There is a big difference between being a believer and a disciple. Most people probably don’t stop and really think about this. Most people probably picture a bearded man in sandals when the hear the word disciple. What’s more, most people probably tend to think that the end of their faith journey culminates in their belief, in their salvation moment. A lifetime spent away from God pivots upon the events of one morning, wherein a person’s heart becomes inexplicably soft—by a pointed sermon or a moment of worship or even the power withheld in the very name of Jesus himself—they respond to that altar call, confess their sins, give their life to Christ, and then for many, they’re done. Not so for the disciple.

Getting saved by Jesus is the easiest task one could ever hope to perform. One doesn’t have to accomplish anything by their own cleverness or effort. One doesn’t need to do anything period. Except surrender their pride and accept the gift. It is, after all, the Holy Spirit who is doing the saving anyway. It’s his work to his glory; not yours. Consider it this way: if salvation were the goal for humanity, if it alone was the charge of the Great Commission, then Scripture would read, “Go into all the world and save people.” Instead it reads, “make disciples of all nations.” Disciples, unlike Christians, are not born. They are made.

Concerning the passage from Matthew above, before the charge to his disciples to go make more disciples, Jesus commands the remaining eleven to go to “the mountain” in Galilee. Scholars have debated to which Galilean mountain he directed them. Some have argued that it was perhaps Mt. Carmel, where Elijah slew the false prophets of Baal. Others have suggested Mt. Table. I personally believe that it was Mt. Hermon, a coastal mountain overlooking Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus had once taken his disciples and proclaimed “I will build my church” (Matthew 16: 13-20). It is this same mountain that Peter, James, John, and Jesus ascend in Matthew 17, where the Lord appears transfigured and meets with Moses and Elijah. Mt. Hermon is, in short, a significant site to the disciples, and thus likely the one mentioned in this week’s passage.

So here Jesus takes all eleven disciples and, overlooking the pagan colony of Caesarea Philippi and all the sinners within, he commands, “Go and make disciples of all the nations.” What, then, is the difference between the saved and the disciples? For one thing, discipleship is necessarily beyond salvation. It’s the next, big step in one’s faith walk. Again, being saved is easy; becoming a disciple, on the other hand, takes work. It takes, according to this passage, first being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, this naturally constitutes an actual physical water baptism by which one publicly and symbolically demonstrates their physical death and rebirth in Christ, but it also suggests that we are to be baptized in the name, or, in other words, immersed in the spirit of God. God has a hand in our salvation, to be sure, but He also guides us toward discipleship after He finally gets His hands on our lives.

We must get out of His way so that He may do so, however. One must never underestimate the power of his own will. As C.S. Lewis once suggested, the spirit of God “cannot ravish. He can only woo.” So if the God of Heaven, who merely spoke the cosmos into existence, can approach the door of your spirit but cannot (or rather, will not) force His way through, then we can conclude that a man’s will is a strangely powerful thing. So to become a disciple, finally, we must allow God to take our hand and lead us deeper into Himself. Once this happens, we’ll begin to feel convicted about our sin. We’ll begin to actually want to spend time in prayer, in worship, and in the Word. Getting saved, you see, cleanses our spirit but doesn’t change our bad habits or attitudes. Going deeper into God’s teachings and truths is what ultimately transforms our lives from believers to disciples. We begin to talk differently, act differently. We begin, in short, to live our faith as well as believe it.

A challenge facing Christianity today is that we have a great many Christians and too few disciples. We need more disciples in the kingdom, more Christians walking out, not just believing in, their faith. If the original eleven disciples multiplied and, in time, transformed the the Roman Empire from a land of unrestrained paganism to the site of the early Church, how much more of an impact will a kingdom of disciples have today? Certainly have we more than eleven disciples at the present moment. Our focus, then, as a Church should be to foster a community of discipleship, and not belief only.

Discipleship is moving people; whether to a new level in God or to move out of your comfort zone into something new. When a person submits to being a disciple, he or she submits to having someone or someones come into their lives and bring correction.

80% of Christians fail because they do not submit to the discipleship process. It is the reason people start strong but finish weak if they finish at all. You see, a Christian is not a disciple. A Christian is born. When a person comes to Christ, asks Him into his or her life, and is transformed into a new creation, that process is called being “born again.” A Christian is born. And most times, a Christian remains in that place. Christians can remain “baby Christian” for years. They never grow beyond the initial salvation experience; they do not get to the meat and solid foods of the faith.

Disciples are made. Verse nineteen clearly states the command “go make disciples.” A Christian cannot survive strong with the idea that “Jesus is discipling me.” That is un-Biblical. Jesus took twelve men and lived life with them, teaching them and helping them to grow. When He left, He instructed His disciples to do the same. Discipleship is allowing yourself to learn the ways of God and to live those ways. We are called to live a higher calling, to live to the upward call of God, as Paul puts it. You see, God wants to make something of you, and He brings people into your life to make that happen. Disciples are made!

Discipleship comes through relationship. God transforms nations through His people, but He can’t do that if we all remain children. God completes His work through others. If we willing submit to the people God puts in our world, we are submitting to God’s correction. Correction is brought through love and an established relationship. Sometimes, it is a graceless smack-down that hurts, but that sort of adjustment is necessary to grow.

Believers are baby-Christians; Disciples are adult-Christians. The difference between babies and adults is that adults can reproduce. Adult Christians are disciples; they are submitted to God and the people He put around them; and they take the correction and grow from it. How do you know you are a disciples? It is when God uses you to reproduce–to make others into disciples.

John 20:1-18 (NIV): “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead) Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (Which means Teacher). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ “Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.”

Let’s take a trip into the tomb for a minute. The tomb is place where you die with Christ. When you die with Christ, your eyes are opened to the spiritual atmosphere around you. There are things going on around our lives that we have no idea about. As Mary Magdalene ran into the tomb to make sure that Jesus was gone, her eyes were opened to the things inside of the tomb that the disciples had overlooked.

There were three things inside of the tomb, in addition to the Angels sitting in reverence and praise at the head and foot of where Jesus had lain. The first of these things were the strips of linen that Jesus’ body had been clothed in. This means that as Jesus rose from the grave, he donned new garments. For those of us dying with Christ, this means that we become new people. We have the same person inside of us, but we are now clothed with the King of all Kings, with the best of the best. Our attitudes in life are radically changed, and people notice that.

The second thing that is found in the tomb is the burial cloth, the face cloth that covered Jesus’ face as his body lay in the tomb. For us, this means that we will be washed clean of our past, not forgotten, but washed clean. It is a brand new day; the freshness of God is on our lives. We have the brightest of futures to look forward to.

The third thing we find in the tomb is Mary’s humanity. She falls down on her knees and weeps, begging for her savior to be given back to her, to know where his body lay. She died to herself, wanting nothing more than her savior. As she realized who was standing before her, she wept with joy, not sorrow. As we ourselves die with Christ in the tomb, our humanities are also stripped away. As we die to ourselves, we turn around and find our lives in the hands of our savior. Joy floods into our lives, replacing the sorrow.

It is hard to believe what Jesus says sometimes, but his promises are true. Visit the tomb- so that you can die with Christ and come alive with a new life. The same spirit that rose Jesus from the dead is also alive within us. Take a hold of that, and don’t you ever let go.

It is easy to follow Jesus. He was an awesome guy: healing and teaching and being kind to everyone he met. Following him is easy! You pray, you go to church, you tithe, and life is easy, right? What happens when Jesus turns around and says something to you? When He does that, things begin to change.

God will speak something into your life. The relationship changes from followership to discipleship. This is where people tend to back track. People are not comfortable with Jesus speaking back. They prefer to simply follow where nothing is required. However, when Jesus turns around and says, “Come on, let’s go deeper!” Things get complicated.

Jesus will ask you to give some things up. Are you willing to give up your most trusted relationships to follow him? If you are not, you cannot be a disciple of Jesus. Are you willing to love Him more than anything else in your life? If not, you are not ready to be His disciple.

A disciple is someone who learns, a student or pupil; someone who is willing to go beyond following someone. They allow this person to teach them how to live. Being a disciple of Christ means we never reach perfection, but we continue to learn. We apply His teachings into our lives, and slowly but surely, our lives begin to reflect Him. We are always constantly learning.

He takes you deeper than that! He asks you to carry your own cross. Now, dying on a cross is a humiliating way to die. You are placed in front of the whole city where everyone can see your shame as you suffer through the most vulnerable moment in your life. Jesus asks if you are willing to carry your own cross. Are you willing to die everyday? Everyday, will you die to yourself? Jesus is talking about suppressing our humanity every day. Carrying the cross is a reminder of our daily laying down of our life before God for His will and for the servitude of others. God, others, and then yourself; that is what following Jesus is all about.

It’s easy to become a follower. A commitment of faith is the easy part. The commitment is the first step on a journey into discipleship. That requires us to continually lay down our lives. And there is a cost! Jesus warns you not to begin until you have counted the cost. Are you willing to pay the price? What is the price? Everything. God wants everything: dreams, desires, money, future, family, etc…God wants everything. That is the cost of becoming a disciple and of going deeper into God.

A foundation in God is easy. You build a foundation through prayer, spending time with God, reading the Word–the best way to grow is to eat, so feed your spirit with God’s Word–, and going to church. You can’t grow alone, so you come to church and connect, but most people don’t even get to that! Some people don’t like church. Either way, a foundation is laid. But that is simply a foundation. The building is built only when you go deeper.

Matthew 16, Jesus said, “I will build my church!” He builds His church through us. Building the church means coming into the House of God and discovering how to live a better life. Jesus wants to know if you are willing to allow Him to plant a seed in your heart that, if you let Him tend it, will grow into a life-giving tree that will be used to build the church. The seed is faith, and faith goes into a soft heart. Our primary role is to soften people’s hearts by treating them like Jesus would treat them: with love. And then the seed of the Kingdom drops into their lives, and their journey begins.

That is why Jesus turns back and says, “Come on.” He has seen something in you before you were born. He wants to know if you are willing to let Him take you there. Are you willing to go beyond following? To go from selfish (where it’s all about you) to selfless (where the needs of others outweigh yours)? While you are living for yourself, you miss out. You get some of God, but you don’t get all of God. But when you come to the realization that this is not about you, you enter a whole new level. You move beyond followership into discipleship. You pick up your cross; you start to carry it; and life takes on a new perspective.

So, are you ready?