Daily Devotionals

Trouble Maker Week 10: Saturday

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

“Wait! You still have a job to do!” Have you ever said this before? Have you ever been told this before? I have to remind my nephew and niece sometimes that they must finish cleaning the mess they made quite often. Maybe it is because they forgot, or maybe they think their job cleaning was sufficient (it wasn’t!). Either way, I have to remind them when their “job,” to tidy up isn’t quite over. Now, to be honest, their neglect of this job is very low stakes. If their cleaning up is incomplete, someone will pick up the slack. That isn’t the case, though, with Jesus’ commission. 

Before Jesus left earth and returned to Heaven, He let His followers know that they still had a job to do. Their most important jobs were on the horizon. Since He was about to leave earth, He wanted His followers to know to continue carrying out His ministry. Here is what He said in Matthew 28:19-20, shortly before He returned to heaven: “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Jesus was telling His followers to keep going after He returned to Heaven. They were to be the ones to make disciples and teach them about the life that can be found in Jesus. Specifically, Jesus called His followers to make disciples by teaching and baptizing them, just as He had done.

This was not only a calling for His disciples, but it is also our calling, too. And this calling gives us a sense of purpose. When we lean into our calling and make our life’s mission to share God’s message with others, we continue His mission that He started with His 12 disciples all of those years ago. We also find purpose and fulfillment as we carry out His calling. So may we commit our lives to this same mission of Jesus and be about disciple-making every day.

Moving toward action

Are you going to take this command from Jesus seriously? If we want to make disciples, we must spend time around people who need to hear that message. Do you know someone who needs to hear that message? If so, share it with them today. If not, how can you reorient your life to spend time around people far from God? Perhaps you can begin to have conversations with other parents at your child’s soccer practice, get to know other gym members and strike up meaningful conversations with them, or have a consistent weekly or bi-weekly lunch with a coworker who does not know Christ. Whatever you decide, commit to spending time with those who do not know Christ and pray for them daily.

Going Deeper

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NLT)

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."