Making Disciples, Changing Lives

Text: 2 Timothy 2:2

Topic: Making Disciples, Changing Lives

Bobby Earls, Oakdale Baptist Church, Statesville, NC, April 1, 2001

Well who is this Bobby Earls and where is Icard, NC? The answer to the first question is that I am just an ole country boy from the Upstate of South Carolina. And Icard is a small, non-incorporated rural community in Western NC. We have a lot of fun up in Icard when we refer to ourselves as the FBI. (Share the story of the little boy who asked if I worked for the FBI)

Like most Southern Baptist Churches, FBI has followed the typical church programming models of ministry that the typical SBC church follows. In fact, since 1990 by most standards of measurement, we have been very successful. For example, we’ve grown from a church of 300-plus members to over 1300 members today. In ten years, we’ve baptized over 900 new believers. My point is, as a church, we’ve seen tremendous growth numerically through the addition of new believers and new members. But the bottom line is that we were failing to obey our Lord’s command to “make disciples.”

In 1997 our church began the intentional disciple making process offered through T-Net International. Pastor Wayne has asked me to share some of the important principles and practical approaches we teach in this intentional, disciplemaking process. First let me share a quote by a fairly significant Southern Baptist.

Gene Mims, who is the Vice-president of Lifeway Christian Resources, had this to say about discipleship. He said “discipleship is much talked about but probably is practiced the least of all church functions.”

Discipleship is a process that begins after conversion and continues throughout a believer’s life. It occurs when one believer engages another and the result is that both become more Christlike in what they think and do.

If you have your bible, look first tonight at what I hope is a familiar passage to most of us. In Matthew 28, verse 19 we read the admonition of our Lord Jesus Christ who in that Great Commission assignment said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Most of us understand that the words “make disciples” is a Greek imperative. It is a commandment, not an option. Jesus mandated discipleship in the Great Commission. The question is, how are we doing?

Our Lord Jesus had a world vision. He saw a world being won to faith in Himself. Yet He knew that vision would not be realized by simple addition, adding one person at a time to the Kingdom, but by multiplication. As each believer wins another to faith in Christ and then helps that believer to mature in Christlikeness who in turn reaches another and that one reaches another, and another and so on and so on.

By the time you reach the sixth chapter of the Book of Acts you discover that the church is no longer talking about growth through addition but by multiplication. Acts 6:1 says, “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied” and Acts 6:7 tells us, “the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.”

This process of multiplying disciples was also the thought the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote his “last will and testament” to his son in the faith Timothy.

2 Timothy 2:2 is as concrete a statement about the practice of Discipleship as you will find anywhere in the Bible. Look at it with me for a few moments.

2 Timothy 2:2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Notice first that ……

I. DISCIPLE MAKING ALWAYS BEGINS WITH THE INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER “commit” (the “you” is understood)

Discipleship always begins with the individual believer. No matter how many may swell our facilities to hear about Jesus, Jesus always calls us one by one. We are saved one person at a time. We must be discipled one person at a time. But whereas salvation happens in an instant, discipleship happens over a process of time.

When our Lord met Peter for the first time He said “You are Simon….you shall be called Cephas.” When Jesus saw Peter he did not see him as he was, but as he would be someday. Joel Gregory says of this meeting between Peter and Jesus, “Jesus gazed at Peter and through Peter as if looking at a far horizon. Simon Peter was all potential, but very little reality. His original name suggests the capricious character of a dove, flighty and unpredictable. This ‘dove’ will become a rock but not for a long time and only after a painful process.”

Thank God that He looks at us and sees potential, not just what we are presently. The gaze of God looks beyond what you may be today and sees you as you can be. There is tremendous potential in the life of one person.

Illustration of the Transformed life of Connie Kerley

I wish Jeff and Connie Kerley could be here tonight to share how their lives have been changed through this intentional disciplemaking process.

Whereas disciple making begins with the individual believer, ……..

II. DISCIPLE MAKING CONTINUES WITHIN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS, thou…me (KJV)

It is the “thou…me” relationship that is the intimate relationship so sadly missing in Christian discipleship today.

The ‘thou….me” or the “you…..me” relationship between Paul and Timothy identifies a relationship of trust and intimacy, of mutual confidence and shared responsibility. It is a personal relationship bonded together through mutual commitment to the cause of Christ.

2 Timothy 2:2 gives us a pattern for successful discipleship when we recognize the vital importance of such intimate relationships between Christians. What kind of relationship is needed for discipling to take place?

1. A Relationship of Example.

Christianity is more caught than taught. We learn best by observing. Timothy learned from the more mature Christian, the Apostle Paul, how to live and share the Christian lifestyle. Years later, writing from prison, Paul instructs the Christians at the church in Philippi, to receive Timothy as they would himself. In essence, what he says is, “When Timothy arrives, it will be as though I myself were present with you.”

2. A Relationship of Accountability.

We need others to hold us lovingly accountable to God and to one another. Every believer needs a Paul, an older, more mature believer to help them remain accountable in their walk before the Lord.

3. A Relationship of Intimacy.

Disciples grow best when nourished in a warm, caring environment of a small

group of other committed believers. The small group or what we call a cell becomes the glue that holds a believer accountable to others as he grows spiritually in Christlikeness.

Illustration of the Transformed life of Celine Ellison

Disciple making begins with the individual believer, continues in intimate relationships and …..

III. DISCIPLE MAKING FLOURISHES THROUGH INTENTIONALITY

“commit”

The word “commit” suggests transmitting something from one person to another. It indicates the deposit of a sacred trust. Paul is saying to Timothy, “You are my disciple. Now intentionally transmit what I have given to you to others who will become disciple-makers.”

When we invest in the lives of other people, we transmit not only what we know but, more importantly, who we are. Each of us become like the people with whom we associate! Jesus said in Luke 6:40 No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.

As a church, we must intentionally seek to make disciples of every believer presently and those who join in the future. We do not need more believers. We do not need more members. What we do need is more disciples!

Illustration of the Transformed life of Renee Parker

Disciple making begins with the individual believer, continues in intimate relationships, flourishes through intentionality, and……

IV. DISCIPLE MAKING IS STRENGTHENED THROUGH INTEGRITY

“faithful men”

Making disciples stands or falls with these two little words, “faithful men.” Men of integrity, honesty, dependability.

Proverbs 20:6

6 Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find? (KJV)

Faithful men and women have always been in short supply. God still seeks them out. 2 Chronicles 16:9 9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

At FBI, we have transitioned and restructured our organization and schedule in order to allow for the important ministry of training disciplemakers. We dare not poison the pot by using anything less than fully committed disciples who in turn “teach others also.”

Perhaps one of the most neglected areas of church is the training of leadership. Our Lord spent three years training (discipling) his twelve followers before entrusting them to carry on His work.

The question is “can we afford to do anything less?”

Illustration of the Transformed lives of Rick Hildebran and Keith Albertson

Disciple making begins with the individual believer, continues in intimate relationships, flourishes through intentionality, strengthed through integrity and finally……

V. DISCIPLESHIP PROGRESSES THROUGH COUNTINUOUS INSTRUCTION

“teach others also”

Discipleship never ends. It is life-on-life. If we are truly practicing Christian discipleship, then we will always be in the process of learning and teaching; of receiving and giving; of having and sharing.

Notice the four generations of discipleship in this verse:

1. We began with Paul

2. Then Timothy

3. Then faithful men

4. Others also.

Again, let me stress, this is a multiplying process. While faithful men are teaching others also, Timothy is in the process of raising up even more faithful men who again, in turn, teach others, also.

Implementing this vision of multiplying disciples constitutes the only way Christ’s commission can ever ultimately be fulfilled! Did you know that T-Net International, the disciple making organization with which your pastor and others are presently training, has a vision of fulfilling the Great Commission in fifteen years?

We are now living in the most fluid, mobile, and technologically-advanced society in the history of mankind. When Jesus first gave the commandment to “make disciples of all nations, (ta ethna) all people groups, it was impossible, at that moment to fulfill. It wasn’t until 1492, when Columbus sailed the seas of blue, that it was even known there were entire new Continents we call today North America and South America. And guess what, they had people on them. Lots of them.

The first disciples could have never reached or discipled these nations. But today we can.

I just returned from my first International Training Center Ghana, West Africa. There we had the opportunity to train 63 pastors. These pastors have the capacity to impact and train more than 200,000 believers to become fully committed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our prayer at FBI is O God, help us to become a disciple making church! I hope that’s the sincere prayer of the good people here at Oakdale!