“The Cost Of Disciple-Making” #1 Message Notes (Matthew 13); Pastor Curt Audet 11/2/25
9th in the 14 message series: The Master’s Plan For Making Disciples
BI: Disciple-making requires a conscious effort to invest into other people for the Kingdom of God.
“Disciple-making” is the most basic, the most core activity of the church that is centered on and following our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ calls each one of us to always be engaged in the disciple-making task. Throughout the days we walk on this earth as Christ-followers. It is a right and fair question, then, to ask ourselves: Who am I engaged in discipling? Disciple-making has 5 basic components. You and I should be able to readily see individuals we are investing in, pouring into, discipling, and growing together with.
What Components Of ‘Disciple-Making’ Are You Engaged In?
- Sharing your Gospel testimony and faith.
- Guiding a person from unbelief to belief in Christ.
- Helping to mature a new believer in the Biblical content and application of the faith in daily living.
- Partnering with a new disciples of Christ to reach others with the Good News.
- Growing together in the community of faith.
Last week Daniel Geddam guided us through Luke 14:25-35 where Jesus calls us to ‘count the cost’ of following Jesus:
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple . . . 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple . . . He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
As Daniel showed us: We are called to the Cross; we are called to surrender to the Holy Spirit’s Construction in our transformation; We are called to Conflict within ourselves and sometimes against persecution in spiritual warfare and we are called to the great Commission, to witness to the Gospel of Christ to every living soul.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a German pastor caught up in the battle against the evil nazi regime wrote of the cost of discipleship,“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” It is not a death that takes your life; it is a death that gives you life. On the other side of surrender is satisfaction. On the other side of sacrifice is strength. On the other side of the cross is the crown. Yes, the cost is high, but the reward is eternal, His presence, His power, His peace.” (DG sermon notes 10/26)
Today, we continue in the Gospel narrative of Luke, this time in chapter 9. Luke records here Jesus’ interaction with His disciples between the sending of The Twelve disciples on their first disciple-making mission (9:1) and the sending of the wider 72 disciples on their disciple-making mission (10:1).
In between these two important commissions, Jesus prepared, built up and girded up His disciples for what is coming ahead. He spoke not only of the cost of discipleship in following Christ, but even more specifically the cost of disciple-making as they followed Christ’s lead, His order and His plan.
1 – Know who Jesus is in relation to yourself; surrender to your Master (9:18-20; 28-36)
2 – Deny yourself. (9:23-27)
3 – The Cost of Disciple-making. (9:57-62)
- Earthly pleasures are no longer our pursuit. (v.57-58)
- Prioritize the eternal decisions. (v.59-60)
- Jesus takes precedence over every other relationship. (v.61-62)
And we find that the Gospel meets us at that intersection of where we
are in terms of worry, fear and anxiety. The Gospel matches its name as ‘the Good News’ as it answers our questions at the soul level.
The Gospel’s inherent, incredible and individual value is visible when a disciple of Christ leads a lost person to the Lord, Master and Savior.
What is the Gospel?
To five basic questions the gospel message gives penetrating answers.
(1) Who am I? Every person at some point in his or her life has asked, ‘Who am I?’ ‘What is my identity?’ God has anticipates this question and at the very outset of the Bible. In it’s earliest pages He addresses it. When we open the Bible, we are face to face with the great truths of creation. There God creates man in His own image. Here is His answer! You have been made in the image and likeness of God Himself. You find your identity in this reality and that you are created for relationship with God.
(2) How can I be made fit for God’s presence? Being made acceptable to Him has to do with what Jesus Christ did on the cross when He took your guilt and He took your shame, and He bore your sin upon His body. He received on Himself the judgment that you righteously deserve. This is the redemptive, atoning work of Christ, and it leads to justification by faith. By this I mean God accepts you in His Son. God accepts you, cleansed by the blood of His righteous sacrifice and clothed with the righteousness of Christ. You are thereby declared righteous. You are therefore fit for God’s presence and fellowship. All this is God’s response to man’s quest for acceptance.
(3) Can my life be changed? The Gospel touches on another question. ‘Is there any possibility of my basic core character being transformed?’ ‘Must my poor habits always push me around, controlling me?’ The good news of the gospel is that through what the Scripture calls ‘sanctification’, through the working of the Holy Spirit, you can change. You can put off your old self. You can put on the new. You do not need to remain the person you once were. Jesus
Christ liberates you. Jesus Christ sets you free. You can be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ! That indeed is the good news!
(4) To whom do I belong? The Good News says you belong to a community, the church, the community of faith. The Body of Christ. If you have received Jesus Christ and experienced a new birth, then you have the privilege–indeed the obligation–of relating yourself to all those who have similarly reached out for Jesus Christ. You belong to them, and they belong to you. Together you share common life. Prior to coming to Christ, you are alone as solitary individuals, but after you come to Christ you find you are members of the family of God. As you participate in the local expression of the family of God you become enriched and strengthened in our Christian life.
(5) Is there hope in this world? Will the world always know poverty, war, oppression and injustice? Christians are called to be the ‘salt of the earth’. You are to stand against the rottenness of our times. You are to be Christ’s presence in the midst of the people. You are to work for Biblical social justice and for the improvement of the human condition. But more than all of this, Christians are to look for the second coming of Christ. This is the great hope of the Church. There is coming a day unlike any other day. And before that day ends, the nations will know the presence of the Lord and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then righteousness will reign. Then sin will be conquered and forever gone. Then all will witness the new heaven and the new earth. You will be with the Lord!
The Good News of the gospel provides identity, acceptance, transformation of character by the Holy Spirit! It provides community, belonging and hope for this world! What good news we have to bring! The Gospel is the one message that can satisfy the total yearning of human hearts and meet the total needs of our world. In THIS inherent, incredible and individual value we find the Gospel to be the cure for things that truly ail us.
In Matthew 13, Jesus gives ‘popcorn parables’ which are brief illustrations demonstrating the indescribable value of the Gospel by which you and I live. Seven ‘Popcorn Parables’ describing what we as Christians have found in Christ and His kingdom—and what we can offer in Christ as we disciple others.
In these brief power-packed parables we see the cost we must spend to make disciples of all nations. The cost of disciple-making.
Parable Of The Sower (v.3-9; 18-23) Disciple-making costs us seed, time, resource.
3 “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
In this parable, the disciple-maker sows the seed of the Word of God in conversations and time invested in people who we are praying for their salvation. Four outcomes may happen.
When someone hears our testimony of the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then Satan worms into their lives and comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who receives the seed by the wayside where the soil was hard.
When we seek to disciple one who receives the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
He who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word with fear and anxiety, and he becomes unfruitful.
He who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Parable of Wheat and Tares (v.24-30) Disciple-making costs all our heart, harvest.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
Parable of the Mustard Seed (v.31-32) Disciple-making costs us time, patience.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
Parable of the Leaven (v.33) Disciple-making costs all our time, perseverance.
“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”
Parable of the Hidden Treasure (v.44) Disciple-making costs us all that we have.
44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which aman found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Parable of the Pearl of Great Price (v.45-46) Disciple-making costs all we are, and all of ourselves.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Parable of the Dragnet; (v.47-50) Disciple-making costs all our labor, genuineness; perseverance.
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, 48 which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, 50 and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”Closing Prayer: Heavenly Father, help us to to ‘put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3:12-17)
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