Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Mt. 28:18-20).
Anyone who has spent any time at all in evangelical churches should be familiar with “The Great Commission.” This was Christ’s final command to the church before his ascension and has been the fuel behind world missions for centuries. It is called a co-mission because Jesus works with us to fulfill the mission. It is something we do together.
However, it seems to me that in most of the last hundred years we have missed the mark on this to a great degree in the U.S. Jesus said to make disciples of nations. To disciple an entire nation is a daunting thought but God said, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps.2:7-8). In giving the “Great Commission” to his church wasn’t Jesus asking his Father for the nations?
In 2010, churches in the Untied States sent out 120,000 missionaries to countries around the globe. At the same time, 1500 pastors are leaving their ministries each month in American churches. In addition, although there are 4000 church plants in this country each year, 7000 churches close their doors. As a nation we are heading in the wrong direction. It is clear that the American church is failing to make a disciple of this nation.
In order to disciple a nation two things must happen. First of all, the kingdom of God must be planted in the hearts of the nation’s people. Jesus said that the kingdom is within. Faith and righteousness cannot be legislated in the hearts of a nation’s people. If it could, America would be drug free and the Prohibition era of the 1920’s would have wiped out alcoholism. The kingdom must first bear fruit in the hearts of people. But as the Holy Spirit does his work of transformation, the kingdom of God begins to manifest in the exterior life of the disciple. The salt and light principle then begins to touch culture and when enough culture has been touched, a nation is discipled.
The founding fathers were very clear in their writings that this American experiment could only stand if the people persisted in faith and the morality that comes from faith. A great start does not guarantee a great finish. Although we began as “one nation under God,” we may have forgotten that every new generation must be evangelized and discipled as well. There have been seasons in the past fifty years where there have been upticks in evangelism. The Billy Graham crusades, Campus Crusade, the third wave of the Holy Spirit, Promise Keepers, etc. and we celebrate every person who received Jesus Christ as Lord. But there is a huge difference between being saved and being discipled, between salvation and sanctification.
Salvation separates us from darkness and brings us under the umbrella of God’s grace but sanctification shapes our entire life so that the kingdom of heaven is reflected in all that we do. When that happens Jesus touches other people and culture through us. The culture of heaven then begins to flow through us to our family, to our friends, to business, education, media, recreation and politics. What we see in America today is that the devil has been much more effective at making disciples and touching culture than the church has been.
Part of that is because the church has led significant numbers to Christ but has stopped short of discipling those who have come. Discipleship takes time, energy and an extended commitment to a new Christian. As Americans, we are far too busy to make those kinds of commitments and so we outsource our discipleship to the 700 Club, Sunday School, and community Bible studies. We even do that with our children rather than taking personal responsibility to disciple them through both teaching and modeling. The model Jesus used was the Rabbinical model of choosing a few promising students and then doing life together – teaching, modeling, handing off responsibilities, etc. It still takes that.
There really is a war raging in the heavenlies over the soul of America. The disciples of the enemy have chipped away at the culture of heaven in our country until we are truly at a tipping point. Millions of unborn children have died at the hands of those who swore first “to do no harm.” Prayer and God’s word have been ejected from schools where this generation of children is being discipled by a secular culture. The media has effectively normalized sin and made it “cute” or acceptable so that evil is called good and good is called evil. From the enemy’s perspective, America is strategic. If America falls into darkness who stands with Israel? Who exports the gospel through missions all over the world? Who feeds the hungry in starving nations? Who stands against Sharia Law that will make faith in Jesus a capital crime?
Jesus has asked his Father for the nations and God has commissioned his church to bring those to the Son. America is sliding away and Satan has ramped up the attack. Will the church respond or continue to compromise and secularize itself for the sake of being “accepted and relevant.” When we are accepted by a secular culture we are no longer reflecting Christ because the world has always hated Christ. Can the nation be turned around? If not the entire world loses.
It can be turned around just as every nation can be brought to Jesus. We are to make disciples of all nations but that means not just saving but also discipling the citizens of that nation so that God’s love, values, and righteousness begin to permeate the cultural landscape once again. Every mature believer has that mandate. Go and make a disciple. I know many mature believer but very few are intentionally mentoring or discipling those who are young in the faith. Very few are intentionally taking a believer from the waters of baptism to a submitted like in Christ that is impacting everything it touches with the life of Jesus. Let me encourage you today to ask God to give you one or two believers to do life with and to disciple so that they can disciple others and take back a nation for whom Jesus died. It takes time, energy, commitment and a lot if inconvenience. But the Great Commission was not just a great suggestion.
