Multiplying Movements

our kids to a little district and as they're heading out uh usually when uh we preach we always preach expository which is kind of exposing what the scripture is revealing to us exposing what God has for us in in a particular passage of scripture uh today we're going to be kind of all over the place uh so it's not going to be just sitting in one passage um in a lot of ways this is probably going to feel a little bit more like a tad talk and so if you're like man we don't do that here it's okay but it's all right I what I'm

looking to do is not necessarily just expose the meaning in a particular passage but expose a movement that is going throughout the scriptures um so that as we look at what we are called to do in today's culture and in today's age you're able to see that this isn't something that we're trying to reinvent a new wheel we're not trying to start something that hasn't already happened but rather we're just entering into of movement that has been going on for 2,000 years because I want us to have confidence in what God has called us to do and one of the best ways to build confidence

in what God has called us to do is see how God has already done it see how God has already worked through people see how God has already made something that looked or seemed impossible become possible through people who were uneducated people who were not your typical people that you would put on your kickball team people people who were not uh the best of the best in their culture when it comes to establishing a movement as I always like to say these aren't the people who you would hire on your staff in order to um move your company forward these are people that only through

a work of God in their lives were they able to accomplish something that only God could accomplish and so I want to walk through that and um the the way that I titled this is is multiplying movements because the only way that we were able to be here today is through a mo a movement that eventually began to multiply um if it was just addition we would still be in uh the Middle East if it was just addition but because it became multiplied over the span of centuries the word eventually got to us here and so again that's what we're going to be talking about

today uh to do so we need to Define what a movement is and again this is where it's going to feel like a TED talk but um we need to Define what a movement is and the dictionary defines a movement as a group of people working together to advance their shared values which I do like that definition but does it Define the movement of Christianity found in the Bible well let's compare some characteristics about modernday movements um let's compare them in order for a movement to be considered a movement it must have the majority of these shared characteristics and so the first one that identifies

a movement is that there is a shared purpose there's a shared purpose in other way it's put this way movements are driven by a common cause or objective that unites its participants this could be so social political it could be environmental um this could be cultural in nature does the church have a shared purpose well according to acts 1 18 our shared purpose as a church as a movement is receiving power from the Holy Spirit and being Witnesses of Jesus Christ that's why in Acts 18 it says this you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my

Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria until the end of the Earth and so before they even got to spreading the gospel in Jerusalem or Judea and Samaria or the ends of the Earth God is telling them Jesus is telling them that you are going to receive power and you are going to be my Witnesses so the means by which the movement actually gets going first begins with what they experience what they witness and so a Shar purpose is to be or our shared purpose as a church is singularly to be a witness of something to be a witness of something a witness

is someone who sees an event a couple of years ago I was the primary witness to a gang related shooting in downtown because I was stuck in the middle of it as they were shooting at each other and so when the police showed up and they were like hey we need to we need to know what happened here they're all pointing at me because I was the guy in the middle of it I saw everything that went on not only that there was evidence and proof of the shooting I would be able as like do you see all these gun shells that are on the

floor this is how many shots were taken so there was proof and evidence well that's what you and I are not only do we witness something that happened and that's what when Jesus is really looking at them U looking at his disciples and telling them hey you were going to be Witnesses they saw the Risen Christ they saw him and not only did they see him but their lives were changed and transformed by what they saw now again we weren't there right we weren't there but just like in a court of law the witnesses come up and state their case in order to convince a

jury whether or not the event is true and that's the exact same way that God continues to to um span or flow the idea of w Witnesses is we believe their testimony and when we believe their testimony we then become witnesses as well because we declare it to be true we believe it to be true and therefore we begin telling other people hey here's what the verdict is here's what the case was here's who Jesus Christ truly is but not only that there is something that even though we weren't there to experience and witness Jesus actually resurrecting from the grave what we do get to

EXP experience is the proof and evidence that comes with it as well just like Jesus tells the disciples everyone will know you are my disciples by the love you have for one another they will know that you are a follower of Christ because there has been a transformation of you there is a change that has happened in you well even though we weren't there to witness the resurrection we do get to experience that shared purpose that shared Witness that shared hey we are now proof we used to be this way now we are this way because of the love of Jesus Christ and so therefore

we as a church as a movement have a shared purpose of being witnesses to what Jesus has accomplished the second thing that a movement needs is collective action movements involve coordinated efforts by a group of people working together to achieve whatever their shared purpose is and so this often includes protests campaigns advocacy and other forms of collective action for the church the collective action basically we have a shared goal we have a shared purpose the way we act on that shared goal and shared purpose is through two things primarily the ministry of the word and prayer all of the church is gathered around a shared

purpose and advancing it through the ministry of the word and prayer in other words preaching and prayer are the collective actions of the church every activity of the church every activity of the church is to bring people into the ministry of preaching and prayer because through the ministry of the word is the primary means in which God communicates to us so if any of you or if anyone you know ever comes to you and says I have a word from the Lord for you I would first say where is it in scripture where is this word from the Lord anchored because if someone says I

have a word from you that's kind of similar to how the prophets used to say hey thus says the Lord and then they tell the people what the Lord has said you want to be very cautious that you don't give advice to someone I have a word from the Lord if it's not a word from the Lord I mean people die for those kinds of things like the Lord doesn't have that and so this is something that we need to make sure that we are geared towards and gathered around in a collective action or um yes a collective Action Moving Forward is that if we

are going to be a movement of the church that is geared around what God has said then it's got to be based in the word of God because that's his primary means of communication to us and the goal of preaching is to expose what God has taught us what God has revealed to us what God has showed us in addition to that prayer is our primary means of communicating to God so a lot of times people say well I want to pray to God in order to hear from him and that's not necessarily the way that God has set it up prayer is not a

dialogue between you and God so when you're in a room and you're praying to the Lord and and I used to do this I used to pray and I would like wait Lord I I need you to speak to me right now audibly like I just I'm asking you a question why don't you respond and he says I have responded no my word get in my word so prayer what it of what it often times does is as we are receiving the word from God as we're knowing the Bible as we're reading the Bible and seeing how he's communicated to us it aligns us so

that when we speak back to God we're thanking him for how he is already moving we're thanking him for who he is and we're honoring him because his word is revealed to us what he's like what is characteristics are like in addition to that we're making requests to him based on how we've seen him move and act in the scriptures so that the requests we are making are not out of line with who God is and that's why again like Romans 8 I this is one of my favorite passages when it comes to prayer and how we are ought to pray is that the holy

spirit is shot blocking so many dumb prayers that we make because it literally says in Romans 8 um one of the roles of the holy spirit is to pray on your behalf or to reveal to you how to pray because you don't know what to say you don't know how to pray how you ought to pray but he intercedes for us and what it means by him inter seeding for us is when we're praying the holy spirit is saying that one's according to God's will let that go up that one's not according to God's will we'll keep that one down that one's good Let it

go up that one's not good Let it go down and the more we begin to see how God works through that it actually transforms our prayer lives to begin praying more in a way that is um in alignment with God and how God ultimately acts and so again the church in order for it to be a movement has to be Collective action based upon coordinated efforts in order for preaching and prayer to be centered in its Ministry every activity of the church is going to be geared around that that's why again when Jesus says in Matthew 28:18-20 um that he has received all authority which

basically just means listen to whatever he's going to say next whatever he says goes that's what all authority is mine in heaven on Earth and so all authority is his therefore go and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that he has commanded us and so that's important because in order to make disciples we need to teach them all that Jesus has commanded us and so a lot of the way that I say it is is people say we we evangelize them and we get them saved and then

we move on to the discipleship component we need to then teach them everything and no no no discipleship is preaching and teaching all that Jesus has commanded to us and so a lot of times we are basically the same thing that we do in preaching to saved people is the same thing that we do in preaching to those who are not saved you disciple them unto salvation by preaching and teaching all that Jesus has commanded us and that's why I think again Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 that um when you are prophesying in the gathered order worship there are going to be lost people

there but don't let that change what you say give them the word of God so that it will convict their hearts in order for them to change and transform stop doing what they've been doing and start doing what God has called them to do so preaching has to be a part of it and then again acts 6:4 the apostles who established the first church they were devoting themselves to both the ministry of the word and prayer that's what the church was devoted to that's the collective action number three there needs to be a change oriented view of the movement basically all that means is in

order for a movement to be a movement it needs to exact change in a culture movements seeing to bring or movements seek to bring about change now that could be changing policies societal Norms attitudes behaviors so many different movements have different change that they want to see happen but for the church does the church want to see change in order for it to be a movement well of course we want to see Sinners become Saints we want to see lost people found we want to see those who are far from God be brought near to God we want to see change and one of the

thing that I think secular culture has actually borrowed from the word of God is that se secular culture tries to um heal everything from a mind body and spirit perspective I mean are we not like why do colleges exist because they believe we need to inform our minds we need to increase our intellect in order to exact change in the world why are there gems on every single Corner because we need to improve our physicality we need to improve our Movement we need to improve our physical health why is right now the number one selling um genre of all books is self-help books em emotional

maturity it's because they're they're tapped into this idea that we're not just mind and body we're not just physical but we're also spiritual we're also emotional and so we're trying to like I mean the amount of times I've heard just well are they emotionally mature when it comes to like the dating culture right now it's like they have no idea what that even means from a secular perspective because where does Spirit come from God who is Spirit if you're not attached to God you have no idea what to do in that world of spirit and emotion so what does the bible then inform when it

comes to mind body and spirit well absolutely it is a change that we are calling for Romans 12:2 we will have a change of mind do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect and so when you become a Believer when you become a Christian it changes your world viiew it changes your perception of life it changes your perspective of others it changes the the decision and the actions that you make it changes all

of those things because you think what was it I I'm going butcher either Plato or Socrates where it's like um because I think therefore I am it's that idea of like how we think determines who we are and so when Jesus is tapping into that and Paul then encourages Us in Romans and telling the Romans because you think therefore you are what you think matters it informs who you are it informs your actions and your will and all of that and therefore what you need to have is a change of your mind that mean literally repentance is stop thinking about life this way turn and

start thinking about life based on how God has taught you through Jesus Christ think about what his word says not what your word says think about his identity not your identity think about his is goodness not what you think is good for yourself that's the whole reason why the world is in the trouble it's in right now is because we have a way that seems right to us and it leads to destruction it leads to death that's a proverb and so we need not just a oh well let me just think about things differently we need a transformation of our mind so that it is

renewed based on what God says and therefore we are now Discerning life according to his will not our own will what is actually good and acceptable and perfect so we need a change of our mind we also need a change of our body Philippians 3:20-21 puts it this way our citizenship is in heaven and from it um we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body now I love this because literally when I got when I got home yesterday from Tennessee I mean I just I don't know if it was because of being in

the hospital room since Tuesday or um just the the driving as well but I mean I felt like an old man I mean I came into the house and I was just like my back is killing me I love verses like this I love them because it gives me hope that this broken down hoopty body is not going to be what's for eternity he's going to to transform he's going to change what I have now into something that's going to be so much greater and I've actually been having conversations about that with with our boys over the last couple of weeks like the more we

talk about heaven they're like so do we get to keep our like our kid bodies like when we get there and and even Ezra is like I want to remain like a child because I love being a child and I'm like but here's the thing buddy I was like right now we can go outside and race and I can beat you don't you want to have a better body that actually gives you a chance I was like so I don't know what that's going to look like when we get there but I think it's going to be whatever God envisions your best self I mean

that sounds so Joel oin but whatever that is that's what we get whatever the best version of you for me I always said it was 27 whatever I was at 27 was just it felt good like you're strong you woke up vibrant and for all of you who are around that it's just the plane starts to you know descend from there so take your mid 20s with joy in addition to the Body Spirit 2 Corinthians 3:18 we we have a change of spirit we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of God are being transformed into the same image from one degree of Glory to

another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit we are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next which means our spirit that is the spirit of Christ Living in us and dwelling in US is changing our spirit from one degree of Glory to become like him to become like him which is emotionally the most mature you will ever be that is when when you look at the fruit of the spirit so much of it has nothing to do with your mind or even your physicality it has everything to do with how you handle yourself emotionally love joy peace patience kindness

goodness gentleness maybe that's physical self-control all of those things have to do with our spiritual being which again I think is why one of the things that Paul says um to the Corinthian Church is that hey like a little bit of physical uh training is beneficial but what's better than that is the fruit of the spirit what's better than that is how you respond in trial and tribulation what's better than that is how you respond in conflict and affliction with others because again like you can have washboard abs and then someone yell at you and you respond in anger because you're emotionally and spiritually immature

doesn't matter how physically mature you are you could even know the right thing intellectually because you've been reading a lot of books but if you're not spiritually mature you will wield that and turn it into a sword against people rather than responding in patience in kindness and gentleness towards them and so our movement that we are a part of is change oriented and for us it is change oriented both in in all three of those our mind our body and our spirit for it leads to leadership and organization effective movements often have leaders or organizations that help coordinate activities they mobilize participants they communicate the

movement's message well again Jesus set this up with the disciples being the first leaders of the church the apostles Paul goes on to Echo this in Ephesians 4 11-16 where he says God gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the Shepherds and the teachers to equip the Saints for the work of Ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ I mean I just I love that like it basically says um

when do we stop studying our Bible when you measure up to Christ when do we stop growing in prayer when you pray like Jesus when do we stop coming to church every Sunday when you worship the Father Like Jesus Does so you don't ever stop basically you never graduate from maturing and growing again I think some of the best mentors I've had are the ones who have been walking with Christ for 30 or 40 years and say we're more confused now than we were when we far first started walking with him well what they mean by that is the deeper you get into the gospel

the deeper you get into God the greater the reality of him is and you start to actually see man I am so finite there's so much I actually don't know that's why like the um in in different theological camps a lot of times people will say there's like a cage stage that like some of the some of the some of the best but also worst people are those who are like new converts because just in that moment again they're they're very contagious they're very like we want to tell everybody they're very but at the same same time they're very baby like they're very in like

um um new to everything and don't know a lot of everything but sometimes can come across the wrong way when it comes to you know pushing something we just have to make sure that we continue growing for the rest of our life continue growing and that's the beauty of it is that the more you grow in it the more you realize how much you need to grow in the gospel but that's the point and that's the reason why God has given us leaders to help organize this movement to help organize the church to help lead the church is because we need to be led we

need to be taught we need to be equipped for the work of ministry that he has given to us and then number five the last one here is mass participation movements typically gain momentum by attracting a large number of participants to share the same beliefs and are willing to take action to support the purpose the original purpose the shared purpose Acts 2 41-47 puts it this way this is following the the the 120 disciples who were there um at Peter like basically the upper room so This Is 40 days after jesus' Resurrection Peter's gathering with the disciples that are there the one ones there have

been you know technically he revealed himself to about 500 people but those who then came to basically the first church service were about 120 at that 120 Peter um teaches them helps them prays with them from that moment on he then goes public and he preaches a sermon and when he's done preaching that sermon this is what we see happen so those who received his word again going back to Collective action preaching the word of God is key so that they can receive it those who received his word uh were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls and so then what happened

that sounds like I mean that's a lot of people that just came to faith in Christ what was the witness what was the evidence of them coming to faith in Christ did they just say great Got My Ticket To Heaven now let me go back to living life however I want to live it let me go back to doing whatever I was doing before um I'm good to go now no what happened they those 3,000 plus the original 120 they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers and all came upon every soul and Many

Wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and they were Distributing the proceeds to all as any had need and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous Hearts praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord continued to add to their number day by day those who were being saved so it doesn't sound like they received the word word of God passively they received the word of God

and got to work participating in whatever they could participate in that the apostles were organizing and bringing together and so when the apostles are saying hey we're going to meet here and we're going to teach and preach the word of God they're saying we're going to be there hey we're going to break bread in homes whether that was kind of their version of of small groups Fellowship groups we're going to not only know God but we're going to know one another so that we know the needs of one another so that we can love one another so that we can spur one another on to

love and Good Deeds so that we can do the 59 one anothers that you see throughout the New Testament so there was engagement on their part there was mass participation and to be honest with you if you said you got saved and baptized and then do not participate that's what leads you to Matthew 18 of church discipline where it basically goes all the way back to say your conversion might not have been legit we might have dunked you and baptized you and entered you into the church but now the evidence of that is not actually showing that you actually witness something and so therefore it's

not that we're trying to kick you out of the church what we're actually trying to do is categorize you in the right place you're not a saint you're still a sinner you don't need to be um entering into our um multiplication leadership development pipeline we're not trying to make you a deacon or anything we're trying to still evangelize you we're still just trying to preach to you the word of God so that you actually do get saved and then we'll redun you again Mass participation the proof of whether or not you've actually been saved is what is a response of the Gospel working in someone's

life so all that to say is is if you're a part of the movement your life will reflect it because you will want to engage in it you want to be a player in the game now when we planted the district almost nine years ago we did not start this movement that we're talking about in scripture we did not start it we did not start the movement of Christianity in Indianapolis when we planted 9 years ago we join joined the movement that has been underway for 2,000 years now we're only seeking to advance this movement in our corner of the world and continue it to

the ends of the Earth to areas that we can help with that we can participate in when it comes to what God has asked of us the only way to accomplish this is to multiply everything everything movements that lack last multiply movements that last multiply so how do we multiply maybe that's not the best question the better question is what do we multiply what do we multiply well as I said everything I want to give you three things that we'll close out with here but I want to give you three things and I say close it's going to be a little bit longer than that

um but these three things are what we multiply and so I want you to write these down number one this is as creative as I get you we multiply you that's what go and make disciples is you're a disciple go make another disciple what does what does that mean well what is a disciple a follower of Jesus go help someone follow Jesus that's that's all God has told us to do literally that's the purpose of the church that's the shared goal of the church help people follow Jesus which is why it's on our sign back there we exist to treasure Jesus and help others follow

him because when you treasure Jesus that's the proof and the evidence that you actually belong in the church and then as you are treasuring Jesus you are helping others come to treasure him as well is multiplication of individuals in scripture absolutely look at 2 Timothy 2 1-2 it says this you then my child be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus which is great because you're going to need it this is not easy work making disciples is not easy you're going to need the strength of Jesus and the grace of Jesus to help you in this what you've heard from me in the

presence of many witnesses in trust to Faithful Men Who will be able to then teach others also what you see in 2 Timothy 2:2 is four generations of go and make disciples Paul was made a disciple by Jesus on the road to Damascus but it wasn't just that he also was then accountable to the disciples and apostles so even as he started teaching and preaching he still had to go to Jerusalem and and basically hey so here's what what I've been saying to everyone is that good and they're like yeah that's that's the Lord just uploaded it to you so congratulations and then from there

he he's like all right I'm going to go back and I'm going to continue doing this so Paul this is written to Timothy so he's saying what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrusted to Faithful Men so you have Paul who's now entrusting or teaching Timothy helping him become a disciple hey Timothy what you've heard from me you've been with me for a while you've been walking with me you've gone and done hospital visits with me you've heard me pray you've heard me Teach you've heard me preach you've heard me witness to other people you've heard me evangelize you've heard

me go into synagogues you've heard me go into other people's temples and say you have a temple to an unknown God how dumb is that you've heard me talk and tell people about Jesus what you've heard now you go and tell it to other Faithful Men go and preach it Go and Proclaim It Go and Do for others who then those will go into the fourth generation and begin to teach others as well if Paul did not multiply himself and have Timothy and if Timothy did not multiply himself to faithful others and if faithful others do not multiplys to others you and I are not

here today it's just true we're here because others were willing to multiply themselves we're willing to take that seriously the second thing we multiply are teams or Ministries as the church grows there are Ministries or needs of it that help Foster and facilitate the preaching of the word and prayer this is why in Acts 6 1-7 you see that as the basically the apostles in the first um decade of the church they were tasked with everything all right because it's the first church so we're serving everybody we're preaching we're doing the prayer we're developing others we're doing the evangelizing we're going into the temple we're

working with the political leaders we're trying to keep the Romans off our back like they were tasked with everything but as the church continued to grow they're human no longer can they do all of the jobs efficiently and effectively so much so that in these days when the disciples were increasing in number here's the beauty of it as it was increasing in number it created a problem a complaint by the helist arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution again knowing your people knowing the needs of the people and shepherding them helping them providing whatever needs that they had

again one of the beauties of and and we don't operate this way in our current cultural climate you know Western World and whatnot but the way that they operated was basically the church was as they were um having their own means and their own incomes and all that they would bring a distribution to the church or a contribution to the church and then from there they would basically like I mean the church was your government it was your hospital it was it was everything and so they would come to the church and they would say here's what my need is here's what I'm dealing with

over here here's the here's the uh what I need for my family here I've got a will over here I need that dealt with and they would come to the church and the church would then dull out basically the needs in order to help everyone in order to take care of everyone so that in other parts of scripture you'll see that um Those Who U those who had a lot were able to share and provide the needs of others and those who had needs were not in want because they were taken care of everyone was happy everyone was joyful because it worked together in this

well this is one of those moments where there was a crack there was a ball being dropped the disciples the apostles could no longer in their ability handle everything and so they had to multiply themselves in a Ministry or a team a deacon who could then serve in this specific way so that they could continue doing their primary means which was the ministry of the word and prayer the 12 summoned the full number of the disciples and said it's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables that that was not like a um this is below us no

what they were trying to say is the only reason why we are increasing in number is because we are preaching the word of God if we stop preaching the word of God guess what the movement shuts down down so we need to make sure that we're continuing to do what God has called us to do in addition to that these other roles these other needs we need to multiply ourselves so that someone else is being able to take care of those things and therefore they created the role of Deacon serving they multiplied themselves and that's why basically our Ministries as a church operate as the

deacons of the church and we have team we have individuals who then lead those teams and they are the Deacon of hospitality hospitality is just inviting people in so that they can hear the word of God preached the Deacon of little district is so that we can teach and preach the gospel to children in a form or a way that they can understand it Deacon of community groups so that we can know who the needs are of our people so that we can serve them in those specific ways Deacon of prayer so that we um not only know what the needs are of our people

but we make a petition to the Lord based on what he is what we need from him what we require of him all of these things flow out because again I can't do all of those things and to be honest you don't want me doing all of those things thank you so we need to multiply ourselves when it comes to our teams and our Ministries and then number three we need to multiply churches we need to multiply churches if the church in Jerusalem was still currently today just the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem that'd be awful there's only so many people I mean there's not

a building big enough to bring all the Christians into one building right and not only that I mean you every Sunday you'd have to get a flight to Israel I mean that sounds pretty nice but still it had to multiply it had to be a universal church in local areas one church one Spirit one God one Jesus localized everywhere and that's exactly what Paul began to do with his ministry and his missionary Journeys we see this in acts 13 1-3 now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon who was called Niger Lucius of sirene man and a lifelong friend of

Herod the tetrarch and Saul while 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 then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off if you don't know a lot about the church in Antioch up until chapter 9 all you hear is in Jerusalem in Jerusalem in Jerusalem and then with the stoning of Steven which was one of the first deacons the stoning of stepen he then um basically fear went all throughout Jerusalem in regards to man all he was doing was what

God's called us to do go and help people follow Jesus and they stoned him to death what do we do with that and through suffering and through Affliction through trial they all scattered and then and scattering here's the beauty they didn't stop doing what they were supposed to be doing they just continued doing it outside of Jerusalem and now the gospel is in Judea and Samaria and it's establishing churches in those contexts so that Antioch which is not in Jerusalem is another city and then because of Paul and Barnabas Barnabas was actually with Jerusalem at the first church they send him to Antioch and then

now actually Antioch becomes the center of operations for Christianity not Jerusalem because of the persecution that was going on in Jerusalem Antioch again outside Gentile becomes the movement of Christianity to where every time Paul would go on a missionary journey he would come back to Antioch in order to restock and then go back out to the churches and the areas that he had already planted in order to encourage them and train them up and and establish elders and Pastors in those churches but then he would also so basically gather all of the churches to then make a contribution to the Church of Antioch to then

send a contribution to the church in Jerusalem because it was struggling movements have to multiply or they die and here's the reality is every church at some point will die it's just true right now you cannot go and visit the Church of Paul that he established in Ephesus you can't he didn't call it the Church of Paul but you can't go right now to the church that he planted in Ephesus you can't go to the seven church I mean you can actually you can go to the seven churches that are in Revelation but they're ruins they're ruins but the reason why we're here today is

because those churches took serious that they needed to multiply and continue advancing and spreading the gospel so that there are still remnants of it there are still churches in those regions and areas but they multiplied and continued to spread throughout the generations that's why when you just kind of walk through acts his first missionary journey acts 13-4 Paul along with Barnabas was sent out by the Holy Spirit from the church in Antioch they tra traveled to Cyprus where he preached in uh salamis and papos converting the proconsul sergius paulus then they journeyed to pidan Antioch where Paul Sermon in the synagogue led to the conversion

of many Gentiles but also opposition from Jewish leaders they continued to Iconium and lra and Derby facing persecution and Performing miracles in lra Paul was stoned and left for dead but he survived then he returned to Antioch encouraging the disciples and pointing Elders in each church that he planted along the way so he's starting churches and then helping them establish leaders in those areas and those churches then took serious the same thing it's where eventually as the gospel you get to the end of Acts in Acts 28 Paul gets to Rome and that was his end of the Earth like when he heard the disciples

tell him acts 18 hey this is what Jesus wants he he wants us to be in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth Paul thought how do you get the gospel to the ends of the Earth well what was their current world the Roman Empire so if I can get to this the center of the Roman Empire strategically where can I go Roman Road system I go anywhere I want to go and I can get the gospel anywhere I want to get it to so his whole goal was let me get there so that the movement is worldwide at that point

worldwide and to be honest with you it's exactly what happened it's exactly what happened remember acts 1114 mentions about 120 Believers gathered in Jerusalem after Jesus's Ascension acts 241 records 3,000 people being added to the number of Believers at the day of Pentecost acts 4:4 couple of chapters later which is about a week later mentions 5,000 Believers in Jerusalem just counting the men so technically you can average that a little bit more than that act 67 states that the word of God spread and the number of disciples multiplied greatly here's the beautiful thing that I didn't mentioned a second ago with the start of the

the role of Deacon in the church as soon as the up and until act 6 all that you see is it increased or added to the number daily when they multiplied themselves with the role of Deacon that's the first time that it no longer says added but it says the disciples multiplied from acts 6 through Acts 29 they don't ever say added anymore it's the church continued to increase and multiply and multiplied greatly it's just important to know understand acts 9:31 notes that the church continued to grow throughout all Judea Galilee and Samaria acts 21:20 indicates that many thousands have become Believers acts 28: 28-31

uh concludes with this by Paul therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles they will listen he lived there in Rome two whole years um at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance you see once he was in Rome everyone based on a Roman Road system that was able to come to him for two years would get the gospel in order then take it back to wherever they came from wherever they came from and that's

why again these are U there's a book by Rodney Stark called the rise of Christianity He suggests that Christianity grew by 40% every decade in the first second and third centuries that's a good return that's a good return we would love our 401ks to grow by 40% Would we not just listen to these numbers at the time of Jesus in 40 ad there were estimated to be 60 million people in the Roman Empire 60 million people so when you got 12 guys and Jesus says Hey I want you to go and make disciples in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and the ends of the Earth they're

thinking how are we going to reach 60 million people like how's that going to happen like you just I mean are we going to do that in our lifetime how are we going to do that well again they got close by 100 AD were estimated around 7,500 to 10,000 Christians by 150 ad there were 40,000 these are again estimates but good estimates 150 ad 40,000 Christians so in 50 years they went from 10,000 to 40,000 and uh 200 ad 218,000 Christians by 250 ad there were 1.17 million Christians and by 350 ad 34 million Christians in the 60 million Roman Empire over 56% of the

Roman Empire believed in Jesus Christ in a matter of three centuries which is why again many people want to say that Constantine became a Christian and I pray and hope that he did become a Christian but when you're a political leader you want to go with the majority right especially if you don't want to get stabbed in the back or if you want to get reelected you want to go with the majority well Constantine in 325 ad legalized Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire just think about that they were all about Greek and Roman mythology in every city you would see all

these temples to all these Gods I mean think about in order for that decision to be made is to then render obsolete the majority of their trade the majority of their buildings in all of their cities why because a movement happened because a movement multiplied you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria until the ends of the Earth Jesus came and said to them all authority when you start to look at those numbers you start to believe in that Authority you start to believe that maybe Jesus was telling

the truth maybe he was actually on to something here all authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all Nations I just love that he's just saying don't just do it for the Jews don't just do it for those who are like you who think like you who talk like you who walk like you who look like you I'm claiming All Nations go and make disciples of them baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit don't go and tell them about yourself what the S and that's why a

couple of weeks ago we say what's the secret sauce of church growth the gospel Jesus Christ period period we can't Market this in a fancy way to move the movement forward but we give them the gospel we give them exactly what the father and the son and the holy spirit represent we give them what Jesus Christ came and accomplished for us that changes Minds bodies and Spirits we give them the work of Christ the father Son and Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us and here's the thing and behold I am with you always to the end of the age

and so until it's done until the movement is finished Jesus is I'm right there with you I am right there with you don't give up and so my question for us today are you willing to play a part in the multiplying movement of Jesus are you willing to be multiplied yourself let's pray father we thank you for for this morning we thank you for this opportunity that we have to play a small part but a big part in your movement in seeing Sinners become Saints in seeing lost become found and seeing those without hope now have hope those without peace now having peace those who

have sins to have those sins forgiven those who have no father heaven to now be adopted into his family to have nothing to look forward to in eternity to now have an inheritance the inheritance of Christ to be able to rule and re alongside of him forever those who have no joy to have something to now rejoice in God that's why we're here that's why we do this that's what honors you that's what glorifies you that's what brings you worship honor and praise is when we take seriously what you have done for us and help others come to know it as well that we could

not live the life you have called us to live but Jesus came and lived it for us for us that because we could not live that perfect life the wages of that our our penalty our punishment in sinning against you is death and Jesus came and on our behalf died for us on the cross took our punishment took our pain took our took our death and because you were satisfied with his payment you brought him back to life three days later resurrecting not only him but resurrecting everyone who believed in the work that he accomplished taking us from death to life God we thank you

for that that is the gospel that's the good news that this world full of bad news needs to hear and you've invited us to participate in that mission in that movement and we thank you for that it's in your name we pray amen if you'll go ahead and stand in with me as I mentioned just in that prayer when we come to the table of communion again this is this is nothing that saves you but what it represents is what has brought you into a relationship with God the fact that in this movement you don't have have to break your body and shed your blood

but Jesus Christ did it in order to create a movement in order to fuel a movement with his work that he accomplished for us that he was able to satisfy God's Wrath towards us and diverted away from us so that we can then be restored and renewed to a relationship with God so that now he views us not as a God who is judging us but a father who loves us adopts us and brings us home it's because of what Jesus Christ did for us blood and so if you believe that he did that for you and you believe in the work of the Gospel

the work of Jesus then I invite you to come down grab the bread grab the elements bring them back to your seat we will sing together use that as a time to reflect and to thank God and to worship him for the work that Jesus has done and then at the end of the song we will partake together for e