The Church - Disciples Who Grow and MultiplyPrimjer

The Church: disciples who grow and multiply!

REFLECTIONS:

Read 1 Corinthians 4:16-17, 1 Corinthians 11:1, Ephesians 5:1-2, and 2 Timothy 2: 2 and take some time to answer the following questions:

➤Who do you think is responsible for making disciples? What role might you have in that?

➤What do these passages spur you to do in your own life today?

Jesus’s mission order is to make disciples of all nations (cf. Matthew 28:19), and this should be the priority for those of us who are His disciples. In fact, you are only a disciple of Christ to the extent that you make disciples yourself. This means that the goal of everything we do in the Church must be to make disciples of Christ, who are then able to make other disciples. This movement will only be completed when Christ returns. That’s what it means to do His will and to make His Kingdom come. And it is a duty that we all have.

Making disciples is actually something very simple, because it’s about application, not knowledge. God has nothing against us acquiring a wealth of knowledge about Him and His Word, but such knowledge is useless if we don’t apply it in our daily lives. Jesus commanded us to make disciples. First, we are to baptize them, since baptism – the decision to die to self and to live for Christ and through Christ – is the gateway to discipleship, and then we are to teach them to observe (that is, to practise) what Christ commanded us to do. Simply put, making disciples is not about passing on knowledge, but about helping people to live out the reality of the Kingdom of God in their daily lives.

To make disciples, you must lead by example. Too often, we want to pass on knowledge without investing time in providing a model that can be adopted and applied. During His three-year ministry on this earth, Jesus purposely spent most of His time with twelve men that He chose as His disciples. Crowds were never his priority, as evidenced by the fact that, after performing a miraculous healing, he often told the person not to talk about it (cf. Mark 1:44). Jesus didn’t share academic knowledge with His disciples. Because Jesus lived alongside them and became an example for them to follow, their lives were transformed. That’s how Jesus led them to live like Him. In the same way, we should also follow Christ’s lead and make it our priority to invest in the lives of other people by spending time with them.

That’s exactly what Paul and the other disciples did. If you read the New Testament carefully, you can easily trace the disciples’ lineages. In 2 Timothy 2:2, four generations of disciples are mentioned: Paul, Timothy, “reliable people” and “others”. In the Kingdom of God, no one should serve someone else’s vision. Instead, we all serve God’s vision and His Kingdom, and it is by working together as a community that we can pass on our first-hand knowledge and our experiences.

Paul calls us to follow his example, in the same way that he follows Christ’s example. As we read Paul’s writings, we discover a man who is not afraid to reveal his vulnerability and his battles. This is an important aspect in helping us to make disciples: first we must accept the responsibility that Christ has bestowed on us to be an example for others to follow. That doesn’t mean being perfect, but it does mean being transparent and vulnerable. Like you, the people around you are aware of their faults and need a role model who will show them how to resist temptation and deal with pressure and trials. They need to follow someone who repents after sinning and who can show them how to recover from failure. God intended you to be an example, so don’t try to be someone else and don’t hide behind a mask. Align your life with His Word as best you can and intentionally influence others.

In God’s Kingdom, multiplication is the norm. Like in nature, everything in His Kingdom carries the seed for its own multiplication. That means we all carry the seed for multiplication within us. Let’s release that seed, seeking not to promote ourselves or to put ourselves forward, but to make disciples, who will then make their own disciples, because that’s the real meaning of bearing fruit and being successful in our lives. You can start by sharing this teaching with someone else!

MY DECISION:

➤How this applies to my life:

➤My response to what I’ve learned:

➤ What you decide today will determine who and what you will become tomorrow!

Adapted from “un disciple en marche” copyright 2018 by Luc Favre, published by Vie Victorieuse. All rights reserved. More onwww.vievictorieuse.org