what is required to be a Christian—a believer—because salvation is a free gift! It’s by grace through faith. It’s not by works. Jesus is saying that unless you do these things and your life is characterized by these things that show that you’re really committed and devoted to Him, you’re not His disciples.”

Therefore, they conclude that a disciple must be a higher category of a Christian.

That’s what you get for thinking instead of just believing what you read in the Bible! Because that idea is not found in the Bible.

Understanding What the Gospel is Really All About

The way that those apparently contradictory facts are harmonized is just simply by understanding really what the gospel is all about. The gospel is a call to repentance.

“ The gospel is a call to repentance. —DAVID SERVANT

Of course if someone repents, they’re going to act differently after they repent than before they repented. Their life is going to be characterized more by obedience and holiness after they repent than prior to their repentance.

Of course, James said faith without works is dead (James 2:14). People who really believe begin to obey.

When you believe in Jesus, the person Jesus, you’re believing that a human being who walked this earth 2,000 years ago is, was, the divine Son of God. If you believe the story, you have to believe the whole story. He ascended to heaven where He’s been ever since, seated at the right hand of God. We’re all going to stand before Him and He’s going to judge us one day.

A Faith That Means Something

This is not a belief you just add to all the other beliefs in your life, like “I believe the sky is blue”. So what? If the sky was green, it wouldn’t make much difference. This is not that kind of belief.

I believe that one plus one is two. Great. That helps you every time that you add one plus one.

But we’re talking about something that is of no comparison to the average things that we might say that we believe and we do believe. You’re believing that Jesus is the Son of God, before whom you will give an account one day.

Of course if you believe that, you’re going to want to study what He has to say and you’re going to want to line up your life with it. That’s why Jesus said,

If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. – John 8:31-32

If you keep reading for context there in John 8, it’s very clear He’s talking about being set free from sin.

“As He Spoke These Things, Many Came to Believe in Him.”

You know, that passage in John chapter eight very interesting. Let’s read it.

In verse 30, Jesus was preaching a sermon as He always was doing.

“As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.” There we go. There are some people who have become believers. They’re not believing a doctrine about Him. They’re not believing a doctrine about the atonement. They’re believing in Him.

This is the Messiah. This is the great One that Moses said was going to come. Everyone who didn’t heed the words of that Prophet, he would be utterly destroyed amongst the people (see Acts 3:23). This is someone to listen to and heed and obey.

A Biblical View of Faith

Now, we keep reading. What did Jesus say to those new believers? Did He say, “Let me assure you now that you’ve believed and prayed the little prayer”—which they hadn’t prayed any prayer. Let’s keep it Biblical here!—”Now that you’ve believed in Me, you’re on the way to heaven, and don’t let anybody talk you out of that. Don’t let anyone persuade you otherwise. If the devil tells you you’re not saved, you just rebuke the devil.”

This is what is commonly done in evangelical circles when someone professes to have faith in Christ or someone makes a “decision for Christ.” Our responsibility supposedly then is to begin to assure them of their salvation because they’ve made a verbal profession. Is that what Christ did? Oh no.

John 8:31, the very next verse, “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him [there’s the second affirmation that they’re believers], “If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.”

Jesus Felt That a Disciple Was the Same as a Believer

There, that answers our initial question. Does Jesus feel there were two categories of Christians, those who believe and then those who take a second higher step of commitment and become disciples? No. He’s talking to people who have obviously made some kind of verbal profession of their faith.

And He’s using a synonymous term with the word ‘believer’, the word ‘disciples’. He said to those Jews who believed in Him. “So you profess to believe in Me. If you continue,” or in other verses, He says, “If you abide”, live in My word, “then you are truly My disciples.” There you have it. Jesus felt a disciple was the same as a believer.

I should add one little caveat. “If you continue in my Word, then you are truly disciples.” If you don’t abide, if you don’t continue in my Word, you might think you’re a believer, you might think you’re a disciple, but you’re not a true disciple. You’re a false disciple.

One of the Big Problems We Have in the Church

That’s one of the big problems that we’ve got in the church worldwide as a whole. Jesus goes on to tell them, “You’ll know the truth. The truth will make you free.” They begin to argue with him. He says, “Whom the Son has set free is free indeed.”

He’s very clearly, if you keep reading the context in John 8, talking about being set free from sin. A disciple is characterized by continuing or abiding in the word of Christ and being progressively set free from sin.

This is a Little Lesson. We’ll pick up on our next one. Thanks for joining me! God bless.

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