Disciple-Making In The Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:1-25)

“Disciple-Making In The Old Testament” Message Notes (Matthew 7:24-29; Pastor Curt Audet 8/24/25)

Series: The Master’s Plan For Making Disciples

BI: In its simplest form Biblical discipleship is openly talking to others about faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus made it crystal clear that His plan for His followers is for us to first, be a faithful maturing disciple of Christ personally; and second to make faithful disciples of Christ out of lost souls.  We Rinse and we Repeat each day until the Return of Christ, or our Reception to Heaven in His presence.

After Jesus’ resurrection, yet before His ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit within each one of His disciples Matthew records how our orders ‘to make faithful disciples’ came about:

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

The Great Commission

• The disciples worshipped the resurrected Jesus. (v.17)
• All authority was delegated from to God the Son to ‘make disciples’.
• Jesus delegated discipleship to/through His disciples:
  • Go and Make Disciples (Win souls to Jesus!)
  • Baptize Disciples (Identify converts with Jesus’ death…)
  • Teach Disciples (Guide new believers to maturity)

Through the days from Jesus’ baptism through His ascension He ‘discipled’ His followers.  They discussed the truths and prophecies regarding the coming Messiah and His grounds for being that promised Christ. A disciple is simply a learner, or a student.   A disciple of Christ is one who believes in Christ, follows Christ and learns everything we can from Jesus Christ.  There were times like the infamous Sermon On The Mount where Jesus’ followers were discipled—or taught—in wherever the classroom happened to be as they accompanied Jesus in His travels.

As we saw last week, Jesus calls each person inviting them who would become His disciples:

¹⁸ While walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. ²¹ Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him. (Matthew 4:18-22)

Followers became believers of Christ at the mind and heart level. Believers became disciples—or serious students—of Christ.  Disciples then, became disciplers calling anddiscipling others to know and follow Christ.  ‘Follow Christ with me, and He will make you fishers of men.’ Have you responded to Jesus’ call yet?  It begins here.

So, what is discipleship?  And how do we make a disciple?  The word, “disciple” as used in the New Testament is mathētēs (μαθητὴς  ^#3101) means a committed learner, an earnest student.

The earnestness quality of a “disciple” is associated with the word “discipline” meaning the student or learner called a “disciple” is one who is not a lazy student, but one investing and actively engaging in learning and growing. The Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy his faithful disciple who grew to be an effective discipler.  He likened the discipleship commitment to training at the gym:

“Be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. ⁷ But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; ⁸ for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come . . . ¹⁰ For this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.(1 Timothy 4:6-10 NASB)

I. Disciple-Making Is An Active Relationship.

In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he again encourages his son in the faith as a discipler:

2 You then, my [son], be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, ² and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. ³ Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴ No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. ⁵ An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. ⁶ It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. ⁷ Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:1-7)

In the Old Testament era, discipleship looked just like the active life Jesus lived out with His disciples.  He walked with them.  He ate with them.  He spent time with them.  He taught them.  He showed them how to respond to life situations.  He asked questions. He answered questions. 

The Greek term for disciple (mathētēs), corresponds to the Hebrew term for disciple (talmid תַּלְמִיד ^#8527).  The principle and practice is found throughout the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 25:8).

Talmid—Old Testament discipleship stresses the relationship between teacher and disciple. A talmid of Jesus’ day would give up his entire life in order to be with his teacher. The disciple didn’t only seek to know what the teacher knew, as is often the case today. It was not enough just to know what the Master said, but the primary goal of any disciple was to become like the Teacher and do what the teacher does.

Our common understanding of salvation often involves a simple prayer of decision. While acknowledging the importance of inviting Jesus into our heart–or the core of who we are–this approach overlooks the dynamism implied by the Hebrew word for disciple, talmid. This simplification fails to capture the holistic nature of salvation as seen in Jesus’s Great Commission.

This passage doesn’t focus on abstract theological concepts but on active relationship: GO [Win the lost], MAKE [Disciples], BAPTIZE [Disciples], TEACH [To maturity and multiplication]. The emphasis is not on a passive acceptance of grace, but on the active process of discipleship – consciously becoming a disciple of Christ.

The four key verbs –go, make, baptize, and teach – form a powerful sequence. Making disciples is never a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process of mentorship and spiritual formation. While baptizing is a public and symbolic act of immersion into water identifying us with Jesus’ death and resurrection, it signifies  the death of our old ways and the birth of the new ways in Christ.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Teaching holy living further underscores the active, lifelong commitment required of a talmid, or disciple.

II. Disciple-Making Ideally Demonstrated In Family Relationships (Deuteronomy 6:4-8)

The first, the foremost and the best example of discipleship occurs in the natural family dynamic.  The absolute best place to win souls and disciple souls for Christ is in your home, led by a faithful father and mother. This is one reason why we as a church are seeking to cultivate a culture of discipleship with and between kids in AWANA and their moms and dads. 

Disciple-Making begins with the fear of God.  (6:1-3)

Disciple-making places God at the center of our lives. (6:10-15)

Disciple-making grows to a love relationship with God. (6:4-9)

Disciple-making seeks to live out God’s righteousness. (6:16-19)

Disciple-making conversationally answers questions about my God. (6:20-25)

Moses addresses this form of disciple-making in Deuteronomy 6:1-25.

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, ² that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all His statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. ³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹². . . take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹³ It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by His name you shall swear. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— ¹⁵ for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from off the face of the earth.

¹⁶ “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. ¹⁷ You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes, which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers ¹⁹ by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

²⁰ “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. ²³ And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. ²⁵ And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’ (Deuteronomy 6:1-25)

You & I Making Disciples

Be careful listeners to the Word, to our disciplers.

Be wise doers and diligent practitioners of God’s Word.

Be faithful in every relationship God gives us.

Be living consistent  obedience every day.

Be steadfastly persevering over your whole life.

Be multiplying character and surrender to the Holy Spirit continuously.

In its simplest form Biblical discipleship is openly talking to others about faith in Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer