The Supernatural Nature of the Christian Gathering (Part 3)

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

Matthew 28 · chapter mention Matthew 28:18–20

chapter 28, verses 18 to 20. Matthew chapter

Matthew 28:18–20

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

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

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

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

at to betraying Matthew. Matthew chapter 13 verse

Matthew 13:52

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

Matthew 27 · chapter mention Matthew 27:57

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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