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.

Vision is what drives us. If we don’t have vision, we go nowhere. As a man thinks, so he becomes.

You can only go so far without Divine power. Man’s wisdom only goes so far. When we reach our limits, and don’t want to accept defeat, we need to go to prayer. The only thing that can do anything is God, and we have his power inside of us when we give our live to Christ. There is nothing more powerful spiritually than when you give your heart to God.

The doorway into the power of God is the understanding of the promises of God- the Bible. If you don’t understand the words of God, then you will not understand the power of God. It is our job to get into the Bible, and get to know what God says about our lives. Stuff is going to happen in our lives; we are going to get challenged. We need to put the promises from the Bible into practice in our lives. When we step over into the supernatural, we are unstoppable.

Birthing anything, especially a church, takes commitment and a willingness to serve, whatever the need. There are many “things” that make a church run…not just “your thing”. When someone asks you to do something that is not your thing, that is your moment to choose. Are you going to be a source of division in the church or are you going to help bring that “thing” together?

God used the unlikely to grow the early church. Stephen and Phillip cared for the poor and the widows in the early church. They were the food bringers, not the apostles preaching the gospel to the masses or the ones “on the stage” that everyone noticed.

But, when it came down to it, God used them to bring about an explosion of the faith. Philip birthed a revival in a Gentile land. Stephen’s death inspired Christians to prayer and boldness. God used them because of their hearts, and made them leaders because they were willing to put their pride aside and serve God in whatever way He asked them to. You go nowhere with God if you serve in the house to be seen. If you want to do something in the house, then you need to be prepared to feed the widows.

Being a leader is about taking control and taking people to the next level. It is also about training people up to do that thing that is yours. Good leaders train, empower and release people to do things even better than they do. Thats the only way to grow something.

For example, it is not the pastor’s job to grow the church. It is his job to lead and empower the body so that they can go out, minister, reach others and bring them into the house.

There are 3 main things to look for in a leader:

1-Respect on the inside and outside – Leaders are people that have their lives together. They understand that it isn’t what you do in public that defines who you are. It is how you live your life when no one is watching.

2-Filled with the holy spirit

3-Wisdom – Leaders know its not about the glory of man. They know that when we do things for God to see we will get a glimpse of the glory of God. Thats true leadership

It’s not always about the calling of God; its also about the gifting. God gives us gifts that he wants us to use for Him. If our hearts are right, he will bring us into the full manifestation of those gifts. Don’t get hung up on “your calling.” Just because you are over one ministry, doesn’t mean that you won’t preach the word or reach the world. But you have to be wiling to serve the need now and show God that He has your heart. It’s not about your ministry, it’s about the move of God, and God moves through those whose hearts are open and soft towards Him.

When your heart is soft, you can hear the voice of God and sense the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Understand the voice of the Holy Spirit. Be obedient and move! It’s not about your calling, its about church growth. If you are willing to serve the house, you will find your calling. Once you decide that you are all in, things will begin to happen.

Discover who you are in the house by serving. The most important parts of the body are the ones you can’t see. The heart carries the body, which is the church.