“But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.”
No longer did they have the comfort of gathering in a large building like the Temple. They were the Temple! No longer did they have the privilege of the preaching, teaching and equipping of the Apostles. They had to rely solely on the Holy Spirit! You see, what they did have was Jesus. They had the story about how they met Jesus, which naturally leads to telling Jesus’ story. And no matter where they went or what space they were in, the Holy Spirit kept giving them opportunity after opportunity to share Jesus. They were scattered by persecution, but they shared Jesus! They were mourning the death of Stephen, but they shared Jesus! They were pulled out of their comfort zone, but they shared Jesus. Their status quo was interrupted and disrupted, but they shared Jesus. No matter what subject or doctrine in the Bible they were talking about it just kept coming back to Jesus! When it says they preached the Good News about Jesus, it didn’t mean that wherever they went they had to set up a pulpit. It just meant that the announcement of the Good News of Jesus found its way into their everyday conversations with people. And when those people believed they started to disciple them in small groups, from house to house. My friends, what I pray you get today is that God shifts us from the comfort of complacency into the momentum of mission by...
PUSHING EVERY BELIEVER INTO DISCIPLE-MAKING.
Not just the pastors. Not just the elders. Not just the deacons. Not just the Sabbath School teachers. But every believer is called to be a disciple-maker! This is not a specific call for the specialist or those unusually gifted in teaching the Bible. And because some of you still don’t believe me, God will often use life circumstances to push you into your purpose of disciple-making!
I’m so thankful for what Pastor Myron Edmonds recently taught us in Ignite about eagles. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit often relates with us like how an eagle stirs up its nest with its eaglets. Eagles make their nest high up in the rocks and as deep as thirteen feet. And the material they use to make the nest has things that make the environment comfortable for the eaglets and things that are thorny and uncomfortable for the eaglets. This causes the eaglets, as they grow, to move from a place of comfort to being agitated and uncomfortable in the nest. This is because the mother eagle has one purpose for the eaglets and that’s to get them to learn how to fly. Eventually the eaglets get to a place where they’re uncomfortable staying in the nest, but they still aren’t uncomfortable enough to take off and soar. Therefore the mother eagle will literally take the eaglets and throw them out of the nest! Now as the eaglets are falling they begin to feel the warm thermal air under their wigs and start to spread them. As soon as they do this they start to realize that they aren’t falling anymore, but now they’re soaring! And what God is trying to get some of us to embrace today is that He’s not pushing you out of your comfort zone because He’s mean, but because He’s made you to soar! He’s made you to soar into your life’s purpose of disciple making! He just needs you to recognize it’s time to shift!
Now to give you an example of how every believer was pushed into disciple-making throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, Luke in verses 5-8 tells us the story of Philip. He was one of the seven deacons that Steven was apart of. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, he shared the Gospel in Samaria in word and deed. When you read these verses you’ll notice that his ministry literally sounds like a summary of the ministry of Jesus in one of the Gospels. He didn’t just preach the Gospel to them from the Scriptures, but he ministered to their practical needs and the Bible says that the result was that there was “great joy in that city.”
Jesus wants to bring great joy into the spheres of influence where you do life. He has anointed you with gifts through the Holy Spirit to meet peoples needs. He’s given you a story about how He’s impacted your life. Now He just needs you to open up your mouth and tell somebody. He’s not waiting for you to get them to a pastor or an elder. No, He’s pushing you; He’s calling you to disciple them! It’s time to soar! Spiritual leaders are given to you to equip you for the purpose of disciple making, but at some point Jesus has to push you or throw you out of the nest! It’s time for you to mature as a follower of Jesus and start discipling others. Bring them into a small group or form one where you can show them how to grow into a faithful follower of Jesus!
Jesus did not call us to be a monument or a museum. No. What Jesus began was a movement. And now, He’s calling His movement to shift into the momentum of mission.
Is your heart hungry?
This 365-day devotional journal invites you to experience Jesus by reading, meditating and journaling through Scripture in a way that’s simple, yet totally life-changing!