I Will, Multiply

I want to open our bibles up to Luke chapter 4 to begin with, we will be skipping around the Bible to a couple different verses. This is the fifth message in a series where we’ve been looking at what an outward christian looks like. And we began looking at having the right attitudes, and how the wrong attitude is detrimental to our faith walk. We looked at worship and how worship is vertical that spills out into the horizontal.

Then we looked at being together. How the early church was devoted to one another, and then last week we saw how service isn’t to be self centered but Jesus centered while we serve others. Today, I want to explore another outward Christian attitude and it’s this, I will go and make disciples. I believe this is the one thing in the life of the local church as a whole, so what I am saying, is all churches, I believe many church in our culture and our generation has lost this truth that we are called to go and make disciples.

Being a disciple means a person is driven to see the gospel go to all people, and as a result, they are themselves committed to making disciples. In todays church, I just believe that we’ve lost that desire. Every follower of Christ should be (zealous!) to see the gospel taken to the ends of the earth. And it begins right here. In our own town. Every day, in the US alone.

10,000 babies are born. SO that puts us roughly around 4 million babies are born per year. Can I ask you something… If I were to ask you to write down the answer to the question “How do you make disciples?” what would you write? What does that look like in your own life? Or maybe you would say, “I don’t know if I’ve ever really made a disciple.” Let me encourage you to remember that Jesus has commanded this for all of us as His followers.

We are to go and make disciples. We don’t want to get to the end of our lives and, looking back, and realize we haven’t done this one thing He left for us to do. Can you imagine… standing before the awesome, powerful, but loving God and replaying and looking back at all of your christian life was, and all you see is just you showing up and coming to church on Sundays mornings, grumbling about services being too long or too short and the music wasn’t to your liking, and maybe, just maybe you served here or there as you lived your life outside of the church to the fullest it can be lived.

But yet, before the throne of Jesus Christ you learn that your faith only stopped at coming to know Christ. Because If the point of our lives was simply to know Him, He could have taken us home in the moment of our conversion. And I know I said the same thing, I’m not sure if I am called to do that. Perhaps you’ve said, I’m not called to be a teacher, or pastor, or an evangelist.

But the truth is, He has left us here in a world of sin and evil and injustice for a reason. He’s given us a mission which is to make disciples. So the question is: how do we do that? I want truly consider that question this morning, and my goal, my heart is for each of us to grasp this idea that Jesus calls us to be disicpleed and to disciples others.

So, let’s begin with Luke 4… I want to start where we all start. Even though we’re not fishermen… well at lease some of us aren’t, and there are some who think they are… but let’s start here in Luke with some fisherman that Jesus begins interacting with. Read Luke 4-11 The first time we see in Luke that Jesus interacts with Simon in his gospel is when Simon Peter just got back from a horrible fishing excursion and he caught nothing.

But Jesus tests his faith and calls him to go out a little further. For me, this is equivalent to moments in our life where we try new things. Right. How many times you’ve told yourself you couldn’t do something, but then when you stretched your faith, or you stretched your perspective on how you think something should be. And then, you were able to accomplish something you thought was impossible, or even wrong?

I’ve been married for 18 years, I’ve had plenty of times my perspective was changed because Alicia told me I was wrong, and she was right. Like whoa, write that down that I said that. But here’s what Jesus said to Peter and his bother Andrew, follow me. Drop your nets and follow me, and I will make you fisher of men. So what we realize, is that even here, in the very beginning of what we could say is the beginning of our faith, the calling of people to follow and becomes fishers of men is a core part of christianity.

“Follow Me, I will make you a fisher of men.” Jesus in the very first written interaction with Simon and Andrew hear the call to follow, but also Jesus is very clear on the expectations of Peter… He says, I will make you fishers of men. He’s saying, I will make you disciples, and then you’ll become disciples makers. My question is, to be a disciple would we be willing to drop everything to follow Christ?

I mean, come on, is there not a difference between a person who’s dead in their trespasses and sins and a person who now has the spirit of HIm who raised Christ from the dead dwelling in them. Vs someone who’s following behind Jesus and watching and learning and desiring, but yet are they truly a follower of Christ? Should there not be a marked difference in our lives when we follow Jesus.

I mean, we’ve seen it where you go, Wow, that’s not normal. That person has been turned around. That person is filled with the Spirit. But then there’s also such a big number of people that come to these Sunday gatherings where you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference by their lifestyle, actions, even words and so now you’re trying to get everyone in this gathering to do something together, in unity and I’m concerned that a lot of them have not really made a commitment to follow Jesus.

They believe in the lifestyle of Jesus than living the style of life in Jesus. Right! I mean we have the t-shirts, we have our bibles, we have our lingo but where is the life change in all of that? Where’s the heart change by the gospel? Where’s the desire to live everyday life to know Jesus, and to have others know Jesus just as we have come to know Him!

Where’s the devotion to one another like we read in the book of acts? Where’s the love in the churhc like we read of in Acts? When does that begin for the modern day church? So how do we do that? It begins by being an authentic follower of Jesus Christ. And an authentic follower of Jesus is one who sees Jesus in His full glory, and as full authority. An authentic follower sees Jesus for who he really is.

Remember when the disciples were asked, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” But then Jesus goes, I don't want to know who they think I am, who do you, he makes it person… he says "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” To be authentic followers we’ve got to know who Jesus truly is and what that means to us, and how we live out following Him in everyday life is depend upon seeing Christ as the king of our hearts.

Holiness is just that. It baffles me that there could be people singing, “you’re the king of my heart” with no realization that Jesus is not the king of anything in their life, but just an acquaintance of the heart. I just know about him. If we do not see Jesus for who he really is, We will never proclaim Jesus confidently in the world that is constantly living in darkness and rejecting him.

I say that because of this.. To call people, to make disciples who are not disciples themselves, that’s pretty much a dead end. Listen to that again: To call people, to make disciples who are not disciples themselves, that’s pretty much a dead end. IN the book growing up by Robby Gallaty, he writes “When the church becomes an end in itself, it ends. When Sunday school, as great as it is, becomes an end in itself, it ends.

When small groups ministry becomes an end in itself, it ends. When the worship service becomes an end in itself, it ends. What we need is for discipleship to become the goal, and then the process never ends. The process is fluid. It is moving. It is active. It is a living thing. It must continue to go on. Every disciple must make disciples.” SO, let’s go back to our question…

how do we do that? Well, first we aim to follow, but in the following Jesus must command every step of our life. Flip over with me to Matthew 28… and find with me verse 18. 8 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. IN this moment, what Jesus is saying is this.. I’m king. I’m Lord. There is no more questions.

He has lived a perfect life, He has died the death you and I deserved to die on the cross and He has risen from the dead in victory over sin. He is about to ascend into heaven and be seated at the right hand of God in this moment…. And He’s saying, I have authority over everything. Sometimes people will say, “I’ve come to the point where I’ve decided to make Jesus Lord of my life.” Whenever you hear that, realize that person really never had a choice in the matter.

Jesus isn’t Lord because we choose to make Him that. He is Lord already. What we choose is whether we’ll bow our knee to His Lordship now—or will we bow the knee to His Lordship when it’s too late. He is Lord. That is a fact. Think about what that means in our lives. As our Lord, our lives are His too direct. He determines where we go, how we live, what we do, and he determines who comes and goes.

If you remember last week, we become servants and slaves. This is what it means to be a disciple: we die to ourselves, surrendering our right to determine the direction of our lives. He determines where we live, how we live, what we do. He has commanded us to make disciples and He can lead us to do that in all kinds of different ways. He might be calling you to be a Sunday school teacher.

He might be calling you to sell all you have and become a missionary overseas… or he might be calling you away from your sick and dying mother to pastor a church. Our lives are His to determine how we live. So What’s the first answer to how do we make disciples?, We follow Christ as a disciple of Christ under His lordship and authority to will and do what he calls for us in our life.

And there are three implications that he teaches us to do as a disciple totally sold out to Christ… And the first one is this: He Teaches Us,and commands us to Share the Word. Jesus in this moment of Matthew 28 is telling his disciples that they re to go share the word with people they do not know and to people who have never heard it. And that’s pretty much everyone.

I believe we have disconnected evangelism from our every day christian lives. We’ve made church more about comfort than conviction. Can I ask something, what’s the purpose of Sunday school. It’s to teach right? What’s the purpose of small groups? It’s to teach right? What’s the purpose of coming to church, hearing some songs, hearing some words and walking out of here, maybe feeling good about ourselves, but not desiring to share the gospel with others?

That’s comfort! Church aim to do this kind of comfort church every week, but yet I’m sure if you go into any church that follows this pattern of church service, Sunday school and small groups, you’ll find that they have disconnected evangelism from their purpose. Why? Because it’s uncomfortable. We need holy Spirt boldness in our life. Remember in acts 4:13.. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.

What happened later in chapter 4? Peter and John returned to the church and the church prayed for them to have boldness to share the gospel with others. And then it says in verse 31, after they prayed, the place was shaken and the Spirit filled them and they went and spoke the word boldly. Listen, church… evangelizing is not a solo Sport.. we’re called to encourage one another. Paul and John evangelized by sharing the word boldly, and they accomplished that not in their own power, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in the prayers of within the local church.

Secondly, Show us the Word. Go and make disciples, and do what.. baptize them. After we share the word, we show the word in baptism. In Christian baptism we’re identifying with Jesus and with the gospel. Romans 6 tells us we are put in water as a picture of death to sin and self, then we are raised out of the water as a picture of being raised to life with Christ.

We see in Ephesians 2 that baptism is a picture of being publicly identified with Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection, showing that we are now followers of Him. But baptism goes deeper than that. Not only are we identified with the life of Christ, but we’re also identified with the body of Christ. When you were baptized it was you becoming a part of the local body of Christ. When we’re baptized, we’re saying, “I belong to Christ as a member of His body, the church.” This is so significant in the process of disciple-making.

We share the Word so they might believe the gospel, then we see them baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We teach them to understand that their life is now identified not just with Christ but also with the community of faith—people who will help them grow in the life they now have in Christ. Now, think of this…. Imagine for a moment you left here today and you led someone to Christ.

How would they begin to grow? How is the new believer going to begin to grow in Christ? How will they learn to study the Bible, for example? You could give them some books on Bible study, or recommend they go to a particular Bible study—and that would be helpful, yes. But How is that believer going to learn to pray? Maybe you’re thinking, “Wait a minute. In order to show somebody else how to study the Bible, I’ve actually got to know how to study the Bible myself.

I’ve got to start praying myself, to lead someone else to pray. I’m convinced that every follower of Jesus will plateau in their relationship with Christ—we’ll hit a ceiling—as long as we’re just living for ourselves. This is where being comfortable sets in…. When we’re ok living for ourselves. When we live for ourselves we become comfortable. But if we’re living to see other disciples grow in the image of Christ, grow in the Word, grow in prayer, grow in evangelism, grow in disciple-making themselves, then we have to show them what all of these things are.

I just wonder…What is our plan for multiplication?!! Do we have one? Is it just, Lord, I hope you send people here to church, or is it, Lord, put people in my life, or the ones already in my life and lead me to lead them to you. One calls for comfort and the other calls us to pursue people with conviction. I guess if a church has no plan for multiplication, then they can just expect nothing but opportunities for division?

Showing the word is living out of our baptism in the body, through love that is in Jesus Christ. Lastly, Look with me in Matthew 28 and verse 20, “Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” We share the Word, We show the Word, then We teach the Word—teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded. Teaching is more than just standing in front of people and relaying information.

Yes, that’s one avenue of teaching. But for instance, I remember teaching my son to change a tire, I didn’t just have him watch from the side on how I did it. I put the tools in his hands, I explained what needed to be done, he went and began to struggle with the lug nuts, but I came along side of him and helped him. We jacked up the car, removed and plugged the tire, put it back on, and we drove away.

Teaching is taking your knowledge and experience and walking along side of someone in hopes that one day they will be able to replicate and reproduce what you’ve taught them. So, Let me ask you… are you a receiver of the Word or are you a reproducer of the Word? How do we listen in such a way that we’re not just receiving, but that we can also reproduce it? How can we say, “Everything I’m learning about the Word isn’t just intended for me, but it’s to be passed on through me to other people whom I can help grow in Christ”?

This is disciple-making, when every disciple of Christ shares the Word, shows the Word and then teaches the Word. We’re going, we’re baptizing and we’re teaching people to obey everything Christ commands. Church, The recipe for multiplication is simple. All it takes is the word of God, the Spirt of God and the people of God willing to put all three to practice. And we’ve got all three here at this church, and around this table.

The final question I have for us is this…: “Will the Word stop with you or will it spread through you?” *