“How New Disciples Are Made” #1 Message Notes (Genesis 12:1-3); Pastor Curt Audet 9/14/25}
4th in the 13 Message Series: The Master’s Plan For Making Disciples
BI: God reaches new disciples by ever expanding His family through close personal relationships.
Joshua was a Jewish merchant from Rome walking briskly along the cobblestone road. He knew as he passed more and more people that he was getting closer. He had heard much and thought often about the City of David; a thought shared by every Jew throughout the Roman world. 40 years earlier, King Herod the Great had begun major restoration projects in Jerusalem to return it to its former grandeur. Not since the time of King Solomon had such palaces, citadels, amphitheaters, viaducts and public monuments been built. So magnificent were these buildings Herod had begun, that some were still being completed in the New Testament days
The winding road made its way over a hill of gnarled olive trees. Joshua’s pulse quickened. His pace increased. While he officially made this trip for business reasons, Joshua had always longed to take the seven-week journey from Rome to Jerusalem to see this ‘city of his dreams’. Now he neared the top of the last hill.
Then he saw it. Incredible!. Joshua could hardly believe he was there. Across the valley, set among the surrounding hills, was Jerusalem. ‘The perfection of beauty’, in the words of Lamentations. ‘The joy of all the world’.
As Joshua approached the city, he saw the surrounding massive stone wall had been damaged, repaired and enlarged over the centuries. Along the wall were massive gateways where people streamed in and out of the city. Just inside each gate was a custom station where officials collected taxes on all goods entering and leaving the city. Joshua explained his mission to the gatekeeper and was told to report to the customs center near the temple where an officer would explain the regulations.
Once inside Joshua faced a maze of dusty, winding streets and alleyways. As he pushed his way through the crowds, slowly making his way toward the Temple, his sensory overload was getting intense: Voices raised in bartering or in song; braying of donkeys; aromas of cooking bread; bleating of sheep. In the excitement, Joshua nearly forgot to follow the directions to his brother-in-law Benjamin’s house, where he would be staying while in Jerusalem.
The next day Joshua spent as a tourist. He walked through the city on the holiday Feast of Pentecost, when most merchants were not doing business. As Joshua entered the marketplace, he noticed the gathering on the far side of the court. It seemed to be a political meeting or a public debate.
Walking closer, Joshua saw a bearded man standing above the others, speaking to the crowd. Suddenly, Joshua’s heart jumped. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The Jewish man was speaking in perfect and fluent Latin, a language Joshua had not heard since he left the Roman ship at the coast of Israel. He listened.
The man called himself ‘Peter’ and told of strange but fascinating things. Peter spoke of the Messiah promised by the prophets. He said this Messiah had already come! Peter claimed he had been with the Messiah just days before! Peter’s message filled Joshua with a thrilling sense of intrigue. It was unthinkable that the Messiah had actually come. Everyone would know! The story this man told sounded reasonable and compelling. Could the long-awaited Messiah actually have come?
Later that day, Joshua responded to Peter’s message about the crucified and risen Christ. He learned why Jesus died for us. Joshua and 3000 others believed and were baptized. He hurried to tell Benjamin of this exciting new dimension to the Jewish faith. That night, as Joshua overflowed with joy, he shared the events of the day. He told Benjamin, and his wife, Miriam everything; their whole family made the decision to follow Jesus the Messiah. To learn more about his new faith, Joshua stayed in Jerusalem longer than he had originally planned. He, Benjamin, and Miriam joined other believers as they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Joshua wrote home to his wife Ruth and the children to explain his delay. He told them of his new faith and sent a letter by Ananiah, a friend in Rome who was visiting Jerusalem, and who had also become a disciple of Christ at Pentecost.
By the time Joshua returned to Rome, his family had already become disciples of Jesus the Messiah. Between Joshua’s letter and Ananiah’s personal testimony, they couldn’t resist this faith that fulfilled and completed the Old Testament promises. Joshua began sharing the apostles teaching with his family and with Ananiah, and soon Ananiah ‘s family and servants also came to the Lord.
Meanwhile, Joshua returned to his bustling import-export business. He gathered his employees around to tell them of his new faith. Many of them believed and asked Joshua to help them share the good news with their families.
Whether he knew it or not, Joshua was part of the process of making disciples. This is the primary way disciples of Christ are made.
The Christian movement exploded into the most widespread faith and force on earth. The key element in this process is the communication of God’s Good News through an established, tight knit network of social relationships. This is what the Greek New Testament calls, oikos. I express this oikos principle simply like this: God reaches new disciples by ever expanding His family through close personal relationships. We make disciples among people that are closest to us.
In early 1982, a 32-year-old woman faced discouragement over how her dream life was not turning out as she has desired. Married to her husband for nearly 20 years, there was alcohol abuse and criminal actions that left a dark cloud over her. The Lord began to work in her life as she began to seek Him. She took her immediate oikos—her kids—to hear a Gospel preacher and there God reached 4 of the 5 members of the family. The four people grew in discipleship through the years and eventually even led my Dad to faith in Christ and still to this day the oikos of our family stretches, grows and God makes new disciples within this tight knit family spread through the country.
I. ‘Oikos’ And The Old Testament. The Old Testament pictures the “oikos’ as the community that shares a connection with a household including several generations in the family. A household may contain four generations, including married and unmarried men and women. The oikos may include servants, close friends, immigrants, sojourners and foreign workers. Old Testament Scripture confirms again the significance and uniqueness of the household and the family. God’s original promise to Abraham included the oikos provision:
“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
The word ‘families’ does not refer only to the simple nuclear family composed of husband-wife-children, but to the extended families. All people connected relationally to that family This is the ‘oikos’.
“You shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.” (See Deuteronomy 12:7,12; Hebrew,’bayit’ = Greek ‘oikos’)
II. ‘Oikos’ And The New Testament. God continues into the New Testament with focus on the household that is friends, extended family and associates as His plans for communicating to mankind. The Gospels, the Book of Acts, and the Epistles all show that the bridges of oikos were used regularly as a means to spread the Good News. After healing a demon possessed man, Jesus told him,
“Go home to your friends (oikos) and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mark 5:19)
After Zacchaeus was converted, Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house (oikos).” (Luke 19:9)
When Jesus healed the son of a royal official, John said: “He and all his household (oikos) believed.” (John 4:53)
Matthew—aka–Levi followed Jesus and invited his fellow tax collectors, his oikos, to come to dinner and as a result many followed Christ. (Mark 2:14-15)
The apostle Peter came to Christ as a result of his oikos. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Peter and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah.” Another disciple Nathaniel came to Christ as a result of his friend Philip who went to find Nathaniel and told him, “We have met the man spoken of by Moses in the Law.” (John 1:41-45)
Following Christ’s resurrection and ascension, it was the same pattern of the gospel moving through the oikos which caused the early church to explode. The primary change-agent in the spread of Gospel faith has always been the Holy Spirit working in and through the men and women who live daily life and speak of their faith with those whom they met in natural connection.
In the Book of Acts chapter 10 the story is recorded of the first Roman household to respond to the message of the apostles. It took a special vision from God to convince Peter that it was all right to tell Gentiles about Jesus Christ. But when the invitation came from the Centurion, Cornelius, Peter was ready. When he and several other believers arrived, they found Cornelius ‘was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends’ – his oikos (v.24). When Peter finished sharing the Gospel, the entire household responded.
In another example, Paul and his companions shared Christ with a businesswoman named Lydia near the city of Philippi. She responded to their message and she, and the members of the her household oikos, were baptized (Acts 16:11-15)
Shortly thereafter, also in Philippi, Paul and Silas were thrown into jail. As they were praying and singing hymns, an earthquake freed all the prisoners of their chains. Rather than face death because the escaped prisoners, the jailer prepared to kill himself. But Paul assured him that they were still there, and the jailer asked him,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.” (Acts 16:30-34)
Why is the OIKOS Principle effective?
- We are already praying each day for our oikos relationships.
- Our oikos relationships provide a natural network for sharing the Good News.
- Oikos relatives know we are trustworthy.
- Oikos conversations allow for unhurried, natural and ongoing Gospel conversations. (Deut 6)
- Oikos Relationships provide natural discipleship support when someone comes to Christ.
- Oikos relationships lead to effective participation in the local Church.
- Oikos relationships tend to win over entire families.
- We are deeply concerned for our oikos people.
Brothers and sisters,
Live up!
(Surrender to the fruit of the Spirit in your life)
Pray up!
(Pray every day for your people.)
Speak up!
(Break the Gospel conversation wall.)
Open up!
(Invite your people to Jesus, to Church and to other events)
God reaches new disciples by ever expanding His family through close personal relationships.
Closing Prayer
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