This evening under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we will be sharing together the word of God titled; Discipling Nations: The Model of God. Another way you can put it is: The Model of God in Discipling Nations. We are going to start our observation from Matthew 28, we are going to read the instructions of Jesus in those verses. Matthew 28:16-20. I am going to read from verse 16 so that we understand the context in which Jesus was speaking, so that as disciples of Christ, we can understand because for every word that Jesus will speak to His disciples, there are different weights they carry. These words that Jesus was speaking to His disciples here, I want us to understand the time He was speaking it to them, and why He was speaking it too them.
Matthew 28:16. “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.” So, this was a time when Jesus had died, and had risen and had appeared to His disciples. So, eleven of His disciples, remember that Judas Iscariot was out of the picture. So, the eleven disciples of Jesus that was faithful to Him, came to a mountain that Jesus had appointed for them. It wasn’t a mountain that they came on their own, it was an appointed mountain for them, it was an appointed mountain. And the Bible says and when they came to this mountain, they saw Him, and I want us to note these words. They saw Him, they came to a mountain He appointed, and when they got to the mountain, they saw Jesus Christ. And they did not just see Him, they worshipped Him.
But the Bible says; some of the eleven disciples, remember that some of the disciples that came, they are the apostles of the Lamb; it says even though they were just eleven of them that had been with Jesus at the beginning of His ministry, they worshipped Him, all of them, but some doubted. But in spite of their doubt and their fears, see what Jesus said, and Jesus came and spoke to them, the same words He is speaking to us, because as He is ushering us into the new year, there is something in the heart of God for us. As disciples of Jesus, as those that He has appointed a mountain for; for every disciple of Christ, you are appointed a mountain. Once you come into Christ, you come into discipleship with Christ, you are appointed a mountain. And on that mountain, there is an instruction, and the instruction, I want us to listen to what Jesus said to them on this mountain.
Remember they came to the mountain that He has appointed to them. And see the instruction of Jesus on the mountain. “and Jesus came and spoke to them saying”; and the first thing He said was; “all authority has been given to Me, in heaven and on earth” The first statement Jesus was opening with, even though He knew some of them were doubting, He said all authority has been given to Me Christ Jesus in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, is it you figuring out how you will go? That is why when Jesus was introducing that statement, that instruction, He introduced it with an understanding with who you are and who He is. You are His disciples that have been appointed a mountain. And as you have come to Jesus on that mountain, you have come to see Him, and you have come to worship Him. And when you come to see Christ and worship Him, there is an assignment. You don’t just see Him, and worship Him and go your way like nothing happened. You come to that mountain appointed by Christ for you, you come to see Christ, you come to worship Him, and hear what He has to say.
In Habakkuk 2, the prophet said “I will stand on my rampant, I will watch to see.” I want us to go to that Scripture, I want to see, because that is the same thing that the disciples did. Habakkuk 2:1, “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampant, Will go to the appointed mountain that Christ has appointed for me. I will set myself on the rampant and watch to see what He will say to me. And he did not stop there, it said; and what I will answer when I am corrected…” So, it’s my watch, it’s not a general watch, my own watch as a disciple of Christ. Our journey as disciples of Christ in Christ is a personal walk, it is an individual walk. Because the Bible makes us to understand, it says we are several members of the same body, just like our physical bodies are. You don’t have all your members doing the same thing. You don’t have all your members appointed to the same task. Even though all of them jointly supplies, not all of them are appointed the same thing.
So, your eyes are appointed for vision, your ears are appointed for hearing, your tongue is appointed for tasting, so you realize that even though they are all members of the same body, their appointments are different. That is why its about my watch. As a disciple, I must stand my watch. There is a mountain that I am assigned by Christ. It is a personal mountain even though the mountain will supply into the body. It is a private mountain, it said I will stand my watch, so you see its an individual walk. “And set myself on the rampant, I will watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.” Verse 2 says: “then Lord answered me and said…” just like Jesus was saying in Matthew 28. The Lord answered me and said; write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak. We will understand the relevance of this Scripture to Matthew 28, for the vision is for an appointed time, but the end it will speak and it will not lie, though it tarries, “wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just…” but the disciples of Christ, shall live by faith.”
So, let us go back to Matthew 28: “and Jesus said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me”, verse 19, “Go therefore” what is the vision? Habakkuk 2 says God answered him and said “write the vision and make it plain upon tablet” and this is the vision that Jesus is casting to His disciples, on their appointed mountains. Whether your mountain that Jesus has appointed to you is a mountain of vision, or your mountain is the mountain of taste, or your mountain is the mountain of hearing, or your mountain is the mountain of feeling, or your mountain is the mountain of biting, this is the vision, this is the collective vision that binds us, that gives us the ability to all supply.
This is the vision that Christ said we must all write on the tablet, and run with it. “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. Amen.” This is the vison for every disciple of Christ, this is the vision. Discipling nations is the vision, and that is the vision we must write plainly upon tablets and we must run with it. It’s a vision not to hide, it’s a vision not to say “O wow it’s a lovely vision”, it’s a vision we must run with. As disciples of Christ as we go into the new year, the Lord is preparing our heart on how to run. The vision we must all without any shadow of doubt run with. It is the vision of discipling nations. And that’s why He wants to show us at the beginning, what was the heart of God about discipling nations.
The vision did not start in Matthew 28, Jesus was now committing it again, it was the heart of God from the beginning. I want us to see Genesis 12, so that we understand that discipling nations is the heart of God. It is not a new vision that Jesus came about. He said as I hear my Father say I say, as I see my Father do I do. God has been big about discipling nations. It is not something that started when Jesus came on the scene. No! It has always been the same agenda. Genesis 12:2, I want us to start from verse 1. “Now the Lord had said to Abram “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.” God found a man called Abraham, and God said come out and in verse 2 God showed him the picture of the future.
Remember Habakkuk 2 that we read, it said the vision, this promise is yet for an appointed time, it says it looks as if it will tarry but wait for it. And we are going to see that in this Scripture. It says I will make you; this is God speaking to Abraham, “I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you, and in you; one man, and in you Abram all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
What was God doing with this man? It appears to us as though God is discipling one man, right? But what was the end of that discipling? That God will disciple a nation. When God encountered Abraham, God was not looking at one man, God was looking at a nation. As disciples of Christ, as children of God, as sons of the kingdom, we must understand this kingdom principle, this is how God sees things. When God is talking about discipling nations, He is not talking about going to stand beside a very large pulpit in Zimbabwe and you have everybody in Zimbabwe come to you, and you say “yes now I am discipling nations.” No! God discipled Abraham and it was equal to discipling nations. God said concerning Abraham, He said I know Abraham My servant, I know Abraham My friend, I know he will teach his children after Me. What was God saying, even though Abraham is one man, surely, he will become a great nation.
If I can pour into Abraham, he will pour into his descendants. That’s the mindset of God. No wonder in Isaiah 55, God said “My ways are not your ways”, you are always looking for the big and bogus things, when I say don’t despise the days of little beginnings. You are always looking for the mighty things, you are always looking for Me in the things that look so extravagant, and all through the Scripture God showed us that the way He works is that the kingdom of God is like a small mustard seed that falls to the ground and dies and its planted, that grows to become a mighty tree that the birds of the air nest on. That is discipling nations. That’s the mindset of God, He always starts with a seed, a seed called Abraham. What was God going to do? God was going to disciple a whole nation called Israel, but He started with Abraham. In the heart of God, Israel was the vision, Israel was where He was going. In fact, Israel was still a template, Israel was not the real thing. But see how God started?
God started in Genesis 12 with a man called Abraham, and He said I will make you a great nation. God was not vague about what He was going to do. God was not vague or ignorant about how this thing was going to be. And that’s why He was saying in Habakkuk 2, write this vision upon tablets, if you can capture it, it will come to pass, though it tarries, wait, usually in this side things used to tarry before you guys, but wait it will come to pass. So, discipling nations in the eyes of God is discipling that one person, that Abraham, that family, that man, that woman, that looks insignificant today like the mustard seed. That small girl, that small boy, that looks like a mustard seed today, in the eyes of God that one is a great nation. Just like God did with Abraham, line upon line, precept upon precept. Abraham transited to Isaac, Isaac transited to Jacob and Esau, Jacob became Israel, he transited to the twelve tribes of Israel that became a nation.
God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He said I can't do this thing without telling My friend Abraham, because he will surely become a great nation. See the heart of God, see the model of God. Abraham the seed of mustered, Isaac is still looking small, Jacob and Esau, Jacob became Israel; Israel had twelve sons; the twelve tribes of Israel. And they became a nation. Deuteronomy 14:2, so that we follow the model of God in discipling nations. So that when we step into the new year and God is speaking to us concerning some things, we will not think if it is you God it should be big, it should be mighty, it should be explosive. No! That is why God said don't despise, because if you despise the days of little beginnings you will despise the kingdom. If you despise the small things. That's why the Bible says God use the base things of this world to confound the wise, it looks like how can God be just devoted to one man? What does He want to make out of him? When there are nations, when there is whole land of Sodom. Why is God paying attention? Because God knows what He is going to make out of it.
Deuteronomy 14:2 says: “You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. 2 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” This is talking about Israel. God was telling them about a culture. And that's why when we talk about the kingdom of God, we are talking about the culture of God. When God takes over a life, there is always something called acculturalization. So, there is a way the person used to speak. Because when we talk about discipling nations it's about bringing a people to this experience. To becoming a holy people to the Lord. To becoming chosen, separated, a special treasure above all the people who are on the face of the earth. That's discipling nations.
So, one person that God says “I want you to start speaking to this person, I want you to start moving close, there is an impact I want to make.” There is something I want to do with this life. And I want to use you. And you start moving close to the person, and you start speaking to the person with the words seasoned with grace and you start speaking life into that person, and gradually the person starts changing, the things the person used to say, the person says them no more. The places the person used to go; the person goes there no more. What are you doing? You are discipling nations. Don't take light that small life. Why did the Bible say “heaven rejoices over one soul that turns around and follows God”, heaven rejoices? Because heaven does not see one soul, heaven sees a nation. They rejoice because they see a nation. So how come we are not so excited? How come we are not seeing this in the eyes of God?
That one soul, one life in the eyes of God is a nation. That's The model of God in discipling. And God was speaking concerning Israel here, you are a chosen people, you are a special treasure, is it not the same thing we read in 1 Peter? For you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special people, why? Because you have been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son. One life! At the moment people translate and shift, there is a translocation from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. To the kingdom of Christ. Then a nation has been discipled, you are discipling nations. For you are a chosen generation, You! You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special people, why? because you have been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his dear son.
At the moment people translate and shift, there is a translocation from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light; to the kingdom of Christ, a nation has been discipled. You are discipling nations, you are changing, you are infiltrating that person’s life with the kingdom culture. “Ah! The way you spoke just now is not good, you should speak like this. When you speak, think before you say it. Let bitterness not come out of you, let envy and jealousy not proceed out of your mouth. Let words that come out of your mouth be words that are seasoned with grace.” What are you doing? You are discipling nations. In Jeremiah 31:31-32, the Bible says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.
When God says He is a husband, does it not talk about a marriage? When you disciple nations, what you do is that you marry them to God. There is a union. You bring them into union. And that’s why Jesus was saying in that Matthew 28 that, “baptizing them, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…” getting them married, getting them subsumed, getting them immersed in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, get them married to the trinity. Get them one with the love of the Father, with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. That’s discipling nations. It’s not enough to just say to somebody, “Jesus loves you.” Connect them to the grace of Jesus, all things that have been freely given to you in Christ. Connect them to the fellowship with the Holy Spirit, that’s when its perfect, that’s when you have truly discipled. And that’s why you will see all through the Scriptures, in the early church, that the apostles of the Lamb; the disciples of Jesus, they would go into a place and they will pray for a people and the Holy Spirit will fall on them because it’s not enough for them to understand the love of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s not a complete package until they connect to the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
So, you are introducing them into a complete kingdom culture. A complete kingdom curriculum, the effectiveness of God in their lives. That was the model of God. And that’s why Abraham, when God called him out of his father’s house, God didn’t just leave him “Ah! I have won over Abraham; Abraham is now a disciple” He continued with God. God told him, “Abraham, walk before me and be perfect. Abraham, you know at this point, you need to circumcise yourself. In fact, circumcise your entire household because I want a mark to be on you that you belong to me. I just don’t want you to be like everybody on the face of the earth. I want a mark on you and your descendants.” And that’s why Apostle Paul will say, let no man trouble me, for I bear on my body the mark of Christ. The discipling journey is a wholistic journey. We can go back and read the story of Abraham and how God discipled him, it’s a model. It’s such a model that makes it effective for us to be able to understand what Jesus is saying in Matthew 28. As short as those verses are, they are loaded, “Baptizing them, go, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Verse 20, “teaching them,” you need to teach them, this is the wholistic picture of discipleship. “Teaching them, to observe all things that I have commanded you.” So, as a disciple of Christ, you have an instruction, have you been commanded? What has Christ commanded you? That is what you disciple with. What has Christ commanded you? When you encountered Christ, what did He command you? What did you receive from Him? Freely, freely, you have received. Freely, freely give. What are you giving? Have you received? “Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you and lo, I am with you,” I am not with powerless, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. I am not with you helpless, No! I am not with you hopeless, No! I am with you with all authority. I am with you with all authority in heaven and on earth. So, disciple with confidence, Christ is with you. Disciple with confidence. So, when you disciple nations. You bring them into a marriage relationship with the trinity. God becomes their husband. They are married to God. They are married to Christ. Disciple them to the point where they become a chosen people, a treasure, a special treasure in the hands of God.
In Jeremiah 2:2-3, the Bible says: “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, In a land not sown. 3 Israel was holiness to the Lord, The first fruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; Disaster will come upon them,” says the Lord.” Now see what God was saying about a people discipled by Him. He said, see, “the love of your betrothal,” you have been betrothed, you have been given over to me in marriage. I have married you. When God was going to set the children of Israel free from the bondage of Egypt, it was so that they will have fun? No! He said, “go and tell Pharaoh let my people go, that they may worship me, that they may serve me, that they may love me, let them go.” So, usually, when you are going out on an assignment to disciple nations, the nations are not free. They are in bondage somewhere, they are tied and preoccupied by something, there is already a culture existing, there is a life they are already living. They are not clueless.
You know, my husband was sharing with me, you realize that when you speak to people about purpose and they say, what’s purpose about? Am I not succeeding? Am I not doing well? And he said something, and that word stuck to him. He said, it’s not as if people are not doing well, it’s not like they are not prospering but they are doing it and going in a wrong direction. The children of Israel were having children, they had family, they were eating and drinking but they were in a wrong land. They were under a wrong leadership and they were oppressed and were in bondage. And you ask yourself, is it that they did not know or they were not aware that they were being oppressed? They were! But they became accustomed to it because if you go through the book of Exodus, at some point, when they were thirsty, they wanted water and they were somewhere that there was no water, and they were thirsty. They said to Moses, so you brought us out from where we were eating and drinking? In the land of bondage oh! People that they were making bricks for themselves. And still working with the same bricks. They will go and source materials for themselves. They will make bricks themselves. They will still work on the bricks by themselves. They were under slavery and bondage but they still said, at least we were eating, at least we had water.
So, when you are going to meet people, there is already something they are accustomed to, there is something they are used to but God is saying, go and disciple them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Deliver them out of Egypt to Israel, bring them to the land flowing with milk and honey that I have promised them, the kingdom. So that they can see and enjoy true life in the right direction. So, when you meet people, when you encounter people, it’s not as if they are not living but is it the true life? It’s not as if they are not making some form of progress but is it in the right direction? So, this vision that God said we should write upon tablets, whether you are on the mountain of education, or entertainment or religion, any mountain that Jesus has appointed you. It’s not as if these people are not making progress but ask yourself, is this what God has planned and purposed for them? If the answer is no, disciple them. That’s our assignment. That’s the heart of God for His people, that they are translated from the kingdom of darkness, from Egypt, to the kingdom of his dear Son; a land flowing with milk and honey so that they become betrothed to the Lord, married to the Lord their God, the one that formed them, the one that made them in His image and His likeness. And God said, I remember you, I remember the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you were married to me, I remember the love you had. When you went after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown, you went after Me.
This is the state God wants the people to come to; where they have love for God, where there is true sincere love in their hearts for God, where their hearts pants after God, that no matter what is going on in their lives, as long as God is pleased, as long as God is glorified, as long as God is honored, as long as they are in the center of God’s will for their lives, they are satisfied. But as disciples of Christ, you can’t give what we don’t have, what has Christ commanded you? He said, “teaching them to observe, all that I have commanded you.” What has Christ commanded you that you can teach?
As we go into the new year as disciples of Christ, this is the vision God wants us to write upon tablets and He wants us to run with it. Go therefore into all the nations, discipling them. And He has shown us. When God was going to disciple Israel, He didn’t start with the whole nation. He didn’t gather people together and say, you know what, “all you people, I want to disciple you.” No! He started with Abraham, He planted the seed in one man and he multiplied offspring. He filled the earth with a seed. He started with a seed. When God was going to change the world, the whole earth to follow after Him, He planted a seed of righteousness, Christ Jesus. And Jesus became the first born of many brethren. He became the mold into which all of us are made righteousness unto God. We are made righteous unto God in the mold of Christ. So, God wants a nation filled.
It starts from one man, a seed. That’s the culture of the kingdom and He multiples and fills the earth with that seed. God doesn’t want a crowd, He is not interested because God is particular about quality, it’s not about quantity. It’s about the quality of life. Who are the people that He wants to fill the earth with? They must be those that are discipled and baptized in His name.
I believe you have learnt something!!
