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>>Ankerberg: We’ve talked about to make disciples, first of all, you’ve got to be
a disciple. But now, you want to get to point number two of how do you make disciples?
>>Gallaty: Yeah. Up to this point, we should be convinced of the fact that we need to be
disciplined in our Christian life. But the question is, Robby, how do we make disciples
and why do we make disciples? I want to just give it to you in three points.
First of all, Jesus mandated it. Any questions? You know, Jesus said, “Go, therefore, and
make disciples.” That is the thrust of the command. Through the years we have misunderstood
the command. We have thought “going” is a command, or “teaching” is a command,
or “baptizing” is the command. But those are participles which undergird the command
“make disciples.” So, Jesus mandated it. Secondly, he modeled it. In John 17, it’s
called the high priestly prayer. It’s the prayer where Jesus gets alone with the Father,
right before going to the cross. And He gets alone with God and He says these interesting
words in verse 4, “I have completed the work that you gave me to do.” That word
“completed” is the same word, John, that He used on the cross when He said, “It is
finished.” What he’s saying is, it’s done. “You gave me a task to do and I have
done it.” And so the natural question is, what was the task that God gave Him to do?
Now, most people would say, well, it was to go to the cross to die for all the sins of
the world. And that’s true. But the problem is that hadn’t happened yet. This is prior
to the crucifixion. Some may say, well, God instructed Him to do miracles. And that was
true, but not in this passage. Maybe God instructed Him to teach. And that’s true, but not in
this passage. If you study the context of John 17, and I invite people to do that, you
will see that 40 times in that passage, Jesus refers to the men that God gave Him to do.
Listen to it in verse 6 when he says this in John 17, “I have manifested your name
to the people whom you gave me out of the world, yours they were, and you gave them
to me and they have kept your word.” Do you see it? All through the text Jesus said,
“God, you gave me a task to do, and I completed the task. And the task was to replicate my
life into the life of other people, namely the apostles.