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Multiplication Addiction Why you can’t make your home in Jesus without inviting others to move in August 14, 2016 // Trevor Atwood // John 15-17 // Deep and Wide On Purpose
Narayana Murthy and 6 of his friends used $250 to start a small software company in Bangalore, India. 35 years later, Infosys Technologies is now worth $10 billion and is India’s first IT company to be listed on NASDAQ. In 2001, Mr. Murthy was named one of Time Magazine’s 25 most influential businessmen in the world. But Narayana Murthy is no longer the CEO of Infosys Technologies. In 2002, on his 60th birthday, he handed over the reigns of the company he built to one of his colleagues. There was no crisis. There was no corporate takeover. He wasn’t about to retire to the beaches of Florida and collect seashells. In fact, it was all a part of his very deliberate plan. See, he spent years investing in his colleagues so that the company could operate without him…and he moved into the role of chief mentor. When he was asked at the World Economic Forum why he chose that role for himself he said that his primary role as a leader was to ensure successive generations of leaders. “He was then asked what drives him to invest that way. Without hesitation he replied, “The reward for winning a pinball game is to get a chance to play the next one.” In other words, he doesn’t crave the spotlight of being CEO as much as he hungers to freely invest again elsewhere. While some CEO’s are addicted to praise, Mr. Murthy is addicted to growing other people.”- Multipliers book Wow. A hunger to freely invest again. Addicted to growing other people. A leader’s primary job is to ensure the successive generations of leaders. Here’s my question- do you find Mr. Murthy’s way of “doing business” beautiful? Do you find something about it wonderful? Attractive? If you were in his position…would you do business that way? Today, I want to you show you that not only are you in Mr. Murthy’s position…you have more resources at your disposal than he ever had. So, if you aren’t freely investing in others, if you aren’t multiplying leaders, if you aren’t growing other people…if you aren’t ensuring successive generations of leaders…it probably has little to do with your position or the resources available to you …it has EVERYTHING to do with your lack of HUNGER to do it.
We are in the second half of our 2 part series on the vision for next 5 years of our church. We are calling it “Deep & Wide…On Purpose”. Last Sunday, we talked about the importance of being deeply connected to Jesus…and how to do that ON PURPOSE with spiritual disciplines. Today, I want to show you how we are called to multiply. I want to destroy a false dichotomy. The idea that a church either takes people deep into a relationship with Christ…or they water down the message so they can “reach more people”. You aren’t either a deep church or a wide church. In fact, today, I want to show you that spiritual depth necessarily means multiplying leaders. In other words, the deeper you go in Christ, the more you hunger to multiply disciples. Period. That’s why we are now describing our mission here at City Church with the word “Multiply” right up front. City Church exists to MULTIPLY Gospel Change. For Broken People. On Purpose. Now, let me show you this in the Scripture, and then show you what I think we need to do about it. John 15:4-5, 9 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. John 15:15-17 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. John 16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
John 17:18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. At City Church, we ARE NOT….and WILL NOT be content with having a hunger to know God for ourselves without also the corollary hunger to have others know God. We will not be content with “going Deep” with no hunger to “Go wide”. Deep and Wide go together, like Peanut Butter and Jelly, Burgers and Fries, Michael Phelps and Gold Medals. And What God has joined together…let no man separate. You can’t have an insatiable hunger to know Christ more deeply, and just kind of have a “meh” attitude about making disciples. because, as Mr. Murthy says, “A leader’s primary job is producing successive generations of leaders.” See,…. 1) You can’t make your home in the Father’s love, without asking others to move in with you. John 14-17 is this conversation Jesus has with his disciples that seamlessly leads into a prayer that He prays for all of us…his disciples…the church. And this a pretty important conversation, considering Jesus knows this is the last time he can teach his disciples before he dies. Imagine that you knew you were about to see your family for the last time before you shipped out to war, or were rolled into heart surgery. What would you say to your loved ones if you were a Jew hiding in Nazi Germany, and as you heard the footsteps of the soldiers breaking in the door, coming up the stairs to carry you all off to different concentration camps…what would you say? Well, I doubt you’d say, “Did everybody make their beds up this morning?” You probably wouldn’t say, “What do you guys want for dinner?” See, when the shadow of death is laying in your lap…you only say important things. That’s exactly what Jesus is doing here. But in an interesting way. John 14:1-3 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s
house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. He starts in Chapter 14 by giving them assurance. He wants them to know that even as they see him arrested and hanging on a cross…that he’s coming back. That they haven’t lost his love. He says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled…I’m going to prepare a place for you...and I’m going to come back and get you. Nothing that is about to happen can take that away.” Then, he gives them instruction, he says, “Listen, if you are going to cling to this hope I’m giving you…you are going to have to do it on purpose.” John 15:4 And you know the way to where I am going.” See, in the face of evil…in the shadow of death…believing that God loves you like a perfect Father loving his kids is really difficult. So He tells them “You have to remain in me. You have to abide…or ‘make your home’ in the Father’s love. You have do what it takes to remember that he loves you…or else in the face of what you are about to face…you’ll forget.” And then he tells them…”when you do that… you are going to produce something. When you put your attention on being ever aware of how much God loves you…you’ll notice something happening.” He says, “like a branch attached to a healthy vine, you’ll start producing fruit.” John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. He gives them the command to “love one another”…BUT, in order to follow that command…they have to realize… “AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”. This whole passage is filled with this. Jesus says, “I received something from my Father… and I passed it on to you…and the fruit will be when you pass that on to someone else.” He tells them “As the Father loves me, I love you, now you can love others.” John 17:11b Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
He prays for them “Father, as you and I are one, unified, together, true community…so Father, bring them in. Make them one with each other and in community with us.” Now look at this last fruit in in verse 17:18 John 17:18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Jesus said to his Father, “As you sent me into the world, now I SEND them.” Jesus doesn’t just pass on to us his Love and Community from the father…he also passes on to us his mission. In the unnecessary divide between whether a church should be deep or wide…we often forget this. That we cannot accept the assurance of God’s love, and the beauty of this community he makes…and disregard his sending. See, to go deep into God’s love IS to go wide with his mission. No one. NOT A SINGLE PERSON can be rescued by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ without just as radically being sent out to make more disciples of Jesus. You can’t let the gospel change you, without also letting it change someone else…on purpose. No one is invited to make their home in the Love of the Father, without also being given the task of inviting others to come with them. Of course, you would expect Jesus to use the perfect metaphor here…and since the disciples wouldn’t understand a Japanese tech company CEO metaphor…Jesus just goes with fruit. John 15:5 & 15:16 In verse 5, when Jesus says “I am the vine and you are the branches and if attach to me you’ll produce fruit”…the fruit he seems to be talking about is obedience…or even good character…. …good motivations. You know, kind of like the “fruit of the Spirit” …Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Faithfulness, Goodness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. But look at verse 16. Now he says, “I appointed you to GO and BEAR FRUIT…and the FRUIT is the thing that should abide.” Wait…What!?!? How does the fruit abide? In verse 5, its us…the branches that are supposed to abide. Now, in verse 16 it’s the Fruit that abides? Which is it? Did Jesus lose track of his metaphor? (I gotta tell ya…it happens to the best of us) Well, the fruit he is talking about in verse 16 is multiplication. He is talking about how fruit
should actually produce MORE branches…that attach to the vine…and then produce more fruit….that produces more branches …that produces more fruit. That is multiplication. And Fruit is a perfect metaphor for what Jesus is describing as the Christian’s life. Let me ask you this… Is the primary purpose of fruit to be eaten and enjoyed…or to make more of that particular plant? Which one is it? Is a watermelon, or a strawberry, or a grape to be delighted in for its taste…or to multiply itself by its seeds? Of course, the answer is both. Fruit is both for our nourishment and enjoyment…and to reproduce more of itself. Likewise…is the point of our relationship with God…of his salvation of us primarily something to deeply enjoy…or is it something to widely multiply?…the answer is both. That’s why this fruit in John 15 is both the obedience that comes from delighting in the father’s love …AND the multiplication of more disciples. There is absolutely no separation from being changed by the gospel…and then being sent out to multiply that change in other people. The fruit that is produced in your life from being changed by the gospel is both delighting in the God that saved you…AND multiplying others that do the same. Ok, I think that horse has sufficiently been beaten to death. Now, let me give you a real practical look into how this false belief that we should be Deep and Not Wide creeps into our church. If everyone in your community group is a Christian. And you all get to know each other on an intimate level and you all are pushing each other towards knowing Jesus…toward abiding in his love…and you love the community you’ve found here…BUT you have NO HUNGER toward moving out of your group and helping MORE people to love and cherish Jesus Christ… …well…you probably aren’t as deeply connected to Jesus as you think you are. You don’t get to pick Gospel and Community…and leave off Mission….any more than a grape gets to decide it will only be used to make wine…but not to seed a new branch. Look, I know many of you know this already. And really, your problem isn’t that you don’t believe that its true. Your problem is that you are afraid. You think you don’t have what it takes. You think you’ll try and teach someone to read the Bible well and it will expose how little you’ve read it yourself.
You think you are going to share the gospel with someone and they are going to ask you some theological question you can’t answer. Probably something about dinosaurs, or the problem of evil, or the current Trinitarian debate about the eternal submission of the son. At least, those are typically the big three the kids are talking about these days. Bottom line…you think you don’t have what it takes. To make disciples. To multiply Gospel change. On Purpose. …and that’s just because you aren’t listening to Jesus. See, you can’t on one hand believe what Jesus says about how much the Father loves you and how you have been forgiven… without also believing him when he tells you… 2) In Jesus, you already have the power to multiply and the freedom to make mistakes. Last year I read this incredible book. Its called “Multipliers”. The premise of the book is that the best companies aren’t run by a single genius who tells all his employees what to do. Rather, the companies that really flourish, and the ones that attract the best and brightest employees, are ones where the genius at the top invests his energy in making more geniuses. You know, guys like Narayana Murthy…and Jesus Christ. Jesus said a lot of controversial things, but one that always gets to me is something he says in John 14. John 14:12-14 & 16:7 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Whoa…wait a second. Jesus Christ. Superstar. Messiah. God in the Flesh. The Real Deal. This is the one who walked on water, fed 5,000 people with a Fish Taco, and rose from the grave. And he’s saying “It best for me to leave you, because when I leave, my disciples will do greater works than I did.” Now, pardon my greek, but that don’t sound right, Jesus. Last I checked, I have NEVER… EVER healed anyone, walked on water…or rose from the grave (unless you count getting the 99 lives on Super Mario back in the day) What in the world does he mean? Well, when Jesus says that his disciples will do greater works…he means greater in 2 ways.
The first way is in depth. It is that while Jesus’ earthly miracles illustrated his power to save from sin, the deepest miracle of all is conversion from death to life. Jesus’ miracles were only signs to a greater work, and we get to participate in what those signs pointed to every time we help someone see the depth of the love of God through Jesus Christ. The second way that our works are “greater” than Jesus’ is in width. Our works are wider in range than Jesus’ miracles, See, When Jesus was on earth, the Holy Spirit focused his ministry in and through Jesus. But now he is in every believer, and the collective impact, , of ordinary Christians filled with the Spirit would be greater than if even he himself stayed to lead the church. You see why I say Jesus is just like Mr. Murthy of Infosystems. He’s a multiplier. Here’s the bottom line. When you go in Jesus’ name to make disciples…you are better off going with his Holy Spirit working in you, than if Jesus Christ, in the flesh was walking right next to you whispering in your ear what to say. Do you believe that? Of course you don’t. Because if you did, you wouldn’t be afraid. Look at what else he says. He says, (actually he says this multiple times in these 3 chapters), Jesus says, “So you think you lack resources to dwell deeply in my love, and to make disciples? Alright…I’m gonna give you a red line. You ask anything…in my name, and you got it.” Whatever you think you need for this mission…to love me deeply and spread that love widely…just ask away…and I’ll give it to you. Now think about that for just a second. Jesus is the ultimate multiplier. He is definitely at the top of the food chain in the church. He is the head of this body. Yet, he steps out of the way, and empowers a bunch of people with his own power, to lead out in making MORE disciples. Jesus himself is hungry to make new leaders. Incredible. Even the way the best businesses work can’t deny that Jesus’ way is best! Its so counterintuitive. Spend your time not building yourself up, but building others up… and that’s how you’ll flourish and others will too. Kind of like a seed. Fall to the ground… and you’ll multiply. Here’s what you have behind you if you are a Christian. First, you have the deep love of God you can’t lose. You have the peace of knowing that whatever happens, Jesus is coming back, and he’ll make all things new, he’ll raise you from the dead and you’ll forever be with him and with all your brothers and sisters in a never-ending banquet of awesomeness.
Second, You have the promise that as you attach deeply to that love, believing it more & more, that you WILL multiply disciples of Jesus. Third, You have the Holy Spirit, who empowers the church to reach widely all over the world, making disciples. Fourth, you’ve been given a blank check by the God who owns everything…the God who can literally make it rain if you need him to do it…to ask whatever you need to make disciples…and he’ll give it to you. Fifth, as you are praying to the Father in Jesus name, Jesus has already prayed to Father for you. Remember, John 17 is all Jesus’ prayer to the Father that the church remains in his love, that they remain one with each other, and that they multiply in the world. So, if you believe Jesus died for you, and rose to life, you ought also, with the same conviction and fervor believe that you have everything you need to multiply disciples. One more thing…that I think is crucial. John 15:2b-3 and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remember the metaphor Jesus uses of this vine and branches, where he is the vine, and we are the branches, and if we remain in him, we produce fruit…well he tells us, for every branch that produces fruit, he prunes, so that you produce more fruit. Think about that a minute. Pruning is painful. To prune something you go and cut away parts that seem important…but aren’t. My wife will prune some of our flowers in front of our house sometimes…and I’ll look at her and say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, you are destroying that plant.” But the plant always comes back to produce more and more flowers. Some of you are afraid. You are afraid of trying to lead someone to know and love Christ because you think you’ll make a mistake. Or, you’re afraid that the time it takes to invest in other people will disrupt your life….and you’ll lose something you don’t think you can stand to lose. But look what Jesus says to you. He says, “You aren’t the gardner. That’s the Father. And he absolutely cuts things out of your life that are unnecessary SO THAT you produce more fruit.” Not only that, he comforts you with the statement. “You are already clean!” He’s telling you that the mistakes you make in multiplying disciples …well, your relationship with him is not on the line.
You are clean because of his word. Because he said so. Because he went to the cross, took your sin, and said, “It’s finished.” So now, you can know, that every mistake you make as you obey his commands, he’ll come in and prune you along the way. He’ll use his word, and other believers to help you see your mistakes and grow from them. In the book Multipliers, the author asks a CEO she is interviewing, “How smart do you have to be to BE a Multiplier?” The reply? “You have to be smart enough to learn.” See, to bear fruit, to be a multiplier, you have to be willing to be pruned…and that includes admitting your mistakes, confessing your sin, and learning from it. It means allowing God to prune you, to cut things out of your life, without looking at him and saying “You’re messing this up.” Making disciples means taking risks. Because the only way to learn from your mistakes…is to make mistakes. So listen. This year, at City Church, we are going help you prepare to deep and wide. To know Christ deeply, to be very aware of his love, and to multiply that in other people. But, I want you to understand, you don’t need a seminary diploma to make disciples. You just need a strong vine, and a good, patient gardener. In the God the Father and Jesus the Son…you have exactly what you need. So here’s the question. If this is the Vision of our church…what are you supposed to do about it? You know, I’ve really battled exactly what I should give you in these sermons over the last couple of weeks. Do I give you a bunch of instructions and things to d? Do we just have a bunch of ministries and things you can go sign up for? On one hand, I want to be practical and concrete…on the other hand…we tend to get really excited and then, by the time Thanksgiving gets here…we’ve forgotten about all the promises we made. So, I want you to see what I’m seeing. I want you to believe what I’m believing for this church…and pray the prayer I am praying for this church. And here it is. 500 multipliers by 2021. By 2021, I want God to have 500 people who have been taught to love Jesus deeply and are hungry to invest in 2 more people each.
That means that in the year 2021, there will be 1000 people in Murfreesboro who are being discipled by 500 people from City Church. 1000 people being taught how to read the Bible, meditate on Scripture, abide in the Father’s love…and eventually do that with 2 more people. That’s deep multiplication. Where are these people going to come from? Well, for one, Murfreesboro is the 13th fastest growing city in the country. I don’t know if you’ve seen the projections for the next 15-20 years…, but this city is about to explode with people. Just try and get somewhere on a Friday afternoon. In fact, here’s a little something…every time you are frustrated with traffic in the Boro, I want you to pray this. “Father, make City Church into 500 multipliers of gospel change by 2021 so we can show these people how much you love them…and let me do what I need to do today to make that happen.” Look, The world is moving to Murfreesboro, TN…and we are going to introduce them to deep gospel change, On Purpose. But, we are also not going to forget to love the broken people, too. We are even more aggressively going to pursue relationships this year with the Fatherless kids in this neighborhood we meet in. We are going to pursue taking gospel change into our jails and prisons, and among the homeless here in the Boro. ...and you all are going to lead those efforts. Some of you already are. Some of you know you want to. …and some of you, the Lord is going to prune your life back…and show you that you how you’re gonna do it. So where do you start. I have a very simple first step for you. See, we are working on building a culture of multiplication in City Church. And I want you to be ready to receive that, and participate in it. If you want to start today, grab this book. “GROWING UP” by Robby Gallaty. Over the next year, we are going to slowly begin teaching you a way to read the Bible and pray together that you can teach to other people, much of which you can learn about in this book. I put up a blog post this last week that explains it a bit, and I’ll add another one this week as well. I’ll have the link to get the book on there. Get it on the City Church APP. So here are your first 2 baby steps toward this vision of 500 multipliers by 2020. 500 by 2021 1) TRAFFIC PRAYER: “Father, make City Church into 500 multipliers by 2021…and start with me.” 2) Read “Growing Up”… and start practicing what it says. I know 500 people deeply abiding in Jesus and multiplying that love to 1000 other people sounds like a crazy amount for this little church…but God has done this before.
Remember the book of Acts? The church had just begun. Jesus had ascended to heaven after his Resurrection and he left the church with this HUGE TASK to go into all the world and make disciples. I mean, essentially Jesus gave the most important job in the history of the world to the least qualified group of people. They had never done this before. Most of them had fishing backgrounds….and every single one of them had made a huge mistake…they deserted Jesus when he was arrested. They literally left him for dead. But remember… 3) Jesus is a multiplier...so that you can be one too. Jesus was willing to die in order to raise up this army of multipliers. And the church took off. 5000 people in a day. In Acts 9, we get this formula for the way it went down. Acts 9:31 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 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 and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. The church had peace…that’s being deeply attached to the vine. That’s the peace Jesus promised. Because of his death in our place, we have a relationship with the Father we can’t lose. We are already clean. Accepted. Eternally loved. And so, they were built up. Growing. Then look at that next sentence. They were walking in the Fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Do you know what the Fear of the Lord is? It simply means that you are in awe of who God is. You recognize how much better, how much greater he is than you. That is humility And the comfort of the Holy Spirit is what Jesus promised in John 15. The confidence to know that even though God is so much greater than us, the Holy Spirit reminds us that we are his children…loved and cared for. That’s deep. That’s the depth of love that flows from the cross. On one hand, it humbles you. You see your own sin on Jesus. You see him dying for it. But it gives you great
confidence, because you know now that your sin is dealt with, that you are free to do whatever God calls you to, without fear of mistakes or failure. …and look at what the fruit of that is. Multiplication. The church that walks in a fear of the LORD…and the comfort of his spirit…multiplies. So lets make this personal. Do you on one hand know that God is greater than you…that you have sinned against him… but at the same time, know for sure that he has forgiven you in Christ? If so…you are ready to multiply. If not…what’s keeping you from believing that. You either believe that you don’t need forgiveness…or that your sin is somehow too bad or too great for his blood to cover. Either way…you are blaspheming his love. Repent. And accept his forgiveness…he has already made you clean.
