Discipleship is incredibly powerful in a myriad of ways. One of the main impacts of discipleship is the spread of the gospel. Reaching the world through discipleship is a chain reaction of pouring the gospel into others’ lives. In this video, Pastor David Platt highlights the spread of the gospel through men and women who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, and so on.
- The Example of Jim Chadwick
- The Gospel Power of Discipleship
God’s mercy toward me has really been evidenced in particular men. I can name about a handful of them who have had a huge impact on me, who at different points and different stages in my life have just invested the gospel and the love of Christ and the Word of Christ very, very intentionally in me.
Men Who Impacted David Platt’s Life Through Discipleship
And so everyone from a student minister when I was growing up, who gave me the first opportunity to teach the Word and helped shepherd me through that and helped me think through how to share the gospel and make disciples in high school all the way to… Jim Chadwick’s my mentor in seminary who’s a pastor now in Denver, Colorado who has just, well, for the last 10-plus years, intentionally taught me to teach the Word and to make disciples and share the gospel and shepherd the people of God on the mission of God. And so that definitely, by God’s grace, has given me a picture of Paul-Timothy type of relationships of faithful men who’ve entrusted the Word, I hope, to a faithful brother who is then entrusting the Word to faithful brothers.
The Spread Of The Gospel Through Discipleship
And so this is the way the gospel spreads. Maybe not even on as grandest scale as a student minister or a seminary professor. But even just on the level of brothers and sisters walking alongside one another and saying, “I’m going to lay down my life to pour the gospel into you, to teach the Word to you. And as that happens in your life, then the spirit of God compel you to do the same in others’ lives, in others’ lives, in others’ lives.”
This is the method for how the gospel is to spread to the ends of the earth. And all the stuff and things and programs and ideas and events that we can come up with in the church will never trump this method. Men and women making disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, and so on and so on, until every people group on the planet’s been reached. And so I’m thankful for how that’s been modeled in my own life through that handful of men, and pray that God’s grace in them toward me would be the great effect for His glory.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
