The Christian Church: Clueless – Go Make Disciples – The DNA for a Disciple Making Movement Part 3 of 12
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Subject – The Christian Church: Clueless – Go Make Disciples – The DNA for a Disciple Making Movement Part 3 of 12
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Sunday, 2nd June 2019
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The Christian Church: Clueless – Go Make Disciples – The DNA for a Disciple Making Movement Part 3 of 12
NUGGETS OF WISDOM
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
– Deitrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
“I always ask this simple question from our brethren who say you can’t disciple people remotely, “Who then discipled the Ethiopian eunuch after conversion? Was it Philip, The Holy Spirit or somebody else? In our world where communication systems are on the palm of our hands and people are more on the move and mobile than ever before, we have no option but to exploit opportunities the digital media presents to us to reach and disciple the world for Christ – The Holy Spirit is alive in our midst and working to convict, to rebuke, to teach, to direct, to instruct and to guide us into all truth about Christ and everything in-between!”- Monday Ogwuojo Ogbe
Key verses for Today:
Luke 9:23 Contemporary English Version
Then Jesus said to all the people: If any of you want to be my followers (Disciples), you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross every day and follow me
John 12:25
Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life
Matthew 28:18-20 Amplified Bible (AMP)
18 Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”
Acts 8:26-40 English Standard Version (ESV)
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south[a] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”[b] 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea
Introduction
Dear brethren, welcome to a brand-new month of June 2019 as we kickoff with our third series on the Christian church – Go make disciples. Today, we are exploring the DNA of a disciple making movement. This is taken from my book: Clueless – Go make disciples.
We also want to thank our partners who are standing with us in prayer and to say that your prayer is working!
We now have between 3000 to 5000 weekly readerships of our weekly blog on otakada.org. These net citizens come from Finland, Germany, France, Russia, United Kingdom, USA, Africa, Latin America, China and a host of others. These statistics excludes those on our social media handle. We have also deployed a 40 days online self-paced discipleship program that net citizens sign up to with option to become leaders that disciple others online. We intervene only when there is a need to. Thank you for your prayers and all the birthday wishes received this week. The Lord bless you mightily in Jesus name!
Lets begin!
Imagine a day when Jesus-style disciple making is the norm for the local church. Everyday Christians are engaged in relationships with people (inside and outside the church) so that they can show the love of Jesus and help people to trust and follow Him. Churches are known as disciple-making places, where Jesus-like people are created. And pastors are evaluated by the people they raise up and the disciple makers they have made in the Spirit’s power. Jesus’ message and Jesus’ methods dominate.
What will it take? We believe that this day will come as God moves among us and as God’s people live out certain beliefs. If the following beliefs resonate with you and you can support them, then you are on the path to making disciples.
These beliefs are the DNA of a disciple-making movement.
- We believe the gospel and it is our message — this good news is focused on Jesus as our Messiah (King) and His death, burial, and resurrection. All who respond to salvation are freely saved and called to discipleship, no exceptions, no excuses (Mark 8:34-38; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8). The gospel we preach and believe dictates the kind of disciples we are and the kind of disciples we make. If we attempt to make a Christlike disciple from a non-discipleship gospel, we will fail. A non-discipleship gospel is one that does not include discipleship as a natural part of the message and expectation.
- We are compelled to be and make disciples of Jesus. We believe Jesus Christ is supreme and worthy of all devotion, worship, and emulation, and disciple making is a natural and necessary life response to Jesus. With laser focus, it was Jesus Himself who made disciples who could make disciples… and Jesus commands us to do the same (Matthew 28:16-20; John 20:21).
- We believe Jesus is the model (for life and ministry). Jesus showed us how to live life and how to make disciples. We seek to emulate His method and model. As the sinless second Adam, Jesus was man as God intended man to be. He then told us,
Do the works I have been doing. — John 14:12
John said those who “claim to live in Him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6). Paul understood this when he said, “Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1 NLT). Discipleship demands us to “follow” the resurrected Christ and “imitate” the priorities and patterns of the incarnate Christ. We like the expression “Jesus’ model and method of disciple making” as a summary of what we do.
- We believe love is the driving motive. The Great Commandment precedes the Great Commission. Loving God and loving people is the passion behind the priority, the motive behind the mission, the heart behind the hands. Love is the signature card of true disciples… disciple making cannot happen apart from loving and caring relationships… both tough and a tender love (1 Thessalonians 2).
By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another. — John 13:35
- We believe verifiable fruit is the measure. God’s agenda for each one of us is that we stay close to Him and bear “fruit,” “more fruit,” and then ultimately “much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8). God transforms our hearts as we “remain in [Him]” and He leads us into lives of love (John 15:4, John 15:17). Jesus modeled the focus of love as He came to seek, save, and disciple people (Luke 19:10; Luke 6:40). Jesus masterfully showed how love produces disciples… reaching and developing His men and helping them grow from non-believers all the way to disciple-makers reproducing disciple makers (Matthew 28:19-20). There is a natural process of moving people from those who do not know Jesus all the way to becoming mature disciple-makers… and Jesus showed the model to us. In short, we haven’t truly made mature disciples until they are following Jesus’ model of love and helping to make more disciples… this is fruitful multiplication.
- We believe Holy Spirit power is the means. Disciples cannot be made through fleshly efforts. Jesus, in His humanity, fully acknowledged His dependence on the Spirit. Disciple making is not just a good strategy… it is a way of life, accomplished through the fruit of the Holy Spirit living through a person’s yielded and holy life (2 Corinthians 3:16-17). If Jesus fully depended on the Holy Spirit’s power, how can we do any less?
The Holy Spirit will lead us to be obedient people who live holy lives to God’s glory.
- We believe the local church is the primary environment for disciple making. The church is for discipleship, and disciples manifest the kingdom of God to the world (Colossians 1:28-29). When the church reverses this process and attempts to get the world to go to church instead of the church going to the world, you get chaos. Pastoral and ministerial work should be evaluated and rewarded based on how many disciple makers are produced and the kind of people a church sends into the world. Jesus was a man for others; the church, likewise, is for others. Any plan that does not create disciples who live for others is a failure.
- We believe that equipping leaders is the key component of the movement. All Christians are called to be disciples who grow to help make disciples, using the unique gifts God has given each of us. Leaders are also called to grow a movement of disciple-making. This is called the church (2 Timothy 2:2). How Jesus built a movement differs from how Jesus made a disciple. If we are going to create a disciple-making movement, it is our conviction we must train leaders in how Jesus built a movement. This is harder and takes more time, but in the end this will bear fruit that will remain. Practically, this means we must develop a team of disciple-making leaders (pastors), with various disciple-making best practices (church models), who can continue to fan the flame of disciple making.
- We believe definitions are vitally important. (1) Our definition of disciple making — helping people to trust and follow Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20), which includes the whole process from conversion through maturation and multiplication; and (2) our definition of a disciple — a person who is following Christ, being changed by Christ, and is committed to the mission of Christ (Matthew 4:19 ESV).
- We believe Jesus and Scripture are the basis. We believe the sixty-six books of the Bible are the authoritative, reliable, and ultimate standard for disciple making and life (2 Timothy 3:16-4:2) and that Jesus, as presented in the Bible and appropriately described by the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, rightfully deserves our focus and our commitment to a life of full discipleship.
Conclusion and prayer.
In our Christian race, the call to discipleship or disciple making is the core of the matter. Everything else rises and falls to the level of our commitment to discipleship or disciple making. That is the last command to us by Christ Jesus and we must of necessity make it of utmost priority. The way to be committed to disciple making is to make one.
Thank you Lord for helping us to make disciples as you have commanded. As we imbibe the above beliefs (DNA), help us to be fruitful in it and throught it in Jesus name.
Shalom!
Monday Ogwuojo Ogbe – E-discipleship @
- org
- otakada.org
Originally posted on June 1, 2019 @ 8:52 pm
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