What does First B Jackson teach about making disciples?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on making disciples starts with the grammar of the Great Commission. Pastor Ray has walked through Matthew 28 more than once and each time has pressed the same point: the only true imperative in the passage is 'make disciples.' The going, the baptizing, and the teaching are the shape of how it happens, not separate commands standing alongside it. This means every believer is already going somewhere in the ordinary movement of life, and making disciples is what happens inside that movement. Pastor Marcus made a similar point from the same passage, tying it to Gospel episodes where Jesus did his most significant work along the way, between one place and another, rather than in formal settings.
Natalie's teaching for the women's Bible study filled in what discipleship actually looks like from the inside. Drawing on Matthew 9 and first-century Jewish apprenticeship culture, she described three goals that define a disciple's life: to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, and to do as Jesus did. She noted that the word 'disciple' or 'apprentice' appears nearly 300 times in the New Testament, while 'Christian' appears only three times, and that there was no middle category in the New Testament of people who agreed with Jesus but did not follow him. That kind of following requires the same deliberate, sustained practice that produces mastery in any other craft.
Matt Litzelman's message from John 15 grounded all of this in the vine-and-branches image. Making disciples, he argued, is only possible from a place of genuine abiding. A life disconnected from Christ may look fine for a while, the way a cut flower looks fine the morning after it is severed, but it is already dying. Fruitful discipleship flows from remaining in Christ, not from effort alone. Dave Hatfield, speaking from seventeen years of work in Kenya, put the same conviction into practical terms: sit with people, open the Book, love them without an agenda, and let the Holy Spirit do what only He can do. The church's job is not to argue anyone into the kingdom.
Taught from Matthew 28:19-20 · John 15:1-8 · Matthew 9:9 · Romans 12:2 · Matthew 28:19
The passage taught · Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- September 25, 2024 Women's Bible Study - September 25th, 2024 - Called to Follow: Worship and Discipleship Natalie teaches on discipleship as apprenticeship, exploring what it means to be with Jesus, become like Him, and do as He did in everyday life.
- September 8, 2024 Love People Into a Relationship With Christ A former stockbroker shares how God sent him to a Kenya dump site, where loving outcasts and preaching the Bible daily is changing lives one neighbor at a time.
- October 30, 2022 Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing Matt Litzelman teaches from John 15 on what it means to abide in Christ, bear fruit, and live as a disciple who loves God and loves people.
- July 17, 2022 As You Are Going Three healing miracles in Matthew and Mark show Pastor Ray what truly amazes Jesus: not power or crowds, but the simple presence or absence of faith.
Mentioned along the way
- May 4, 2025 A Tale of Three Cities Paul and Barnabas pressed on through beatings, rejection and stoning to preach the gospel. A study in Acts 14 on faithful, reliant, unstoppable mission.
- April 7, 2024 He Is Not Here, He Has Risen Pastor Mark walks through Matthew's resurrection account, examining the women at the tomb, the guards' bribe, the Great Commission, and what it means when believers still doubt.
- April 7, 2024 He Has Risen Just As He Said Ray preaches Matthew 28 on resurrection, doubt and the Great Commission, then leads First Baptist Jackson in communion and sends off J Zone missionaries to Zambia.
- December 6, 2015 Weapons Not of the Flesh Pastor Ray preaches 2 Corinthians 10-11, then shares a firsthand account of confronting false gospel methods on a mission trip to Nepal.
- December 6, 2015 Defending the Ministry Pastor Ray returns from Nepal to preach 2 Corinthians 10-11, where Paul defends true ministry against false apostles, then confronts a missions organization distorting the gospel.