Making Disciples: Evangelizing, Teaching, and Mentoring - Eric Shorey | CGS 2021

It's afternoon. For our final session, I want to look at thinking about making disciples and not so much the initial conversion or the initial preaching that goes on, the initial evangelism work that goes on, but more on the need for a lifelong discipleship, making disciples that remain, making disciples that make it from the beginning all the way to the end.

We're going to start in Ephesians 4. If you have your Bibles open, you can turn to those. We're going to flip to a number of scriptures. We're going to start in Ephesians 4:11. And there we read, "And He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers." And so as I think about—I want to look at some of these verses here in Ephesians 4. I want to think about some of these gifts, some of these responsibilities, some of these roles in a sequential and maybe complementary way. I'm going to mostly focus on evangelists and teachers. What we have here—not to the exclusion of apostles and prophets and pastors. Those have their work to do as well.

That's just not my focus here this afternoon. In Ephesians 4, as we think about some of these roles, some of these gifts that are given to help edify the body, we want to think about them in a sequential and complementary way. And this is something that I've been thinking about for about 15 years, a while after I came into the church, and thinking about people doing mission work or doing evangelism work, and then the need to help those who come into the church to continue to grow, to not only have that initial experience, exposure to the gospel, but also a continued lifelong experience in learning and teaching in the truth that's brought out in scripture.

So we're going to focus this afternoon a little bit on evangelists and teachers. And the way I think about this is one starts the work of conversion, the other continues the work of conversion. One starts the work of making a disciple, and the other continues the work of making a disciple.

And I think in scripture we can find examples where sometimes one person does both. We might have Paul, for example, in Corinth in Acts 18, where Paul goes into Corinth, and as he is preaching and reasoning in the synagogues, he then moves on from the synagogue because the Jews kind of refuse what he says. He goes and preaches to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles receive his message. And then he baptizes a couple, but he also stays on for 18 months to teach the word. So he does some initial preaching, baptizes a couple, but then also stays on to teach. We see Paul doing that, kind of doing the work of laying the initial foundation, but also staying on to teach.

But then we also have examples in scripture in Acts where someone else has laid the groundwork, did that initial preaching, and then we have someone who comes along and does the teaching or the discipling, keeping instruction going. We see that also with Paul in Acts 11. When he comes to the church at Antioch, Paul had not laid the initial foundation in Antioch, but Barnabas goes and brings him to Antioch, and then Paul stays there in his role of a teacher, not so much in the role of evangelist or preacher, one that is preaching the initial—kind of making the initial contacts with the people in that area.

Just a personal testimony concerning preaching and teaching.

I believe the work of evangelists and other gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4 are important to complete the entire scope of God's work. But personally, I've never been drawn to preaching the gospel in the front lines or laying the foundation. So just personally, in my own life, I really appreciate those who go and do that work, and I'm actually excited to work with those who do that work. I just don't feel called to be the ones on the front lines. So if I were someone with Paul, I'd be the ones in the background helping Paul do what he needs to do while Paul's out there on the front lines making those front contacts and talking with those on Marsh Hill or talking with those in Corinth or going into the synagogues and preaching and maybe coming alongside to help Paul doing what he's doing.

And I also want to think about these roles in a cooperative way. So I want to look at thinking about cooperation. So not that the evangelist is more important than the teacher, the teacher more important than the evangelist, but both are needed to complete the work, to bring someone from start, from baby Christian, all the way to maturity, all the way to completion.

And they both need the grasp, vision, and plan of God that he has to build his church. They both need to be involved, both need to know what God's doing, and they need to work together to accomplish this work. And as we are involved in our local bodies, we need to be working together to accomplish this work.

So like I said, we're going to start in Ephesians 4. I read a couple of verses here, 11 through 15. "And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, to we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature or the fullness of Christ.

That we be henceforth no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight hand of men—by the slight of men, excuse me—in cunning craftedness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head even Christ." So here we have growth—growth that's necessary. We're talking about children who are tossed to and fro and also coming to the completeness or fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ. So that's our aim. So when we're looking to compare anything, if we compare ourselves, that's who we compare ourselves against. We're not comparing ourselves against other brothers or other sisters or anyone else in our body.

We are comparing ourselves against Christ, against His fullness, against His stature, not against others that we see. So I just want to make a note here. As Paul is preaching or sharing this with the Ephesians, we know there that this is a plan that God is already at work doing. So in Ephesians, written about 64 AD, we have in the book of Acts in chapter 8, we have there Philip the evangelist perhaps doing that work about 34 AD. So there's a 30-year difference between what Philip the evangelist is doing and what Paul is declaring here as the plan of God. But God was already at work doing this. He's just making that known or declaring that unto the Ephesians.

But God was already at work doing what it is He was going to do to edify or to build up His body. We see in chapter—excuse me—in verse 12, the purpose statement. What's the purpose of these different roles, these different gifts that are given? We see here to—for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, to bring saints to perfection or to completeness, for the work of ministry, serving others, meeting needs, for the edifying of the body of Christ, to build each other up, to help each other become mature. So to start from that process of being a baby all the way up to maturity, all the way up to men.

So what's the length of service? "To we all come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature or the fullness of Christ." As we think about this, how long are you going to be working in using your spiritual gifts in the body? Well, if it's until we come to the fullness or the stature of Jesus Christ, I would like to submit that that's your entire lifetime. So we're not going to reach that point on this side of eternity. Maybe after we're glorified, we'll get to that point. But at least on this side of eternity, we're still all heading toward that fullness, but not quite reaching that.

So our length of service, as far as we're concerned on our personal level, we are involved—should be involved—in our entire lifetime helping, as we're able, helping to build and to edify others in the church. So we start as children, and we need to grow until we become men. But in order to do that, as God intended, we need the working out of other gifts in the body. So we don't need just one gift or this gift, not just an evangelist or a teacher, but we need all the gifts working together, cooperating together to bring us all to maturity.

I want to look briefly at this word "evangelist" here. It literally means a messenger of good. I'm sure we've heard that before—a messenger of good. And it denotes a preacher of the gospel, a publisher of good tidings, a missionary preacher of the gospel.

This title is applied to Philip the evangelist in Acts 21:8, who appears to have gone from city to city preaching the word. We're going to look at a couple of these examples in Acts 8. "And judging from the case of Philip, evangelists had neither the authority of an apostle nor the gift of prophecy nor the responsibility of pastoral supervision over a portion of the flock." And we see here in Ephesians that those different roles are listed. So the apostles are different than an evangelist, even though their roles—even though at times what Paul was doing overlapped very much with what an exclusive evangelist may do. "They were itinerant"—meaning traveling from place to place—"preachers, having, as it were, a special function to carry the gospel to places where it was previously unknown."

The writers of the four gospels are known as the evangelists. And then looking at "teacher." So teacher is an instructor of those in the religious assemblies of Christians that undertake the work of teaching with the special assistance of the Holy Spirit. So those teachers—teachers—will have that—could have a gift to help bring instruction, to help bring people to where they need to be. And these two roles here—these evangelists and those of teachers—are working together. So here's one way. So you might ask yourself, what's the difference between a preacher and a teacher? They'd certainly have some overlapping things that they talk about, some responsibilities. But one way I've heard it put is a difference between a preacher and a teacher is one aims at the heart while the other aims at the head.

And here's how I think about the difference between an evangelist and a teacher. As one declares or announces the good news and what we need to do with it—the what of good news—and then the teacher helps with the understanding of the good news and how to live by it, or the why and how of the good news. So the evangelist is maybe the what—what are we talking about, what's being presented? And the teacher is the how or the why—what do we do with what I've just heard?

How do I do with what I just heard?

So we're going to spend a little time looking at the difference between teaching and evangelism. And the purpose of what I'm sharing here is that not—we're thinking about helping someone start as a Christian and finish, get all the way to the end. Okay? Not just start them and then leave them, and then who knows what happens to them, but actually encourage us to actually help someone get all the way to the end and seeing that as an important part of our job, of our work. So we're going to—we've mentioned this already this morning. I haven't, but somebody else mentioned Matthew 28. So we're actually going to go back there and look at Matthew 28:19-20. I'm going to take these in reverse order.

So I should take it maybe evangelist and then teacher first, but I'm actually going to go in reverse order and look at teaching first and then come back and look at evangelist or evangelism. So Matthew 28.

Okay? Very familiar portion. "A scripture goes you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always on the end of the world." Okay? I just want to notice a couple of things here that's going on with this passage.

In verse 19, the main verb here that we're using is "teach." So there's some other words there that look like they're verbs, but those are actually participles. So they have verb forms, but they're helping to describe what's going on. So I know grammar sometimes can be a little boring, but if you can grasp it, it can really help with your understanding of what's going on in scripture. So here we looked at "teach" as actually our main verb, and these other verbs—these other verb forms—are helping with that understanding. So if the main goal here—the main action, the main thing being done—is teaching, the other things that accompany that are the going, the baptizing, and the teaching.

So teaching all nations has three parts: to go, and to baptize, and to teach. We do see we have two different words here—teach and teaching—and I'll cover that in a minute. But the "teach" here—that's just "teach" without the "ing"—is to disciple. As Mark talked about earlier, it's to disciple. And that means to enroll as a scholar. So for example, when I went to college, I enrolled as a mechanical engineering student to learn what it means to be a mechanical engineer, to be instructed in those principles—to be instructed in those principles—and then to be able to execute that when I was done. So here what the word "teach" means is just that—to enroll somebody in as a scholar, to make them a student of something.

And that something is the doctrines and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

We also want to note here that this word "teach" means to disciple, and the word "disciple" means a learner, someone who is committed to learning. And it always means that the pupil of someone in contrast to the teacher. So the disciple is someone who is learning from a teacher. For example, in Matthew 10:24,

"The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." So there the disciple is learning from a master, learning from a teacher. But this word "disciple," which is not found exclusively here in Matthew 28—it's not what we're looking at here—but we're looking at the idea of a disciple. The disciple is always used or implied to mean someone who follows, someone who adheres to what is being taught. So they practice it or they do it. So we're not only just—we're not just giving instruction to fill the head. We want people to follow what's being said. We want someone to be an inherent to what's being said. We want someone to practice what's being taught.

So that's the purpose of teaching. Or to teach is to make someone a learner, to help someone to get them to a place where they can be a practicer of what's being taught. For example, in John 8:31, if you want to turn there:

"And Jesus said unto those which believed on Him, 'If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed.'" I think we need to think about this in two aspects. First being that continuing in—or to stay in—Christ's words has the idea to deal with the way we think. So it's dealing with the way we think. We may think about Christ as that He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," or "I am the light." So maybe there's nothing for us to actually do with that other than to recognize that and maybe change the way we think about things. So that has to do with maybe some of our thinking. But the other thing is that the way we think about continuing in Christ's words is that the action part, the doing part—the part that we do put into practice, the part that does provide new actions.

For example, the Sermon on the Mount. There's a whole bunch of things to follow in the Sermon on the Mount that are different than maybe what you did before or what you should do after becoming a Christian. In the language of James 1:22, it would be those who are doers of the word and not just hearers of the word. So there's more than just—I think "continue" there has more than the idea of just listening, but it actually has to take it in and then to actually do it, to practice what's being talked about.

We would see an example of this in Acts 11:21 where those Christians were—those at the church at Antioch were called Christians. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. So what school were they enrolled in? They were enrolled in the school of Christ. They had become disciples of Jesus Christ, and people recognized that they were in Antioch. So they'd be enrolled in the school of Christ, not in the school of the men of Cyrene or Cyprus or those disciples who had gone out, but they were actually the followers of Jesus Christ, not of whoever was preaching to them. But we do see an example of that, which is not supposed to happen. That is in 1 Corinthians 1 where it talks about those who called themselves, "I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Paul, I'm of Christ."

So they were claiming their allegiance—or maybe who birthed them spiritually to—not to Christ, but to these other men who had preached to them. And they were claiming their allegiance or who they were following based on these other people, these other—and causing divisions in their church. But that's not who—that's not our aim as we go and we teach. It's not to make them disciples of Me, but to make them disciples of Jesus Christ.

The idea here of—there's also—there's "teach" and there's "teaching." So there's two different Greek words being used here. The first word "teach" means to make adherence to the principles and doctrines of another. Teach them so they know what to follow and show them by example.

The second word "teaching" or to give instruction is more broad. It's more general. Just instruction in general with no specific idea of that they would follow what's being said. Okay? So it's just instruction in general. Instruct them in everything that I had commanded them and instruct them to observe. So the idea or what was supposed to happen when they were teaching was for them to observe all things that I had commanded them. So teaching is general, but added to it is that of observance—observing all things whatsoever I had commanded them. And they were doing that so they would not—that word "observe" has the idea to guard so you don't lose something. Okay? So it's very important.

If you don't want to lose something that's important, you guard it, you protect it. And so we are teaching them to hold on to those things that are being taught so they don't lose them. Okay? They're supposed to be important to them. Hold on to those things. Continue in them.

Then we see this idea of teaching again in Acts 19 where Paul goes into Ephesus. He had been there previously. Then Apollos goes there and he goes back in there in Acts 19. They ask him if he had received the Holy Ghost.

And they said, "We haven't received the Holy Ghost." It appears to me that Paul wouldn't have to ask them if they had received the Holy Ghost if he had been the one who was giving them instruction in the first place. Like he is not the one that made them disciples. Perhaps it was Apollos who actually didn't know anything of the baptism of Christ, but only knew of the baptism of John. So as he goes—as Apollos makes his way through Ephesus and then over to Corinth—Paul then falls in through Ephesus and sees that, hey, they don't know what the Holy Ghost is.

Paul wouldn't have to ask them who the Holy Ghost was if Paul was the one who had instructed them in the first place. Somebody else had instructed them. So Paul's following on to give teaching, to give further clarification of what is needed.

And then Paul, while he's there, he actually rebaptizes them because he only knew about the baptism of John. So he rebaptizes them in the name of Jesus. And then he stays on to teach. So in Acts 19, he stays on to teach. So he hadn't done the initial work with some of these converts, some of these disciples, but he stays on to teach to give them further instruction in their walk.

Okay? We're going to leave teaching for a little while and now go to preaching or evangelizing. We'll think of this—we'll turn to Romans 10.

Probably another familiar passage concerning evangelism and preaching.

So in verses 14-16: "How then shall they call on"—I'm going to start at verse 13—"Excuse me, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.'" I'll continue on to verse 16: "But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, 'Lord, who hath believed our report?'" So I believe this works together—and I'll show this at the end—this works together with the teaching that's being done in Matthew 28.

So hearing comes through the preacher. When the preacher is sent—this is where we get the word "apostle" from—the preacher is sent and then the good news is proclaimed. So for example, we see Paul and Barnabas are separated unto the work that God calls them to do in Acts 13. So separate unto me, Paul and Barnabas. They're going to be sent out to do their work, called by the Holy Ghost. After some laying on of hands, some prayer, they are actually sent out to go to preach. So if we turn to Acts 13:4-5: "So this is after they had been called, and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed unto Silesia.

And from thence they sailed to Cyprus. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they also had John to their ministers." So here they were sent out. They were separated by the Holy Ghost and then sent out to preach the word.

And in their preaching, they were performing what it is that God had called them—the Holy Spirit had called them out to do. We're back in Romans 10:15: "And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.'" We hear of "evangelist" here twice. Twice, excuse me. "So the feet of them that preach the gospel—preach the gospel there is our word—evangelism, to evangelize, and is to announce the good news."

This is the same word that "evangelist" comes from in Ephesians 4:11. So making a connection between Ephesians 4:11 and here in Romans 10. We also have this word—so if this is in English, we can read this and we can see that there's some differences here. If this was in Greek, we'd actually have a repeated word. So it would look a little strange maybe in Greek to have "evangelism, evangelism" twice.

But there's something added to both of these different aspects—added to these as part of the preaching, as part of the message that goes out. So we have "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace." So to preach the gospel is evangelism. Then we have "and bring glad tidings of good things." So to bring glad tidings is also evangelism. So I think there's two aspects that are being brought out here. One is that of a message of peace and one is a message of good things. So as we bring out the gospel, as we preach the gospel, as you share the gospel, one aspect is that of peace and one aspect is that of good things.

Now we could elaborate on the good things, but we're not going to do that for the sake of the sake of time. And then down in verse 16, we have a conclusion, some following thoughts concerning the preaching of what's being done here. "But they have not all obeyed." And that would be Paul's testimony. Paul's personal testimony is as he went into some of the synagogues to preach Jesus Christ, they rejected him. They refused his message. And actually in one of the churches he went into—the synagogues he went into—they dragged him out of the city and stoned him, leaving him for dead. So they were definitely contrary—some Jews were contrary to his message.

Therefore the statement here, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel." So as Paul was sent out to preach, as he was sent out to make converts, some of them did not take in—some of them didn't actually get enrolled in the school of Christ. Some of them did not become disciples of Jesus Christ.

So we have aspect of preaching, aspect of teaching, those who lay the groundwork, those who come after and help with continuing the work or completing the work of discipleship. And so we looked at Matthew 28. We have "teach," which has the idea to go, to baptize, and to instruct.

And then we have "preach," where they were sent to herald the good news. And as we think about the work of evangelism or the work of discipleship, we realize that it takes time. So just in human understanding, which is where Scripture comes from a lot of times, we're not spiritual, we're human, we are fleshly. So we think in terms of a baby to a man. It takes time to go from baby to man. Okay? So we shouldn't expect someone to go from unbeliever to fully man in one conversation, in one presentation of the gospel. That's not realistic.

It takes time for a baby to grow to a man. It takes time for someone to, um, be converted from the way they used to think to how Christ thinks—to be converted from a worldly kingdom to be converted to Christ's kingdom. It takes time. Bearing fruit takes time. So as we're grafted into the vine, it takes time for the fruit to actually be able to produce, to be produced. We shouldn't expect fruit right away. Now certainly I'm not saying that doesn't mean that things in our heart don't change, that our thoughts don't start to change. But the the thought—the being a man, coming to the fullness of the stature of Christ—that's not happening immediately. That doesn't happen immediately.

And as we think about cooperation, that it's going to take more than just the preacher to get to the fullness. It's going to take more than just the preacher to get someone to where they need to be. It's going to take all those gifts—and gifts that are mentioned in other passages in Scripture, like in Romans 12 or in 1 Corinthians.

So we'll look at a couple of examples here, thinking about Paul. In 1 Timothy 1:11, Paul says the gospel was committed to his trust. So that preaching of the good news, it was committed to him. That's something that he needed to do, something that God gave him to do.

But what's interesting is Paul talks about—as he describes what he is in 1 Timothy 2 and in 2 Timothy 1—he doesn't describe himself as an evangelist. He describes himself as a preacher and a teacher and apostle, but not an evangelist. So making—continuing the distinction between the work of an evangelist and the work of an apostle. Now clearly what Paul was doing was overlapping with the work of the apostle, but the apostle Paul had more authority and was setting up churches that, for example, like Philip the Evangelist was doing. Paul's work was different than what Philip the Evangelist was doing. They were doing similar things. But Philip the Evangelist didn't do all the things that Paul did.

Paul had a special calling that Philip the Evangelist did not. So he's sent to preach the gospel. He baptized, though he wasn't sent to baptize. So in 1 Corinthians, as they're talking about, "Who's saying that I'm of Paul? Who's saying that I'm of Cephas? Who's saying that I'm of Christ?" And he says, "I'm thankful that I didn't baptize anyone." But then he recalls, "Okay, yeah, I had baptized this household and maybe this household, but that's not why I was sent." So if part of the going is the preaching and the teaching and the baptism, well, Paul wasn't sent to do the baptizing. Someone else needed to come along and help with that actual act of baptism.

Paul wasn't actually performing that.

And then we would notice as we go through the book of Acts that Paul didn't really settle in any one place for very long. So he was moving around, helping those churches that he had established, um, to keep them going, check in on them, leaving Titus in a certain place, leaving Timothy in a certain place to help that church that was there to continue to grow.

So he was at Antioch for a while where there is a role of a teacher. And then he was at Corinth for a while where he was in the role of a teacher. And he was at Ephesus for a while where he served as a teacher. So in places Paul certainly planted—certainly laid the foundation—but in other places Paul was also teaching, serving in that capacity instead of the capacity of just the evangelist.

So Paul was an apostle who was called to—and sent to preach the gospel, and yet others were helping him to fulfill all of his mission. Paul preached, he taught. He didn't do the baptizing exclusively. Others were helping with that.

In the language of 1 Corinthians 3, "He planted—he planted at times, he watered at other times. He laid the foundation in some places and other places. He built upon foundations that were already laid." Okay? So this is just some examples from the apostle Paul.

We look at Peter in Acts 10 with Cornelius. So he was invited to come preach the gospel to Cornelius. He gets there not knowing maybe what he is called there for. He preaches the gospel unto Cornelius. Cornelius receives what it is that Paul had sent, what Paul had preached to him. Holy Spirit falls upon them. And then Cornelius—or Paul—says what prevents them from being baptized, and he orders them to be baptized.

And just a couple of comments or observations here is that it doesn't appear that Peter stayed on after this for very long to do any more instruction with Cornelius. Okay? So Cornelius—I don't think any of us would doubt that Cornelius didn't go from unbeliever, Gentile, to fullness of Christ in that one afternoon, in that one discussion with with Peter. Somebody else must have come along to help with the work that was needed to bring him to that fullness, to bring him to maturity.

Peter is found in Jerusalem later given his description of what happened there with Cornelius.

Our last example here would be Philip the Evangelist. As we go through the book of Acts, we see Philip the Evangelist a couple of times. We see him in Acts 21:8 when Paul is coming back from his final missionary trip. He's headed back into Jerusalem to give a report, and he stays in Cesarea for a while at Philip the Evangelist's place. And that's where we have that name, that title tagged to Philip—Philip the Evangelist—in Acts 21:8.

And he said that title there—as you read that verse—it says that he was one of the seven. So that brings us back to Acts 6 where there is having some problems with daily administration of the food for the widows. And as the apostles were thinking about that and thinking about their role of preaching the good news, preaching the word, that they could not stop preaching the word to serve tables. It said, "Look out among you and find seven men to do this work." Men had to have certain qualifications. And we might say that this is the first time that the deacons are called out here.

But Philip was one of those seven that were called. So Philip then—he's called—but then there are some problems that happen with them being dispersed because of Philip. So Philip was one of the—I mean, excuse me—because of Stephen. Stephen is one of the other seven that were called, and he was stoned. So after that, he was stoned and put to death. He was that kind of dispersed—the disciples who were in Jerusalem—and they were sent out to other parts of the world. And Philip was one of those that was sent out. So the next time we see Philip, we see Philip in Acts 8 preaching the gospel to Samaria.

So they were scattered away from Judea. Paul goes out—I mean, excuse me—Philip goes out to Samaria, and there he starts preaching the gospel. Now it does say the other disciples went out preaching the gospel, but we—Luke here is specifically focusing on what it is that Philip is doing in Samaria. So in Samaria, he's preaching the gospel. They're believing on him. He baptizes some and makes some disciples or starts some people on their way. And then they send a couple of apostles from Jerusalem. They come. They lay their hands on them. Those disciples then receive the Holy Spirit, and they preach the word. And the disciples—those apostles—go back to Jerusalem.

So then the Holy Spirit directs Philip to go down to Gaza. Okay? So he's going to go down to Gaza, and in Gaza, he's going to join himself to this man—he's Ethiopian eunuch—that is in a carriage. And he listens to the Ethiopian eunuch, and then there comes a point there where he starts preaching Jesus Christ unto the Ethiopian eunuch.

And at the end of that time, he then takes the Ethiopian eunuch, asks for baptism, and then Philip then baptizes him, and immediately he's carried away in the Spirit. So we can see there that clearly Philip didn't complete that work of discipleship or of lifelong instruction of helping someone to come to maturity. Somebody else must have come along to help with that work. Philip was no longer present. Immediately he was taken away, and he was found in Exodus. So we just see there that as some men are out doing the work of evangelism here in the book of Acts, that they're not even present to help with the rest of the part.

Okay? Just an observation.

So he goes down to Exodus, and he's there preaching. And he passes through all the cities that he passes through, and then he finally comes to Cesarea. And that's where we see him in Acts 21 where he gets Philip the Evangelist, and that's where Paul stays at his house on his way up to Jerusalem.

So just some concluding thoughts concerning this work—so the work of evangelism, the work of preaching, the work of teaching, and the need for that to cooperate and to work together. So it's God's will for people to accept the good news and continue in it and receive instruction to help bring them to unity, to maturity—excuse me.

Philip left those he evangelized as baby Christians. He started them on their way. He got them enrolled in the school of Jesus Christ, but others were needed to come along and continue the preaching and the teaching to help them to maturity. So Philip had started a work, but more work was needed.

Perhaps similarly to the way Barnabas brought Paul to Antioch—so it was Barnabas who went and got Paul—brought him because he sensed some need of more instruction, some more teaching there at the church of Antioch. Perhaps similarly to the way Barnabas brought Paul to the church of Antioch to teach and Apollos watering the gospel seeds that Paul had planted in Corinth. So Paul was in there, but then Apollos came after him, and Apollos did some instruction, did some teaching after Paul had laid some groundwork.

So some concluding thoughts here.

There's a work that needs to be done that involves many different gifts and talents. So not just one gift, not just preaching, not just teaching, not just prophecy or pastoring, but many different gifts that are needed. Our body—we need our body to help us to grow. I need you, you need me. In your local bodies, you need each other.

So let's not elevate one person's gift or position as the best, primary, and most needed. Okay? So maybe you're not called to be an evangelist, and so you feel bad because all those who are getting attention are actually the ones who are gone and doing the work, and you feel bad because you're not getting any attention. That doesn't mean you're useless or worthless. It means just you're not called to do that work. That's not your gift. That's not your ability. That's not your role. It doesn't mean you're not useful. It just means that's not what you've been called to do. But you are called to do something else.

It's exciting and rewarding to make a convert, but God wants that person to stay a convert all of their life, not just to start it, but to complete that work. So they need to start well, and they need to finish well.

So as we think about each other and each other's roles and each other's gifts and using those, let's view each other as important and necessary to the work to build up the house of God. So not just one person or not just our ministers or our deacons or the evangelist or the missionary who's gone, but all—all the people, all the gifts that are in the body and help people to finish well.

The flip side of that is not—let's not downplay our role because we don't think we have the gifts or abilities or positions that other have—because I'm not X, because I'm not—I can't preach like this person, or I can't teach like this person. We then maybe look down on ourselves, "Well, I don't have anything to do because I'm not..." Whatever it is.

And Paul corrects this thinking—this is not correct thinking. This is incorrect thinking. Paul says that we don't want to be a foot—don't be a foot that says, "Because I'm not the hand, I'm not a part of the body." So because you're not a teacher or a preacher or an evangelist or a prophet or a missionary or someone who has responsibilities as a minister, it doesn't mean you have no work to do.

Ephesians 4 talks about all the body that's needed to work together to bring us to maturity. So I believe you have a part to play in making and keeping disciples. Somebody is going to start that work, and others are needed to help continue that work. And we have a role—each one of us can have a role in our local body in doing that. It's not going to be the same role, and it needs to be different roles because we need different things in order to help us to grow.

So my encouragement is to find the work that you need to be doing and then do it. So don't sit around complaining because you don't have whatever gift or whatever responsibility, but actually find out what you can do and then start doing that. And the reason is because we need it—your local body needs it—and the world needs it. The world needs what we have—our gifts—those exercised in and outside of our body in order to help them become disciples and then to stay disciples and finish well and make it all the way to the end.

Alright, that's the end that I have for that section of making disciples, starting them on their way, and then bringing them all the way to the maturity of Christ. So I think at this time we can entertain any questions or comments or responses anyone has to this—to what I shared here.

And I'll do my best to repeat your question for taping purposes or video recording purposes. So if anyone has a question now, now is your time. So the question is: After I got done with the Gospel of John and thinking about the Old Testament and how that might have been helpful, where did I go after reading the Gospel of John? I think I went somewhere else in the New Testament. I don't think I went to the Old Testament. I think I stayed in the New Testament for a while, so it might have been another gospel.

I think I spent some time in Revelation as well because I was curious. The book of Revelation is pretty fascinating just in its imagery. And so growing up and not really knowing anything about that, it seemed very fantastic—seemed very different. So if you—the book of Revelation is very different than any other part of the New Testament—not maybe Daniel in the book of the Old Testament or Ezekiel—but as you get into the New Testament, Revelation is very different than what the other books are. So I probably went to the book of Revelation, which I will say is not an entirely bad thing because in 1 Thessalonians 5, speaking about the day of the Lord, the things that come, Paul says, "I have no need to instruct you in these things," indicating that perhaps Paul had already instructed them concerning end times or last things.

So it's maybe not the worst thing to do to speak about end times, but unguided it was maybe a little foolish on my part to try to understand all of what Revelation is describing there. It just fascinated me. So that's probably where I went next is in the book of Revelation. Yeah.

Alright, any other questions? Yes, sir. Okay, so the question is: What part of disciplining was the most effective in my life? Or what aspect, what way in which that was done was most effective in my life? And I would say a one-on-one personal relationship with somebody else that I knew who also wanted to walk closely with the Lord. So it wasn't necessarily someone who would preach at me, but someone who would talk to me about, "Hey, I'm struggling with these thoughts," or "I'm struggling how to respond to this person at work. I don't feel—I feel agitated on the inside. How do I deal with that because I know I shouldn't act that way?" And then talking through someone—a close person—about that, um, who was desirous to actually do the same thing.

That was helpful. So the the pointing out of Scripture and then someone who was trying to walk that out themselves, that was the most helpful. One of the things I went looking for and didn't find very well in my first church I went to was actually to be someone to be mentored by. I wanted to go to an older person who had done something—um, you have experiences. You have—you've done these things before. Can you share those things with me? Can you share your experiences of, "Hey, my family is doing this. I have a real problem with that. How do I do that graciously to explain to them that I don't—I maybe don't want to do what you're doing any longer?

How do I do that in a gracious way?" So it was finding that older person that has life experiences of maybe what they didn't do right—they learned from that—can I learn from their mistakes and actually seeking that out. And that was actually quite difficult to find, really. There was—I haven't found many people who are willing to be that vulnerable to share their failures or what didn't go right or even be called to accountability at that level where, "Okay, I'm going to tell you what I'm doing. Can I ask you what's going wrong with you?" So that was—or "What's not working right for you?" or "How are you trying to change some things that are going on in your life?"

Okay, thank you. Yes, sir. So I think—I'm going to try to repeat your question. I think the question is: Is the idea of disciplining someone who's maybe not in your church, outside of your church group, is that something we should be doing? Something that's going to be valuable? And I would say that being connected to your body—like you need to be—if you're going to be disciplining and helping someone else, you need to be connected to your own body so you're still getting the nourishment and the correction, the instruction that you need to be able to help someone else. But I think your end goal is to enfold that person and bring that person into the body of God so they can experience all the other gifts.