New Testament Discipleship
by Dr. Frank J. Cuozzo

Lesson Three: The Concept That Determines Our Method - Part 2

Read Matthew 28:18-20

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Review

Matthew 28:19 literally means "to turn men into disciples."

We already looked at:

1. The Importance of Vision – "where there is no vision, the people perish." – Prov. 29:18
2. The Commission that Determines our Mandate – Which is the Great Commission of Mt 28:18-20 commanding believers to "turn men into disciples." We looked at the Savior’s Strategy & Satan’s Substitute designed to oppose the Commands of Christ!
3. The Concept that determines our method. We looked at:
1. A disciple – We said they are people who please the Lord and reach the world. The Word disciple is often thrown around too freely in our churches. Soul-winning is not disciple making, but is a first step. In the New Testament, the word disciple is used in general ways and then specific ways. We said:
1. The word "disciple" was used to describe, "casual listeners", but no committed followers. In John 6:66 these types of disciples listened to Christ, but left Christ and walked no more with Him because they were not committed followers;
2. Real "disciples" are lifelong learners and followers of Christ. A true disciple is an apprentice of Christ. He is both a person in training and a leader in training, or in other words, as he is growing in Christ, he is always training new converts, thereby multiplying him.

A New Testament disciple si becoming more and more like Christ in a practical outward way, and he is:

- Constantly teaching

- Constantly ministering

- Constantly building lives

- Constantly going after the whole world

This then is the main work of the church, to fashion people who act and behave and have the vision of Christ! This is done one-on-one, the soul of a man to the soul of a man. We must deliberately and "on purpose" decide to be true New Testament disciples who seek and win individuals to Christ, then train them to become soul-winning disciple-making reproducers. In Luke 6:40, Jesus said, "The disciple is not above his master, but everyone that is perfect (mature) shall be as his master." In other words, when the process is complete, the pupil will be like his teacher!

 

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2. A discipler – is a disciple maker or one who turns men into disciples. It is impossible to be a disciple without being a discipler. A discipler is a co-learner who recruits and leads others as they are learning together.
3. Discipling – it’s the process of turning men into disciples.
1. Story: Christopher Adjit, in his book, "Personal Disciple-Making" defines it as "seeking to fulfill the imperative of the Great Commission by making a conscious effort to ehlp people move toward spiritual maturity – drawing on the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, utilizing the resources of the local church, and fully employing the gifts. Talents and skills acquired over the years.
2. Discipling is done by "someone" not by something. It is done by persons, not by programs. It is accomplished by individuals not by institutions. Technically, discipling is one Christian imparting his whole life to another, by example, influence, leadership and relationship. It always involves a life transference (soul to soul)
3. There is a great deal of difference between disinfecting sinners and discipling saints.
• Disinfecting sinners gets the sinner saved, then puts him in a spiritual safety deposit box from which he emerges as a tamed and decent human being.
• Discipling saints on the other hand, involves the qualitative construction of a saved individual so that the individual will change the world in an ever-enlarging and continuous way.
4. When the disciples heard Jesus say that they were to "turn men into disciples," they had to interpret that to mean, that they were to make out of others what Jesus had made out of them.
4. Disciplines – are the areas of life that reveal the cost of discipleship. Hudson Taylor wrote, "A man may be consecrated, dedicated and devoted, but of little value if undisciplined.
1. Story – A veteran pastor was asked recently what he did in his church over all his years as pastor to turn his members into soul-winning, disciple-making reproducers. He sadly replied, "I never had success producing reproducers I any church I pastured." "I just went ahead and tried to do all the work myself." How sad, but how typical. In most churches today, we are at best, producing "good Christians," which usually means extremely inward focused introverts, rather than world-impacting, soul-winning, disciple-making reproducers.
2. Disciple-making produces a ministry of multiplication. Multiplication occurs when disciplers start producing other world visionary, soul-winning, disciple-making reproducers. God’s plan to reach the world is exactly the same plan he used to populate it by multiplication. Look at Genesis 9:1, "And God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth." Someone said this is the only order God has given to man that he has obeyed (jokingly). And so Jesus’ evangelistic mandate is essentially the same as God’s biological mandate.

Why do men fail to multiply biologically?

1. Some never marry therefore there s no union of the sexes and no multiplication.
2. Some suffer from disease or impairment to the vital reproductive organs and no multiplication.
3. Some don’t multiply because of immaturity. Do you know of any three year old fathers? The organs are present, but not yet developed sufficiently to reproduce and no multiplication.

The same reasons and deficiencies account for the failure to multiply spiritually.

1. No consistent union between Christ and the Christian and no multiplication.
2. The presence of sin in a believer’s life will also impede and impair the process of multiplication.
3. Spiritual immaturity or keeping Christians from growing in Christ prevents multiplication.

Paul wrote an immature carnal church in I Corinthians 3:1, "And I brethren, could not speak unto as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." Spiritual multiplication is God’s planned vision for reaching our world with the gospel. Jesus’ strategy for ministry was evident: He looked at the masses through the man, then He built the man to impact the masses. He ministered to all, but He recruited and trained a small number of disciples to reach the world. Jesus loved the world and each individual in it, and he looked beyond His disciples to the men that they would some day teach and train. In John 17:20, Jesus prayed in His high priestly, "Neither pray I for prayer, these alone, but for them (that’s us) also which shall believe on me through their word."

You start to see a progression. In the early church in Acts 2:41 and 2:47 and 5:14 where the word "added to the church was used, to Acts 6:1, where it says, "And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied." And then you see the result of disciples multiplying in Acts 9:31, where the bible says, that the "churches in Judea, Galilee and Samaria…were multiplied."

When people who haven’t seen each other in a long time, what is one of the first questions you ask? Are you married? Do you have any kids? Or if my age, "Do you have any grandkids?" In other words, "Are you biologically reproducing?" At the judgment seat of Christ, we may well hear these same questions spiritually. Do you have any children? (If not, why not?) Do you have any grandchildren? (People who are Christians because of the way you raised your own spiritual children? And, do you have any spiritual great-grandchildren?

I guarantee you that it will not be totally satisfying to find out that we ministered to vast numbers of people and only a few became reproducers. It will however be very satisfying if we have spent our lives seeking to make out of our disciples what Jesus made out of his – to be soul-winning, disciple-making, world-visionary reproducers who desire to multiply.

Story

In the story, the bridge over the river Kwai a British colonel captured by the Japanese during WWII, when placed in a Burmese concentration camp, where hundreds of hopeless prisoners languished near death. The English officer came up with a plan to improve morale and give the captives something to live for. Near the camp, the enemy was constructing a bridge, a railroad bridge. He asked if the prisoners could take over the task of building the bridge. They worked with arrogant efficiency to show the Japanese what British ingenuity could do. Dedicating himself and his soldiers to the job, the British colonel began to see morale change. The goal of building the bridge became his magnificent obsession. Finally the railway bridge was finished and the Japanese proceeded to send their first supply train over it. As the Japanese sent the first supply train chugging toward the structure; the proudly patrolling British colonel spied allied commandos under the bridge in the river bed, about to demolish it. Because of his private obsession with the bridge, he ran screaming frantically down toward the river, trying to stop the saboteurs.

Isn’t the analogy clear? Most churches languish near death and the leaders come up with one plan after another, program upon program to try and improve morale and give the members something to keep them motivated. In short, they engage in survival strategies, a classic example of institution building. Just as in the story, the enemy has his own program and he is more than happy to enlist us in its fulfillment. We often take over his plan with a vengeance.

The goal of "building the bridge" becomes our magnificent obsession! And when anyone suggests that this is more of Satan’s substitute than it is the Savior’s strategy, we turn on him as if he were our enemy. So obsessed have we become with institution building programs, that we have forgotten that there is a battle bigger than the bridge going on. Like little children playing make believe games, we skip breathlessly through life largely missing the original mandate of Jesus, to turn men into disciples. It is never too late to begin dong what is right – what we have been commanded to do. As your pastor, I want to lead this church into turning men into disciples. Please join me as we attempt to obey the Lord together!

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