Just before Jesus left the earth for Heaven, He gave us what we call the Great Commission:
Matthew 28: 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (NKJV)
We are told that we should be making disciples.
Well, in many cases today, we went forth and built churches, set up para-church ministries, held revival meetings etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against any of these PROVIDED we continue with the original thought - to make disciples.
Did you know that if we started out with just 2 Christians, and these 2 Christians would spend a year discipling 2 people each year, and if each of these 2 discipled persons were to go one to do the same, make 2 new disciples a year for the rest of their lives, we'd have the whole world saved to the knowledge of Jesus' grace in just 20 years? Check out the math below:
Year 1 2 Christians Make 4 disciples Total 6 Christians
Year 2 6 Christians Make 12 disciples Total 18 Christians
Year 3 18 Christians Make 36 disciples Total 54 Christians
Year 4 54 Christians Make 108 disciples Total 162 Christians
Year 5 162 Christians Make 324 disciples Total 486 Christians
Year 6 486 Christians Make 972 disciples Total 1,458 Christians
Year 7 1,458 Christians Make 2,916 disciples Total 4,374 Christians
Year 8 4,374 Christians Make 8,748 disciples Total 13,122 Christians
Year 9 13,122 Christians Make 26,244 disciples Total 39,366 Christians
Year 10 39,366 Christians Make 78,732 disciples Total 118,098 Christians
Year 11 118,098 Christians Make 236,196 disciples Total 354,294 Christians
Year 12 354,294 Christians Make 708,588 disciples Total 1,062,882 Christians
Year 13 1,062,882 Christians Make 2,125,764 disciples Total 3,188,646 Christians
Year 14 3,188,646 Christians Make 6,377,292 disciples Total 9,565,938 Christians
Year 15 9,565,938 Christians Make 19,131,876 disciples Total 28,697,814 Christians
Year 16 28,697,814 Christians Make 57,392,628 disciples Total 86,093,442 Christians
Year 17 86,093,442 Christians Make 172,186,884 disciples Total 258,280,326 Christians
Year 18 258,280,326 Christians Make 516,560,652 disciples Total 774,840,978 Christians
Year 19 774,840,978 Christians Make 1,549,681,956 disciples Total 2,324,552,934 Christians
Year 20 2,324,522,934 Christians Make 4,649,045,868 disciples Total 6,973,568,802 Christians
6,973,568,802 is nearly the whole world saved! Of course, give or take 1 year to mop up the whole task before the Lord returns…
Even if it was just 1 disciple in 2 years, we'd only need 6.5 million committed believers to finish the task in less than 20 years. I think the world does have more than 6.5 million Christians, wouldn't you say?
So why isn't this happening? Why aren't we Christians going out and taking someone under our wings and making a disciple out of them? I could offer a few reasons:
1. We don't know the Lord and His love for us enough.
Ephesians 3:19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (NKJV)
I believe we all will never truly know the full extent of the abundant grace of God. His goodness is so awesome, so incredible that it would take all of eternity to take it in. This scripture says that as we get to know His love more, the love of Christ on the cross, we become full of Him. Which can only mean becoming full of His Love, His Peace and His Joy. If we are missing one or more of these, chances are we need to have a deeper revelation of His love for us. As we perceive and realize more and more of His love, the excitement to do His will, carry out the great commission, becomes overwhelming.
It's like finding the cure for cancer that it is really cheap and painless, except in this case, it is worse than cancer and a majority of people on earth have it - the cancer of eternal separation from the Lord.
2. We don't make it a priority to disciple
Why disciple when there is a church to bring friends to? Well, if we only keep introducing friends to church without discipling them, we might get a growth rate of, say 30% per annum in a church. Many would already call this admirable growth, but did you know that with 30% growth yearly, a church of 100 would grow to be 14,619 people only in 20 years? And how many churches actually grow at a consistent rate of 30% per annum, while maintaining an ability to teach all their people well?
3. The Word in us is choked
In the Parable of the Sower and the Soils (Matt 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-15), Jesus taught that the third type of soil, the one among the thorns (weeds) was unfruitful because of the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. What the thorns did, our Lord said, was to choke the Word. In other words, the effectiveness of the Word within us is taken away - we end up with an empty Gospel, having a form of godliness without the power (2 Tim 3:3).
We have to be very singleminded about the Word of God. We have to taste it for ourselves, realize that God is good, and choose to come to know His love more and more to be full of Him. The only choice we have to make in this is to hunger for the things of God, the things of the eternal. As Paul says:
Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (NKJV)
Let's set our mind on the things that matter. 80 years is 29,220 days while eternity is forever. If 2 persons starting a chain of discipling can save the world, I want to be one of them. Like to join me?
Be blessed!
Chris
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