The Lord asked the disciples to preach the gospel to the whole creation. Evangelism is the responsibility of all disciples. It is shocking that in our day it has become the affair of some professionals.
This is wrong. The Lord expects all who are His disciples to witness to others and bring these into the Kingdom of God. He did not intend that there be people in the Church whose business is only to distribute invitation cards and invite people to a campaign where the specialist would do the job for them. It was the intention of the Lord that each believer be so rightly related to Him that he would be able to bring others into the same relationship with Him.
The apostle Paul said, “His gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16).
It is in the purpose of God that there be
apostles,
prophets,
evangelists,
pastors and teachers.
The duty of these people is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Their duty is also to equip the saints for the building up of the body of Christ. They are to be present in the Church and they are to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and for the work of building up the body of Christ until:
- The whole body of Christ has attained to the unity of the faith.
- The whole body of Christ has attained unto the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God.
- The whole body of Christ has attained to mature manhood.
- The whole body of Christ has attained to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
- The whole body is no longer children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.
- The whole body, speaking the truth in love, grows up in every way into Him who is the Head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, making bodily growth and upbuilding itself in love.
It is immediately obvious that each member of the body is to be equipped, trained, and helped to carry out the work of the ministry. It is also immediately obvious that it is not only the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers who are in the ministry. Every believer is meant by the Lord to be in the ministry. Unless every believer is equipped to carry out the work of the ministry, then the apostles, prophets, evangelists pastors and teachers have failed in their primary task. Unless every believer is equipped to carry out the work of the ministry, the whole body of Christ cannot function properly. Unless every believer is equipped for the work of the ministry and actually carries out the work of the ministry, none of the six points outlined above can be fully realized.
The purpose of making disciples who will in turn make disciples is to ensure that each member of the body of Christ is equipped for the work of the ministry and actually carries out the work of the ministry.
If in a team the team leader and his immediate assistants work very hard trying to do everything while the rest of the team looks on, that team must fail, regardless of the skill and hard work of the team leader and his assistants. But if each member of the team is taught to play his role and he plays that role, the team will make progress. The situation will become even better if the team leader concentrates on labouring to produce another team leader and each player labours to teach his part to another player who will be able to play it as well as he is doing. This will result, not only in progress, but in the multiplication of players.
Because leading someone to Christ is basic to God’s purpose for the world and for the Church, everyone must not only be helped to know the Lord personally, but must be equipped for the work of ministering Christ to another person who has not yet known Him.
Someone said that everyone who has heard of Christ has the duty to ensure that someone else hears of Him. Anyone who has received the Lord Jesus has the duty to labour to ensure that another person receives Him. Anyone who has received the baptism into the Holy Spirit has the duty to labour to ensure that another person who has received Christ is also baptized into the Holy Spirit. Everyone who is a disciple has the duty to labour to ensure that another person is made into a disciple. Anyone who can help to produce disciple-makers is to labour to ensure that he produces other producers of disciple-makers. This is our understanding of the fulfilment of the Lord’s command in Matthew 28:19-20. This is spiritual multiplication. This is the way to conquer the world for Christ. This is the way to build the Church. This is the way to produce mature believers. This is the way to ensure that each part of the body of Christ functions properly.
In leading someone to Christ, we shall consider two other examples: one, an example of one person leading another and, another, an example from a sermon to an audience. We have already looked at the example of Jesus, the Master soul-Winner at work.