God’s Power through Multiplication and Making Disciples
From early in the scriptures we see that God is concerned about multiplication. In Genesis 1 verse 28 it states “And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth….. “ This is a very important concept and is repeated a number of times in the New Testament as the key to reaching the world for Christ. The Devil has let addition happen in the Churches because he knows all to well if the saints grasp the concept of multiplication they will be radically changed and reach the world for Christ. When Jesus gave the parable of the sower he stated the seed planted in the good soil would increase by 100 times, 60 times and 30 times, not that it would add 100, or 60 or 30. “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” Matthew 13:23
In Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20 Jesus states “..All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." There is much to be learned from these three verses that are essentially repeated in some form in Mark 16 verse 15, Luke 24 verses 47 through 49 and Acts 1 verse 8 and 9.
Let us look at these verses in Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20 more closely. Jesus said: “..All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, “ I heard one preacher say that All is All and that’s All that All means. Think of that, All authority/power has been given Jesus on Heaven and earth. All the armies of heaven, Cherubim and Seraphim, all the angels, all of His power that created the Universe are at His command to carry out these verses. “Go therefore and make disciples of All the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe All that I commanded you”. All that I commanded you includes each person being a Witness, because right before He states All that I commanded you, he states go and make disciples of all nations.
It is very easy for us to get into a priest laity mentality. Let the pastor and a few Sunday school teachers do all the sharing of the gospel and the work of the Lord. We do ourselves a great disservice when we see someone who likes to share the gospel and tell them they should become a missionary or preacher. We all need to be sharing the gospel; we all need to be missionaries, we all need to be disciples. We need to ask those who have a gift of sharing to teach us how to better share our testimony. This could be why we lack power in our Christian lives and in the modern church. We often want our needs met, more than the will of God to be carried out, accomplishing neither. “ and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." He is with us even to the end of the age. This should encourage us, even when we do not "feel" His prescence, He is there to help us with all His power.
Why multiplication is better than addition. Right now according to statistics only 20% of those who do the sinners prayer, remain in a Christian walk (going to church, reading their bibles and praying on a regular basis) 80% of those who make the sinners prayer fall away. I believe the main reason they fall away is they are not taught to make disciples or to multiply. Lets look at some math facts.
Please do not take me wrong, My intention is not to belittle the great evangelists that God has sent us but for all of us to do our part in the Great Commission.
In one column we have what I call the Addition Leader in the other we have the multiplication Evangelist otherwise known as the 1rst century Christian. We will look at a 33-year period.
The Addition Leader
The addition leader preaches the gospel but does not teach others to make disciples. Let’s say he is a gifted evangelist and preaches to one million people a year, 30% become Christian so that would be 300,000. At the current rate of only 20% of those staying in the Christian faith that is 60,000 true Christians a year. If you times that by 33 years, the addition evangelist sees 1,980,000 people truly becoming a Christian and 33 million that hear the gospel message.
The Multiplication Evangelist or the first Century Christian/Disciple
The multiplication evangelist obeys Matthew 28:18-20. If only one person set out to disciple 1 person a year with this message and teach that one person to reach one person that means 2 people are reached in the first year. (I pick the number of disciples as 1 a year because I believe the physical world often paints a picture of the spiritual world. On average women can give birth to only 1 child a year. You may see 5,000 saved in one day like Peter, but you can probably only disciple one person a year effectively. Also we were born to reproduce physically and spiritually. God was very harsh to men who were unable to reproduce. They were not allowed into the Temple area. ) 4 people the second year, 8 the third year, 16 people the 4th year, you get the picture. You double your amount every year which is over 1 billion the 30th year, 2 billion the 31 year, 4 billino the 32 year and 8 billion by the 33rd year.
We only have 6 billion people on earth right now and we can see through multiplication we should be able to reach the world in less than 33 years. If you start with a church of 512 you can cut 9 years off the time. Or if all the Christians in the world today grasped the concept of making disciples, just think how soon the world could be reached. The addition leader or kingly priest eventually took over for the multiplication evangelist in about 200 to 300 AD. The start of this process seemed to happen as the Jewish servant roots of Christianity were neglected and replaced by what I call Gentile leadership principles. It was accelerated in the past century by giving a health, wealth, prosperity gospel(which is really another Gospel) instead of using the law of God to be a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ. The early Jewish church was very familiar with the law and its purpose to lead people to Christ. Christ Himself, never backed away from the law to show people their sin. John Wesley encouraged that the law be preached 90% of the time and grace be preached 10% of the time.
Lets look at this concept of Gentile leadership principles. Gods word states that God loved Jacob but hated Esau.(Malichi 1:2 and 3 and Romans 9:13) Esau exchanged his birthright for a single meal. Jacob become Israel, Esau’s descendants became Gentiles and the enemy of God and Israel. Every chapter in scripture has an important meaning. One of the more interesting chapters in scripture is Genesis 36. It talks about the descendant of Esau. For the first time in scripture we see titles given to men. Esau’s children started out as Chiefs then by the end of Genesis chapter 36, they were a bunch of little kings. I believe this is a characteristic of man that started with the enemy of God. Satan wanted to ascend higher than God’s throne. God should be the King, but men always want an earthly king or little kings to meet their needs and protect them. Even the Israelites eventually wanted a man king and God gave them what they wanted in Saul, a handsome hunk. God then gave them what they needed in King David, a heart of gold but a little on the small side. God often gives us what we want to show us what we need. This also goes to the heart issue, man often looks at the out-word appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
In looking at the history of the church, Satan could not defeat it through killing it, so he brought in another gospel. Satan took Christ as the only way between God and Man and made the Church leader to be the way between God and man. Satan took the priesthood of all believers and made the Church leader the priest. Satan took what Gods word said as all believers being Saints, too only a few who worked their way to heaven as saints. The true church recovered much of the truth of grace during the reformation, however it never quite gave up the leadership style of the kingly priest. We want the pastor to provide our needs, instead of God. We want the pastor to minister to the hurting members of the church instead us getting in the trenches and helping.
I believe it is also a natural inclination of mans heart to be prideful. Instead of relying on Gods Holy Spirit, teachers of the word can start to think their the main attraction. When you look at the wasteland of former preachers you have to wonder what went wrong. The scripture states a man reaps what he sows. You could be the hardest working preacher; however, if you never grasp the concept that your are supposed to teach others to be disciples, you will reap what you sow and fail.
To really be a disciple maker can help keep a check on your heart. God’s word states the heart is deceitful above all things. It is very easy to hide behind ministry when it is really to make ourselves look good. If you are making disciples you are really making someone to replace you. That can be very humbling. If you are just adding people to your church you can start to think that you are indispensable. If you ever think you are indispensable read Exodus 5 where God was ready to kill Moses.
In Acts 1 verses 5 through 9 we see the key to the power and the key of where to start witnessing.
5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
6 And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." 9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight."
The key to us being a witness is by the power of the Holy Spirit. The key of where to start witnessing is where you are. The disciples in the first century were in Jerusalem. They started there and then went to the surrounding community then to the ends of the earth. They understood that "God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him shall be saved”. It states that by Acts 17:6 ".. These men who have upset the world have come here also". It states in Romans 1:8 that the whole world had heard of the faith of the Romans. Collisions 1 verse 6 also states the first century Christians reached the World. How did these first century Christians reach the world without the aid of radio or Television.
1.They were committed to the Word of God (which included church discipline, the teaching that those who live Godly through Christ Jesus will be persecuted, and the lost would suffer forever in Hell, and to store up treasures in Heaven and many other truths.)
2.They were committed to PRAYER.
3.They were committed to reach everyone with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and once that person became a Christian they were committed to teach them all that Jesus taught them.
4.They were not committed to the kingly priest attitude but of being a servant and the priesthood of all believers.
5.They were committed to each other and they were unified, as believers in Christ, not divided up into 181 different denominations. They did not have the time to argue the nuances of pre-destination because they were to busy reaching the world for Christ.
The Word of God
But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the of God. Matthew 4:4
“But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” Matthew 13:23
He replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice. “ Luke 11:28
And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve table. But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and the ministry of the word.” Acts 6: 2 and 4
“Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word”
Acts 8:4
Prayer
“And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to cast out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple. And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a robbers DEN.” Mark 11:17
NOTE: I would hate to be the church leader at a church that does not have a regular prayer meeting and have to face Jesus with the reason.
“Pray without ceasing” 1 Th 5:17
To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power. 2 Th 1:11
Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you. 2 Th 3:1
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thank, be made for all men. 1 Timothy 2:1
A great way to obey I Timothy 2:1 is for the younger people to pray through their yearbooks. Older people can pray through the white pages of your area phone book, pray through the church directory, pray through your work phone list. Pray for revival for all your area churches listed in the yellow pages. During the day pray for everyone you see and by name if they have a name tag. They all need prayer. A sample prayer would be” Father God I bring all these people by name up to the throne room by the blood of Jesus. Pour out your holy spirit upon them and convict them of their sin, Your righteousness and the coming judgement. You died for these Lord Jesus, please speak to them to repent of their sins and believe in their heart that your are Lord and came in the flesh to take the penalty of sin. Show me the words to say to them or the actions to take that will help lead to their salvation” Those you know that are Christian, you could pray that God would revive them according to His word, His righteousness, and His lovingkindness.
Reaching Everyone with the Gospel
“And as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 10:7
“And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.” Acts 10:42
“But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.” 1 Corinthians 1:23
“How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And who shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” Romans 10:14
A great way to get the Gospel out is to write your testimony and pass out your testimony. A good web site for making out your testimony is through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ at: WWW.5clicks.com
Priesthood of All Believers
From early in scriptures, God meant for all his people to be priests, serving before Him. “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” Exodus 19:6
“You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. “ 1 Peter 2:5
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a HOLY NATION, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim, the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9
They were committed to each other
“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.” Acts 4:31, 32, 33 and it is not by accident these verses were placed together.
“Contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.“ Romans 12:13