WHO’S YOUR ONE?
“The New Math”
Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 2:42-47
Please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28. If you were to ask me Pastor what are the 3 most important priorities in your life this is how I would respond. Number one is Jesus Christ. He has completely changed my life----because of Him I have a place in Heaven for eternity and a purpose in this life for now. There are many things Jesus will tolerate but being in 2nd place is not one of them. He is my first priority. And because of that I start my day with His word, a brief devotional book or two and a time of prayer. Jesus is my first priority.
2nd, my family. My wife is more important to me than anyone else in my life —except Jesus—and that’s the way she wants it because Jesus holds first place in her life as well. We have been married 43 years and I love her now more than ever before. We have 4 children---they bring so much happiness to our lives and have blessed us with 11 amazing grandchildren and one more on the way this year. (That’s the latest report). ?
3rd, my legacy. And what I mean by that is this …. When I am gone what will I be remembered for? Every one of us at one time or another should stop and ask that question---at the end of my time here on this earth, how will we be remembered? Or will we simply be forgotten without leaving any lasting influence?
It is a question all of should be asking. Now this is the 5th Sunday in a row I have asked you this question, “Who’s your One?” Who’s you One that you will reach for Christ? Who’s your one that you will reach for Christ? Who’s your one you will pray for and invite to church? Who’s your one that once you reach them will allow you to leave a legacy—to leave someone behind who will continue to tell people about Jesus ---to continue to reach one who will reach one---who will reach another one? In our scripture today we come down to the last words Matthew records that Jesus would speak. For you what would you want your last words to be that you would be remembered by?
Jesus would be known of course for at least 38 miracles we find in the gospels ---known for the multitudes he brought into the kingdom---that He ministered to in their time of need and most of all for his death on the cross for the entire world and for his resurrection. So what do you choose to say in those final moments before he would ascend to heaven? Well here they are…. Matthew 28:18-20.
Eagle’s Landing is no celebrating our 20th year. 20 years in 2020. In June of 2000 we wrote a vision statement as a church so that we could all be on the same page. So that we could travel together down the same path. This is it…..
Our vision is to enlarge the size of Heaven by taking as
many people as possible with us.
That statement has served us well for 20 years. As a result we have now baptized 290 people. Every baptism matters. Every ONE we reach matters. And we have done it together. You have no doubt heard of the new math; math is no longer done in the same way when most of us were in school. It has caused difficulty for parents who have the job of helping our kids learn the new system. But Jesus knew about this nee math a long time ago. And I think I could summarize his view of the new math in a simple statement.
We can reach more people by using multiplication
than we can by simple addition.
To enlarge a bit on that I would say this…..
When we count baptisms we add to the church.
When we count disciples we multiply the church.
What if every ONE who walked through these waters to be baptized; what if they became true disciples? What would happen if we began to use multiplication instead of addition? What if every ONE of us began to disciple ONE? This is the kind of math Jesus used. No addition; multiplication. He started with the 12 and He invested 3.5 years of His life in them and because they turned around and did the same, Christianity is still alive today. Still moving forward. Lives continue to be changed and as a result some ONE told some ONE else who told some ONE for 2000 years and you and I are here today—because someone found their ONE.
When the people were hungry Jesus took 5 loaves of bread and two fish and He multiplied it and fed 5000. On another occasion he fed 4000. On the day of Pentecost when there were 120 in the church in Jerusalem---the Holy Spirit came and the Bible tells us that “those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3000 were added in ONE day. Acts 2:41. In Acts 4:4 as they continued to preach we find these words: “But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about 5000. So another 2000 were added. All in a very short period of time. All because ONE was being reached who told ONE who reached another ONE. This is God’s plan to reach the world. Now let me take a moment and show you how this new math, God’s math, works.
FIRST CALENDAR---ADDITION
But what if we used God’s math by training the lost to be true disciples and we worked by multiplication. What if each ONE reached ONE and disciples that ONE to reach ONE also. And each ONE continue to reach ONE daily? What would that look like? I’m glad you asked. ?
2ND CALENDAR—MULTIPLICATION---walk through
Now I know I used more than 30 days…I used 33. But in case you didn’t know on day 33 we would exceed the current population of the world. We would exceed it by one billion people. That’s the power of multiplication and it is God’s plan. This is the plan of Jesus to multiply his disciples his disciples throughout the world. To take ONE and turn it into billions. Now, you are likely aware we can’t seat that many here, but if this year in 2020 each ONE of you would just agree to reach ONE we would pass the 200 mark in attendance. And that is completely doable.
The process of making disciples is not complicated but the process of getting people to commit to discipleship is definitely difficult. It wasn’t in the NT, but it is today. We kind of what you might call “church lite” today. They met daily. Today the average church member says they are active if they attend once every 4-6 weeks. When I close this message today I’m going to ask you to make a public commitment to reach ONE new person this year. That is our 2020 vision. To accomplish it we must do the same things that were being done in the early church -----in one of my favorite passages….Acts 2:42-47. Here it is. READ.
So this is what the early church looked like and this is what we must look like in 2020. @000 years later God’s Word has not changed. His expectations of us have not changed. But our commitment has. Here is what we learn from the early church in Jerusalem.
(1) The church must be a place to learn. (Verse 42). We will never be able to exhaust the teachings of this book. We should count it a wasted day when we have not learned something new and gone deeper into God’s Word. The Bible is our textbook. A book written down over a period of 2000 years by 40 different authors ---from 3 continents---who wrote in 3 different languages. Shepherds, prophets, kings, fishermen, all manner of people wrote down a portion of this book. 66 different books yet no part of this book contradicts another part. That’s because God was really the author. This book is the inspired word of God. And we will always stand on the teachings of this book.
(2) The church must be a place of fellowship. (Verse 42). The word fellowship in the original language means a “unique Christian bond.” As believers we don’t have the some THING that holds us together; we have some ONE who holds us together and His name is Jesus. As believers we share that in common. Iron sharpens iron and when we spend time together, we grow stronger in the faith.
(3) The church must be a House of Prayer. (Verse 42). Early believers recognized the fact they could not meet the demands of life in their own strength. They knew they must go to the Father for answers. In our day we look in all the wrong places. The prayer life of our church is nowhere near where God wants it to be and there are only 2 people who can change that---YOU and ME and I want to see it transformed this year. The more we pray; the more intensity we pray with, the more we are going to see the power of God.
(4) The church should be a place where might works take place. (Verse 43). In verse 43 we learn that signs and wonders were performed. Let me ask you, do we serve a different God today from the God of Jerusalem? Has God lost any of His power? Listen, if we expect great things FROM God and attempt great things FOR God….. then great things will happen. God multiplies things when His people work together.
(5) The church must be a church that shares. (Vv. 44-45). These early believers felt an intense responsibility for those in the community and the church. We must respond in the same way.
(6) Finally, the church must be a worshipping church. V. 46 says that every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. The Bible says never give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. But in churches across America attendance continues to decline. How will we turn it around? By ONE reaching ONE who reaches ONE who reaches another ONE. By discipleship. Multiplication. So I ask you again, “Who’s your One?”
When we think of Pentecost you might be a bit like me; I think…you know this was Peter and Philip preaching. I can’t preach like them. They were fearless when it came to sharing the gospel. How do you measure up to that? But think about it this way …. Peter was brought to Jesus by his brother, Andrew. ONE man. You remember the feeding of the 5000? Guess who brought the little boy with fish and bread to Jesus? Andrew. We may never preach like these men …we won’t write letters like Paul and maybe you’re not comfortable with crowds of 100 or a 1000 but that does not negate your responsibility to bring people to Jesus. We all can be an Andrew. We can all bring ONE and let God do the rest. Andrew had no idea what was about to happen when he brought that little boy to Jesus. Hey Jesus this kids got 5 small pieces of bread and a couple sardines in his bag for lunch. I know there’s 5000 men here but would it help. God says sure, I’ve got some new math. We’ll multiply it. I wonder if that boy’s mother realized what an impact he would have that day when she packed his lunch, put it in his hands and sent him out the door. And I wonder if you’re aware of what God has placed in your hands and mine. The gospel. The fact that God did something for us we could not do. It’s up to you and me to share it.
There was a wise old man and a very smart little boy. The boy had one desire and that was to trick the old man…to make a fool out of him. So he developed a plan. He had captured a small, very fragile bird in the forest. With the bird cupped in his hands, the boy’s idea was to go to the old man and ask him, “Everyone says you’re so wise, ….. then tell me what do I have in my hands?” The wise old man would then reply “You have a bird, my son.”
Then the boy would ask, “Old man, is the bird alive or is it dead?” If the old man replied that the bird was dead, the smart boy would open his hands and allow the bird to fly off back into the forest. But if the old man replied that the bird was alive, the boy would crush the bird inside his hands, and crush it until at last the bird dies. Then the boy would open his hands and say, “See, the bird is dead!” You’re not so wise after all.
And so as the story goes, the little boy went to the old man and he said, “Old wise man, what do I have in my hands?” The old man replied, “You have a bird, my son.” “Well Old wise man”, the boy replied, “is the bird alive or is it dead?”
And the old man looked at the boy with kindness and he replied, “The answer is in your hands, my son.”
We hold the gospel in our hands. Will we squash it, will we hide it, will hold on to it or will we open our hands so that all the world can hear?
INVITATION. “I will reach ONE.”
