During the three years of His earthly ministry, Jesus used scores of parables to explain the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Man, and many more topics.
Many of these parables revolved around an agrarian examples. And the people in the first century would understand farming examples.
In the world today, people are many layers away from farms and therefore lack understanding of agrarian examples.
Years ago, my daughter's preschool visited the local supermarket chain. The children were brought into the various departments to meet the department manager who would ask questions fo the children and provide some educational tips.
While visiting the meat department, the manager asked where beef came from. After a few seconds of shyness, a hand went up and said, "Cows."
"Very good," said the manager, and holding a package of chicken legs, "How about poultry?"
"Chickens" came the answer from several children.
"Excellent," replied the manager.
Then, as he held up a package of pork chops, he asked, "What about pork?"
There was a long silence until one of the boys proudly proclaimed, "Porcupine."
The adults tried to hide their chuckles so as not to embarrass the boy as the meat manager clarified that pork comes from pigs.
We shouldn't laugh at the kid since "a survey from the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy found that 7% of American adults think chocolate milk comes from brown cows.Source
Making Disciples Easier
The early disciples were charged in Matthew 28:19-20 by Jesus, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."(Emphasis added)
If you have been around church long enough, you probably have hear verses 18–20 referred to as the "Great Commission." This is because Jesus is sending His hand-chosen disciples out into the world make more disciples.
What Is A Disciple?
The Greek word for disciple is "matheteusate" or "μαθητεύσατε."
Strong's Concordance explains that a disciple is:
- to be a disciple of one
- to follow his precepts and instructions
- to make a disciple
- to teach, instruct
Jesus is calling every believer, from those that heard Him in Matthew 28, to those today to be active in making disciples of ALL THE NATIONS.
How To Disciple Now
For those that are familiar with the Bible, we can start our conversations using Scripture.
Unfortunately, more and more people (Christians included) are not familiar with what the Bible teaches.
REEL DEVOTIONALS is here to help Christians learn more about the Bible and how to connect films, movies, or reels, to biblical truth.
For the majority of Christians I have interacted with, it is easier for them to remember a movie scene or line than a passage of Scripture. If we can just look for an overarching truth in a quote or scene, we can connect it with Scripture.
Many movies follow a similar story framework. As we look at various movies, I hope to show you this framework and how you can use it to share the Gospel of Jesus with a lost and dying world.
Stephen's Example In The Book Of Acts
The first recorded person to die for their belief in Jesus is Stephen.
Acts 6:8 describes Stephen as, "full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people."
This angered many people from the "Freedmen's Synagogue." In Acts 6:13-15 we read, "They also presented false witnesses who said, 'This man does not stop speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we heard him say that Jesus, this Nazarene, will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.' And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel."
Stephen's Faith-Filled "Sermon"
“Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, and said to him: Get out of your country and away from your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.
“Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land you now live in. He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless. God spoke in this way:
His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them 400 years. I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship Me in this place.
Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs.
“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household. 11 Then a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food. When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors the first time. The second time, Joseph was revealed to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. Joseph then invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, 75 people in all, 15 and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there, were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
“As the time was drawing near to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt. He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them leave their infants outside, so they wouldn’t survive.[e] 20 At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home three months, and when he was left outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son. So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.
“As he was approaching the age of 40, he decided to visit his brothers, the Israelites. When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. He assumed his brothers would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’
“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed him away, saying:
Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?
“At this disclosure, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons. After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. So Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.
“Then the Lord said to him:
Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have observed the oppression of My people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to rescue them. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.
“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge? —this one God sent as a ruler and a redeemer by means of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness 40 years.
“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God[m] will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us. Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him away, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron:
Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.
They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made. Then God turned away and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
House of Israel, did you bring Me offerings and sacrifices years in the wilderness? No, you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan,the images that you made to worship. So I will deport you beyond Babylon!
“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers, until the days of David. He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God[s] of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built Him a house. However, the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:
Heaven is My throne, and earth My footstool. What sort of house will you build for Me? says the Lord, or what is My resting place?
Did not My hand make all these things?
“You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it.”
Paul's Example In 1 Corinthians 15
I know Stephen's sermon was long. But he declared the Good News without shame. And he did for it.
Paul summarized the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Roman Road To Salvation
Every single Christian should know the gospel. You might not be able to present it like Stephen did, but we should be able to explain the gospel.
In the book of Romans, Paul gives us a tremendous amount of theology and what has been called "The Roman Road To Salvation."
The following verses can help a person understand where they are and how to get into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 5:8, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:1, "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Romans 10:9, "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."
