FLASHBACK

1. What did you experience with God this week?
2. In the last few days, did you have the opportunity to share an experience with God with someone close to you that doesn’t know Jesus yet? Or could you pray for them or help them practically?
3. Do you need God‘s help in an area of your life?

■ Pray together: Give thanks for your experiences, ask God for help where you need it.

■ Pray together to learn new things about God and that your relationship with God deepens and gets stronger.

BIBLE STUDY

A person’s last words before his death are often given special meaning. Here, Jesus gave his disciples some important  “last minute commands“ before ascending to heaven.

4. Read the passage silently. What words or phrases stick out?
5. One person reads the passage out loud.
6. One person retells the passage in his/her own words (Bibles closed).
7. If necessary, the others complement what was said (Bibles closed).

8. Everyone by themselves:
   • What words or phrases stick out now? Are there any differences to what you noticed before?
   • Why do you feel drawn to those words or phrases?
   • What can you learn about people?
   • What could God be telling you?
9. Share in the group.

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS & ACTION STEPS

10. According to the passage, what is the focal point of Jesus’s will? 
11. What does “make disciples” mean practically? What clues do we get from the scripture? (also see Scripture Comments)
12. What did Jesus teach His disciples during His three-year ministry? Or rather, what does a disciple of Jesus usually do? (see John 8:31-32; Acts 1:8; John 10:27; Matthew 10:7-8; Matthew 25:14-30; Matthew 7:7-8)

■Are you ready to go and make disciples in your environment? – In pairs, pray earnestly that the Great Commission is always the first thing in your mind. Pray to make yourselves available to win students from your campus and to make them disciples of Jesus.

■Pray for the people on your prayer list (see also “Prayer that moves God”).

SCRIPTURE COMMENTS

In verses 19 and 20, Jesus doesn’t really talk about three steps: make disciples, baptise them, teach them. In the Greek original, only one of the three has imperative form: “make disciples”. “B aptise” and “teach” are participles. So the sentence is best translated as: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (In English, it is already translated this way, so the comment is superfluous; however, other languages – such as German – might need this Scripture Comment.)

Jesus didn’t call us to establish Bible study groups or any other programs. His Commission was to make disciples. So let us always be cautious that our meetings aren’t solely about friendly community and personal encouragement, but also that they always serve to equip us to go and be envoys in this world – for example on our campuses – and make disciples.

This could mean to connect them to Jesus in the first place and, if they don’t have a relationship with Him yet, to baptise them. Or, if they’re followers of Jesus, this could mean to call them out, teach them to walk in the dimensions of God’s Kingdom and challenge them to go and make disciples themselves (2 Timothy 2:2).

OTHER LANGUAGES