In Matthew 28, Jesus told his disciples to make disciples of all nations, and his methods of teaching gave them incredibly powerful tools to execute the vision. This series of reflections based on the book of John shows that Jesus is the model for our own discipling and we should look to him, learn from him, and seek to be like him in our ministry.

Posts in this series:

1. Hospitality
2. Mission
3. Emotion
4. Monologue & Dialogue
5. Stupid Questions
6. The Heart
7. Testing
8. Object Lessons
9. Discomfort
10. Sending & Praying
11. Pointing to the Father
12. Pointing to the Spirit
13. Dying
14. Jesus Equips
15. Jesus’ Teaching Methods

Vintage Church

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

We're excited to announce the first Resurgence conference in Southern California—Exchange: The Truth & The Lie. This is going to be a completely different conference than we've ever done—excellent for pastors, but so practical that you can bring the whole church congregation.

What will it be about?

According to Romans chapter 1, we've all exchanged the truth for the lie and we worship created things instead of the Creator, God. This conference will look at a dozen areas of life and how we've accepted the lie. You and your church will be challenged, taught, and encouraged to live a life worshiping Jesus and turning away from the idols that you may not even know you serve.

Speakers include:

Mark Driscoll
Peter Jones
Francis Chan
Kevin DeYoung
and many more session speakers...

Street team members needed (Free swag involved)

We need several dozen volunteers in Southern California to sign up to let churches in the area know about this conference. Fill out the below form, and we'll send you everything you need (and possibly some bonus goodies).

John Piper at Mars Hill

John Piper is coming to Mars Hill Church's Ballard campus on Feb. 26th. Register now.

How Jesus Made Disciples series: Click | View Series

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. (Matt. 16:13–20)

In this Scripture, Jesus uses his rhetorical style to lead Peter to understand his role. Jesus doesn't ask questions because he needs to know the answer; he asks questions to cause the subject to think.

Observational Question

Jesus asks the disciples a question that has concrete observable answer. They answer it correctly, giving the several categories of Jesus' identity.

Follow-up Question

After receiving an accurate answer, Jesus drills down to the point: "Who do YOU say I am?" At this point Jesus knows they've identified what the crowds think, and he knows they've thought about it. Now he calls on them personally to take a risk and tell him what they really think.

Confirmation and Affirmation

When Peter answers the question correctly Jesus exclaims that he is correct, giving him both confirmation and affirmation on what he just said. He will likely not forget that the teacher was so pleased with his answer.

Explanation

Jesus could have ended with a confirmation, but he didn't. It would have likely gone to Peter's head. Jesus takes this as a teaching time so that they learn that faith isn't by deductive reasoning, inductive hypothesis, or emotional experience--it's the active work of the Father in heaven.

Empowerment

Finally, Jesus used the lessons that the disciples learned through this interaction to empower them to use the knowledge. Jesus paints the picture of a quite extraordinary circumstance. This fisherman was not only going to go to heaven, but have the keys--how could this be? He was going to somehow assault the gates of hell with more power and authority than all of the demons that hold them in place?

Knowing that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God has enough authority to give sinners a seat in heaven and the power to stare down the gates of hell and all of its demons and be unafraid, because of the unlimited power of God the Father.

Porn Again Christian

Pastor Mark Driscoll's frank discussion on pornography and masturbation is now available from Amazon. Find out more.

Above is a video that made me tear up a bit to see two strangers get to worship Jesus in such a sincere way—the action starts at 0:30.

Apparently they were shooting a music video for a Sunday service and a homeless man came into the frame and started singing to Jesus out of the blue—wow.

It's been a long time since I posted without having someone edit it first, but I thought this was too good to wait. Please share this with friends on Facebook and Twitter if you think they'll benefit.

This video is from @loswhit and the guys at Buckhead in Atlanta.

How Jesus Made Disciples series: Click | View Series

Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."(Matt. 28:18-20)

How did Jesus equip his disciples for disciple-making?

In Matthew 28, Jesus told the disciples to make disciples of all nations. This is one of the largest tasks ever attempted--seemingly impossibly large, but he also gave them unimaginably powerful tools to execute the vision. How do 11 guys make several billion disciples? We will answer this question in several parts.

Jesus rose from the dead and gave them a mission.

This could be an easy point to miss, but they had the motivation of seeing a dead man rise to spur them on to the mission to which Jesus called them. They saw the gospel in action. This isn't some philosophical or religious superstition--when dead men rise, the power of God is present.

Eleven ordinary guys need to somehow make billions of disciples. Logic would dictate that many photocopies of an already less-than-perfect set of men will lead to a real jacked-up church in the future. But God has given his disciples a set of tools.

Jesus gives the power to baptize.

Anyone can dunk another person in water. It can be done at a carnival with a softball, or in a toilet by a bully at school, but it takes the authority and work of God to put someone underwater as a symbol of their being crucified with Christ and raised again to live in the power of Christ for the work of the Gospel. The disciples have been given the gift of baptism, meaning that they have been given the power that was once reserved for only the most holy of priests and prophets. Now these fishermen who spent about enough time to get a community college degree from Jesus are able to carry that kind of authority--and they'll need it to work towards the immense task they've been given.

Jesus gives them the directive to teach.

Jesus taught the disciples all they would need to know for the mission he's given them. They have the Old Testament, they have the teaching of Jesus, and they have the Holy Spirit--this is sufficient, and now they must teach others. They must preach, they must be ready to give an answer for the hope within them, they must model Christ-like living, they must raise children who honor God, model families that honor the Lord, and build communities that bow down before the throne.

Jesus will remain with them.

Jesus promises that they are never alone in their mission. The Father is always watching from his throne--holding the earth and everything that's on it in place. Jesus is beside him, fully sovereign over everything on earth, and the Spirit is actively moving among the hearts and minds of the disciples. Jesus is with them--to the very end.

Conclusion

These things that God gave may not seem like enough--we want a staff like Moses that does magical things, or the ability to walk on water, or something that shows that we have power. But what we have is more--it's the authority of the King.

Resurgence Literature

Re:Lit is a ministry of Resurgence. There you will find a growing line of books to help guide the resurgence of the new reformed. Find out more.

The Resurgence is a still a toddler organization. We are getting 100% of our funding from Mars Hill Church, and it's time to grow up. We need regular donors to give monthly to help the Resurgence continue on its mission to train missional leaders.

If we had 200 people commit to giving $20 to $50 per month, we could make several crucial new hires that would help us multiply the work we're doing— a conference organizer to coordinate the many events we do, an administrator to improve communication and organize our team, and a project manager to take on large projects.

Resurgence Podcasts

Get all the latest audio sermons, interviews, and lectures delivered straight to you as soon as they are released. Find out more.

Jesus dies for his disciples

Perhaps the most important of all of the intentions of Jesus with his disciples is that he died for them. He humbled himself, came down to their level, and paid with his own blood, sweat, tears, and life so that they could have eternal life.

We cannot die for our disciples in the same way Jesus does, but we can die in the Galatians 2 way of being crucified with Christ and not living of our own accord, but that Christ is living, active, and working through us. What we need to do is not die for our disciples, but point them to the One who did with such vigor that they can't get around it.

They must know that Jesus died for them.

Conclusion

Jesus is the great teacher. He used object lessons two millennia before any megachurch pastor drove a tank on to a stage. He preached in such a way that thousands traveled for days to hear his words. He prayed with a fervor that no one has experienced yet. Jesus is the model for our discipling. We must look to him, learn from him, and seek to be like him in our ministry.

This is a series of reflections on how Jesus made disciples, based on the book of John.

Re:Train

We are launching The Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train) to prepare leaders for ministry locally and around the world. Additional details and downloadable application form here.

Heretics tend to be really good at raking in the dough—we're not. We don't want to be in the business of making products to fulfill market demand—and we also don't want to guilt people into giving. What we want is to help equip missional leaders and have them be generous back to us.

Costs

There are a ton of costs associated with organizing and running a ministry like the Resurgence. We could charge a fee to access our content, but we don't want to have to do that. We'd much rather our readers decide if all of the resources that we provide are worth giving toward. Please realize that we are doing everything we can to be generous, and we would really appreciate you being generous back.

Death By Love

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears tackle some of the most serious redemptive aspects of Jesus' work in these twelve letters of counsel to individuals. Find out more.

I'm incredibly thankful to God that he's given us the grace to see such a good friend and godly man worship Jesus in the midst of a major brain surgery—to see trials not discourage him, but instead to build him up to worship Jesus, pastor his people, and love his family through this time.

Reflection

Now is the time to reflect on Pastor Matt's attitude of thanks:

"There is a part of me that's so grateful that the Lord counted me worthy for this... because now in an area where it's not a big win I get to show that he's enough. And I get to praise him and exalt him and make much of him in this [trial]."

Rebuild the Resurgence website

The Resurgence website is looking old on the front—and believe me you don't want to see how dusty things are on the back-end. We are hoping to use donated money to rebuild the website from the ground up using the Mars Hill Media library as a backbone. It will allow us to improve our blogging and let people find the huge archive of media that we have.

Expand Re:Train

For the inaugural year we were able to accept 80 masters students into Re:Train—to be taught by professors like John Piper, Ed Stetzer, Gregg Allison, and Mark Driscoll (to name just a few). We want to expand this program—we are currently researching the possibility of regional Re:Train campuses, training multiple times more pastors each year.

San Diego Conference in June 2010

We're going to have a large conference in San Diego, and you should get it on your calendar immediately--June 17-18, 2010 (details to come). This is not your normal conference—the speakers will be working together to build a holistic Christ-centered worldview based on Romans 1. It will be called "Exchange: The Truth and the Lie." It will use multimedia to illustrate the fact that we tend to worship creation instead of the Creator. We are really excited about the mix of speakers and topics; keep watching the Resurgence to get the details.

Launch 3 Books

Look for the launch of several new books from Re:Lit:

• Doctrine (March 2010)
• Leaders Who Last (February 2010) — a book by Mars Hill's most experienced pastor, Dave Kraft
• Church Planter — a book by Acts 29's vice president, Darrin Patrick

If you believe in our vision to train missional leaders, consider supporting us by giving to the Mars Hill Global Fund at marshillchurch.org/give.

Recommended Books

A collection of fantastic reading material on various important topics, used and shared by Pastor Mark Driscoll. Find out more.