STEP FOUR – Jesus’ reproducible process
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Jesus was the greatest disciple-maker in history and He passed this process on to the early Church. The process is: Sharing, Connecting, Ministering, Disciple process.
Jesus shared with His disciples the truth about Himself, that He was the Messiah while offering to them the opportunity to connect with Him. He then trained them, by replacing their old ideas with the truth, taught them in many ways by shepherding them, by being transparent and holding them accountable.
As they became more confident in caring for others and minister to people, Jesus sent them out two by two to preach the word. At the end of His life He sent them out on their own, but they had the Holy Spirit with them.
Peter share with many the truth and those who accepted the truth were baptised (Acts 2:41). They connected with the people who accepted the message. All the believers met together in houses and temple courts. They were devoted to the apostles’ teaching and prayer.
In Acts 6:5 we see that they chose seven men to step into the role of minister to these widows, because there was no-one that took care of them. Of these seven men it was Stephen and Philip that stood out. Philip became a disciple and he produced the same process with others in Samaria.
The same process was reproduced in others. Paul helped Barnabas who again went on to disciple Mark and others (Acts 11:22-6; 15:36-37). Paul also discipled Titus, Timothy, Luke and Silas along with many others.
In 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul says to Timothy, “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
Language and behaviours
SCMD Process
Spiritually dead:
The beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviours of the spiritually dead include:
• Disbelief in the supernatural, or belief in many forms of the supernatural (multiple
deities, interactions with the dead, superstitions, astrology, and so on)
• Disbelief in God (atheism) or belief in the possibility of God (agnosticism) or belief in
a God that is different from the God of Scripture
• Belief in one God but many ways to get to Him
• Anger toward Christians or the church
• Ignorance and or confusion about God, Jesus, and the church
• Misinformed about spiritual/biblical truth; spiritual blindness
• Belief that the answers they are seeking lie in worldly prestige, power, fame, and so
on
• A belief that they are as good as anyone else, so they don’t need a Saviour
• A belief that they have done too much wrong and a fear that they can’t be saved.
• A belief that what is right for you is right for you and what is right for another is right
for him or her; there is no absolute truth — right or wrong
Some of the representative things the spiritually dead say:
• “I don’t believe there is a God.”
• “The Bible is just a bunch of myths.”
• “I don’t believe in miracles.”
• “Evolution explains away a need for God.”
• “God is just a crutch.”
• “I am not a Christian because Christians are responsible for all the wars in history.”
• “There are many ways to get to God.”
• “I don’t need to be saved since I am as good as anyone else.”
• “A good person gets to go to heaven and a bad person goes to hell.”
• “I believe in heaven, but there is no hell.”
• “I am a Christian because I go to church and I am a good person.”
• “There is no hell because God is a God of love.”
• “I have been a good person, so I will be okay.”
• “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.”
• “There is no absolute right and wrong.”
• “I don’t know where I am going if I die.”
• “I believe in Jesus, but my friend is a Mormon. I told her it didn’t really matter as long
as we believed in Jesus.”
Share:
We must build an ongoing relationship with them. We will then discover why they are not a
Christian. It is important that we earn the right to speak into their lives so that we can deal
with issues one at a time. The best evidence for our faith is our love for others.
We will not always know the answers to their questions and we must always be humble
enough to say, “I don’t know but I’ll find out. Let’s meet next week and talk about it.”
Remember, you cannot argue someone into faith, but we can earn the right to speak into
their lives and pray that God will open their hearts to the truth.
Your testimony
You need to be able to tell others who you are, and what God has done for you. We share
with others how God has changed us and made us less of a mess than we were. Do not tell
them that God will do something in their lives that the His Word does not clearly promise.
The Bible does not say that God will take all our problems away and make everything okay. It
also doesn’t promise health and wealth. Let’s not be tempted to win unbelievers over with
false promises.
Earn the right to share Christ
You earn that right by the way you act. By loving people, we will earn the right to be heard.
Pray that God will show you the right opportunities to share the Gospel.
Share the Gospel
For most Christians this is a difficult task. We must become intentional about being around
unbelievers. How else can we make disciples?