I. The Discipleship Video:

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II. The Discipleship Transcript:

At the very end of Matthew’s Gospel, the last thing we see Jesus Christ saying is that they were to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” This passage of Scripture is found in Matthew 28:19-20 and became known as the Great Commission.

As a conclusion to the Message of Christianity, we need to talk about the importance of first century discipleship in the life and context of a healthy well balanced Local Church in our twenty first century world.

We need to have a Discipleship Orientation.

Discipleship Orientation

The goal of the Discipleship Orientation is to explain how to make first century disciples in a twenty first century world. We believe the goal of discipleship is the character development required for us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves while we live and work in the ordinary moments of life among the wolves that Jesus Christ said were outside of the Church in this world.

The reason we need to make disciples is because we recognize that a Christian is someone who has received God’s FORGIVENESS FOR THEIR SINS, yet we realize that this kind of forgiveness does not always come with FREEDOM FROM THEIR SINS.

The Local Church is supposed to be an emotional support system for each one of us to find FREEDOM FROM OUR SINS to go with God’s FORGIVENESS OF OUR SINS. No one ever encouraged or helped me deal with this issue in my own life, and I have been warned against helping others recover from this in a Local Church because I AM NOT A PASTOR or any other kind of formally recognized leader.

My main reason for writing this is because I want to help you make disciples within a Local Church who have received FORGIVENESS FOR THEIR SINS as well as FREEDOM FROM THEIR SINS, which was an opportunity I never had.

Gaining Freedom From Our Sins

How exactly can we help people gain FREEDOM FROM THEIR SINS? Well, everything I am planning to add to this will provide more and more insight into how we can help people with the kind of character transformation described in Galatians 5:19-23 (ESV):

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control: against such things there is no law.”

The Local Church exists to help people who have received FORGIVENESS FOR THEIR SINS to have an emotional support system to guide them through the character development process of gaining FREEDOM FROM THEIR SINS.

No one ever came to help me with any of this. The Church failed to do this for me when I was younger but by the grace of God I am not going to fail you. All you have to do is come, follow me…

But where exactly are we going?

As a conclusion to the Message of Christianity series we are going to have a discipleship orientation to explain what happens next in response to one of the very last things Jesus said to his disciples.

In Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV) Jesus Christ gave a command to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

We want the Message of Christianity to end with a Discipleship Orientation because the concept of discipleship is more than just attending church services once a week. It also involves more than joining a small group for Bible study on a regular basis.

The real goal of being a disciple is character transformation that can help each one of us gain freedom from our sins. Our first priority is to replace the works of the flesh with the fruit of the spirit that was described in Galatians 5:19-23 (ESV):

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law.”

So this kind of transformation is our first priority for anyone who wants to be a disciple. This kind of transformation in the contents of someone’s character requires a lot of supervision under the guidance of someone who has more experience in resisting the temptations that can entice us back into the works of the flesh.

In the next few minutes, I am going to offer a Discipleship Orientation to explain how this type of supervised guidance can be offered in a local Church setting.

Discipleship Orientation

The basic goal is to organize ministry teams that will specialize in different aspects of ministry work. The character transformation from the works of the flesh into the Fruit of the Spirit that I mentioned earlier is the work of a Pastor.

The second step that follows that character transformation involves learning how to do evangelism work, which brings us to the first ministry team I want to organize.

Its name is E – Teams Central.

Ministry Team #1 : E – Teams Central

After character transformation is achieved, the next goal in becoming a disciple involves learning to do evangelism work. If you are not willing to share the Message of Christianity with unbelievers, you have failed to serve the Lord.

The first ministry team we want to organize can help people learn to talk to followers of other world religions living in their area under the supervision of people with more experience in sharing their faith with outsiders.

This will involve helping people pray for the followers of other world religions, as well as learning how to share their faith in culturally sensitive ways with non Christians. This ministry team will also help people learn more about Apologetics which can answer objections that the followers of other world religions have against the exclusive claims of Christianity.

The goal for this class is to help Christians learn to do evangelism and it will be available to everyone as needed because this is where we can encourage and support each other as we strive to learn how to help the followers of other world religions take the first step in God’s direction.

Ministry Team #2: Basic Christian Beliefs

Now that I have explained the first ministry team, I want to move on from the work of an evangelist to the work of a Teacher sharing Basic Christian Beliefs in the local Church. This part of a local Church involves organizing seven ministry teams.

The base case scenario for sharing Basic Christian Beliefs is to have seven ministry teams working as specialists sharing insights on seven different topics: The Bible, The Knowledge of God, Creation, Jesus Christ’s Identity, Redemption, The Church and the End of Time.

We have lessons prepared on each of these topics that teachers can use as introductions to each one these subjects to help guide people into deeper insights into each aspect of the Christian faith as the Holy Spirit requires someone to go.

While we do ask you to take some time with each topic in the order we recommend, you are the Holy Spirit can decide for yourself how much time you need to spend in each area before moving on to the next level.

The main goal with Basic Christian Beliefs is to give you access to the ministry of the Teacher within a local Church, and when you are done with that you can move on to the next ministry project exploring the Old Testament writings.

Ministry Team #3: The Old Testament Writings

Once you have had an introduction to Basic Christian Beliefs, the next challenge will involve becoming familiar with the Old Testament. We have already chosen the exact order of the books you will be expected to study.

We have a list of scripture passages already prepared that can take you through the books in chronological order. We want to make sure you are disciplined enough to start at the beginning and not skip anything along the way, even if it takes you a long time to move slowly through the narrative.

The goal here is for you to become familiar with the basic story we are told, one piece at a time starting with the beginning to the end of the Old Testament writings. We want to use this to introduce you to the challenges involved in the ministry of Pastors and Prophets.

When you reach the end of the Old Testament timeline, we will have another study to share with you covering the 400 year period between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament so you can know the background of the world Jesus Christ appeared in before we introduce you to the New Testament writings.

Ministry Team #4: The New Testament Writings

The New Testament introduces Jesus Christ to us in four different ways, and we want to organize four different ministry teams to guide you through each one of them. We hope to have one ministry team for each one of the four Gospels that will share the parts of the New Testament most closely related to that particular gospel.

Ministry Team #5: Church History

When that is done, we want to organize a ministry team to help you explore Church History because Jesus Christ lived 2,000 years ago and a lot can happen in that time. Indeed, a lot has happened and we want to give you a chance to know about the problems that were presented to the Church and how it led to all the different denominations we see around us today.

The goal of this ministry team is to help you become well informed on how to pray for other parts of the Church that are outside of the group you are most familiar with by explaining the people and problems that led different parts of the Church in different directions.

Ministry Team #6: The Old Testament Languages (Hebrew/Aramaic)

We also want to organize a ministry team that can help you study the Old Testament in the original languages. This ministry team will offer guidance n learning Hebrew and Aramaic in a local Church.

Ministry Team #7: The New Testament Language (Kione Greek)

We also want to organize a ministry team that can help people study the New Testament in the original language, We want to be able to offer guidance on learning Koine Greek, which was used to write the New Testament.

Conclusion

These seven ministry teams are general guidelines to set as a starting point for organizing a lay leadership ministry project that can nurture faith in the lives of Christians living in your area.

The goal here is for the average Christian to become well informed on different aspects of the faith so they can take the Message of Christianity into the ordinary moments of life we experience at home with our families or at work with our bosses and co – workers.

While I mentioned having seven ministry teams, that number was just a starting point. Depending on how many volunteers you have willing to do the work, the seven ministry teams I mentioned earlier can also be organized into up to seventy different ministry teams operating in your area.

They could also begin doing short term missions projects in the surrounding communities as well. It all depends on how many volunteers you have available to do different parts of the ministry work involved in sharing the study resources I am writing to nurture faith in the lives of others.

Having shared all of that, I want to end by sharing a Bible verse with you that expresses the desire of my heart in sharing all of this with you. To put a personal spin on what the Bible says in Judges chapter five verse two I want to say this:

I wish that the leaders in Israel would lead, and the people offer themselves willingly to bless the LORD by helping me with this ministry project.