Multiplying the Kingdom
Message Transcription
Well, good morning, Church. We are so glad that you are with us here today. If you're joining us online, we're so glad you've taken some time to spend with us. We are approaching Mission Sunday, in fact, in a couple of weeks. I know Joseph said two weeks. We're actually going to ask you in one week also to join with us, to partner with us in giving to the incredible mission work that's happening here in Lubbock right now and around the world. We're going to be asking you for a little bit of change. Some of you, this is just pocket change for others of us. We're going to have to scratch and claw and look under seat cushions and all that good stuff to try to reach our goal of $130,000. We've got some amazing things happening. If you were with us this morning in Bible class hour in here, you heard from Joseph about some of the incredible work that's happening. Next week, you'll get to hear from some of our liaisons like Karen about some of the work that God is doing in different places around the world and some here in Lubbock, and how we want to partner together with God and with our friends to see the kingdom break through. In fact, that's why we're spending some time looking at some important words that we've tried to put together. Our missions committee has come up with this mission statement. It's to glorify God by supporting the establishment, strengthening and multiplying of Christian ministries and churches around the world.
We've been drilling down into this vision mission statement, rather to to think some about what does it look like to establish and to strengthen and to multiply. Why is that important If you haven't had a chance to listen to those, I invite you to go online. You can check those out, but they all spring from the heart of the passage that Joseph kind of anchored us in this morning. Matthew Chapter 2028, verses 19 and 20. Where Jesus on the side of this mountain to a group of followers who were unsure. Who were struggling. Some were were fully locked in, loaded, ready to rock and roll. Others who were doubting. Who were unsure. Is this really happening? Is this really going on? Jesus said, You go, you disciples, some of you who know exactly what to do and some of you who don't have a clue. You go and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the forgiveness of sin. And then teach them. Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded. And don't be afraid. You're not alone in this. I'm with you. Those words have been echoing in the halls of this church for over 133 years. And 133 years ago, some some brave men and women gathered first in Lubbock County and called themselves a church, said we want to try to bring the gospel, the kingdom of God, a little closer.
We want it to break through in this part of the country. And the last 133 years we've been trying to live out faithfully this mission. And some seasons we've done it really well and others we've kind of limped along. But all the way through we've been trusting and hoping and believing that God has a work for us, a work for us to do, to partner with him. These words in Matthew 28, we looked at the last couple of weeks of how God calls every disciple, every one, those of us who are strong and sure and steady on our feet and those of us who are struggling and doubting and just wrestling, trying to get through the day that every one of us is called to make disciples. And so we've been thinking together about what it means to establish little pockets of the kingdom, to to think about our lives, our marriages, our families, our schools, our workplaces, what might be possible if we would be willing to allow God to do a work in and through us in those places? We want to be about establishing the kingdom. But also in these words, we hear this echo of Christ saying, I'm with you, I'm going to strengthen you. I'm going to help you along. We looked at Paul's writings of those letters to the churches, the places in the in the known world that he helped start Little Kingdom outposts and how he would write them to challenge and encourage them to exhort them, because the work of discipleship is not something we do all alone.
We weren't called to be disciples in isolation, but called to go together. So we've been thinking in and thinking some about how do we help strengthen the kingdom, work that God's doing not only in our lives and our church, but locally, regionally, around the world. We want to be a church that strengthens and that establishes. Today we want to think about multiplying. In these words, we also hear Jesus talking about, I want you to make disciples. I want you to to multiply the efforts, the work that God is doing in you. We want you to pass it on and to pass it to other people. As Joseph mentioned in our class, you just look around the room literally. You see flags of places where we tried to partner with God's amazing work of reconciliation all around the world to come alongside and say, this isn't just for us, but it's for everyone. That for God so loved his world. And so we want to think some about what does it mean to be a discipler? I think maybe Tim Tally might be the only one who recognizes this book, but I got to revisit it this week. It's a book by a guy named Milton Jones.
Some of us may be familiar with Milton and his incredible ministry he had here at Broadway. And while he was down at Atlas Ministry and how he started Christian Relief Fund, an organization that goes around and helps children and orphans all over the world, brings clean water to people and communities that don't have it. He wrote a little book called Discipling the Multiplying Ministry. So I went back to listen and and read through some words of my friend Milton, and we'll jump into those a little bit deeper. But he keeps drawing us back to Jesus heart from the very beginning was that the work that He would do, this kingdom that was coming, it wasn't just for the 12 that he had gathered around him, but it was for everyone. And so he said in John chapter 15, these words of of being a disciple, being his disciples, he says, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word. I have spoken to you. Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me. You can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples. Jesus said, I'm the vine, and the goal of the vine is to produce branches that are fruitful. In fact, there's this pruning process that goes along. And he says, Jesus says, which is just strange to wrap your mind around. There were branches in Jesus life that needed to be cut off because they weren't fruitful. And it's hard to believe that we could say that about Jesus. Jesus actually said that about himself. He says, God prunes me, my father prunes me. He's going to prune you. With the goal of being fruitful, of multiplying. That God would see fruit produced in your life and that that fruit would go on and produce in other lives as well. So the question we might ask is, well, how do we do that? How do we multiply? Well, as the gospel writers tell us, and as Milton reminded me this week, it happens in maybe a counterintuitive way, if you will.
You know, Jesus was known for and we see lots of stories in the Bible of him preaching to large groups of people. But that's actually not where the multiplying happened most significantly. He didn't shy away from those settings. He certainly took advantage of them. But where you saw the multiplication happening in his life and in his ministry, when all those smaller settings, those quiet moments, often when the disciples would call Jesus over to the side and say, We don't know what you're talking about, could you explain it to us? In those moments when Jesus would would point out something about nature or something about a person who's struggling or hurting and try to help open their eyes to this is the work of God happening in their life. As Milton pointed out, Jesus understood the difference between arithmetic and geometric sequence. Brian Fisher. You may be the only one who understands that initially. But Milton shows this example, and I want to talk about it with you for a minute. He says, and I was looking this week, I think I found the most recent up to date survey of population in the world right now is about 7.8 billion roughly. So Milton would say, all right, imagine one preacher decides, I'm going to spend every day the rest of my life preaching the gospel. No breaks, no vacations, just every day. And I'm going to gather a crowd of 1500 people, brand new people every time, and they're going to choose to follow Jesus.
They're going to become followers. So I'm going to hit a home run out of the park every day, and all 1500 are going to follow. Now, what if I did that? How many years would I have to preach in order for that to happen? Well, if you calculate it out, it's possible You only have to live to be 14,256 years old to do that. Right? That's an overwhelming number. How long would that take? 14,246 years. Okay. That's assuming the world population doesn't grow. That's just to get to the 7.8 billion number. What if it gets beyond that? Well, that's the arithmetic sequence, right? The structured regular interval, 1500 every day. And as great as that would be, it would take longer than a lifetime, longer than many lifetimes in order to achieve that goal. Now let's take a look at Jesus method. Jesus gathered around a group of 12 disciples and he poured life and energy and ministry and prayer over and into. But even of that 12 we know he kind of gathered three Peter, James and John and he began to pour life into them. Now imagine if that same preacher just said, instead of trying to preach to 1500 people a day every day for the rest of my life, what if I just stopped and I said, for the next year I'm just going to gather three disciples around me? I'm going to pour life and energy and effort into them.
And hopefully by the end of that year, those three, they'd be ready to each go out and and get their own three and I'll get another three in each year. We'll just start repeating that process. What would those numbers start to look like? Well, if I looked at that first preacher, that 1500 a day for every day after a year, there's 547,500 disciples. That's a pretty good number. The Jesus way. There's four. Okay. All right. Well, let's. Five years down the road, what would happen then? Well, five years down the road, we'd see a little bit different number, right? We'd see a little over 2.7 million, roughly the size of Kansas. Number of disciples for that preacher to 1500 a day. The Jesus way. Well, there'd be a thousand. We could maybe fill up the Apollo Theater and New York. Okay, well, let's speed up another five years. What about at the ten year mark? How many would it see? Remember 1500 a day. Every day for the rest of their life is 14,000 years. After ten years, we'd see those numbers jump a little bit. One 1 million for Jesus way. Over. Where's my number? There we go. Over 5.4 million. The first way. So you're thinking. Well, I don't know, Carl. This 1500 a day, every day for the rest of your life, you need to get to work, buddy. That's a lot of disciples.
Well, remember, we're thinking long term. What about year 15? What happens? How do we see that growth? How we see it opening up by year 15. By year 17. What we discover is in Jesus way, you're reaching over 17 billion disciples. Gary did a great graph. Flip that next slide. You can kind of see the difference. And what would take your preacher over 14,000 years just by himself? A group of four could start, and in 17 years, the gospel could reach over 17 billion people. Have you ever thought about that? What about for our church? What about for Broadway? What if we just said as a community, hey, we're going to commit to making disciples, We're going to commit to living that kind of way right now. This year, we've averaged about a little over 330 people a week on a Sunday. What if just the 333 of us said, Hey, we'll do it? We're in. How long would it take us? Oh, about 14 years. Just a little under 15 years. The gospel could grow and reach all corners of the globe. Now, you and I both know this little thought experiment is assuming everybody follows. Everybody agrees to become a follower. Everyone believes. We just know that's not how that works. It's going to take a little longer than that. But I think the idea of multiplying gives us a greater understanding when we think this isn't a solo game. What if we just committed to doing the work that God's given us to do? What if we just committed to doing our part to say we're going to try to make disciples right where we live, in our homes and our families and our schools and our workplaces and our neighborhoods.
What if we decided to partner with other ministry minded people who have the same heart and desire to see the Kingdom of God not only be established and strengthened, but see it multiply to see it grow. See, that's the heart of our missions effort here. And it's amazing when church gets a hold of this, Right? I mean, those words that Laura read for us just a moment ago in Acts chapter two. What happened in the life of the early church? It's phenomenal. Luke tells us they devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the Apostles. All the believers were together, had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved. At a community so gripped by this amazing call of the gospel to begin living so sacrificially that there were no people in need among them.
Can you imagine that? That even the people who were living in that community who didn't believe what they believed, said, Man, I'm really glad they're here. I don't believe what they're talking about. It sounds like a bunch of Yahoo craziness. But but man, I'm so glad that they are here. I'm so glad that they are living that they are around. It's amazing. Just fast forward two chapters to the end of Chapter four that that reality just continued. We're told all the believers were again one heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all and working them all that there were no needy persons among them for from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them. They brought the money from the sales and they put it at the Apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone who had need. At this incredible community, thriving and flourishing in the sacrificial gifts and outpouring that no one had, needs Everybody was included. Everybody had a place at the table. Everybody had a voice in decision. Everybody had an opportunity to participate in the life of the community. It was amazing. Even though the Romans didn't believe what they believed, they believed Caesar was king.
In fact, he was the son of God, the true son of God. He was the savior, the Messiah. Even still, that community flourished as they continued to share the gifts that God had given to them. To continue this mission, this commission that Jesus had sent them on. The Apostles continued to boldly proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, and the followers continued to embody that resurrection life every single day, and it made a huge difference in their community. I mean, can you imagine what that might look like? Can you imagine what would happen if the world saw that kind of life and community and multiplication happening amongst them? We'll see. That's the kind of dream we're trying to live into. That's the dream we've cast before our missions committee, and they've come back to us and said, here's what we think is the best way for us to live this out in our mission efforts. That's what Luke is trying to help us envision that after following Jesus around for three years, after listening to him teach and preach after, after traveling with him all over the countryside and watching him interact with and engage in people, so many who were on the margins of society that Luke began to understand a different thing. That there was there was this other factor at play in the arithmetic versus geometric sequencing. And that difference is the multiplier.
The difference between an arithmetic sequence and a geometric is the multiplier. Did you catch the multiplier in Acts chapter two and four? And the Lord added to their number daily. Those who were being saved. In Chapter four and God's grace. Was so powerful. He had work in them all. At the multiplier. The active agent in this geometric sequence is God's holy power. That God is at work, in his people, in and through his people. He is the one who has the power to take one simple sacrifice and multiply it in incredible ways. I wonder if, as Luke was writing this down for Theophilus as he was trying to imagine, how do I communicate this point to young Theophilus? I can't help but wonder did he think back to those stories that he saw that that life that he lived with Jesus? When he thinks back to maybe Luke chapter nine, where they've just been sent out by Jesus, he's empowered them to go out and teach and preach and cast out demons. And they've done it and it's been incredible. And they come back to Jesus and they're ready to tell him all about it. But as they see the disciples gathering so a large crowd begins to gather, even though Jesus tries to pull him away and have a little debrief session after their trip. Instead, the people gather around. In fact, there are so many that Jesus recognizes. They've been here a long time and they're they're starving.
Let's feed them.
Guys, get these people something to eat. And they said, Well, Jesus, send him out, send him over to the towns so they can get a meal and they can grab a hotel room and they'll be out of out of the weather. And Jesus says, No, no, no, you feed them. And disciples look at him and say.
We have five.
Loaves and two fish. And Jesus says, Perfect.
Perfect. Have them sit down.
Then he prays. And he breaks the bread and he starts to distribute it. And do you remember how much was left over? 12 baskets. Right. Another telling of it, there's seven baskets. Another time he did fed the 4000. And I can't help but wonder, was Luke thinking of that story as he's writing about sacrificial giving and how it's not it's not the it's not the number in the geometric sequence that's important. It's the multiplier. It's the one who can take the little and make it more. Or maybe. Maybe he had in mind that day at the temple. When Jesus and his disciples had gathered around and they were watching as all the people were bringing in their offerings and some had some enormous offerings putting them into play. And at the corner of their eye, they see this little old woman. Struggling to put one foot in front of the other, walks up and drops in two tiny coins.
Just worth nothing.
In the Roman economy. And Jesus says, Guys, stop for a minute. Did you see that? That's the biggest kingdom gift that's been made today. That may be the biggest kingdom gift I've ever seen in my life. And they're going to since. That's nothing. No, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. You forget about the multiplier. It's not the amount that she gave. It's the heart that she gave. It's her willingness to say, I trust you, God, even to the last $0.02. I'll give those over to you. I wonder if Luke was thinking about that as he's trying to to show Theophilus this is what it's like to be to be a follower of Jesus who's committed not to just establishing, not just to strengthening, but to multiplying. You know, the Apostle Paul, he would write it a little bit later on to the church in Corinth like this. He said, I planted Apollos watered. But God gave the growth. God gave the increase. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, only the God who gives the growth. You see, it's not about the actual gift, it's the multiplier church. That's the amazing thing. The power of the geometric sequence is not the number. It's the. It's the multiplier. It's God who causes its seed to grow. Grow. It's God who gives the increase. It's God who can take a small group of 12 that that maybe even was a smaller group of of three. And within 30 years of Jesus death and resurrection and ascension, the gospel was reaching the ends of the known world at the time.
In 30 years, they had no money, they had no power, they had no wealth. They had no influence, they had no status. All they had was a multiplier. And it turns out that's all they needed. Church. That's what we want to be about. We won't be the kind of church that brings our five loaves and our two fish and say, God, would you do what only you can do with this gift? We're going to be the kind of church that says, God, we we want to be partnering with those who have established kingdom work. We're partnering with you to strengthen others and yet who are committed to not just being about us, not just to being about building us up, but God being fruitful for you so that you get the glory. That's the kind of people we want to be. We want to open our lives to this amazing multiplying effect in our life just the way Hal did last week, last Sunday. And Hal said, Lord, I'm going to lay it down. I want you to be in charge. I want you to help me make all my decisions. I want you to help draw me forward and nearer into you. So we are partnering with like minded churches and and ministries by partnering with men and women like you to say we want to be a church.
Who participates in multiplying.
You see with that kind of life, who do we have to fear?
We have no fear.
Love that powers us, the love that we get from Christ, from following his example, that kind of love. We can never be separated from it.
It will power us.
So church this week we invite you. Would you be praying about how God is going to multiply your gift, your giftings your resources in the coming year? Maybe for some of us, it's taking that next step. Maybe God will help you multiply those steps in faith to to follow him into baptism just the way that Hal did and that God would begin to increase your faith, to multiply it in ways that you can't even imagine, but give you courage to share that with other people.
Maybe for maybe.
For some of us, it's a relationship guy. Would you give us courage to to be a multiplier in a relationship to open our self up to your power? Again, if we could just learn to exercise a little bit of patience that we're trusting that you can take that little bit of patience and you can create an opportunity for conversation or God, you can take that little bit of courage and God, you can multiply it into an opening maybe. And I'm sorry. I God, maybe you could take that apology and you could multiply it into a reconciliation. God, what could you do in my life if I were just willing to open it up to your multiplying work? Maybe for some of us it's in work realm. Maybe for others, it's a neighbor.
Maybe some of us.
God's just saying, I want you to take a big step in faith. I want you to think about stepping out of your job and into a new, a new role, a new ministry, a new endeavor. I don't know what God's going to ask you to do. I'm just praying that he'll give you ears to hear it and that we'll have the courage to follow.
To be the kind of church.
That establishes and strengthens and multiplies. The kind of church who is willing to risk it all knowing that we have nothing to fear. God, we are praying that in this next week and in the next couple of weeks, as we all bring together the resources that you've given to us, and some of us have a lot and some don't have much, hardly at all. But God, we're trusting that it's not about the number that we bring.
But it's about our multiplier.
The one who can take five loaves and two fish and feed 5000 people. No problem.
With 12 basketfuls left over. Oh, God. We are looking for and hoping for and trusting that you will multiply the efforts of this church. God. We are so thankful.
For the ways that you have created open doors for us to partner with like minded individuals, missionaries, people.
Headed out.
We pray that you would do your multiplying.
Work in us, help us grow our faith, Father. Grow our trust. Our courage in you. If father may it overflow out into the world around us? May may the world see us living as such.
Sacrificial ways that we're willing to sell and give that money away with no thought just because someone has a need? May we be the kind of people who commit ourselves to being a part of this community of.
Of worshiping together and studying your word together. And we be committed to relationships, accountability to one another where we hold each other up and and walk with each other through hard seasons. God, whatever it is we're asking, that you would take.
Our small, meager gifts.
And you would multiply them as you always have. Lord Jesus, thank you for your generosity. For your willingness. A willing spirit, willing, heart, willing, mind, Willing. Desire to come. They bear for us a burden we couldn't bear on our own. To open up an opportunity that we might have a multiplying kind of life with you. Not just some day. But even now. Even this day. So God would you do in us and with us and for us what we could never do for ourselves? Thank you, Father. We love you. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.