Jesus began his ministry by discipling ordinary people, Rev. Dale Stephenson emphasizes during a morning plenary at the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Incheon, Korea. The senior pastor at Crossway Baptist Church outside Melbourne, Australia then offered an evangelism approach focused on 'mobilizing' people.
Beginning his lecture, Stephenson said he wonders at the fact that the apostles Peter and John stood before the Sanhedrin, as recorded in Acts 4:13, and the Jews noted their courage. Even more, they saw “unschooled and ordinary men” and yet somehow “they could tell they’d been with Jesus.”
Stephenson tells delegates that no one needs to be a scholar of the Greek language “to enjoy this.” These were ordinary men and “it actually should give hope to each and every single one of us because the mission of God is in the hands of ordinary people.”
Even so, Stephenson queries what exactly Jesus did with people such as Peter and John to turn them from fishermen to being “fantastic” apostles and disciples. The key lies in the fact that the Great Commission commands believers to make disciples, not to make converts.
“All authority in heaven on earth is given unto me. Go therefore and make converts of the nations?” asks Stephenson both rhetorically and humorously. “No, it says that the way is to make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that he has commanded us.”
Jesus had no Christians to disciple, Stephenson states, he only had “people.” Yet the Lord discipled those men and women into a life of faith in Him. Following that example, Stephenson offers a thesis that Jesus set up disciple making so that “anyone, anywhere, anytime can be a disciple maker.” He breaks down the “go” command of the Great Commission to suggest it means literally going, meaning that as a believer is “going,” he or she is to make disciples.
Stephenson then takes an overview of the strategy Jesus employed. First, the Lord lives “with his radar up.” In reference to John 5:19, the Lord said the Son can do nothing on his own initiative. He only does what he sees the Father doing.
“So in other words,” Stephenson offers, “Jesus lived with eyes open for what his Father was doing. He was looking so that he could join his Father in what his Father was doing.
“You can do that. I can do that.”
Secondly, Jesus spent a night in prayer before calling 12 men into his world as disciples. Stephenson says he named them all, not from a word of knowledge but because he had been observing them. For example, he already saw Andrew who brought to him Simon, renamed as Peter. Peter offered his boat, and James and John came to help get fish with their boat. Then they become part of the group.
“Jesus is watching,” says Stephenson, considering how Jesus spoke with his Father about how to choose the disciples. The Lord spent a fortnight in prayer “prior to inviting people into his world so that he could do with the few that which he could not do for the many.”
This was a multiplication strategy, according to Stephenson, pointing out that the men were discipled by the Lord while embarking on a journey of working out who Jesus really is.
“They were trying to get their head around what he was doing. This process is in contrast to what we do around the world. We say convert them, grow them, train them, mobilize them. You recognize the pattern.
“It’s very easy to recognize Jesus operating in this zone, he invited them into his world up close. He exposed them to the truth repeatedly. He rapidly mobilized them in a situation [whereby] they grew and somewhere along the way they put their trust in him. If you didn't notice, it's a mirror image.”
This discipling process is not complex, says Stephenson. He gives examples of encouraging people in their worlds whilst keeping their eyes on what God is doing and joining him in what he is doing.
“When Jesus sent out the 12, and also when he sent out the 72 to the villagers to proclaim the good news, he told them, ‘When you get to the village, there will be a son of peace.’” Stephenson adds that this is what the original Greek language means, a son or person of peace.
“Imagine Peter and John walking out to the village for the first time saying, ‘How are we supposed to find this person at peace?’”
The two men didn’t know how it would happen but obeyed the Lord’s command to proclaim the gospel and then a person of peace appeared, offering them a meal and wanting to ask more questions.
For Stephenson, this is a foretaste for the wider church today, where “every single one of us have people of peace in our world where God is already at work, we get to join God there.”
“You want a summary on how to identify a person of peace in your world?” he adds. “They like you, they listen to you and they serve you."
Stephenson considers that if Peter and John realized what happened in real life was exactly how Jesus said it would happen - the question is, “what does that look like for you and me?”
“If we're going to disciple people to faith, if we're going to be people of prayer who are led by the Holy Spirit, we'll live with our eyes open to see where God's at work,” Stephenson says. “We'll identify people of peace because it's worth noting a person of peace is unique to you. They like you, they listen to you. They would serve you. They don't like the person sitting beside you. They like you!”
For evangelical believers therefore, there are people in life who are placed as a “person of peace” uniquely linked to them. This evangelistic effort is best located, by way of example, when offering to read a Bible with a disciple: “if you're going to be discipling somebody to faith in Jesus, it needs to be over the word of God.”
A person of peace will be drawn to reading the Bible with a believer, in Stephenson’s opinion, saying, “I would love to do that with you.” In Stephenson’s church, this is called a discovery Bible method, using small passages of 10 to 15 verses at a time.
“You get to open the scriptures, you read it out loud twice, you close it, you try to retell it as best you can, and then you sit quietly with your pre-Christian friend and we say, ‘just look at it and see what stands out for you.’ That secret Christian language for what God is saying to you. Just look at it, see what stands out.”
After a moment of reflection, this “pre-Christian” would then share their views, in Stephenson’s experience. He warns however, not to overdo the Bible exegesis: “This is not the point to demonstrate your doctoral thesis and your deep knowledge of the scriptures, people need to discover truth. Truth discovered is 10 times more valuable than truth given. Let them discover.”
Stephenson addresses those delegates with theological training, wondering how the gift of Bible teaching applies in this evangelistic context of discipleship. He believes the teaching gift is best employed in a “collective environment” such as a home group or wider church meeting.
“That's where the teaching gift will classically be demonstrated. But when you're discipling somebody to faith in Jesus, let them discover, and then we always come off the back edge with a simple concept. What are you going to do and who are you going to tell?
“In other words, it's an obedience-based discipleship. What are you going to do about what you discovered today and then who can you tell about it?”
Stephenson recalls how he discipled a Vietnamese Buddhist and they read the Bible together each week. The man said he loved doing this, adding: “I’m telling my friends I’m becoming a Christian but I’m not one yet.”
Stephenson then asked him who would enjoy reading the Bible with him, and he said his mom and friend. So the pastor invited him to read the word of God with these loved ones.
“Rapid mobilization” is how Stephenson interprets what happened that day. “I prayerfully invited him into my world. I exposed him to truth. I rapidly mobilized him so I could coach him in situ growth as a byproduct, and he'll put his faith in Jesus en route.”
The buddhist later walked into the room with his face looking different and told Stephenson that he wanted to get baptized, out of obedience to Matthew 6, after reading the chapter in his own time when the two men read the previous chapter together.
The man confessed that he loved reading Matthew 6 and did so every day. “I couldn’t stop reading it,” he said, and then realized that he wanted his life changed and to become a new man.
“He said, ‘I realized this is my moment,’” recalls Stephenson. “He said, ‘I put my trust in Jesus.’”
Stephenson calls such strategic endeavors for the gospel as God being “the evangelist.”
“We get to co-work with God so that God himself […] disciples people to faith so that they themselves know how to disciple others to faith. The multiplication of it is quite profound.”
Stephenson also tells of a recreational fisherman from his church called Peter, aged 70, whom he trained. He stood fishing at a pier and complained to God that he did not know any pre-Christian people.
“His narrative was all defeatist and negative, and he looked up a few meters. The next man was fishing, and he went, ‘Oh, well, he likes me and he listens to me,’ and then he went, ‘Ah, he doesn't serve me though.’
“But then Peter was flexing his knee because it was a bit sore, and the other fishman put down his rod and came over and said, ‘Let me look at your knee.’ The other fishman was medically trained.”
Peter realized this fishing friend was now serving him as well, following the discipleship model taught by Stephenson at church. He invited the man to read the Bible with him, and he readily agreed. Six weeks later, the man had been discipled to faith in Jesus Christ.
“For the first time in his life, he was mobilized,” adds Stephenson. “You see, it's the mission of God in the hands of ordinary people so that anyone, anywhere, anytime, can disciple another person to faith in Jesus.”
“Dear brothers and sisters,” he says to the Lausanne delegates. “You can too and you can equip others to do it as well.”
