Share, so the World will know

I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.  (Philemon 6)

The Apostle Paul certainly did carry out the Great Commission in everything that he did.  We all need to be reminded of what Jesus told us just before he ascended into heaven:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.  (Matthew 28.18-20)

Jesus has authority over all things: all time, all people, all nations, all spirits--everything.  This is good news, because Jesus humbled Himself and became one of us; he submitted to death on the cross, as a sacrifice for our sins; and He was raised from the dead by God, who has given Him authority over sin and death.  Think about that.  If God had given this authority to Satan, the fallen angel, we would all be overcome by the demons of darkness.  If God had given this authority to the archangel Michael (whom Daniel called the Protector of Israel, and whom John in Revelation said led the heavenly armies against the dragon and his angel), then only Jews would be saved, and the rest of us would have been defeated by the hosts of heaven.  But God gave His Son Jesus authority over all things, and that is good news that needs to be shared.  Jesus told this to His disciples:

Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16.15-16)

 But in the Great Commission, Jesus went beyond evangelism; He commanded discipleship.  He did not say go make Christians out of all nations.  The Crusaders tried this in the Middle Ages, and they failed.  We cannot just lead people to Christ and then leave them hanging.  We must teach them how Jesus told us to live.  He said we must make disciples of all nations.  What does "disciple" mean?  Well, it has its root in the word "discipline"; and certainly, disciples of Christ must be careful to avoid sin.  But when Jesus chose twelve men to be with Him during his ministry on earth, He did not beat them with a stick.  He taught them, both in words and by example.  He spoke to them, and lived with them, and laughed with them and cried with them.  They watched Him, and listened to Him, and learned from Him.  Now that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, we must teach others how He lived.

Paul did this in his missionary journeys.  Acts chapter 14 talks about Paul preaching the good news in Lystra, and doing good work there.  But some Jewish leaders came down from Antioch and said evil things about Paul and Barnabas.  The Jewish leaders ran them out of town in Lystra. 

The next day he (Paul) and Barnabas left for Derbe.  They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples.  Then they returned to Lystra...strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. (Acts 14.20-22)

Notice that Paul did not preach and then leave.  He made disciples, and when he left them for another town, he came back and encouraged them in their faith.  He did this all through his ministry.  But God knows that one man cannot reach the entire world for Christ.  That is why He commanded us to make disciples and not just converts.

Let me tell you what I mean.  If I invent a new widget, I might try to get all of my friends and acquaintances to buy the item.  I might buy advertisements to ask people to buy my widget.  And if I am successful, I might sell a few hundred.  I might hire salesmen to go and sell the widget for me.  If they are all as successful as I am, I might sell a few thousand.  But if I can teach all of my customers how to use the widget and how to sell it to their friends, and if those customers sell the widgets to their friends and teach them how to sell it to their friends, and so on, then very soon we will all have sold millions of widgets.  It's like a multi-level marketing scheme: if I can convince you to involve two or three others, and those three others convince three apiece, now there are twelve customers, and I have only spoken to three of them.  If the marketers down the line all get three, and their customers get three more, and those people each get three more, it won't take very long to get into the millions.

My dad, a retired pastor, tells the story of inviting an evangelist to his church for a revival (a series of nightly worship services designed to win souls, and encourage church members to continue in soul-winning after the evangelist leaves).  The evangelist divided the people at the service one night into two groups.  Those on the left side of the aisle, and those on the right.  He started on the left side, going down into the crowd and taking people up to the front of the church with him, one by one.  Soon he had a small group, maybe a dozen people or so.  Then he went to the right side of the aisle, and took two people by the hand and led them to the front.  He instructed those two people to go get two more, and then those four were instructed to bring two each to the front.  After each wave, there were eight, then sixteen, then 32 people up front.  His point was that he could go out and share the gospel with one person at a time, and could win to Christ a few people.  But if he shared the gospel with just two, and instructed them how to win two more, and those people were instructed how to win still more, then the number of souls saved would increase exponentially.

My aim here is to motivate you to discipleship.  Spend some quality time with someone who knows Scripture, and who can teach you who Jesus is and what He is all about.  Then go find someone that you can teach, and show them what Jesus has told you.  And after a time, let that person go so he or she can teach someone else, and then find another person you can disciple.  There are helpful books everywhere; my dad has written some, and soon there will be a website where you can buy his discipleship manual.  But don't wait.  People are dying every day without Christ.  You cannot reach them all.  But you can widen your circle of influence by teaching others how to share their faith, and how to walk in His word.

I heard a Bible Translator once, who said that Jesus will not come back until the whole world has heard of Him in their own language.  We cannot stand by and wait for a multi-lingual preacher to tell them.  We must tell the good news to our friends, some of whom may speak another language; and that person may share the gospel in his language, and one may hear who speaks a still different language.  In this way we can hasten the Second Coming of Christ.