Welcome to the NECF podcast, where we share our
weekly sermons and faithfully interpret the Bible
to encourage and direct you on your spiritual
path. We're our devoted pastors and special guests
diving to the depths of the Bible, exploring
its profound lessons and useful applications
for your day. Praise the Lord. So today we're
going to continue with what I was teaching from
the last time I was here, which is the supernatural
nature. of the Christian gathering. We're going
to continue with that. And I believe that we'll
be blessed. Amen. Matthew chapter 28. Matthew
chapter 28, verses 18 to 20. Matthew chapter
28, verses 18 to 20. And Jesus came and spoke
to them, saying, All authority has been given
to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore,
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe
all the things I have commanded you, and lo,
I am with you. always, even to the end of the
age. Amen. Praise the Lord. So, we have been
taught several times from these scriptures, and
we know it is what we call the Great Commission,
right? A thing that Jesus has called us to do.
He has given us a mandate to go and preach the
gospel, to go and make disciples of all nations.
So, we have been given these mandates by God.
to go and make disciples, to go and teach. This
is a mandate that every believer, every person
that has come to the knowledge or have come to
God, has and will continue to do. Praise the
Lord. We have a mandate as believers to do the
will of God. Praise the Lord. So we cannot have
God's will outside of this mandate. You cannot
have God's will. for your life outside of this
mandate to go and make disciples, to go and preach
the gospel. Praise the Lord. It is God's mandate
to us. It is for every believer. It is not for
a season. It is not for in the summers when the
weathers are good or when people are outside.
It is for every season, for the winters, for
when there is rain, for when there is no rain.
For when things are going on as you expect them
to go, and when things are not going on as you
expect them to go, it is a mandate of every believer
to go and preach the gospel. Verse 19 tells us,
it says, To go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Praise the
Lord. So the word to make disciples is a Greek
word, matatio, Right? Which means to teach. This
is to go and teach. Praise the Lord. To make
disciples is the word, M -A -T -H -E -T -E -U
-O. Right? It's the word to teach. Praise the
Lord. And so we have, and somebody might be asking,
why does this church try their best to always...
spell a Greek word to us or always tell us what
is these things about these Greek words that
we need. Why do we need them? Because as we know
and as we have been taught, the Greek word helps
us to know the intention of the writer. Praise
the Lord. Because as we know, the Bible was not
written in English. Praise the Lord. The writers
of these scriptures did not speak English. Matter
of fact, English was not in existence. as it
was written or as it was given. Praise the Lord.
So we go to this Greek word to help us understand
the intention of the things that was written,
to better help us understand. And why do we also
need to do that? Because when you have the translations
or when the Bible is translated to English, it's
not just translations. Praise the Lord. It is
also a... the translators trying to interpret.
Praise the Lord. They are also interpreting what
is written or the version that you have. So we
go to the Greek word to understand the intention
of the writer. So matateo is not just to teach.
It's not just merely to teach somebody. Praise
the Lord. It's not merely like the way your teachers
will come to class and they try to teach you
a subject. Praise the Lord. You have your responsibilities.
You have the things you have to do. And they
come to teach you. To tell you this, this, this,
that and that. Prepare for it. It is going to
come out as an example. It is not just that.
It is deeper than that. Praise the Lord. So to
go and make disciples is just deeper than us
coming on Sunday and teaching you the word. Or
preaching to you. Praise the Lord. It is deeper
than that. We have so many other Greek words
that... Talks about teaching. Praise the Lord.
Talks about teaching. One of them is didaskalia,
right? Which means doctrine. Which is doctrine.
Didaskalia. D -A -D -A -S -K -A -L -I -A. Didaskalia.
Right? It means doctrine. We have another one
called didaskalos. D -A -D -A -S -K -A -L -I
-A. Sorry, D -I -D -A -S -K -A -L -O -S. Didache.
We have another one as didache, right? D -I -D
-A -C -H -E, right? This word, they convey teaching.
Praise the Lord. They tell us about teaching.
We have these different words that talk about
teaching. It conveys teaching or a teacher, right?
He talks about a teacher or the kind of teaching
or the type of teaching. Praise the Lord, right?
But this is not the same word that we see in
verse 19 of Matthew chapter 28, to go and make
disciples. That word that is there is mathathio,
is deeper than just teaching, like I said, right?
It means to train, right? It means to... it is
very practical praise the lord it means to train
right somebody who if you have a trainer for
example people that go to the gym if you have
a trainer they they are although you have a target
you have they have a target for you you have
a target for your life the trainer is very well
experienced and he knows exactly the kind of
exercise you should do and how many of them you
should do in a session. Praise the Lord. He knows
whether you are, whether to push you to a particular
limit because of the things that you are trying
to achieve. Praise the Lord. So he's not just
telling you, do this, do this, do that. They
also monitor you as you do the things. Praise
the Lord. So he means to train. And he's very
practical, right? To model something. Praise
the Lord. To model something by teaching or by
exercise. To model something by practice. Praise
the Lord. So this is the mandate that every believer
has. This is the mandate that you and I have.
This is the mandate that we are all to carry
out. So it carries a wider intention than just
teaching. Praise the Lord. So to make disciple
is not... So for somebody to be called a disciple
or somebody to have gone through... discipleship,
it is not just that you came to church and the
pastor preached and you wrote down and then you
go home. Praise the Lord. There is a place that
it is being modeled by practice, by teaching.
Praise the Lord. Like the way Pastor Kostin told
us last week, to pray and to give word to one
another. Praise the Lord. That is making disciples.
That is, by practice, you are able to do these
things. And he monitors that. Did you give what?
Praise the Lord. That is making disciples. Praise
the Lord. And so this is not just the practice
of pastors to say, oh, do this or do that. Praise
the Lord. It is the practice that every believer
should embody. This is a practice that every
believer should participate in to make disciples.
Praise the Lord. That you know somebody. who
is not born again and you preach to them and
they believe the gospel and so you make you help
them you teach them how to pray praise the lord
and you pray with them praise the lord you will
not just say did you pray today did you read
your bible today praise the lord you teach them
how to pray you teach them how to read the word
you teach them and you pray with them so if you
say okay let's pray for 30 minutes okay stay
in your place pray for 30 minutes No, you also
pray with them. Praise the Lord. Because you're
more matured and you know the mind of God concerning
what a disciple should be. So, you see, it is
God's intention that he has people that are trained
so that they can train others. Praise the Lord.
He has people that are trained so that they can
train others. So some of the things that we do
in church, it's not because we're trying to stress
you. It's not because we're trying to see that
you are, you don't, let's say, enjoy yourself.
Praise the Lord. It's not that we're trying to
see, where is that your free time? Let's collect
every free time from you. Remember some teachers
in secondary school, when they find out that
your class, the class is making noise, they will
just come in and say, ah. This class, what do
you have? Say, free time. They will go and bring
their notes. No, they will not even go and bring
their notes. They will say, somebody should go
to my office, get their notes. They will come
and they will start teaching you. Because some
of them is because they want to teach you. Some
of them is because you're making noise. And they
want to tell you that there's no free time here.
Praise the Lord. That's not the pastor's intention.
Our intention is not to say, oh, okay, from Monday
evening, you actually have nothing to do. So,
come. Come and sit down for three hours. Let's
teach you something. Or come and pray for this
long. No, that's not the intention. The intention
is that you are trained so that you can train
others. Praise the Lord. That you are not a child
in the things of God. That you are not... You're
very matured. Praise the Lord. You're very matured.
So that also your children... A lot of us give
our life to Christ. We believe the gospel. Right?
because we left our parents. We came somewhere,
somebody preached to us. We had the gospel first.
We understood it first from somewhere else, not
because our parents taught us, right? Maybe they
took us to church, they did their best. They
did their very best. A lot of our parents, maybe
you're not seeing it now, but you soon see it,
that they did their best. Praise the Lord. They
did their best in all that they gave us. Praise
the Lord. But we discover that, you know, we
begin to know more about God. Improper understanding
when we are outside of them. That's not the intention
of God. Praise the Lord. It's that as a mother,
as a father, your children know the Lord because
of you. Praise the Lord. The people in your office,
the people in your community know Christ because
of you. Because you model it by practice. Praise
the Lord. You show them the things of the Lord.
They will not hear the things of the Spirit after
a while. Praise the Lord. Oh, they will not say,
growing up, you see people praying in tongues.
People say, what are they saying? Praise the
Lord. And so we just say it. That's not what
God wants you to be like. He don't want you to
be saying, just do it. No, we're not Nike. Okay?
We'll not just do it. We'll explain to you why
you should do it. Praise the Lord. We have a
reason. We'll explain to you why you should do
it. So it's God's intention that he wants disciples
that are trained. That is believers who will
train others. Praise the Lord. Who will train
others. Which means that the church is an ongoing
training. Praise the Lord. Which means that this
church, what we have here, is an ongoing training.
Every day that we gather, every time that we
gather, it is a training session. Praise the
Lord. It is a training session. So that's why
we say, are you with your pen? Are you writing?
Because it is a training session. We're trying
to model something by practice. Praise the Lord.
We're trying to model something by practice.
That's why we asked you to come with your pen.
That's why we want to know if you attended the
schools, whether you attended the cell meetings.
That's why we say you should attend Foundation
School. Praise the Lord. Because the church is
an ongoing training. We want you to attend the
meetings because... We want you to be trained
and that is the will of God. So that's why you
will discover that you don't have comedians coming
to make you laugh. Praise the Lord. We laugh
in the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. Do we laugh in
the Holy Ghost? Can somebody laugh in the Holy
Ghost? Praise the Lord. So instead of having
people coming to tell us jokes, We know that
joy comes from where? It comes from inside. Praise
the Lord. Isn't there somebody coming to tell
us something that will just make you start laughing?
Joy comes from the inside. You don't need that.
Praise the Lord. You have joy from the inside
of you. Praise the Lord. I'm sure some of your
friends, maybe who are drinking, who are partying,
they will ask you, is your life very boring?
What are you doing? How do you get joy? How do
you get away? What is your get away? activity.
Praise the Lord. Where do you go to ease off?
To, you know, to ease your stress. Are you in
the club? Are you drinking? What are you doing?
Praise the Lord. You will tell them that way,
that joy comes from the inside. Praise the Lord.
You're not looking for external things to give
you joy. Praise the Lord. You're not looking
for external things to give you joy. So the church
is an ongoing training. It is not a place of
entertainment. Matthew chapter 13. See looking
at to betraying Matthew. Matthew chapter 13 verse
52. Then he said to them, Therefore every scribe
instructed consigning the kingdom of heaven is
like a householder who brings out his treasure,
new things and old. Praise the Lord. Every scribe
instructed. That word instructed is the same
word as to be trained. Praise the Lord. It's
the same word there. So scribes, as we know them,
are people who are scholars. People that know
the scriptures. People that are scholars. Praise
the Lord. People that are scholars. They know
the scriptures. They know the scriptures. So
by saying that the scribe is instructed into
the kingdom of God, he's saying that they are
what? They are retrained, right? They are learning
and relearning. Praise the Lord. He's saying
that they are learning and relearning, consigning
the kingdom. Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter
27 verse 57. So now came, sorry. Now when the
evening had come, there came a rich man from
Arimathea named Joseph, who himself also became
a disciple, who himself had also become a disciple
of Jesus. Praise the Lord. So we see here that
a rich man. He's also a disciple of Jesus. Praise
the Lord. He's a man of influence. Praise the
Lord. So what this man was able to get, right,
from the authorities concerning the Christ, he
cannot get it if he's not an important person
in the society. Praise the Lord. He cannot get
it if he's not an important person in the society.
So he was a man of influence. He was a wealthy
man. Praise the Lord. He was well regarded in
the society. Praise the Lord. But he's a disciple
of Jesus. You see, who himself has also become
a disciple of Jesus. This tells us that to be
a disciple of Jesus, wealth and age is not a
factor. Praise the Lord. Wealth and age is not
a factor. Whether you're a wealthy, whether you're
a person of influence, whether you're the governor
or the president of your country, it does not
matter. Praise the Lord. He himself has become
a disciple of Jesus. And how he has accomplished
that is because for him to become a disciple
means that he has the attitude of a child as
Jesus would encourage. Praise the Lord. To learn
and relearn. Praise the Lord. To sit in the place
of training. To be instructed. Praise the Lord.
This is so important. So that you don't have
people in your life, for example, let's say you
know somebody who maybe his father is the maybe
a military officer in your country and there
he's your friend. Praise the Lord. You are now
Instead of you to think of, and the person does
not know God or is not discipled or is not trained,
instead of you to be looking and say, ah, this
person, you know, their father is rich, you know,
what can I tell them? All of this. Praise the
Lord. You will have this attitude that it does
not matter the influence that they have. It does
not matter the age that they are, their age,
right? They have to be discipled. They need discipleship.
They have to be. instructed. Praise the Lord.
So you don't be one of those people that are
just following them and say, ah, this person,
who knows? If I tell him about Christ now, you
know, say, I need to try to organize my future.
Maybe he would, if he does not accept now, or
maybe if he does not like what I'm saying, he
might just block the way for me in the future.
Praise the Lord. No, you don't think about things
like that. Praise the Lord. You think as the
person needs to be discipled, the person need
to be trained. Again, sometimes people who are
advancing in age will also think that they don't
need discipleship. Praise the Lord. They don't
need to go through the same process that every
other person is going through. This is where
there are young people. That is not the thing
that Christ intends. Praise the Lord. It does
not matter your age. You are supposed to be trained.
Praise the Lord. As you are in church, you are
supposed to be trained. You are supposed to be
going through the same process as every other
person is going through. They need discipleship,
irrespective of their age, irrespective of their
influence, irrespective of the things that they
have acquired. Praise the Lord. Are we learning
something? So Jesus is saying, go and train and
retrain people. Praise the Lord. Go and train
and retrain people. When you see somebody that
is not trained or you feel like the person is
not trained properly, retrain the person. Praise
the Lord. That's what we're doing as a church,
right? You came with some knowledge. You came
with this and that. You receive a retraining.
Praise the Lord. You learn again. You learn again.
Some of the testimonies that people have, that
they have this attitude of, you know, it is you
alone. I don't really need anybody. But he found
out that they need people. Praise the Lord. He
found out that people are there to ensure that
they get to the level in which they ought to
get. So for us to get to the level at which God
intends for us, we need to be trained. We need
to go out there and train and we train people.
Praise the Lord. So how are we going to train
people? How do we train people? What is the process
of training? If you like. So in Matthew 28, it
tells us in verse 20, it's a teaching them to
observe all the things I've commanded you and
lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the
age. So the process of training, how we do training
is by teaching. Praise the Lord. The process
of training, right, is what? By teaching. Praise
the Lord. This word is the word didasko. It is
by teaching. D -I -D -A -S -K -O, right? Which
means that discipleship involves teaching. Praise
the Lord. Discipleship is not... Okay, please,
get me water. Please go and iron my clothes.
Is the car ready? Go and turn the car and bring
it closer. Praise the Lord. Discipleship involves
training. It involves teaching. Praise the Lord.
What are we teaching? We are teaching the Word.
Praise the Lord. So that you will not grow and
then you say you have a disciple and then the
disciple is like boy boy for you. Or he's ironing
your clothes and he's running around for you.
And he's not receiving any, he's not growing.
He's not receiving any word from you. Praise
the Lord. Discipleship involves teaching, to
instruct, right? It means to educate, right?
Didasko means to instruct. It means to educate
someone. It means to educate. So we can call
the church, or we can say that the church is
a Bible school. Praise the Lord. The church is
a Bible school. The church is a Bible school.
It is called or should be a Bible school. Every
church, every gathering of believers ought to
be a Bible school. Praise the Lord. It ought
to be a Bible school. The Bible is where we get
our information. Praise the Lord. It is where
we get our wisdom. It is where we get direction.
Praise the Lord. It is where we get wisdom, where
we get understanding, where we get instructions
for our lives. Praise the Lord. So the church
ought to be a Bible school, where you come to
receive teaching. Praise the Lord. To receive
teaching, to be educated. Praise the Lord. To
be instructed. So, it means that the church has,
or when you come under the Bible school, you
are ought to be taught the proper subjects. Praise
the Lord. You are ought to be taught rightly.
Praise the Lord. You are ought to be taught the
right things, the right way. Praise the Lord.
So imagine this is a civil engineering department.
Imagine a second year, first semester, first
year, second semester student, and all they were
teaching you, henceforth, was chemistry. Praise
the Lord. Chemistry is good, but at that stage
of civil engineering, you do not need chemistry.
Praise the Lord. So imagine you come to church
and then you are... You just come and you don't
receive the word. You're not being taught. That's
not what you need. Praise the Lord. What you
need at this stage is not other things. You need
teaching. Praise the Lord. So the church ought
to be a place, a Bible school. Praise the Lord.
So the way Jesus is saying, teaching them to
observe all the things I've commanded you and
lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the
age. Verse 20. Praise the Lord. He's saying that,
or Jesus is saying that you cannot develop your
own curriculum. Praise the Lord. You cannot develop
your own body of knowledge. Praise the Lord.
He's saying to teach them all the things, right?
Teaching them to observe all the things I've
commanded you. So he had taught them something.
Praise the Lord. He has taught them something,
right? Something in which they also have observed.
That is, they have lived that also. Praise the
Lord. Something, he has taught them something.
So you cannot develop your own curriculum. This
is what we are teaching. This is our area of
focus. This is what we are going to do in this
church. Praise the Lord. So as we go, as we leave
this place, right? And you have the opportunities
to teach, right? You are teaching the things
that Christ has taught. Praise the Lord. You're
not developing your own body of knowledge. You
cannot say that maybe as you are starting a new
work, that your focus is the worship of God.
Praise the Lord. Your focus. is how to help people
utilize their potential as a church. Praise the
Lord. You cannot say that your purpose or your
focus as a church is helping people discover
purpose. Praise the Lord. There are purpose for
their lives. Praise the Lord. You're supposed
to do what? Teaching them to observe all the
things that Christ has commanded. Praise the
Lord. Thank you for listening to our sermon today.
We hope you were blessed by this teaching. If
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