The Ongoing Mission of the Disciples
"...everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher " Luke 6:40
After they witnessed the resurrection and were baptized with the Holy Spirit the real work for the disciples began. Under any circumstances, what Jesus asked them to do was an overwhelming task, maybe even bordering on impossible. For one thing, they had no idea how big the world really was. There were no maps or atlases or GPS to guide them "to the ends of the earth." There were no trains or automobiles or planes to speed them from community to community to spread the good news. Yet they went and due to their success, and the success of other disciples who came after them, the Gospel has now reached to almost every corner of the earth.
The process of disciple-making is really very simple. First a person transitions from unbelief to believing, from being a sinner, to be being forgiven and set free. With this initial step the person becomes a follower of Jesus. The first disciples spent a few years as followers. Jesus patiently did life with them and allowed them to mostly watch what He did and listen as He taught. Then sometimes He would send them out to practice what they had seen and heard.
Through the time they spent as followers they were gradually changed. Fishermen learned the skills to make a presentation that resulted in new people for the Kingdom instead of fish caught in a net. A tax collector was transformed from extracting money from people to giving people strategies to cope in a difficult world. A zealot who was ready to take up arms and lead a rebellion against Rome became a peacemaker intent on building a different kind of Kingdom.
As the disciples were changed they found themselves so dedicated to the mission of Jesus that threats of death, pain, persecution and even facing certain death had no impact on them and their mission. In fact the more they suffered the more they felt like they were honouring the memory of Jesus.
Like me, most of you reading this article have been Jesus followers for a long time. When we look at our lives we are hardly recognizable from what we were when we started the journey as Jesus followers. We have been changed by the presence of God through the Holy Spirit in our lives. And now it is our turn to be on mission with Jesus. Those who have come before us have been faithful and we too must be faithful and obedient to the call to go and make disciples. This Kingdom movement started with a few followers in Jerusalem. It has grown to 2.38 billion people. This makes Jesus Kingdom the largest religious movement in the world today. While we can celebrate this success we need to remember the job is not done. We still need to reach about 5.7 billion people with the Good News. This seems like an overwhelming task bordering on impossible but let's remember this is a mission Jesus chose for us and He has promised to be with us to help us right up to the end of the age.
