THE POWER OF DISCIPLESHIP

(Yochanan 8:31) Yeshua said..."If you continue in my word, then you are remembering to be my disciples [mathetes]."

(Mattityah 28:19-20) [Yeshua said] "Therefore, go and make disciples [mathetes] of all nations...teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."

In the original Greek the word disciples in these passages is mathetes, from which we get the English word mathematics. Bound up in the root meaning of discipleship is the concept of the gathering of numbers. To make disciples is to increase the kingdom of G-d. But there is, according to Yeshua, only one way to be a disciple of Yeshua, and that is to continue in His word. There is only one way to make disciples of Yeshua, and that is to teach them to obey (observe) everything which He has commanded.

Since Yeshua is G-d in the flesh, everything which He has commanded is everything spoken from G-d to mankind from the beginning. I will know I am His disciple when I am intent on keeping all His commandments, AND on making other disciples who also will do the same. This desire of Yeshua is far more powerful than evangelization, for that action has only to do with proclaiming the Good News of Him, without any determination of results. Discipleship includes the proclaiming of the Good News, but doesn't stop there. Discipleship is determined to make other disciples who will then make other disciples. The principle it uses is to add to the Kingdom one by one. Classically, evangelization has depended on mass appeal. Yeshua avoided the masses. Instead He concentrated on making disciples, and even purposely filtered the masses to find those truly willing to be disciples and make disciples. For Yeshua the process is as important as the result. He never wanted followers which did not know or follow His Word. The purpose of the discipleship process is to find and confirm those who will obey His Word.

This concept of one making one is a very powerful principle, for several reasons:

First, it releases us from thinking of multitudes as the immediate goal. That means we no longer are trying to be successful through amassing crowds, which is an artificial goal. G-d is concerned with the individual, and even more, He is concerned with the quality of the individual.
Second, it works. Evangelism, as it has been tried, has failed to make disciples of Yeshua who observe all his commandments. Discipleship is the only way to acheive Yeshua's goal, and it can be accomplished with awesome results by just the addition of one. The addition of one, when beginning with one, results in a doubling process. To say another way, doubling is really just the addition of one to each one. To illustrate I have constructed the chart below. It demonstrates what number of disciples there would be at the end of each year, starting with one person, if each person discipled just one per year. It illustrates the power of mathetes, STARTING WITH ONE: YOURSELF

YR	NUMBER	COMMENT
1	2	First year completed; the process begun.
2	4	Average size of families.
3	8	Average size of home groups.
4	16
5	32	Average size of Messianic congregations.
6	64
7	128
8	256	No. (ASCII) most computers are based on.
9	512
10	1024	*One thousand.
11	2048
12	4096
13	8192
14	16,384
15	32,768
16	65,536
17	131,072
18	262,144
19	524,288	Approach the population of Virginia Beach.
20	1,048,576	*One million.
21	2,097,152
22	4,194,304	Approach the population of State of Virginia.
23	8,388,608
24	16,777,216
25	33,554,432
26	67,108,864
27	134,421,728
28	268,435,456	Approaching the population of USA.
29	536,870,912	Approaching the population of India
30	1,073,741,824	*One billion. Approaching the pop. of China.
31	2,147,483,648
32	4,294,967,296	Approaching population of earth in 1980.
33	8,589,934,592	About the no. estimated who have ever lived.

*This process of one by one results in a 1000 times increase every ten years.

As we can clearly see, it is most important to have the right process going. The discipleship process of Yeshua is not based on immediate gratification. Yet in one lifetime, through one by one discipleship, the entire earth can easily be reached with the truth of G-d's Messiah and G-d's commandments. In fact, in the past 2000 years this process could have been completed at least 63 times. I wonder what He thinks as He observes these centuries from Heaven. It makes me want to shout to all I have ever had the blessing to disciple to Yeshua: "Please! Go! Make just one true disciple of Yeshua, and teach them to do the same."

-- Messianic Rabbi David M. Hargis