21 Days of Prayer: Day 21

Missions: Consumed with Making Disciples


“… To live is Christ and to die is gain…”


READ PHILIPPIANS 1:19-30.

As we wrap up our twenty-one days of prayer and fasting, we return to a question we asked the very first day of our fast –  “Am I willing to do whatever God calls me to – no questions asked?”

Throughout the time our fast, we have observed why the answer to that question should always be a resounding YES!... God is infinitely holy; we are utterly sinful. God is consumed with His own glory, which is the reason He shares that glory with us. God sacrificed everything in the person of Jesus Christ so that we would WORSHIP Him by making disciples through the preaching and receiving of His word, through song, through sacrificial acts of love, all in a community of believers who then turn outward to make disciples of all nations – from our neighborhoods to the nations.

Here at Redeemer, we are committed to making disciples of Jesus because we want to make the last words of Jesus our first work (see Matt. 28:18-20). We believe that discipleship is THE ministry of the church; therefore, we have taken twenty-one days to seek God through fasting and prayer, asking Him to bless our Discipleship Pathway… If we have not seen anything else these twenty-one days, we have seen this:

God is worthy of our worship; therefore, we spread His worship.

Since we worship God by making disciples of His Son, we now turn to look at a man who was consumed with making disciples – the apostle Paul.

Paul had been forgiven much, so he loved much… In a previous life, Paul (who went by Saul) persecuted Christians by going from town to town, throwing them in jail and even having them killed… But Paul encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, where Christ changed his life. Now Paul became the apostle who is largely responsible for the planting Christian churches throughout the Mediterranean world… But this was not an easy journey.

Paul was whipped, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, adrift at sea, in danger from robbers, the Jews, the Gentiles, in the city, in the wilderness, at sea, from false brothers, in hunger and thirst, cold, and exposed – not to mention his daily anxiety for all the churches (see 2 Cor. 11:22-9). Paul did all of this because he recognized that God was worthy to be worshiped. Therefore, he gave his life to tell people the only way to truly worship God – that is, in Christ.

In our text today, Paul says, “For to me to live is Christ...” For Paul, to live meant doing the work of Christ. What is surprising about this text is that Paul writes these words AFTER has gone through much (if not all) the persecution and hardship described above. Paul wrote the letter to the Philippian church when he was an old man, nearing the end of his life… Paul did not stop making disciples.

How do we know Paul did not stop making disciples? Paul has already made this clear by saying to live is to make disciples. But Paul’s letter to the church at Rome is also revealing: “When therefore I have completed this… I will leave for Spain by way of you” (Rom. 15:28). Paul is in his 60s, when he writes this. What makes this so astounding is that Spain is a primarily Latin speaking country. Paul was already fluent in Hebrew and Greek, but he would have had to learn Latin to spread the gospel in Spain!

About the same time most people are getting to retire, Paul was desiring to learn his third language to spread the gospel. If anyone should have the right to retire, it is Paul. But here we see a weary, beaten old man who still wants to serve the people of God… Why is Paul still motivated to spread the gospel when most others would be retiring?

The apostle writes: “I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.” Paul desires to remain in this life so that he can teach and encourage people in Christ… Paul sees the end. He knows that it is better to die and experience eternity with Christ. Therefore Paul can say “… to die is gain.” But Paul wants to bring as many people possible to experience that reality. 

While we are here on earth, the only reason God keeps us alive is not so that we can earn money, go on vacation, achieve our personal dreams, or even work to a certain point in our lives just to retire. None of these things are inherently bad, but they can become so when we lose sight of why we are here. If we have breath in our lungs, we are to be about the work of Christ. As long as God allows us to live on earth, we are to make disciples of Jesus with everything that we think, say, and do – with our families, our jobs, our hobbies, and even with our retirement!

If we take our example from the apostle Paul, we can take a step further to say that we are to be PROACTIVELY seeking new ways to spread the glory of God in the gospel… But even Paul had an example of glorifying God… Paul’s example of proactively seeking new ways to spread God’s glory came from Christ Himself.

The Son of God took on a new nature – that of a human – to spread the glory of God to human sinners. And not only did God take on the nature of a man, but He also suffered the worst punishment for the same sinners. Jesus bore the wrath of God on sin, and thus served our greatest need for forgiveness. In doing so, Christ also gave us the greatest gift by giving us His righteousness so that we might spend eternity with God… In other words, Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of proactively spreading the glory of God.

Because Jesus purchased people with His own blood, people from all nations gather to worship in community, to disciple one another, and to send each other to spread the awesome news of God’s glory. When we are consumed with making disciples like this, missions become the natural desire which motivates us to live for Christ until our dying day. When we are consumed with making disciples, we joyfully seek new ways to spread the same gospel because we, like Paul, want people to experience the greatest reality of all time – God Himself.

Paul spread the worship of God until he breathed his last… Jesus humbly went to the uttermost so that people would experience the glory of God… How far will we go to spread the glory of God in Christ? Can we say with Paul “… to live is Christ”? 

Personal Questions:

  1. What is THE ministry of the Church? Toward this end, what have we as a local church been praying through these last twenty-one days?

  2. Why is it so shocking to read that Paul desired to go to Spain to spread the gospel?

  3. Do you desire to spread the gospel to people in new ways because you see how far Paul – and especially Jesus – went to spread the gospel?

  4. How far will you go to spread the gospel? Will you invite your neighbors into your house, serve the poor man, travel across oceans, learn a language, be insulted, be beaten, be martyred?

Prayer Points:

  • Pray that you and our church would see that the ministry of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus among all nations.

  • Pray that you and our church would buy into our church’s strategy for making disciples of Jesus – the Discipleship Pathway.

  • Pray that you and our church would joyfully seek new ways to spread the same gospel to those who do not know it.

  • Pray that God would bless you and our church with the grace needed to do anything to spread the gospel – from inviting people into our homes to even being martyred to spread the glory of God in Jesus.