Over the last several weeks we have been looking at the passage most well-known as the Great Commission. Three weeks ago we saw that it is essentially a mission briefing, giving Christians a mission objective, make disciples, and then listing the means by which that objective is to be accomplished, going, baptizing, and teaching. Today we turn to the last of these, teaching.

Specifically, Jesus instructs believers to make disciples by “teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20a). So right away we see that it is not just teaching that we are instructed to do, but specifically teaching new disciples to “observe” or as other translations have it to “obey.”

Let us focus on the latter portion, the observation, before we return to the former, the teaching. We need to keep in mind that in the ancient Greco-Roman world discipleship was a very specific thing. If you were a disciple of a particular teacher it meant that you were a follower and emulator of that specific teacher. It would not have been possible to be a disciple of a teacher and not then take the things they said about how to live life and conduct yourself seriously. You can be a fan of something without being a disciple.

As a student of history, I am a fan of the work of Steven Ambrose. I like the way that he used narrative and storytelling to inform his readers about the past. I am not, however, a disciple of Ambrose. There are things that he did, playing a little fast and loose with his citations on occasion as one example, that lead me to say that while I love reading his work, I am not going to emulate him in all that he did and taught.

There are many in our world that claim to be fans of Jesus. They love what he has to say, are drawn to him, see value in what He taught, but they are not disciples. They are not committed to emulating and following the Master. They want to take what they want from Him and that be the end of it. The instructions of the Great Commission are to make disciples, not fans. Therefore, there must be obedience on the part of these new disciples, but they we come back to the first part to answer the question “obedience to what?”

At its most basic level this obedience to be to the teachings of Jesus. This might seem self evident, but I do think that we need to be clear. It is not to the teachings of the Church, or this or that teacher of the church that we are to obey. Rather it is the teachings of Jesus that we are to call people. Of course, there are plenty of faithful, biblical teachers out there that have done exactly this and it is fine and wonderful to look to them to help us teach new disciples, but ultimately the only standard is Christ himself, and His Word.

In Matthew 7 at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives the illustration of the houses built, one on solid foundation and one on sinking sand. Jesus tells us that the solid foundation is not just hearing what He has taught, but also doing it, or observing it. This is what provides the solid foundation for folks. But in order for people to observe what Jesus taught, we have to pass them on, teach them.

I recently came across a quote from Scottish Puritan Thomas Boston: “Repentance is not the work of a day, but of a whole lifetime.” This is so true. Sometimes we wish that sanctification, growing in Christ-likeness, was an overnight, instantaneous thing. How wonderful would it be to come up out of the waters of baptism and be suddenly and fully sanctified! That would be amazing, but that is not how it works.

Growing to be more like Christ, learning to “observe all he has commanded us” is the work of a lifetime. There is a sense here that the teaching is to be ongoing, not something that happens only once and is done. It will only be when we throw off this corruptible, mortal body that we will be fully clothed in incorruptibility. Until then, we must lean on Jesus and by His power, not our own, root out and kill the sin that is in our life.

Praise God I don’t, and in fact can’t, have do it on my own!

Points to ponder:

1) If we are instructed to teach, does that mean that we have a responsibility to learn and educate ourselves?

2) How can we instruct folks to observe without falling into a form of works righteousness?

3) Name three ways that you are going to more closely observe what Jesus has taught you this week. Name one person that you are going to teach something about Jesus this week.