Jesus taught His disciples that the harvest (of souls) was
plentiful (Luke 10:2) and trained them to proclaim the Kingdom of God before He
went into various towns and villages. He
would send them on ahead by twos – as many as 70 at a time. His instructions to them were to find a man
of peace as they went into each populated area.
By that, He meant a person who would receive them and accept their
message of peace. They were to stay at
that person’s house until they left the area and not move from house to
house.
So, who were these persons of peace? Obviously, if the harvest was plentiful for the Kingdom, the Spirit of God had already been at work in the hearts of many, preparing them to receive the message of truth before (perhaps, long before) the disciples arrived. This is a great lesson for disciples to understand in seeking to be witnesses to others about Jesus. There are many whom the Holy Spirit is already preparing to hear the truth, but disciples do not know who these people are until they have heard the message and have responded. For that reason the word must be broadcast widely, like the sower of seeds in Jesus’ parable of the soils, since only a portion of it will fall on good soil that is ready to produce.
Why did Jesus want His disciples to stay in the first house where they were received? At first, it might seem to make more sense to expose more people to the disciples’ teaching rather than to concentrate on just one household. But that was not Jesus’ strategy. His method was always to work with a few, to begin small. He poured Himself into training the Twelve disciples and even within them was an inner circle of three, Peter, James and John, who were closer and more interactive with Him than the other nine.
Jesus knew that it was imperative to have a few well trained, fully committed and reliable disciples to carry on the work when He was gone. These would be ready to train others to be disciple makers also. On the other hand, to have a large number of disciples that were unable or unwilling to do the hard work of training disciples to be trainers would have meant a quick failure of the mission to make disciples of all nations.
What, then, does this mean for us who want to see the Kingdom of God advance today and souls saved for Christ, with the possibility of completing the Great Commission in this generation? If we follow Jesus’ example, we will spread the Word widely. To some degree this has already been done in our culture through various venues and communications media. But many who have believed, sadly, have never been discipled to become disciple makers.
All too many times I have witnessed and even participated in evangelistic campaigns, church revivals and evangelism programs, most with seemingly significant numbers of positive responses but with little long-term results to show for the effort. The tragedy is that most of those “decisions” for Christ never had the opportunity to be trained to become disciples, and never do I recall any training plan at all to make disciple makers.
Hopefully, we who are convinced of the importance and urgency of meeting this challenge will seek opportunities to be catalysts in our own local churches to foster a new approach to discipleship, which is not new at all but a revival of the strategy used by Jesus and by the early church which spread so rapidly during the first century.
And even if that is not possible, we can lead by example and begin on a small scale as individuals, working as much as possible within the context of our local churches, and find someone who is a “person of peace,” a new believer in Christ, ready to be discipled and trained to become a disciple maker. From this small beginning the process can, as it has in many other places today, quickly multiply to develop literally hundreds of new disciple makers.
Maybe you’re thinking you need to be discipled yourself. Like most of us who call ourselves Christians, you were never truly trained by a spiritual mentor. In that case find someone who is willing to work with you to do that, but don’t use that as an excuse not to become a disciple maker, as well. Remember, in the early church some were starting to reach out to others within days even as they were learning about their new-found faith themselves.
One final word of warning, there is a cost of time, energy and self-denial that we must make, but Jesus said that you must be willing to take up your cross daily and follow Him if you want to be His disciple.
May the Lord bless you as you seek His will in being engaged in this great cause of His.
So, who were these persons of peace? Obviously, if the harvest was plentiful for the Kingdom, the Spirit of God had already been at work in the hearts of many, preparing them to receive the message of truth before (perhaps, long before) the disciples arrived. This is a great lesson for disciples to understand in seeking to be witnesses to others about Jesus. There are many whom the Holy Spirit is already preparing to hear the truth, but disciples do not know who these people are until they have heard the message and have responded. For that reason the word must be broadcast widely, like the sower of seeds in Jesus’ parable of the soils, since only a portion of it will fall on good soil that is ready to produce.
Why did Jesus want His disciples to stay in the first house where they were received? At first, it might seem to make more sense to expose more people to the disciples’ teaching rather than to concentrate on just one household. But that was not Jesus’ strategy. His method was always to work with a few, to begin small. He poured Himself into training the Twelve disciples and even within them was an inner circle of three, Peter, James and John, who were closer and more interactive with Him than the other nine.
Jesus knew that it was imperative to have a few well trained, fully committed and reliable disciples to carry on the work when He was gone. These would be ready to train others to be disciple makers also. On the other hand, to have a large number of disciples that were unable or unwilling to do the hard work of training disciples to be trainers would have meant a quick failure of the mission to make disciples of all nations.
What, then, does this mean for us who want to see the Kingdom of God advance today and souls saved for Christ, with the possibility of completing the Great Commission in this generation? If we follow Jesus’ example, we will spread the Word widely. To some degree this has already been done in our culture through various venues and communications media. But many who have believed, sadly, have never been discipled to become disciple makers.
All too many times I have witnessed and even participated in evangelistic campaigns, church revivals and evangelism programs, most with seemingly significant numbers of positive responses but with little long-term results to show for the effort. The tragedy is that most of those “decisions” for Christ never had the opportunity to be trained to become disciples, and never do I recall any training plan at all to make disciple makers.
Hopefully, we who are convinced of the importance and urgency of meeting this challenge will seek opportunities to be catalysts in our own local churches to foster a new approach to discipleship, which is not new at all but a revival of the strategy used by Jesus and by the early church which spread so rapidly during the first century.
And even if that is not possible, we can lead by example and begin on a small scale as individuals, working as much as possible within the context of our local churches, and find someone who is a “person of peace,” a new believer in Christ, ready to be discipled and trained to become a disciple maker. From this small beginning the process can, as it has in many other places today, quickly multiply to develop literally hundreds of new disciple makers.
Maybe you’re thinking you need to be discipled yourself. Like most of us who call ourselves Christians, you were never truly trained by a spiritual mentor. In that case find someone who is willing to work with you to do that, but don’t use that as an excuse not to become a disciple maker, as well. Remember, in the early church some were starting to reach out to others within days even as they were learning about their new-found faith themselves.
One final word of warning, there is a cost of time, energy and self-denial that we must make, but Jesus said that you must be willing to take up your cross daily and follow Him if you want to be His disciple.
May the Lord bless you as you seek His will in being engaged in this great cause of His.
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