Making disciples. That’s it… the goal of our Christian walk. Leading others to follow Christ is our ultimate purpose.
Right?
Some of you are probably familiar with the John Piper quote, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” Our God is worthy of all people’s worship. So, out of love for God and love for people, we endeavor to lead those who aren’t currently worshiping God to do so. In other words, the purpose of making disciples is that people will worship God.
And this rings true in Scripture, doesn’t it? From the Ten Commandments (Ex 20, Dt 5) to the Great Commandment (Mt 22:36-40, Mk 12:28-31), God is concerned with people worshiping and loving himself above anything he created. This means that we are to subject ourselves to his lordship, obeying his commands. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3). In obeying God, we worship him.
Therefore, we can worship God by obeying Jesus’ Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:18-20). And we must worship God by making disciples of all nations… it is, after all, a command. Worshiping God by being a witness of Jesus is why God has left us on this earth until Christ returns. For worshiping God in heaven would surely be “far better,” but worshiping him in the meantime by discipling others is “necessary on [their] account” (Ph 1:21-24).
Yet in all this, we must be mindful that making disciples is only a piece of the puzzle which, when put together, is a complete life of worshipping God.
It only makes sense, really. How are we to expect people to listen to us when we tell them to be baptized if we have not been baptized ourselves? How are we to teach them all that Jesus has commanded us if we don’t know and practice his commands ourselves? Making disciples is certainly an act of worship, but aren’t prayer, studying, giving, singing, and thanking also acts of worship?
It stands to reason, then, that you can’t make disciples well if you aren’t also doing these other things. So our encouragement to you is to worship God. By making disciples, yes, but also by not neglecting the other worshipful acts of the Christian life. While disciple-making will pass away, worshiping God will endure forever, and that should be our ultimate goal. Our desire at Multiply is to help equip and encourage you in the disciple-making portion of your worship, so this is what we focus on. However, other areas of your worship need focus as well.
Are we deemphasizing disciple-making? Not at all! In fact, by emphasizing worship as the ultimate purpose of all disciple-making disciples, obeying the Great Commission is elevated to its proper place. Likewise, as we become better worshipers, we become better disciple-makers too. Praise God for his glorious design!
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