Goal-Make Disciples

Matthew 10:24-25

Matthew 10:24-26, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! 26 Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

This section of Scripture is the most crucial, definitive, and most monumental passage ever uttered by our Lord about discipleship. This is the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ on the matter of discipleship,

• What its cost, and
• What it involves.

Demands our great attention. The matter of discipleship is of major emphasis in our churches.

We are absolutely and totally convinced that the Church has a single, simplified task as stated by the Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew 28.

Matthew 28:19-20, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Go into all the world and make disciples. In Matthew 10, our Lord is making disciples.

The word disciple is mathētēs means learner. He has the 12 people, and He is building them to maturity to send them out to reproduce and advance the kingdom. Jesus called us to do the same process for us to be engaged in.

The process of making disciples. Leading people to Jesus Christ is not the end of our commission but beginning. Building up the saints of God for good work is all about ministry.

Ephesians 4:12-13, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; I believe that is the perspective of the teacher.

• We are to reproduce mature disciples who, in turn, can reproduce themselves.
• We are interested only in the fulfilment of the goal of producing mature and reproductive disciples.

All the teaching, preaching, personal counselling, and the extensive ministry that goes on here is to take people to the point of maturity in the faith. Our Lord wanted people who would come and learn of Him.

Matthew 11:29, Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Conversion is identifying yourself as one willing to learn from Jesus Christ all things whatsoever He has commanded. The implication of such learning is obedience.

When you become a Christian, in effect you are saying, “I choose to be a learner of the Lord Jesus Christ and to submit to such as He instructs.” That is genuine conversion. It isn’t just meeting Jesus and ending it there. It is affirming His lordship and His role as teacher and your role as pupil to be brought to maturity.

• This was Lord’s task with the Twelve.
• Same task was bestowed upon the Twelve with the generation they were to reach.
• The apostle Paul whose great desire was to bring the saints to maturity.
• That is my task.
• That was the task of every Christian preacher/teacher/ pastor/leader.

We all have the responsibility to teach to disciple. I know what my calling is. I know God has called me to teach and preach the Word, to build the saints to maturity. I know that’s the mandate that I have from God, and I am held accountable to Him to fulfil that as much as is in me possible in the power of the Spirit of God.

I know my commitment, and my commitment is to do that.

Although I sometimes struggle with my weakness and ignorance and the flesh and other things to get through to the accomplishing of that end. The Lord knew what His task was, He knew what the truth was, and He knew how to communicate the truth. But what He was looking for were open hearts to receive it the ready mind, and heart.

The real issue in the Church is that the leadership is committed to doing what the Bible says to do. When Jesus called disciples to Himself, He carefully instructed them in the matters of what they would be facing. Consequently, it kept out those half-hearted people who weren’t willing to make the commitment.

Jesus did the same thing when He talked about a narrow gate and a narrow way. He kept out the people that weren’t willing to make the commitment to pay the price. The challenge of the Lord, the apostles, and the challenge of the ministers of today is to find a responsive group who will say, “We will obey all things whatsoever the Lord has commanded us. We are willing and eager no matter what the price.”

That is the essence of true discipleship. The Lord draws discipleship down to very clear issues. When somebody gave an altar call, people went down, and they dedicated and rededicated their lives. People who were consecrated, committed, recommitted, and reconsecrated. We have even gone through some of that purification of the cleansing work of the Spirit through the Word. We have made new resolutions, and some of them we followed up on, and some we would even difficult to remember.

When you became a Christian, you did not just buy fire insurance. You did not just jump down the escape hatch from hell. You affirmed the lordship of Christ, and that means that you affirmed a response of obedience. You said, “You are the teacher, I am the learner.”

You will learn all things whatsoever He has commanded you. If you came in on any other terms, it’s questionable whether you are in at all. People who have responded to the truths of Matthew 10:24- 42 have been the kind of people who change the world.

We are talking about total dedication, commitment, and nothing held back. Those are the kinds of people who in deep self-examination came to a consecration and a dedication level that set them a cut above everybody else. God could use them to change the course of history.

One night, Dr. Howard A. Kelly, a world-famed surgeon and gynaecologist at Johns Hopkins. The night that he graduated from medical college, he wrote this in his diary, “Today, I dedicate myself, my time, my capabilities, my ambition everything to Him. Blessed Lord, sanctify me to Thy uses. Give me no worldly success which may not lead me nearer to my Saviour.”

That remarkable man could tell many stories of what it means to be dedicated. He was traveling in the Midwest, and through some circumstances needed a drink of water and stopped at a house, knocked on the door and asked if they could provide him a drink. That drink was provided for him. He remembered the name of the young girl who had given him the drink, though she didn’t know who he was.

Years later, that same young girl grew up and was stricken with a very serious disease and had to come to Johns Hopkins for a series of surgeries. As it turned out, Dr. Kelly was her surgeon. After all the care that had to be given to her, the bill was in excess of $50,000.00. There was no insurance to cover it. She was fearful until she received a bill that said, “Paid in full by a glass of water.” A remarkable man.

Jonathan Edwards, a great preacher. God used him mightily. There was a reason.

• He was willing to pay the price.
• He counted the cost.
• He gave everything.

He was the one with the open heart who wanted nothing other than what God was wanting to give him. “I claim no right to myself, no right to this understanding, this will, these affections that are in me. Neither do I have any right to this body or its members. No right to this tongue, to these hands, feet, ears, or eyes. I have given myself clear away and not retained anything of my own. I have been to God this morning and told Him I have given myself holy to Him. I have given every power so that for the future I claim no right to myself in any respect.

“I have expressly promised Him, for by His grace I will not fail. I take Him as my whole portion and felicity, looking upon nothing else as any part of my happiness. His law is the constant rule of my obedience. I will fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil, to the end of my life. I will adhere to the faith of the Gospel, however hazardous and difficult the profession and practice of it may be.

“I pray God for the sake of others to look on this as self- dedication. Henceforth I am not to act in any respect as my own. I shall act as my own if I ever make use of any of my powers to do anything that is not to the glory of God, or to fail to make the glorifying of Him my whole and entire business.

“If I murmur in the least at affliction, if I am in any way uncharitable, if I revenge my own case, if I do anything purely to please myself or omit anything because it’s a great denial, if I trust to myself, if I take any praise for any good which Christ does by me, or if I am in anyway proud, I shall act as my own and not God’s. But I purpose to be absolutely His.”

Now that’s consecration. God used that man beyond his imagination. We are called to that kind of commitment in this chapter.

As we go through it, every time you are going to be sort of put to the wall to evaluate and self-examine your commitment level. Matthew is presenting the King.

• Presented the ancestry of the King.
• Presented the arrival of the King
• Presented the anticipation of the King.
• Presented the prophecies.
• Presented the announcer of the King, John the Baptist.
• Presented the principles in the Sermon on the Mount, acts of the King.
• Presented the miracles.
• Presenting the agents of the King. His ambassadors, the Twelve, the ones He sends out.

Matthew 10:1-4, the Twelve.

Matthew 10:5-15, Task of their ministry.

Matthew 10:16-23, response to their ministry. Jesus names them, instructs them, and then lets them know what it’s going to be like when they get out there. V23, covered everything till the second coming, till the Son of Man be come.

Matthew 10:24-42, the definition of their discipleship.

The scope is broad now, and the principles are for all time. The Lord then closes this discourse with general teaching referring to all disciples, in all missions, through all times. It is as much for us as it was for the Twelve, as it was for Paul, as it was for the people they discipled, as it was for Jonathan Edwards and whoever else responded to these truths.

V 24, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. Term “the disciple.” is any disciple. The Twelve have been named as such. The Twelve have been called apostles since verse 2. They are trained and ready to be sent. But now He uses the word “disciple.”

He backs off from Apostle, and He emphasizes the learning process, and He broadens to encompass any disciple. Then Jesus also uses, in verse 1 and 2 the word “servant.” “The servant.” Whatever servant anyone who serves Me.

Further, you will notice there is a word “whoever”

V 32, “Whoever,” V 33, “Whoever” V 42, “Whoever” 3 times it says “whoever.” 9 times it says “he that.” That can be anybody. “He that does this,” or, “He that does that.” So, the terms fit the general character of this portion.

We are at the widest possible horizon, encompassing all of those who name the name of Jesus Christ, who are disciples and servants and whoever’s and the that’s. Our Lord is going to say this, “For those people who truly want to come and be My disciple, here is what I ask.”

Again, we must note how honest Jesus is. He doesn’t hold back anything. He tells them the cost. You don’t do anyone a favour by trying to get them to accept Christ without letting them know what is really involved in such acceptance. That’s how we get so many false believers. If they knew the truth, they wouldn’t come.

John 6, “Many disciples were following Him.”

John 6:53-56, Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. In other words, “You have got to be involved in My dying and My death.”

John 6:66, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

It was more than they were ready to handle.

John 6:67-69, Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

We will follow you wherever you go. There was another group.

Luke 9:57-62, Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You

wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” 61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

I want a little comfort with my ministry. I want my inheritance. I am tied to my family. These people did not follow Jesus. Jesus was very upfront.

• It will cost you inheritance.
• It will cost you your comfort.
• It will cost you your family.

They didn’t want Him.

• We don’t do anybody any favours by introducing them to Christ and to His lordship.

• We don’t do any favour by introducing Him as the Teacher, and then saying, “There’s no price to pay.”

Because there is.

• The way is narrow,
• The gate is narrow.

That is the way the Lord always presents it. V 5-15, how to minister. V 16-23, what will happen.

V 24-42, Willing to pay the price? It is absolutely logical. V 24, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. V 16, The disciples are going to be saying to themselves, “we are going to be sheep among wolves,”

V 17, “We are going to go and get scourged in the synagogue. V 18, “We are going to be dragged before pagan courts.” V 21, “Our own families are going to put us to death.” V 22, “We are going to be hated by all kinds of people for His sake. we got to endure.”

V 23, “We are going to be persecuted all over the country, so we have to keep running from city to city.”

They could be saying, “What is this kind of an offer?” The Lord comes back and says, “The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant above his lord. Why should you expect to get any different treatment than I receive?”

Very straightforward. The disciple’s not above his teacher. If I am your teacher, and you sit under me, then you are only going to learn what I tell you. You have taken the role under me. So, the disciple is not above his teacher. He, by very definition and affirmation and acquiescence takes the place underneath his teacher by his own volition.

The servant is above his lord? No. The lord is above the servant. The first case, we assume the disciple chooses his teacher. The second case, the lord buys the servant. But in either case, there is the roll of subservience.

We are under Him. The disciple is a learner.

The teacher is the one who knows The learner doesn’t know. The one who doesn’t know isn’t above the one who knows. The lord is the master. The slave is the slave - doúlos. By very definition, he is the one who does what the master tells him.

So, the Lord is simply saying this, “The first basic principle of discipleship is that you submit yourselves to Me. Your decision can be seen in the disciple-teacher pattern. My sovereignty is manifest in this – in the lord and servant motif.”

We have the duality of the salvation doctrine. We choose to be a disciple to learn at the feet of Jesus, but He chooses us as His servant sovereignly. But in either case, it is axiomatic that we are submissive. When you become a Christian, and you affirm that you will follow Jesus Christ.

You are saying that,

• I submit to Your commands.
• I submit to the truth You will teach me, the wisdom.
• I submit to those orders you will give me to carry them out.

That’s basic

Positive and Negative

Positive

The disciple is not above his teacher.

Luke 6:40, A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.

What is the first perspective that a pupil has toward his teacher? Ultimately someday he will be like his teacher. What does it mean to be a disciple then? Becoming like Jesus Christ. That is the very basic element of discipleship.

When you are fully trained then you are going to be like your teacher. This is hallmark of true discipleship.

• You are a learner, learning to be like Christ.
• You are a learner growing toward Christlikeness.

1 John 2:6, He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. If you go around saying you abide in Christ, and Christ is your master, and you are His student, He is your Teacher, and you are His pupil, then you ought to manifest His life.

This is the goal of all discipleship. The Great Commission, “Go into all the world and make disciples.”

What does that involve? “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” A disciple is one who knows the word and obeys the word.

Colossians 3:16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

We are to be dominated by the word of Christ so that we become like Him. He is the Teacher who teaches and and feeds.

Matthew 10:27, “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.

You have no message but what I give you. You have no truth but what I tell you. Now, we are to learn then that a disciple is to be like his teacher in the positive sense. The goal of the Christian life then is an ascending toward Christlikeness.

1 John 3:2, Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Although it isn’t fully consummated until then, we know that must be the goal because that’s what happens when we go there. So, all the way along in life, we are going toward Christlikeness. What is going to be the obvious result of that? If we move to be more like Christ, then the world will treat us the way it treated Him. That’s what Jesus is saying.

Negative

The negative side is really the strength of the context here. We saw the positive from another passage.

The negative is in the context. V 24, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. In the sense of persecution! You don’t expect to have any different than I do! If they have treated Me the way they have treated Me, why should they treat you any different?

The more like Me you are, the more they will treat you like they treated Me. You can kind of gauge your own Christian life that way. The more like Christ you are, the more the world will treat you like the treated Christ. Maybe you don’t get much persecution because there is not much similarity.

The context is persecution, hostility, and death. We must be ready to accept that. This is an amazing call to discipleship. “I want you to come and be My disciples and be like Me and get ready to pay the supreme price.”

This is what Jesus is saying. If you aren’t willing to come on those terms, then you are not going to come. How Jesus repeats the same thing and throws in a very insightful phrase. V 25, It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!

One thing about a true disciple, he is content to be like his teacher. He doesn’t have to be greater than his teacher. He doesn’t have to go beyond. A true disciple is content to be like his teacher. A true servant is content not to go above his lord.

But to be like his Lord and faithful to his lord. It is enough. True disciples seek nothing more.

• They are not in it for what they can get out of it.
• They are not on an ego trip, and they seek nothing less.
• They are not going to try to escape what the Lord couldn’t escape.
• They are willing to take it all.

Nothing more, nothing less. “It is enough.” Literally translated means, “It must be sufficient.” It is sufficient for me to be like my Lord and to be treated like my Lord. That is sufficient for me. Paul was like that. Paul said his great prayer.

Philippians 3:10, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

It is enough. I don’t ask any more than that.

• I don’t ask to be loved by the world.
• I don’t ask to be famous.
• I don’t ask to be accepted.
• I don’t ask to miss the persecution.
• I don’t ask to be everybody’s friend.
• I ask only to be like my Lord.

To pursue to be like Him means to be treated like He was treated. That’s all.

Do you know how they were treated?

The Lord gives an illustration. V 25, It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!

One who rules the house, if they call Him the devil. You are under Him, what do you expect they will call you? Jesus is saying that they called Him the devil.

Did people call Jesus the devil? They called Him Satan. Because Beelzebub is a reference to Satan. In the time of the Lord, Beelzebub, or Beelzebul – sometimes it ends with a B, sometimes with an L – had become the designation, for the devil himself.

When Jesus had healed the blind man and healed the one with the demon this is their response.

Matthew 9:34, But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

They accused Jesus saying that He is working for the devil, the prince of demons.

They thought that knew God, but they were so far from the truth. They saw the lovely, spotless, holy, pure Son of God, living God in human flesh in the world, and they watched Him, heard Him, and they said, “He is demon possessed.”

They were so far away from the truth they couldn’t have been any more distant. “He is demon possessed. He is working for the prince of devils.”

Matthew 12:24, Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”

Again, they said He is demon possessed. V 25, It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!

The ultimate blasphemy. If they say that about Me, what do you think they are going to say about You.

2 Kings 1:1, “Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.”

The death of Ahab was no big loss. But once Ahab was dead, the Moabites felt they could move in, because the nation was in somewhat of disarray.

2 Kings 1:2, Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria, and was injured; so he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.”

We don’t know whether he was drunk or uncoordinated, but he fell out of a window and got himself all messed up. It says he was sick. He was ill, he was somehow incapacitated.

What is he going to do? The man is tragically ill. So, he decides to send messengers. You would think he would send them to God, but he doesn’t. Ekron was one of the towns in the country of the Philistines. The god of Ekron – Baalzebub.

2 Kings 1:3, But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’

What are you doing? The apostasy of Israel at that time.

But this Baalzebub, basically, as far as we can tell in the Hebrew, means “lord of the flies.” Basically, means lord of the carrion flies. Apparently, this deity was somehow associated with the flies. Baal means lord. We know in the Old Testament they worshipped Baal. That means lord.

They would attach other names on the back of it to identify. But this was the Baal of the flies, the lord of the flies. Now, when you come to the New Testament, you will notice in Matthew 10 that the Baal becomes Beel. For some reason, there’s a variant in the spelling, and sometimes it ends zebub and sometimes zebul. Sometimes with a B and sometimes with an L.

Now, when it ends with an L, the best sources indicate that it means lord of the dwelling, and it may have been that this lord of the flies grew to great prominence, and they just changed his name to zebul from zebub and meant lord of the dwelling.

In other words, he was the master of all the dwelling place of all the demons. So, somehow, in the progress of this word, this local Ekron god becomes the lord of all the dwelling. It’s a possibility.

We really can’t fill in all the details. Then also there is one other form that appears. Instead of zebul there’s a Zebel. And Zebel means, in Hebrew, dung. How did he get to be the lord of the dung? The best answer to that is that that is a title of derision given by the people who scorned this pagan god, lord of the dwelling nothing. Lord of the dung is what he is. It would be an nickname of mockery.

But lord of the dung or dwelling or whatever, he isn’t anybody anyway, so what’s the difference? He can’t be offended. Only the true God can. Nonetheless, in the time of the Lord, it became common to designate Satan in these terms, Beelzebub and Beelzebul.

So, the Lord is simply saying, “If they are going to call Me Satan, if they are going to go so far as to name the devil himself, what do you think they are going to do to you?

Conclusion.

You must be willing to pay the price. The more you move to be like Christ, which is the goal of all discipleship, the more the world’s going to treat you the way they treated Him. When they treat you the way they treated Him, they are going to treat you evil because that’s the way they perceived Him.

John 13:16, Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. Why would you expect anything different than what the Lord received?

John 15:18-21, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

John 16:1-4, “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4 But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. “And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

The way they treated Christ was bad. The same way they are going to treat you. The more you become like Christ, the more you are going to get it. Yet that is the goal. You come into the discipleship. You are committed to being like Christ.

The more like Christ you become, the more the system will resent you. Yet, God is moving in the hearts of people in the world to redeem them. Those people will be attracted by your testimony.

Most of us became Christians because we saw something in the life of someone else that we wanted. There’s something attractive – a joy, a peace, a freedom from guilt, a sense of forgiveness, the hope of eternal life, peace in the heart.

While we are becoming more like Christ, we will become more attractive. We will become more attractive to those whom God is calling to Himself. But we will become more distasteful to the system that hated Christ. So, there’s no way around it. That is the price of discipleship.

More attractive and more malignant in terms of the world’s revulsion. Florence Nightingale, wrote this in her diary on her 30th birthday, “I am 30 years of age, the age at which Christ began His mission. Now, no more childish things, no more vain things.”

Years later, near the end of her illustrious and heroic life, she was asked for the secret of her life, and this is what she said, “I can only give one explanation; that is this: I have kept nothing back from God.” Kept nothing back. That’s what the Lord is talking about here.