“THE MINISTRY OF MULTIPLICATION” (B)
Isaiah 54:2; Isaiah 59:21 By Daniel W. Baugh, Jr., Ph.D.

II. PHENOMENAL POTENTIAL

Secondly, these texts suggest a phenomenal potential to us. The potential of spiritual multiplication is the same as that of biological multiplication. The only reason we don’t recognize this is that the process of spiritual multiplication has been hidden beneath a thousand other practices and techniques which have prevailed in the church throughout its recent history. We have substituted the building of crowds and institutions for the qualitative building of individuals. Charles Spurgeon, who certainly did not minimize preaching, showed the difference between preaching and disciple-making in this illustration. Suppose, he said, that you place twenty small-mouth bottles some twenty feet away from you. Suppose you took a big bucket of water and tried to fill the bottles. Preaching would be like swinging the bucket in an arc from a distance of twenty feet and trying to fill the bottles by throwing the water toward the bottles. But disciple-making would be like taking the bucket to each bottle one by one, pouring in the water until it is filled, and then moving to the next one. In no way was Mr. Spurgeon (of all people!) depreciating preaching. He was simply admitting the limitations of it and showing the further advantage of New Testament disciple-making.

The fact is that Jesus was too smart to start large, but we seem to be too stupid to start small. The rules for multiplication could be stated like this: Start smart (with the wisdom of God, James 1:5), start small, start slow, start here, start now, and stay steady. Heavy emphasis must be placed upon each of these steps, with great attention given to the study of the standard Jesus followed in building His twelve men. His standard is astounding, and it is doubtful we will ever fathom all of its insights and riches.

I have often said that the multiplying Christian life—the one commanded in the New Testament—is like a game of dominoes. How is a game of dominoes played?

First, it is assumed that the player in the game agrees to play relationally—and according to previously established rules. In the matter of being a Christian, the believer must “play the game” relationally—and according to the previously established rules. There is no such thing as an isolated, free-lance, autonomous Christian! The rulebook must be mastered, or the believer will invariably fail in the game.

Second, the game begins with each player receiving a “hand,” or a “playing mix,” of dominoes. Even so, the Christian life begins at conversion, when the believer receives his “playing mix.” This mix includes the “birthday gifts” which Jesus brings when He comes into the person at salvation, as well as the personality characteristics with which he is endowed.

Third, the first move in the game is the playing of the biggest possible double, and all plays thereafter are made on the basis of that double. The entire Christian movement began when God played His Big Double, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is both God and man! And all plays made thereafter are made from the base of that Double!

Fourth, each player is required to reinvest his hand in the game according to the rules. Even so, the Christian is required to reinvest his life, his gifts, his ministry—his “playing mix”—back into the game, but always according to the rules. Are you carefully following this illustration? Are you practicing the standard set forth in it? Are you personally involved in the disciple-making process according to God’s rules?

Fifth, at the end of the game, the player who has reinvested his entire “hand” back into the game, wins. The player who has nothing left in his own hand at the end of the game wins!

Sixth, the player who has anything left in his hand has it taken away, and its value is given to the person who has reinvested his entire “hand” back into the game!!!!! In His parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), Jesus was speaking of a man who had received a “mix” from his master, a “talent,” but had failed to reinvest it in the game. Jesus said, “You ought to have put my money (the talent) to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received what was mine with a dividend. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him who has ten talents.” Dear Christians, we must be very, very careful with the principles and the practice of the game, because it is WINNER TAKE ALL! But he “wins” by giving everything away, by reinvesting all of his assets in the game. Jesus told us this when He said, “He that saves his own life (hoards his ‘hand’) shall lose it, but he who loses his life (reinvests it recklessly in the game) shall save it.” *I am indebted to my very good disciple-friend Dom Fosco, who is deeply involved in the multiplication process, for the refinement of this illustration.

Remember that New Testament disciple-making requires us to reinvest our total resources in other people according to the rules. The “rules” are modeled in the ministry of Jesus and in the practice of Paul and others in the early church. To see the phenomenal potential of multiplication, one may observe it in spectacular fashion in the world of living organisms. Speaking about biological cell division, Dr. Daniel Mazia, professor of zoology at the University of California at Berkeley, said, “The rule for life is double or nothing. With few exceptions a living cell either reproduces or it dies: the principle is so simple that no one has bothered to call it a principle. A cell is born in the division of a parent cell. It then doubles in every respect: in every part, in every kind of molecule, even in the amount of water it contains.”

Think of this process as revealed in human reproduction and multiplication. One fertilized human cell multiplies itself, in a mere nine months of pregnancy, no less that 120,000,000,000 times! And this does not occur haphazardly, but in such a way as to create the marvel of a human baby with all of its personality and the organic complexity of its human nature built into it. The same phenomenal potential applies to spiritual multiplication, but we are so accustomed to thinking in terms of addition (and division and subtraction!) that we have difficulty conceiving of the phenomenal possibility of multiplication in the spiritual realm. The New Testament, however, often refers to the Church of Jesus Christ as a “Body” of living cells, each one of which is expected to reproduce and multiply many times over.

Did you know that the principle of multiplication is even presented in the Bible in an astounding negative manner? In the Old Testament, whenever Israel followed the Lord and obeyed His laws, they were blessed abundantly (Leviticus 26:3-13). But whenever they disobeyed the Lord, if the nation did not repent, God said, “I will punish you seven times more for your sins” (Lev. 26:18). The former amount of discipline was increased sevenfold (see further, Lev. 26:19-20). If that does not lead to their repentance, God will increase the discipline in a multiplying ratio. Note, this is not mere addition. This is multiplication! “They have sown the wind, they shall reap the whirlwind,” the Bible says. By the time the third cycle of discipline has arrived, the original declared amount of the discipline has been multiplied forty-nine times! You see, dear friend, there is a great deal more judgment in our world, in our communities, in our lives, than we realize. The Eugene Peterson translation of Galatians 6:7 says, “Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.” And everyone knows the staggering potential for multiplication there is in a harvest—if the farmer keeps re-sowing the seed that is produced in each season’s crop! A human being may continue in sin, but stand warned—there is an ever-enlarging harvest coming!

An old adage says, “Anyone can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.” Here is the power of multiplication again, and this time the illustration is positive and beneficial.

Some years ago, a strange exhibit appeared in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. It was in the form of a large checkerboard with the usual sixty-four squares. The square in the lower left hand corner of the board had one wheat seed glued on it. The second square had two, and the third square four; then, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred twenty-eight. Then the process stopped. The rest of the board was empty. A plaque in front of the exhibit explained it. “Note that the wheat seed is doubled with each new square. At the eighth unit, the square was so full of wheat seeds that there was not room for the next succession in the next square. However, had we continued the process through the sixty-fourth square, doubling the sum each time, there would have been enough wheat seeds to fill the entire sub-continent of India fifty feet deep!” You see, this is very difficult for us to realize or appreciate, because we have great difficulty in conceiving such prolific multiplication. Tragically, this handicap applies to our spiritual understanding as well. Each Christian is intended to multiply in a nearly infinite way—but remember, God has established the rules of multiplication, and most Christians are “coloring outside the lines.” Let Christian pastors provide the illustration. Hear this quote: “Often today a pastor will spend perhaps thirty to forty years in the ministry, in perhaps eight or more churches, and would be hard-pressed to name a half dozen people who, as a result of his ministry, have become devoted and effective disciple-makers.” Of course, this statement is not universally true among pastors, but it is tragically far too typical. I was at lunch with a prominent pastor some years ago, and we were discussing the Biblical ministry of disciple-making (at his lead). When I had answered a number of his questions about the disciple-making process, he sadly acknowledged, “Well, after two long pastorates in which I have faithfully preached the Word and led the churches, I don’t think that I could name two multiplying disciple-makers who have emerged out of the two pastorates.” This was said remorsefully, but I fear that his statement echoes the truth of large numbers of leaders. And the rule holds: “Like leader, like people.” If the leader does not understand and practice spiritual multiplication by Jesus-standardized disciple-making, his people will not understand or practice it, either.

The rules of spiritual multiplication could be summed up in a simple succession which may be traced in several passages of the New Testament. We will use I Thessalonians 1:1-4 as an example.

Stage Number One: The Gospel must be confidently proclaimed in a widespread way in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote, “Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” Obviously, evangelism is the necessary first step in disciple-making.

Stage Number Two: The life of Christ must be portrayed in the person of the disciple-maker. Paul said, “Ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.” The Jesus we preach and share must be incarnated in our lives. We must be what we want to reproduce, because everything reproduces after its kind.

Stage Number Three: Other people must volunteer (or be enlisted) to follow the disciple-maker. “And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord.” In I Corinthians 11:1, Paul said, “Be ye imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” In I Corinthians 4:16, he said, “I beseech you, be ye followers of me.” Paul knew that all concepts and practices of the Christian life are best communicated incarnationally and close-up. He literally drew people to himself and shared his life with them. Like Jesus, Paul practiced on-the-job training. Paul wrote to his primary disciple, Timothy, “You have fully known my doctrine, lifestyle, purpose, faith, patience, etc.” Paul assumed the risk of giving his life away to his disciples, and so must we.

Stage Number Four: The disciple-maker must teach the disciple how to multiply through future generations, and hold him accountable to follow the prescribed rules to do so. “Ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.” In every possible way, the disciple must be led to pass the message of the Gospel and the strategy of multiplication on to future generations. Follow the progression in these verses carefully: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy —> the Thessalonian believers —> believers in Macedonia and Achaia —> “in every place your faith in God is spread abroad.” Here is another clear example of spiritual multiplication, and again, the phenomenal potential is revealed.

I want to “interrupt myself” at this point and explain the practical steps in the development of faith. It will be seen that these steps fit into the multiplication process.

Step One: Exposure. The “prospect” for anything Christian must first be exposed to the concept. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Of course, this verse is referring to the imparting of Biblical truth, but it could generally be said that the truth may be walking or written. It may be communicated incarnationally or propositionally. It must be heard and/or seen by the “prospect.”

Step Two: Explanation. Somebody must explain what the prospect has seen. “Be ready always to give an answer (“apologia,” a propositional presentation) to every man who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” (I Peter 3:15). Every Christian should be skilled in making this presentation, so that the prospect will clearly understand the truths, demands and benefits of the Gospel.

Step Three: Experiment. The prospect is responsible to repent of personal sin and trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. “As many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name” (John 1:12).

Step Four: Experience. The initial Christian experience is called “being born again,” or “the new birth.” It is as real an experience, and as radical, as physical birth. We are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and remains forever” (I Peter 1:23).

Step Five: Expression. The newborn believer must express his new faith and life. He must confess Jesus publicly. A newborn Christian can no more hide his new life than a newborn baby can hide its new life. Just as new physical life is expressed in a variety of ways—sound, movement, etc. —it is the same with spiritual life.

Step Six: Expansion. The newborn soul will “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18). Living things will grow. The new Christian will grow. And as he does, he will be the “exhibit point” for somebody else’s exposure to Jesus Christ and the Gospel, and the progression begins again. So these practical steps of a believer’s faith are a part of the multiplication process. What phenomenal potential there is in this process.

Let me resort to a well-known illustration. Suppose there was an evangelist (a Billy Graham type) who could and did win 1,000 people every day to Christ. Each of these persons is a genuine convert to Christ (but only a convert). Suppose you could “freeze” the present population of the world so that nobody else is born and nobody dies until the process of converting the world is completed. Do you know how long it would take to win the present population of the world to Christ at the rate of 1,000 converts per day? It would take roughly 15,000 years! If you had a Pentecost every day (3,000 souls a day won to Christ), it would still take 5,000 years to convert everybody on earth today! But if you achieved a multiplication process in which one maturing Christian trained and discipled another Christian for one year, until the disciple could do the same for someone else, and the two of them repeated the process the second year with two more, and then the third year, the four took four more (producing eight in three year) .... The most obvious thing about this process is that it is so slow; this is the reason many pastors and leaders cannot even imagine becoming involved in such a progression. However, this “slow” process would theoretically pass the evangelist’s rate of conversion at the beginning of the 23rd year—and this process is producing multiplying disciples, not mere converts. Spiritual multiplication, when properly done, has phenomenal potential for world impact. Do not misunderstand this illustration. The illustration is too “neat and tidy” to reflect the dynamic realities of actual relational life. The actual process is not this cut-and-dried, and will be far more erratic.