Jesus choose twelve men, and then built a relational environment in which to teach and care for them. By the time he left them, they were equipped to do the same thing for the people they would go on to disciple. He spent time with them, modeling the characteristics they should aim for, and teaching them to learn from the things they experienced.
While Jesus spoke to the thousands in parables, he only unwrapped those spiritual riddles for his 12 disciples. He modeled prayer for them, and showed them how to have a relationship with his Father. Jesus’ disciples were his frustration, his responsibility and his greatest joy.
“O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.” John 17:25-26
In his time here on earth, Jesus focused a majority of his attention towards discipling twelve men. From those twelve men, and the people they went on to disciple, the whole world came to know about Jesus and the Church spread to every nation. But all it would take for the Church to stop growing is for church leaders to put importance on everything else and ignore the great commission – something that is distinctly within the realm of possibility in America today.
All it would take for the Church to stop growing is for church leaders to put importance on everything else and ignore the great commission. #discipleship Share on XJesus started a movement with only twelve people who lost their lives due to their convictions. Even in this day of mass marketing and advertising it would seem impossible to reach the world with only 12 people, no matter how desperate the world is to hear it. But the truth is, there is actually math to back up the brilliance of God’s plan for spreading the gospel (As if he needs our backing!)
The “Fibonacci Sequence”, or the “Golden Mean” are formulas that are built from watching nature itself. The formula goes something like this… You take a healthy male rabbit and a healthy female rabbit and add some amount of time and you going to have more rabbits. Over a couple of years you have a small number of rabbits.
The small group of rabbits doubles and doubles again; soon you have enough rabbits to cover the world! The formula would look this way for Jesus disciples, (12, 144, 1,728, 20,736, 248,832, and 2,985,984)! After only eighteen years the total number of disciples would be just under three million. At this pace Christianity would reach the far corners of the world in a relative short period of time.
These numbers only work in a controlled environment with no outside factors. However, rabbits do have outside factors: predators like wolves, hawks and cougars, to name a few, that regulate the rabbit population. There are predators in the spiritual world too – we have Satan and even our own fleshly nature that keep us from relationships with each other that will help us become mature in Christ and ready to make other disciples.
But even through the battle – followers of Christ are still here and we are still commissioned to make disciples. Church leaders argue about what discipleship means in churches today. Some leaders believe that it is a good educational experience from the pulpit. Some think that discipleship is a class for people in the congregation that desire to be leaders of the church. But if we define it differently than Jesus did, we are going to have different results than Jesus did.
Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples. He did not have to explain what that meant because he had just spent three years modeling what it looked like for them. The most important thing that Jesus showed them was to be in relationship with each other. There can be no disciple making without relationship.
Small groups of people in a relational environment are the only way to grow and experience the things that build leaders into future disciple makers. Discipleship finishes when the people being discipled are ready to disciple others. Never underestimate the effect that a few people, convicted in their faith in God, can have on a dying world.
Never underestimate the effect that a few people, convicted in their faith in God, can have on a dying world. #discipleship Share on X
You may also be interested in the following posts:
How Can You Determine When Your Disciple Is Ready To Leave The Nest?
7 Significant Mileposts You Encounter Along The Pathway Of A Disciple
