Guest Editorial from Portland International Church of Christ:
This is part 3 of the series from 2004 … Phoenix Church, let us turn our love for God into an evangelistic outreach for the new year! “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you…For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Tim. 1:6-7)
Matt Sullivan
The Mandate of God for World Evangelism
Part III: The Lost Plan
Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord. “Go and inquire of the Lord… for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the Word of the Lord.” (2 Kings 22:8, 13)
During the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, God’s people drifted so far from Him that they lost the Book of the Law! Most scholars believe this “Lost Book” was Deuteronomy! After King Josiah’s zeal for God began the restoration of the temple, the Book of the Law was found by the High Priest in the temple! When the Spirit-ï¬?lled words of this book were read to Josiah, he tore his clothes, wept and asked the Lord, “What are the consequences for not keeping the Word?” Because of his humility and brokenness, God gave him and his people mercy. Motivated by this mercy, Josiah’s restoration movement becomes even more radical. Of primary importance, he uniï¬?es the remnant by initiating a public renewing of God’s covenant as found in the lost Book, ï¬?rst with the elders and then with all the people. Guided by Deuteronomy, radical sweeping changes now rapidly occur in worship and life. This culminates in the greatest celebration of the Passover ever! (2 Kings 23:22)
For us over 2600 years later, it is almost unimaginable that our “brothers of faith” could have lost the entire Book of Deuteronomy! In our day, something especially shocking has been lost; God’s plan to give everyone on earth the opportunity to be saved. Truth: Jesus is God’s only path for salvation. (John 14:6) Truth: there is only one Biblical response to be saved … faith, repentance and baptism. (Acts 2:38) However, hidden in God’s Word for centuries, most have lost God’s only plan to save the entire world in a lifetime … the multiplication of disciples. Truth.
This plan is fully revealed through the three year ministry of Jesus. From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus knew He was the hope of both Jew and Gentile … all who were “poor … prisoners … blind … and oppressed.” (Luke 4:18) The very mention of this radical vision in His home synagogue in Nazareth at the beginning of His ministry resulted in an uproar and a brutal attempt to kill Him. (Luke 4:28-30)
After this incident, Jesus travelled “throughout Galilee preaching the good news of the kingdom.” (Matthew 4:23) Many followed him from Judea, Jerusalem, the Decapolis, and the region across the Jordan! He preached to the masses. True to His Father’s vision, Jesus made disciples. After about six months, Jesus went up on a mountain where he prayed all night for one of the most crucial decisions of his ministry. In the morning, “He called his disciples to Him and chose twelve of them” (Luke 6:13) He called them apostles … “messengers” … “that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach.” Jesus was not only training preachers, but by revealing God’s principle of focusing on a few, he was discipling as a group the future leaders of a new kingdom. By walking with Him daily the Twelve learned the Word of God and saw how to preach effectively. Equally as important, they saw how to impact individuals. Interestingly, in John 4:1 the Pharisees note that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John. “Although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.” Different than John the Baptist as well as in modern denominations where only the preacher wins souls, Jesus was multiplying His effort with the Twelve doing the baptizing, not Him.
The Twelve, after watching Jesus call people to repentance as well as perform miracles, were sent out two by two to preach the Word and cast out demons! (Mark 6:7) Gradually Jesus calls the apostles to do more and more on their own. The apostles represent a second generation of disciples. By Luke 10 Jesus appoints 72 others to be preachers of the Word, admonishing them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” This is an interesting number. Perhaps Jesus allowed the six pairs of apostle to be the leaders of their own twelve! This would have allowed the paired apostles to begin to replicate how Jesus had walked and worked with them!
When the seventy-two returned to share about their successes, they were ï¬?red up!(Luke 10:17) After this time of sharing, Jesus pulled the Twelve aside privately. He says, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but did not see it.” He wanted them to mark this momentous moment of the multiplying of a third generation of disciples! Though slow and numerically few, His every effort was intended to build a movement that would change the world.
After His resurrection, Jesus returns to Galilee where He gives the Great Commission, “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20) Implicit in this command is a teacher-student discipling relationship. It begins before baptism and then continues afterwards, as we are to teach each other to obey the commands. However, if one studies the ministry of Jesus, we see other types of discipling relationships. Jesus set up adult-adult relationships by pairing up the apostles as well as “group discipling” by Jesus, the leader of the group. The apostles were commanded by word and example to put into practice all of these types of discipling relationships.
After Jesus’ ascension, in 29AD, the faithful numbered 120. This included the Twelve, the 72, Jesus’ mother and brothers and the women followers of Jesus. (Acts 1:14-15) No doubt, this group believed in discipling and on their ï¬?rst day of preaching, 3000 were baptized! Three thousand new disciples were “added to their number”. The unique power of the movement of Jesus was His call to be as committed as Him and to put into practice His ministry of discipling. From this point the number of disciples exponentially multiplies! “The Lord added to thei rnumber daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47) “The number of men grew to about 5000…” (Acts 4:4) “Nevertheless more and more men and women believed … and were added to their number.” (Acts 5:14) “In those days where the number of disciples was increasing …” (Acts 6:1) “The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly …” (Acts 6:7) “The church [the movement-no autonomy] throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria … grew in numbers …” (Acts 9:31-32) “The Word of God continued to increase and spread …” (Acts 12:24) “They spoke so effectively [in Iconium] that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.” (Acts 14:21) “So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.” (Acts 16:5) “These are the men who have turned the world upside down for Jesus!” (Acts 17:6 RSV) By 62 AD, Paul writes the whole world has heard. The whole world had been evangelized!
Today many churches in the ICOC fellowship have either abandoned discipling relationships or compromised them by teaching there is no such thing as teacher-student (one-over-one discipling) relationships in the Scriptures. This is devastating false teaching.(2 Timothy 4:1-4) No wonder so many disciples are confused, lonely, lukewarm and lacking zeal for souls. One person teaching another is the essence of the method and ministry of Jesus. Let us not forget Josiah’s humble response to the words of the lost Book of God. His concern was that God is angry when we fail to obey his Word. Making disciples is a command of God for every true Christian. Jesus built God’s movement on the now lost plan of multiplying disciples. It was and still is the only plan of God to evangelize the world. And to God be the glory!
Kip McKean
Above: What a Blessing to celebrate New Year’s Eve last week with another baptism in our Singles Ministry! Annie Coonradt (center) is pictured with her new sisters in Christ: Keri, Merry, Brandyn & Lacy.
Left: Ringing in the New Year are Jim, Dena, Eleanor & McKayla Blowe who placed their membership from rural Montana!
