Four people God formed

If disciple-making belonged to a personality type, the New Testament would show us one kind of person doing it. It shows us several, and they are not much alike.

Jesus: dependence

Therefore, Jesus responded, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. — John 5:19 (OTB)

And the habit underneath it:

But Jesus often withdrew to solitary places to pray. — Luke 5:16 (OTB)

Often, and to solitary places — not as an emergency measure when things got hard. The most capable person who ever lived worked out of dependence and built a rhythm to protect it. That is the whole argument against self-reliance, made with one life.

Paul and Timothy: reproduction

What you have heard from me in the company of many witnesses, entrust to reliable individuals who will be able to teach others as well. — 2 Timothy 2:2 (OTB)

Count the generations in that sentence: Paul, Timothy, reliable individuals, others. Four, in one verse. Paul is not gathering an audience around himself; he is building a chain that runs past where he can see.

Barnabas: encouragement

Sent to check on a new work in Antioch, Barnabas “saw the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts” (Acts 11:23, OTB). Then he did the thing he is most worth remembering for: he travelled to Tarsus to find Saul, brought him back, and spent a year teaching alongside him.

His most consequential act was fetching somebody else and giving him a place to work. Much of what Barnabas is remembered for is other people’s ministry.

Priscilla and Aquila: correction without humiliation

Apollos was eloquent, fervent, well-versed — and partly wrong.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God to him more accurately. — Acts 18:26 (OTB)

Aside. Not from the floor, not in front of the room, not as a correction anybody else had to witness. And as a pair, which is its own quiet lesson about who handles correction well.

What they share

Not temperament. Jesus, Paul, Barnabas, and a married couple who taught in their spare time have almost nothing in common on the surface. What they share is Spirit-formed character — and in each of them it made multiplication the natural outcome rather than the forced one.

That is the claim this class is going to make in detail: the character comes first, and the disciple-making follows it.

Recite this

Four different people, one shared thing: character the Spirit formed, and multiplication that followed it.

Try it this week

Pick the one of these four you are least like. Read their passage slowly and ask what they did that an ordinary believer could copy — then copy one piece of it.

I will read ________________ this week and copy ________________.