Multiplication

Well good morning church and special greetings to all the campus who will join us online and all those who also watch us through television and internet. We're glad you have joined us today for this very special time, talking about missions and world missions. I just returned from Seoul, South Korea where I was among 5,000 delegates coming from more than 200 countries for what we call the Fourth Global Summit on World Evangelism, that was organized by the Lausanne Movement. Now it's the fourth one, 'cause the first one happened in 1974, it was in Switzerland and it was created under the leadership of Billy Graham. Because Billy Graham believed that world missions was an important topic. Why? Because we still have a third of humanity who doesn't even know that there's a Jesus who saves because there's nobody around them who can tell them so. One third, that's a lot. And that's too much. And so every often we meet as a Global Congress and we just appreciate the gaps and where we're standing in the question of world missions. Granted that yeah, many evangelicals believe that evangelism is important, it is part of what it means to be an evangelical. You have to know your neighbor with the gospel somewhere. But the reality is that only few people believe that world missions is urgent. And that's why here at Chapel we believe it's not only important but it is urgent. And the sense of urgency is mobilizing us towards kingdom impact in such a day as this. And I'm thankful to be here in a church that believes not only the importance of world missions, but also the urgency of world missions. Now the reason why the Lausanne, Fourth Lausanne Congress on world missions happened in South Korea is because of the extraordinary nature of the growth of the church in this country of about 52 million people. Now the gospel came in that country 140 years ago through an American missionary who was a doctor. His name is Horace Allen. And he came there to display and proclaim the gospel of Christ through his medical work. The work started in 1880s and the first South Korean church was planted in 1884 by own South Korean. And listen to this, within the next 10 years, they started to send their first missionaries to China. Today after 140 years, South Korea is home of some of the largest churches in the world. Imagine a chapel church at every corner. 20% of the country is evangelical. Not only that, but South Korea is now the second largest sending base of missionaries across the globe with 30,000 missionaries serving in 170 countries. That is just staggering. It's mind blowing. Or in French we would say, ****. Although this story is exceptional, it is not unusual. At least it is not unusual to see such a growth in scriptures. Actually 2000 years ago in the Book of Acts, we have seen such a growth. So that that at the end of the first century, the writers would say that the Christians have turned the Roman Empire upside down. And so what I would like to do this morning is go through the Book of Acts and then look at the mechanism that explains how the church can grow so fast. And let me tell you, it can be summed up into just one word and that word is multiplication. Everybody said a word multiplication. And as we read through the book of Acts, ask yourself, "Am I part of this story of multiplication? "Am I involved in God's story to bring the whole church, "the whole gospel to the whole world? "Am I ready to multiply?" A quick word study in the Book of Acts finds that the word we use for multiplication in Greek is plethuno. It's always important to throw a Greek word here and there, this way your IQ just jumped a hundred points. What did you do this morning? I just learned Greek. What about you? And this word plethuno is used in different instances throughout the Book of Acts and I just want you to show something that I've found in the text and now hopefully it's going to make sense for you too. Acts 6:7, we read, "The word of God continued to increase "and the number of the disciples, plethuno, "multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, "and a great many of the priests "became obedient to the faith." I'm gonna jump to 9:31. "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee "and Samaria had peace and was being built up "and walking in the fear of the Lord "in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. "It plethuno, multiplied." And in Acts 12:24, "But a word of God increased and multiplied." Same thing in Acts 6:1, "Now in these days when the disciples were increasing," multiplying, plethuno, "A complaint by the Hellenists arose "against the Hebrews." So this just very quick reading shows you that there's at least three things that multiply in the Book of Acts. You see that? I think people in the front row, you see that better than those in the back, right? But it it just screams at you, right? I mean the word of God multiplies. What are we talking about, is it the photocopier? You know, that's how they. So we'll look at this strange idea that the word of God multiplies. But the disciples multiplied. Okay, that we can have a better idea of what does it mean? And then well churches also multiply. So three things multiply. Everybody can see that? Yeah. All right, let's look in the dictionary of New Testament theology because here we've got some more understanding and commentaries on this whole predicament of multiplication. In Acts 6:1 says the author, "The reference is to the increase "in the number of disciples." In 7:17, "The multiplying of the people in Egypt "is at issue." And it's interesting that Luke, who is recording the Book of Acts is very precise person. He's an historian, he's involved in medical work, he loves precision. It is interesting that he's using plethuno and he's referring also to the increase of the people during the time in Egypt. Now, and we don't have to go into this, but you know the story of the family, through Joseph that came in Egypt, there was about 140 of them, when they went out of the Egypt, there were a couple of million. So we're talking about massive multiplication. And the same word plethuno is used for the kind of multiplication of the word of God, the disciples in the church, the same word. I don't think it is a mistake, I think that Luke wants to drive that is something as staggering as what happened in South Korea in the books of Acts. "The growth of the church is the point in Acts 6:7. "9:31, and in view of 6:7, the increase of the word in 12:24 "is probably the increase in the number of believers." So when you are encountering the idea of the word of God multiplied, it means that evangelism or gospel multiplies, okay. For gospel gospelization, evangelism is actually telling the story in the word. So that's why there are very closely related. As you open scriptures with people in expanding the word of God, you are gospelizing. And this is what we're called to in the scriptures. So what does it mean for us today in our part of the world? Well, we see that there is gospel multiplication. And of course we understand that this gospel multiplication leads to disciple multiplication. And then if you have disciple multiplication where you have to park those people somewhere, it's called the church. So you see how the three are related? And to the measure, you multiply the gospel, you multiply disciple and you multiply the church. So a very straightforward implication for us. Now, if we want to multiply churches and disciples, we need to get back to the basics, gospel sowing, gospel sowing. And this is a reminder that Jesus calls us to be fisher of men, not keepers of the aquarium. So then the question becomes, in whose life are you sowing the gospel? In whose life are you sowing the gospel? Now a friend of mine took a church in one of the most ill reputated parts of London, and when he came there, there were only 20 people, which I'm not sure it was a promotion, probably it was more a punishment for him to get there. And that church, which was a Anglican cathedral, could host more than 500 people. And he prayed that within seven years he would be able to revitalize this church so that they would go from 20 to 500 and park the place, so that the last Easter service of his pastoral mandate, they would be broadcasted live on BBC. Bold vision. And so he did the math, 20 people today, 500 people in seven years. 20, 500. And he gathered that in order to get there, he had to sow the gospel in the life of 50,000 people. So he recruited men, women, children, teenagers, to come and sow the seeds of the gospel across the neighborhood. And lo and behold, what happened? Seven years later, the place was packed, the cameras were set and they were live on BBC. Look, I'm not saying that this is merely mathematics or mechanical because we know that gospel sowing is hard. I live in a place which is just northeast of here, where the evangelical church makes up just 1% of the population. And it's the closest unreached people group that you can visit. And it only only takes you six hour by car. I'm talking about Quebec, with 8 million Canadian French speakers. People don't know that actually French speaking Canada waits for 25% of all the Canadian population, a quarter of the population. And sometimes I wish I could uproot the province of Quebec and then ship it to London so that it would go quicker, right. But the reality is that it's complicated. We've been going at it for a number of years. I have the privilege to lead the Baptist Union of French Speaking Canada. We were here as early as the 1830s. And when we started gospel sowing, we were welcomed with stones and they burned our houses and our church. Gospel sowing is hard. And yes, it can be tempted to find comfort within the aquarium. But God sends us into the world, "For he so loved the world that he gave his only son Jesus. "So that whoever may believe in him shall not perish, "but have eternal life." And we are called to be fisher of man, even though it is complicated. In whose life are you right now, sowing the seed of the gospel. Let's continue our journey of multiplication through the Book of Acts. And and one thing for sure that is not super obvious is how those churches were planted across the Roman Empire. And for that we need to go to Paul's teams across his missionary journeys. 'Cause that sheds an interesting light. See the first missionary journey, there were only three in his team, himself and then Barnabas and then John Mark. Interesting that he's already taking an apprentice. Second missionary journey, 11 of them. And the third missionary journey, if you compile all the coworkers, you reached the number of 37. This is multiplication. It's actually three time, threefold multiplication every time he travels. So this leads me to think that Paul was not only concerned about multiplication of the gospel, he was also concerned by multiplying disciples and then multiplying leaders, so that he could then co-labor with them to plant more churches. And so we do know in the Book of Acts that there are churches to whom Paul is writing that he hasn't planted himself. But those were planted through the fruit of his multiplication. So we can safely insert leadership in our diagram. And that makes sense, total sense. You multiply gospel, you multiply disciples, out of those disciples, you multiply the leaders and that's how you multiply churches. Which has a direct implication for us today. And it's this, our leadership pipeline is as healthy as the disciples we make. As a denominational leader, I'm often invited to speak into churches and I hear leadership lamenting about the fact that there's no one coming in the pipeline of leadership. And does the denomination have any undercover, ready to go, pastor who can jump on? And to that I answer with another question, where's your men? Who have you discipled? Are you discipling people? And when I see leaders struggling with their churches because leaders are dysfunctional, then that raises the question, what kind of disciples are we making? 'Cause if we're not training healthy disciples, how can we have then healthy leaders? There is no shortcut for disciple making. It takes time, it is messy, but it is worthy. It is worthy. Yet we seldom consider this a priority. Men, where is your men? Women, where is your women? Parents, where are your children? There is a reason why the fourth Congress on World Evangelization was in South Korea. The theme, the rallying cry of the Congress was, "Let the church declare and display Christ together." And that message was foremost a message to the South Korean church, which all the booming is plagued with internal divisions and competitive spirits and leadership failure. How moving it was to see the Korean church leaders coming together in a spirit of repentance to acknowledge the fact that their leadership pipeline was completely broken. And that the key to returning to healthy leadership was healthy disciple making. Man, where is your man? Women, where is your women? Those were the questions that Dawson Trotman, the founder of The Navigators, the discipleship ministry would ask. And even Billy Graham wanted Dawson Trotman to help him strengthen the follow up of his crusades. 'Cause he knew that unless the believers are discipled into Christ-like leadership, we will not achieve multiplication. So then the question is straightforward, men, where is your men? Woman, where is your women? Parents, where are your children? Who are you discipling now? Well you might sit there and say, "Look, you're new, "the first time in chapel and you don't know me. "And I'm not Billy Graham. "And I'm not Dawson Trotman, I don't even know who he is. "And I'm not Paul, and I'm not Timothy, "and I'm not Jerry. "I'm exceptional, but I'm not that exceptional." Okay. Well this is what happening through your mind. Let me read this passage from Acts 13:2, "While they were worshiping the Lord." Are you worshiping this morning? Are you worshiping as we're expending scriptures? Yes, yes. "Aye, they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, "the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul "for the work to which I have called them." So then whose work were they doing? Were they doing Paul's work? Were they doing Timothy's work? No, see, they were doing the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit was doing his work through the life of Paul and Timothy and the rest of the gang. You see that? And we do know that sometimes even Paul, the greatest apostle, struggled to understand what was actually the work of the Holy Spirit. Like in three verses, we read that twice, the Holy Spirit said, "No, no, no, no, uh-uh, no." Like, can you imagine the vibe in Paul's team, you know, like the core laborer looking at this and said, "He doesn't know what he's doing. "We should have jumped on the other team with Barnabas. "Paul, he's incompetent. "Lord, deliver us from this inadequacy." Martin Sanders was a great mentor of mine, grew up in the state of New York, not long distance from here. And his mentor was a Canadian fellow called Leighton Ford, who happened to marry Jeannie, Billy Graham's little sister. And Leighton traveled the world for 30 years as vice president of the Billy Graham Association, proclaiming the gospel to the world. Now, every time Martin Sanders entered a room, he would greet us with a, "Hoi, hoi." Everybody say hoi. Hoi. Now coming from France, I thought was a cool hiphop, you know, like greetings that you guys do in New York, you know, I was like, hoi. But at some point I was puzzled because people were puzzled when he was saying hoi. And I could say, probably they don't get it either. So I went to him and said, explain the hoi thing. And he said, "Yeah, sure, hoi, H-O-I, "for the holy order of the inadequates." I'm like, are you talking to me? And he said, "Hoi, welcome "to the holy order of the inadequates." And I loved it. Every time he would walk into a place, he would welcome the church and say, "Hoi, hoi, hoi." I guess Martin got this from Leighton, who probably got this from Billy Graham, who probably got this from Paul. Hoi. What am I saying? Look, if you sit there or in front of your screen and you say, "Look, I don't qualify." Then the good news is that you do. The holy order of the inadequates has full membership for people who are completely incompetent. And I guess the more incompetent, the more you qualify. Hoi. See, it's not you who is doing the work. It is the Holy Spirit who wants to use you in your inadequacy to further the work of multiplication, through you, for the benefit of the world. So the question is not about competence, it's about obedience. Will you trust the Holy Spirit enough to use you as you take your seat in the holy order of the inadequates gathering. Which have profound implications for us, right. The implications are if we believe really that the Holy Spirit is there for us to equip us into places like this, are we listening to what he's saying now? Are we listening to what he's saying now? Now my wife will tell you, she's not an evangelist, she doesn't feel adequate for ministry, yet she led three out of four kids to Jesus. And the fourth one, he said, "There's still place "for the holy order of inadequates if you wanna join." I got a call, I was somewhere traveling in Europe and said, "He's ready. "And if you're not taking care of him "as you come back, I will." And this mother who feels so inadequate, not only led them to Christ, but she discipled them and she baptized them in a lake. So you think I'm just saying that obedience will bring you to a place you never have imagined, that of multiplication. And I pray that the Lord would entrust in your heart that he's waiting for you just to do so. Hoi, hoi. Hoi my brother, hoi my sister. The Holy Spirit delights is using inadequate folks to do miracle work. Whether it is you, whether it is me, whether it's my wife, Martin, Leighton Billy, Dawson or Dr. Horace Allen, who was the first missionary to South Korea 140 years ago. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you now? So we have journeyed through the Book of Acts, and we've seen how the Holy Spirit is doing an incredible work of multiplication through those who are obedient to his calling, multiplying the gospel, the disciples, the leaders and churches. Happening in the marketplace, happening in the homes, happening everywhere, so that by the end of the first century, they had turned the Roman Empire upside down. The same story that happened in South Korea. And I want to thank you as a church because you all, you believe that. You're not just those who believe in God, you believe God. And you believe that yeah, he's able to do this. And I'm the product of that. And as a missionary partnering with The Chapel in Quebec, I can only say thank you for displaying and proclaiming with such magnificence, the gospel. And I wanna pray for you this time as we're closing with this fourfold statement of the movement of Lausanne. And I will apply that through prayer to your congregation. Let us stand, if you will. The Lausanne movement sums it up like this, "We long to see the gospel for every person. "And Lord, as I pray now for my friends at The Chapel, "I pray that in this building, "every person will have a repeated opportunity "to hear and to listen to the gospel." And as my friends and fellow sisters and brothers walk out of this place to their place, that they will speak and gossip the gospel so that every man and women and children will have repeated opportunity to hear the great story. The Lausanne movement also long for a church to be planted for every people. And we know that in this great city of Buffalo and in the surroundings, you are bringing also people, nations to our doors. And you also is asking us to plant churches towards those people group. And as The Chapel is busy planting churches across the globe that they may also take heart to see a church being planted in all people group that are now here living in their midst. The Lausanne Movement, long to see Christlike leadership for every church and sector. And I do thank you Lord for the extraordinary quality of the leadership in this place. And I pray for those who tomorrow will be in the marketplace, on their campus, in their places of study, that their Christ-likeness would be a magnet, so that people would come to them and wonder why, why, what was that? And that through the display of your work that might proclaim the reason for the hope that they have within them. And at last, the Lausanne Movement long to see kingdom impact in every sphere of society. And I pray for all the industries that are represented here at Chapel and throughout the network of churches in the great state of New York. And then I pray that in each sector, education, government, sports, arts, medical work, that you will place men and women to be prophetically engaged in their industry so as to disciple their industry and make your name known. Father, you have created the church, this holy order of the inadequates, and we are blessing your name because you will joyfully do that through our incompetence. May we receive your call towards obedience and respond with a great amen. Amen.