FIVE ALIVE -THE PARASHAH
Teach the Bible like Jesus’s first Jewish disciples!
Jesus’s First Century followers were commanded to “go, make disciples of all Nations” (Matthew 28:18-20). This was expected of everyone who followed Jesus after Pentecost. Making disciples whom make disciples is the expectation Jesus has for all of His Twenty-First Century followers. Nothing has changed.
Teaching is the third leg of a disciple maker’s ministry stool. Jesus’s disciples teach others what discipleship looks like through the transparent practice of their faith-filled, grace-based lives. As the Scriptures supernaturally transform them from the inside out, new and/or less mature believers that they are in relationship with are challenged in their own disciple making calling. Jesus’s disciples are expected to help others grow to spiritual maturity and reproductivity through active and intentional teaching. This is what discipleship is all about.
At Disciple Daily you will find everything you need to begin right now to make disciples where you live, work, play, and worship. Everything on this website is provided free-of-charge through the generosity of our friends around the world. It is their gift to you.
One of our ministry friends is One For Israel. We want to introduce you to them below.
Instructions
- Start with Lesson #1. Don’t skip ahead. Just do one lesson each week, no more.
- During the week, read the Scriptures associated with the video. DO NOT watch the video before all of the passages have been read during the week.
- Record your observations and questions. Pray for God’s instruction and understanding.
- If you have a family, do this together. This is a great way for entire families to engage with each other.
- On Friday or Saturday, watch the Five Alive video together. Afterwards, discuss what you God has shown you as a family.
- Show others what you are doing and help them get started doing it, too!
A Miraculous Movement
The Jesus Movement of the 60’s and 70’s saw an explosion of young people coming to faith in Jesus. Some of those energetic new believers were Jews who found their life’s purpose in their very Jewish Messiah. Over time, the number of Jewish believers in Jesus in the United States grew significantly. But, what about Jews in Israel? Was faith in Jesus growing there as well? Not so much.
Just prior to World War II, there were fewer than twenty Jews living in their historic homeland who openly professed Yeshua as their Savior. However, over the last twenty years God has begun to draw increasing numbers of Israeli Jews to Himself. Reliable sources now estimate there are approximately 25,000 Jews who believe in Jesus in Israel. The vast majority of these are sabras. That means they were born in Israel.
In the past, Jewish believers from the United States took it upon themselves to conduct evangelistic outreaches in Israel and train the new believers as disciples of Jesus. Praise God for their past efforts. They sowed the seeds for something new and very exciting that is happening in Israel today.
Israel College of the Bible was founded by Gentile missionaries to Israel about twenty-five years ago. The student body in those early days were mostly international non-Jewish Christians. Today, Israel College of the Bible based is the largest Bible School and Seminary in the Middle East. The president, faculty, and staff are all Israeli’s. Leadership is comprised of both Jews and Arabs. The composition of the student body is made up of Israeli Jews (50%), Israeli Arabs (40%), and Internationals (10%).
One For Israel is the umbrella organization that oversees the work of Israel College of the Bible. One For Israel also has a heart for the whole world. Last year, One For Israel produced a series of Bible training videos designed to enhance your study of the Torah, the books of the Bible that are attributed to Moses’s authorship.
Five Alive
Towards the end of the Old Testament period, the Jewish people had forgotten God and His Word, widely succumbing to the sin of idolatry. This precipitated a national disaster, something God had warned them about repeatedly. The Jews were conquered by both Assyria in 722 B.C. and Babylonia in 586 B.C. Seventy years after Nebuchadnezzar carried many of the Jews away from Judah to Babylon, Persian monarchs began to allow some of the Jews to return home, just as Jeremiah had prophesied. One of them was named Ezra.
Ezra decided to do something about his people’s problem with idolatry (Ezra 7:10, Nehemiah 8:1-9:38). He is credited with restoring the knowledge of God’s Word to his people through regular reading of the Hebrew Scriptures in public. Jewish tradition says that Ezra discipled many young men. He taught the how to teach the Jewish people to study, practice, and teach the Law of the Lord where they lived, worked, and worshiped. The knowledge of God’s Word enabled many to identify Jesus as their Messiah when He arrived on the scene, at just the right moment in history.
Over time, the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) was divided into 54 weekly readings. These readings corresponded to the Hebrew calendar. No one knows for certain if this system was actually put in place by Ezra. However, the Gospel accounts provide strong hints that this system was fully entrenched in the life of local synagogues during Yeshua’s lifetime.
Closing Comments
There is more to being a Christian than believing in Jesus and going to heaven. Don’t you know that there is something after heaven? That something is the Messianic Kingdom when Jesus will rule all of Creation from David’s Throne in Jerusalem for 1,000 years. Based upon what you do with the new life in Messiah you were given when you became a believer, you will have certain responsibilities during this period of time here on earth. This is what the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 is all about. Our Master has gone away for a while.
Accountability seems to make most people uncomfortable. But mark Jesus’s own words. His parable of the talents is clear. Soon, our Master is going to return and all who are saved will stand before Him. One by one, we will give an accounting of the life He has entrusted to us. There are only two things that we will be graded on.
1. Did we allow the Holy Spirit to speak through us to win others to eternal life through their own by personal belief in Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection as final payment for their own personal sin just as the Scriptures said He would?
2. Did we come alongside believers and allow the Holy Spirit to use us to make disciples one at a time wherever He leads us.
The choice is yours. You can stand before Jesus with empty hands and nothing to show for the treasure He has given you. Or, you can lay at His feet the lives of the men, women, boys, and girls you invited into your life to make disciples in His name. Which one will it be?
If you are ready to get started making disciples the way Jesus did, we are here to help. Disciple Daily doesn’t have all of the answers. But, we have enough to get you started. Join the Disciple Daily Network today and let us help you hear, “Well done!“
Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores His captive people, Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad. – Psalm 14:7
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