Completed?

I'm beginning a new 12-week journey with some lady friends. We are taking a look at real-life discipleship. What is it, how do you do it, how to share the process....these are some of the things we will look at. I'm in week 1 of my study and am already excited about all God is showing me and how He is challenging me.

I've meditated on one particular thing this week that I want to share with you.

During the last supper, before Jesus was arrested and taken to the cross, He prayed with His disciples. In John 17:4, Jesus says, "I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do." (emphasis is mine)

That just really struck me. Jesus came to die for our sins, right? So how could he say his work had been completed? He hadn't died on the cross yet or risen from the dead.

Read the next few verses. John 17:6-9

6 I have revealed Your name
to the men You gave Me from the world.
They were Yours, You gave them to Me,
and they have kept Your word.

7 Now they know that all things
You have given to Me are from You,

8 because the words that You gave Me,
I have given them.
They have received them
and have known for certain
that I came from You.
They have believed that You sent Me.

9 I pray for them.
I am not praying for the world
but for those You have given Me,
because they are Yours.

Did you see it???

He had completed his work of making disciples.

Think about that for a minute. If Jesus had died on the cross for our sins but had not made disciples who could deliver the message, none of us would ever have heard the Good News. Not only did he die for us and rise from the grave, but he made sure there was a way we would hear about it!

Word of mouth. It's a huge marketing strategy in today's world. But God had first dibs on it from the beginning.

Find a group of guys. Train them up. Then send them out to find some more guys who they would train up. And then they get released to go out, and on and on the cycle goes.

Look at Matthew 28:18-20.

Jesus had given them a living model to follow. They didn't have to ask what he meant. He had made disciples who made other disciples.

What's the application to my life? All believers are commanded to go and make disciples. But how do we know when that work is completed? When our disciple can go and train up new disciples who can go and train up new disciples. This is the way of making disciples until Jesus returns.

So who are you training up to go out and train others in the way of Jesus? That's the question I ponder as I examine myself this week.