Discipleship
Intro- Are You Comfortable.
I. Paul’s’ exposition (Romans 10:12-18). He expounds upon the Great Commission.
People need to hear the Word of God and then they need to be taught the Word of God.
People will not know the Word of God if someone does not approach them with the message.
We are sent so that others may know God.
II. The Commission. (Matt.28:19, John 20:21 & Acts 1:8)
Three Observations. The three observations intertwine with each other; you can’t do one without the other. The three are the plurality of the commission, an action responding to the commission and an empowerment from Jesus while obeying the commission.
The Plurality of the Commission – everyone is involved in carrying out Jesus’ command to evangelize and baptize the nations.
Christ’s’ instruction to all followers (Mark 1).
“Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men”.
The early church (Acts 8:1-4) Everyone!
“They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word”.
c. Acts 1 & 2, the apostles (all of them) were filled with the Spirit of God.
3000 were added to the church the first day.
An Action has to be taken – physical effort has to be exerted.
The results of the early church were enormously effective.
1a) In 300 years the entire civilized world (the Roman Empire) had been introduced to Christ.
2a) The Roman government – the Roman Senate had Christians within its body.
3a) Constantine in 313 AD had made Christianity the State religion.
We are to copy the early church – we are to put legs to the Word of God.
1b) They were successful because they followed Jesus’ instruction.
2b) They obeyed the Commission as given by Jesus.
3b) If we sit and wait for the right times to speak, the right opportunities to minister, the right words to say we will spend all our evangelizing time sitting and waiting. We are to go forth in a fallen world and proclaim the gospel of Christ. We are to claim the power given to us and speak the good news to all men. We have the authority of the living God. Let’s get the job done!
Empowerment – We are given empowerment from Jesus.
Jesus gave us all the power & authority to carry out the work
Jesus is always with us, we need not be afraid to go out in the world and do his work.
He equips us with the tools that we need when we need them.
We are to boldly speak out in the name of Jesus. The church has a lot of radical change needed to incorporate the master’s plan of evangelism. I sense that we all need to be more committed in our role to fill the great commission. We have been given the help, given the strength, given the power, so why are we not vigorously evangelizing the world around us. Has Satan bound the present day church with timid humbleness?
Evangelism is not just a Christian principle that we discuss and manipulate others to do, Evangelism is a way of life. It is the essence of Christianity. Without it the church would soon fail.
5. The we, in these three objectives of the Commission is meant to be the church. All Christians are being called to evangelize the world. All Christians can expect to receive the help of Jesus when they obey his command. We can also expect to carry out this command with all the authority that Jesus had when he fulfilled his mission on Earth. We don’t need to be timid, scared or wary to speak in the name of Christ because we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit who abides within us. We are given this gift so we can be bold, outright and forceful in delivering Jesus’ message of salvation to all that we meet. We are to do this, not because we are Christians, but because we are called. We are called by the one true God to evangelize his world.
What has happened to the church since the commission?
As the church was successful the first half of the first century, it became stagnate the latter half.
From approximately 500 AD to the present the church became ineffective because of inaction.
The leadership took over the job of evangelizing that at one time the membership once did.
Satan couldn’t hurt the church through persecution, so he turned the church internal and divided it through doctrine.
Satins’ tactic was so successful that it is still prevalent in today’s churches. Over 95% of the church members in the United States have never lead anyone to the Lord.
The church has to get back to the basics of church growth
A. Jesus taught us the basics of Evangelism. (Matt 10:1-5a; Luke 10:1).
Jesus was the example
His life was to be copied and modeled. His calling only a few, ensured that after his departure, those he called could carry out the work that needed to be done. Jesus’ spent constant quality time with the disciples. They knew the message and manner of evangelism. They had the example of Jesus himself.
b. He showed us through his life how things were supposed to be done. Through this trickle down discipleship, I feel we would have fewer backsliders, less cynicism and a more productive church.
His words were supposed to be taught. He knew he had a short time to implant a concentrated understanding to a few whom could accurately carry on his work.
His purpose may have been to bring salvation to the world through his death but his mission was to evangelize and create disciples.
He came to evangelize a lost world and through discipleship save a lost world.
He came to show us how to live a holy life and give it purpose through discipleship.
Jesus’ mission on Earth was to start his church through discipleship.
He built his church using only a few key people. If he had spent his time just preaching, he would have been the greatest evangelist who ever lived, however, the church would have had great difficulty reaching out to others because of no trained personnel.
He established, what I call, ‘The Discipleship Principle’. His key people were taught his words, explained his words and then asked to tell others his words.
He taught his followers reproduction through Discipleship. You lead some one to Christ then you train that person how to lead some one to Christ. – 220 after 10 years = 1,000,000+
If twelve members of this church discipled one person every year for five years. Then trained those to disciple. – We would have to build a new church because the congregation would be over five times its size.
How do we copy Jesus’ example of Discipleship?
We need a discipleship program that trains laypeople how to give away their faith and train disciples that train disciples, etc.
It’s on-the-jog training – evangelism is more caught then it is taught. Like Jesus we should be training disciples that go out to spread God’s message and convert the unsaved. Under guidance and supervision we should debrief the trainees on their progress. Discussions should be part of the trainee’s learning curve, talking about their successes as well as their failures. In this way the new disciples can be held accountable and also be kept renewed in their tasks.
We need to train soul winners – 95% of new converts never win anyone to Christ. (Romans 12:1-4).
Jesus gave no other option to fulfill his mission. After he ascended into heaven he did not give us a list of choices on how to fulfill his commission.
Conclusion -Story of Jesus and the Archangel Gabriel in heaven.
Gabriel asked Jesus what he did while he was on Earth. Jesus told him that he went there to start his church. Gabriel asked how Jesus accomplished such a large task. Jesus explained that he gathered a few key personnel (12 disciples) and trained them his words and how to tell others his words. Through his example they were to be the leaders after he left and carry on the work of the church. Gabriel pondered what Jesus had said and then asked, “well Jesus, what if they fail”? Jesus graciously replied, “I did not give them that option”.
