A Disciple and Their World

September 7, 2025

DISCIPLES ARE COMMITTED TO INFLUENCING THEIR WORLD, BEING OBEDIENT TO THE GREAT COMMANDMENT (MARK 12:30-31) AND THE GREAT COMMISSION (MATT. 28:19-20)

CORE ISSUE: Unity

KEY PASSAGE: "l pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them maybe one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me ... and loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:20-23).

A neighbor in America is commonly thought to be the person next door, or someone who lives in a location near you. In the time of the New Testament, however, neighbor commonly meant “one living in the same land.” In essence, a neighbor in that context might have included several villages or towns. The Jews split hairs over this question and excluded from their "neighbors" Gentiles and especially Samaritans. So here was Jesus’ loophole. A neighbor is a nigh dweller to one, but the Jews made racial exceptions as many, alas, do today.

We live in communities today where we hardly know our neighbors. In the world that you all live in, who are your neighbors? Our world seems impersonal because of our pace of life, and in a sense, we are afraid to get involved in the lives of the people around us, why is that? What qualities do you look for in a good friend or a neighbor?

CONSIDER THIS: As Disciples/Believers we have a God-given mission to unite all who are separated by race, geography, culture, denomination and economics.  We refer to something much greater than humanistic unification and more powerful than political equality.  Rather, we are compelled to pursue biblical reconciliation: loving our neighbor as an expression of our love for God.

LET’S READ THESE TEXT: (John 4:19-21) and (Luke 10:25-37) 

“We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:19–21 ESV)

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25–37 ESV)

LET’S IMMERSE OURSELVES:

It was Mission’s week at COTR in Rockwall, Texas. The appeal to go on Missions excited me as I listened to the speaker from India. He was a businessman, named Dr. P.J. Titus, who had come to America and made his living making the American dollar. He decided to go back to India and plant a Bible school and was encouraged when Dr. Lea agreed to help him in this project to plant Church on Rock Bible College (COTR-BC) in Visakhapatnam in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The school would be affiliated with Oral Roberts University (ORU) as Dr. Lea was the Associate Dean of the Seminary and would help students in India achieve credit for lesson taught. He insisted that I had to achieve my Doctor of Ministry Degree (D.Min.) to be a participant to teach in the school in India.

The design was to evangelize north India, which was basically an under evangelized region of the country. To understand Dr. Titus’ desire, north India was populated by Muslims and Sikhs and Dr. Titus’ had developed an evangelistic schema to educate and train evangelist in the school in India to infiltrate that area of India. I became so excited about the possibility fulfilling the prophesy that I would go around the world teaching and sharing as prophesied by Dick Mills in 1982. I desired from that moment hearing Dr. Titus to go to India and wherever the Lord would send me. In the ensuing months, as Dr. Lea’s vision became more familiar as the Mission director Dr. David Shibley and a team that included me traveled to India in 1988 to start the school. I knew this would open the opportunity for me to go to India as a missionary/teacher and work in that Bible school.

The missions Director, Dr. David Shibley, along with Dr. Lea were excited realizing that my wife, Adeline was from India, which would be a real plus completing my D.Min. at the seminary at ORU. I had also become acquainted with several Indian people in our church, Dr. Titus’s nephew, Mathew Thomas, was to attend ORU at the same time and get his degree as well and eventually became the director of COTR-BC. There was also Rita Mellon, a friend of my wife Addie from India, had originally introduced me to Addie. These all joined my cell fellowship group when I became an expansion leader in the Singles Cell Group Ministry at COTR, multiplying out of another cell group. I eventually became an associate Pastor at COTR.

Since that time, the education and the extraordinary experiences I gained while attending and working at ORU have led me to visit foreign cities in Mexico, India, Russia, Great Britain, and the Fiji Islands.. Furthermore, I have traveled to numerous cities across the United States. Remarkably, in my role as Director of the D.Min. Degree Program for five years and as a professor at ORU for the past 30 years, I have taught students from more than 120 different countries. A great deal has happened since that little cell group in Rockwall, Texas. God has sent me around the world to teach, preach, and reach out to a world in desperate need of Jesus Christ. It is an awesome journey and growth experience going into another person’s world. Everyone should seize the opportunity to explore a world outside of their own domain. I call you to “Jump Culture”  and go into someone else’s world.

LET’S ACCEPT THE MANDATE:

The mandate or commandments from Jesus in Mark 16 and Matthew 28 are pretty emphatic. I pray the impact will begin to affect you as it has done to me. You decide, ask yourself “What does discipleship look like for me?” I am proposing that a need of individuals in the world will pulls some and catapult you down the road to discipleship success, which can only happen when you seek the fellowship of what I call the “Big Four” of Prayer to the Father, Word of God study, Fellowship with believers and a call to Evangelism. 

As you explore the mission that God has entrusted to each of us, I encourage you to help bring about the kingdom of God. I truly believe that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent and our obedience to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment are no longer a choice, but a mandate. The Word of God has been given to us as an essential directive to make disciples of all nations. In Greek, the word is (ethnos), and in Hebrew, it is (goyim), both meaning people from all walks of life. We have been summoned, and I hope our obedience reflects that of God's servant Abraham, who became the father of numerous nations. Those who decide to serve Father God will gain an understanding of His nature and recognize that salvation is attainable only through His son, Jesus Christ, which presents a mandate for us to act.

I'm curious about what is necessary for you to see the reality of fulfilling the mandates from Matthew 28 and Mark 16. For some, this may become a full-time commitment, while for others, like myself, it will complement teaching globally. This approach incorporates Prayer, Word, Fellowship, and Evangelism—referred to as "The Big Four"—into the reality of discipleship.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Agree/disagree, and explain your answer:

1. As long as I don’t know who my neighbor is, I have no responsibility to them?

2. What did the first two men who encountered the man have in common? Why did they not stop and help him?

3. What motivated the Samaritan to stop and help? What builds compassion in a life?

4. If this scene was on the freeways of Tulsa or a road anywhere, like what happened in Jericho, what might keep us from stopping?

5. Under what conditions would cause you to have stopped to help?

6. What does it mean to be a neighbor according to Jesus?