Disciple: Be One, Make One
- Jerry Witham
- Jul 15, 2008
- Series: The Church
- Media Links
- Subscribe
But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles. Galatians 1.15-16a
Last night I caught a glimpse of the homerun derby. What a show that was! Many of you probably know of Josh Hamilton and his story. Josh was a promising baseball star on the rise from the time he was 18 years of age. Back in 2001, as his baseball career was beginning his problem with alcohol and drugs begin too. In fact,
This past Sunday we read about a similar story. Paul went from wanting to extinguish and annihilating the church and Christianity to becoming a disciple. Paul was living according to the gospel of works and was swept away by the gospel of grace when God revealed to him His Son. Every Christian’s story is different just as it was with Josh Hamilton and the Apostle Paul, but the story line is always the same. It goes like this: God chose you (Paul says it was a prenatal choice.) and called you to faith. He revealed His Son to your heart according to His good pleasure. Then He gave you a particular service. For Josh Hamilton he was commissioned to be an evangelist, who plays baseball. For the Apostle Paul it was to preach through his role as a teacher, pastor and church planter (also a tentmaker). So Christians are chosen and called, as Jesus has been revealed to them, and they are commissioned.
Every believer is to be witness
Paul is called to preach to the Gentiles. As we talked about Sunday, the word, preach, is an important word. To preach literally means to bring good news (the gospel) or to be a witness of the gospel. Remember the gospel is literally a joyful message! For Paul it was the gospel of grace that was joyful and good news. Here it is: There is a living God, who has created all things, but not only is He the Creator, but He is the Liberating King of the universe, who has sovereign rule over all and that His kingdom has arrived in the person of Jesus Christ, who came from heaven, born of a virgin in the city of
Every equipped believer is to equip another
As a disciple, Paul, not only witnessed to others about the good news of Jesus, but he also equipped others. Ephesians 4.11-12 says, And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. Those equipped are to equip other believers for the work of service that God has for them for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. In Paul’s role as a pastor/teacher He taught the Word of God, shepherded the flock, oversaw the ministry of the church, and was an equipper. To equip is to outfit, prepare and perfect. This is not only the responsibility of pastors, elders, overseers and bishops, but also every other believer.
The Navigators give us four principles for equippers. The first is to tell them what and why. I love what Pastor Butch Hardman says, Teaching isn’t telling. It is causing people to learn. We could teach and teach all day long, but we must get to step two. Next we must show them how. Many of you are taking your children to swim lessons this Summer. If they go and just sit in a classroom all day learning what to do in the water and why, they will probably not succeed very well in swimming. They have to get in the water!!! The third is getting them started. You must take them from seeing it done to doing it. The final principle is to keep going. Most get out of the gates with enthusiasm and excitement, but eventually it will fade. They must be encouraged and cheered on to press on and endure. We see Paul doing this throughout his letters in the New Testament.
Every believer is to train others to pass it on
We must equip others, but part of our training is to equip them to pass what they are learning on to another. This is how the math of the kingdom works. It is about multiplication. It is an endless chain of spiritual reproduction. That is what Paul has in mind when he tells Timothy, The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2.2). Paul sees four generations in this verse. The first generation, being himself, the second generation, being Timothy, the third generation, being the faithful men who would be able to teach, and the fourth generation, the others.
A willingness to imitate
Paul says to be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ (1 Corinthians 11.1). Paul imitated Jesus. In the gospel of
For God’s Glory
Why such a calling and commissioning? Why should we imitate Jesus and Paul? For the glory of God! The churches in Galatia would not recognize Paul if they saw him, but Paul said, they kept hearing, He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy. And they were glorifying God because of me (Galatians 1.23-24). The glory of God is at stake and so are the souls of man.
A friend of mine in our church who was looking at job opportunities was sharing about a job opportunity recently that would require him to go get many hours of training and also cost him financially. He was not interested. God has given him the willingness to put that kind of time into discipleship and training others, but not to a job. My friend asked the question, What if people would put the training, time and money they put into job training into being trained to be a disciple and to making them? This question has stuck with me. I just wander what would happen if we all thought like that. I also wanted to thank this good friend for the three important principles above that every believer is responsible for. They come from a sermon preached by a former pastor of his, Pastor Butch Hardman.
