12. Make Disciples, for the Sake of the Culture
Twelve Compelling Reasons We Must Make Disciples · Part 12
The culture will not change simply because Christians complain about it.
We can condemn what is happening around us.
We can debate politics.
We can post about declining morality.
We can grieve broken families, violence, corruption, addiction, loneliness, sexual confusion, and a generation growing up with little knowledge of God.
But Jesus never commissioned His followers merely to criticize the darkness.
He commanded us to make disciples.
And that may be one of the most important truths we recover in our generation.
We Make Disciples Because People Shape Culture
Culture is not some mysterious force floating above society.
Culture is created by people.
People determine what a society celebrates.
People determine what it tolerates.
People determine what children are taught.
People determine what becomes normal.
People determine how marriages function, how businesses operate, how leaders govern, and how neighbors treat one another.
So if we want a different culture, we need different people.
And that is exactly what Jesus came to produce.
Not merely church attenders.
Not merely people who agree with Christian beliefs.
Not merely people who prayed a prayer years ago.
Jesus makes new people.
People who love when the world hates.
People who forgive when the world seeks revenge.
People who remain faithful when unfaithfulness is normal.
People who tell the truth when lying is profitable.
People who serve when everyone else is demanding to be served.
People who give when the culture says accumulate.
People who seek the lost because someone once sought them.
That is what a disciple looks like.
And when disciples multiply, culture begins to change from the inside out.
We Do Not Make Disciples Merely to Grow Churches
Church growth is wonderful.
But the Great Commission is much bigger than filling buildings.
Jesus said:
“Go and make disciples of all nations.”, Matthew 28:19
Why?
Because marriages are breaking.
Because children are wandering.
Because loneliness is crushing people in crowded cities.
Because corruption destroys communities.
Because hatred divides neighbors.
Because pornography enslaves families.
Because greed exploits the vulnerable.
Because addiction destroys futures.
Because millions of people still live and die without hearing the hope of Jesus.
Disciple-making is not a church-growth strategy.
It is God’s strategy for bringing His Kingdom into a broken world.
Imagine What Could Happen
Imagine a neighborhood filled with disciples who love their neighbors.
Imagine fathers discipling their children.
Imagine husbands loving their wives sacrificially.
Imagine business owners refusing corruption.
Imagine teenagers choosing purity.
Imagine former enemies forgiving one another.
Imagine believers caring for the poor, welcoming strangers, seeking the lost, and multiplying disciples in homes, workplaces, schools, villages, and neighborhoods.
Now imagine those disciples making more disciples.
And those disciples making more disciples.
And those disciples doing the same.
That is how movements begin.
One transformed life.
Then a household.
Then a network of relationships.
Then a neighborhood.
Then a community.
Then another community.
Until the Gospel begins moving through an entire people.
The World Does Not Only Need Better Christians
It needs multiplying disciples.
This is where we must allow the question to become personal.
You may agree that the culture needs to change.
But who are you discipling?
Who are you helping follow Jesus?
Who are you teaching to obey His commands?
Who are you preparing to make disciples themselves?
Because we cannot pray for a disciple-making movement while refusing to become disciple-makers.
We cannot ask God to transform our communities while ignoring the very strategy Jesus gave us to transform people.
And we cannot keep saying,
“Someone needs to do something.”
Jesus already told us who.
We do.
Perhaps the Greatest Need of Our Culture Is Sitting in the Church Every Sunday
Millions of believers already know Jesus.
They already have the Gospel.
They already have the Holy Spirit.
They already have the Scriptures.
They already have relationships with people who desperately need Christ.
What would happen if ordinary believers stopped seeing disciple-making as the responsibility of pastors, missionaries, and professionals?
What if every follower of Jesus began asking:
“Who can I disciple?”
“Who can I teach to obey Jesus?”
“Who can I train to disciple someone else?”
The potential is staggering.
The harvest may already be surrounding us.
The workers may already be sitting in our churches.
They simply need to be awakened.
The Culture Does Not Only Need Our Criticism
It needs our obedience.
It needs disciples of Jesus living differently within it.
And it needs those disciples multiplying.
So perhaps the final question of this series is not:
“What is wrong with our culture?”
We already know much of what is wrong.
The more important question is:
What are we going to do about it?
Jesus gave us an answer almost 2,000 years ago.
Make disciples.
Make disciples in our families.
Make disciples among our friends.
Make disciples in our neighborhoods.
Make disciples in our workplaces.
Make disciples among the forgotten.
Make disciples among the nations.
And teach those disciples to make disciples.
Because one transformed person can influence a household.
One transformed household can influence a neighborhood.
One multiplying network of disciples can influence an entire community.
And enough communities transformed by Jesus can begin to change a culture.
Do not merely curse the darkness.
Make disciples who carry the Light into it.
For the sake of our marriages.
For the sake of our children.
For the sake of our communities.
For the sake of the nations.
For the sake of those who still have never heard.
Make disciples, for the sake of the culture.
The question is no longer whether our culture needs disciples.
The question is: Who will become a disciple-maker because you decided to obey Jesus?
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