How to Make Disciples

HOW TO MAKE DISCIPLES

VICTOR CHOUDHRIE

How to make disciples – how to bring a movement….

Acts 2:42-47
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lordadded to their number daily those who were being saved.

Gospel became global gospel from day #1 – Acts 2 …

At the end of the sermon, people came and said, “What shall we do?” (v37)

Repentance
Acceptance of the Lordship of Jesus Christ
Baptism
Receive the Holy Spirit
Break out and Multiply

“This is for you and your house hold, your children and your children’s children.”
All this happened on Day #1

In verse 42 they do 4 things:

Apostolic teaching — “go teaching”
Difference between teaching and apostolic teaching …
Apostolic teaching → go
Two kinds of churches — “go” church and “come” church

How do you know if you have a go church or come church?

Announcements … meetings → come … if your teaching is centered on teaching people to ask others to “come” rather than teaching your people to “go”, you have a “come” church

Jesus said, “go” and make disciples of all nations

If you don’t preach “go” and make disciples of all nations, you have “come” church.
Fellowship koinonia (Gr)
In traditional church – shaking hands
In the house church, Eph 2:19 you are now part of the household of God … you are no longer strangers and pilgrims of God. The church is the household of God.
Breaking Bread (table fellowship) when household gets together — they eat together
Rev 3:18 – Jesus knocks at the door and will come in and sup with you …
Arrange eating with Jesus, not meeting with Jesus. He may come to your house in the form of a drug addict, prostitute, sinner … he doesn’t need a sermon, he needs food.
Pray … not about me, my family, etc … this is praying for the nations. Intercessory prayer. Psalm 2:8 — ask me and I will give you nations for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
In Rev 8:3-4
3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.
4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand.

The angel sitting there is the “prayer secretary” of God — all the prayers have to go through this angel. Your prayer has to be “fire-proof” in order to pass through this angel.

Goat prayer — me me me … all the “me-me” prayer gets burnt out.

Prayers of the saints rise up as incense before God. Those who pray for the nations — intercessory prayer, praying for others.

Back to Acts 2:42 … 4 items

Apostolic teaching
Fellowship … a relational church
Breaking bread
Intercessory Prayer

If you do these 4 things, then the rest will fall into place.

Acts 2:43 ..

Fear of the Lord among the people
John 13:34-35 … 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
People will not believe in Jesus Christ if we don’t show love one for another.
Signs and wonders and miracles will take place

Which church has more power — the small church or the mega church? The bigger the church the bigger the strife. The church without signs and wonders and miracles has no power.
How should we preach?

Romans 15:19 …
19 by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

Demonstration, not just words. Therefore unqualified people end up expanding the kingdom much faster than the highly qualified people sharing words and knowledge. Unqualified can perform signs and wonders.

Your church must be identified by signs and wonders and miracles. 95% of the house churches have had some kind of signs and wonders. They draw people and they can stand in the face of persecution rather than those who come just based on words.

Like the blind man that Jesus healed … the Pharisees knew that man as a sinner. The man says whether he’s a sinner or not, I do not know, but one thing I do know, I was blind and now I see. His faith was based on signs and wonders, miracles. Extremely important if you want to have a movement.
Based on unity
Acts 2:44-46
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

People sold their possessions and goods.

Acts 4:34-35 …
33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned
lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

Acts 4:36-37
36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of
Encouragement),
37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.

They sold the extra things. They sold it because he was a Levite — not supposed to have any land. In order to be a follower of Jesus, then brought the money and gave it.

Houses and Land …

They brought to the feet of the apostle … If you put it at the apostle’s feet, it is spent to “go”.

Acts 2:46-47
46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

They went to the temple …

The last time Jesus went to the temple, he went with a whip. So, why should they go to the temple now? Jesus told them, “I will make you fishers of men.”

So they asked ‘where do I go fishing today?” And, what time shall I go fishing? He knows where the fish are and what time to go.

The disciples know all the fish at certain times are in the temple — they were there praying 3x day. They would go to the temple 2 by 2 in Acts 3;1, Peter and John went to the temple (with Jesus) … they went at the time of payer. When most people were. That was the time to catch fish.

They went to the temple 2 x 2 … they used wisdom and didn’t bombard the temple with evangelists.
The Dining Table
The Jews — the Jews were praying, “Messiah, come.” Still today in Israel, the Jews pray “Messiah come”.

The dining table in a Jewish house is like an altar … all the major festivals are celebrated on the dining table. Most of the Jewish people at this time were agricultural people. So they always had loaves of bread, covered with cloth, and olive oil, wine, and cheese, all from their farm. If they lived in the coastal area, they had fish on the table. If someone brought a guest to your house, you didn’t have to cook rice and curry — there was already food on your table.

At the dining table, discipling took place every day.

Verse 47 — praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
And the Lord added to their numbers daily. They were rejoicing. No persecution because it was done at a dining table, no building, no busses, nothing to draw attention to them.

Four things should happen straight away

1. Repent
2. Accept lordship of Jesus Christ
3. Be baptised
4. Receive the Holy Spirit

Four things you do

1. Signs and wonders (lead to fear of the Lord)
2. Sharing possessions
3. People being sent out to catch fish
4. Bring them to the dining table

Whole of Jerusalem was converted at dining tables.
In time, they completely emptied the temple and then persecution hit. But before that, people came rejoicing, breaking bread from house to house, and the Lorded to their numbers daily.

Ps 78:71-72
71 from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led

God called David

He was already tending sheep
Ewes and lambs (the ewes were the young)
For a purpose to be shepherd of Israel (not king of Israel)
Especially the vulnerable ones (ewes and young)

Because of his integrity
– flawed character cannot lead people

Skillfulness – Verse 72
– a leader should be skillful — trained — and have characteristics of integrity

Leader

#1 – Calling
#2 – Character
#3 – Competency

Required to be a leader.

His own father did not think David was capable of anything. His father didn’t even call David to meet Samuel. God says, “no!” Samuel had to ask Jesse, don’t you have any other sons? Samuel says, call him. When David comes from the flocks, God says, this is it.

When choosing leadership consider:

Calling
[Caring]
Character / Integrity
Competency / Skillful (close the mouth of those who oppose)

If any of these characters are missing, you cannot be a good leader. If you don’t qualify, you should not be leading. You can have knowledge, but if you don’t have skills to bring lost sheep into the kingdom…

Character
Titus 1:5-9
5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.
6 An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.
7 Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless – not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.
8 Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Bishop – Supervisor

Maturity in faith, not in age.

18 character traits in Titus and Timothy which are character issues which qualifies as an elder.

Character must be right
He should be a good manager of his own household
If he cannot manage his own household, how can he manage the household of God?
He should be hospitable
Open your house … we recognize the person of peace because he invites us to his house and feeds us. If you’re not hospitable, how do you disciple someone?
Sound in doctrine
Should be able to close the mouth of those who oppose. You should be able to present the case for the Gospel to anyone to bring conviction into their hearts. When you can do that, then you are sound in doctrine.
Ability
Use Koran to refute Muslims

Characters of God
Sinless
Creator
Bachelor
Won victory over death
He should be able to give you salvation

Which other “god” fits into this?

We need to competent with handling people of other faiths
Then you are sound in doctrine

Paul went to Athens and there he saw a city full of idolatry (huge statues made of marble). Paul goes to the temples and studies the instrument of worship. Then goes to Corinth where the politicians and important people are and preaches a sermon there. They all think Paul has come to teach about some foreign god. Paul says, no, excuse me, I have come to tell you about the unknown God …

Then he goes to Aeropagus and says, in him we have our being, our living, and tells about God.

Acts 14:16-17 … previous generations God allowed them to worship as they wanted, but he has not left himself without evidence.

Every literature (Muslim and Buddhist) is full of Jesus.

Some sorcerer or fortune teller in the East said if you see this star it means the King of kings was born. There was nothing in the Bible about the star — the Jews knew nothing about the star. But these magi (magic people) gathered gold, frankincense and incense and then travelled 1000 miles across the desert all night.

Sound in doctrine does not mean knowing the Bible. It means being able to shut the mouth of those who oppose, to bring conviction.

Paul used exactly what he needed to confront the people in Athens.

Traditional Church
Sit → Soak → Stagnate

True Church
Eat → Chat → Multiply
Anytime, anywhere, anyplace ….

Five-fold ministry

Eph 4:11-13
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

For the perfecting of saints
Edification of the church
Perfecting of saints should lead to edification of church → Growth and multiplication
When you bring your bride, she’s beautiful but over time … through multiplication (childbearing) her beauty changes. The business of the bride is to produce babies
If the church grows very big it becomes unmanageable; it stagnates
The church MUST reproduce to qualify as the bride of Christ

Five-fold ministry in house church situation …

The house churches are not independent entities, they are interdependent entities. It is a network: one may have an apostle, one a teacher, one an evangelist … because they network, they work with one another, so the 5-fold ministry is at work within the network of churches.
Don’t form an independent house church …
If you have a house church that’s an extension of the church, it has the potential to become a mini-church.
The house church is a debriefing center, equip them, and send them …
If the pastor leads the house church, it’s not a house church.
Star-fish: Doesn’t have a head or a brain. If you chop off an appendage, it grows and produces new star fish.
Starfish doesn’t require a CEO … there’s no commander, no hierarchy. The whole thing is equal. In the star fish, the whole body knows what is going on. There’s no centralized system.
House church is a decentralized system. No such thing as a leader. Our mindset is that we have to have a leader. No paperwork. All volunteers. The leader is a facilitator, not the commander. Spiritual father, mother,…. Facilitators, not leaders.
Nobody has all the gifts
Discipleship and church planting is a process.
Philip the only one in the NT mentioned as an evangelist. He preached the gospel with power and the sick were healed and thousands were baptised. He was only an evangelist, not an apostle. He went off and couldn’t care less what happened with the people he had just preached to.
Peter and John hear that the Holy Spirit fell in Samaria so they went over there. They birthed churches there.
The gospel comes through Jesus Christ. Evangelism done by Philip. Churches planted by apostles John u0026amp; Peter.
Nicolaitans (Rev 2) — conquering people … dominating people, not the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus said He hated their practices.