Pass It On

By Jon Walker

“… The news of your faith in God is out. We don't even have to say anything anymore—you're the message!” 1 Thessalonians 1:8)

God expects you to intentionally work at reproducing the life of Christ in others. You have this Jesus-deposit in you, and so God wants you helping others to become more like Christ.

Consider this: The mission is so vast, and your role is so critical, that he really wants you to be in thousands of places at once. Now, you may be thinking that’s humanly impossible and that God isn’t likely to defy his laws of nature to somehow place you in several different places at once. But God’s strategy is so simple; we might call it common sense.

He wants to work through you with his supernatural strength, guiding you to just the right places at just the right time to meet just the right people, so you can train them so thoroughly in God’s great truths that they will become living, breathing examples of Christ.

The Jesus-deposit in you transfers to them, and then they transfer it to others. In a sense, you are now able to teach simultaneously all over the globe because “Christ in you” is now “Christ in others.”

Some scholars call this the ministry of multiplication; it is the New Testament model for spreading God’s Good News rapidly through the intentional discipleship of believers. As the people you disciple, or lead to the Lord, share their faith, the Good News ripples across the global pond.

This is how the early church grew. The first followers of Christ welcomed with joy the message given by the Holy Spirit, and so they became a model to all the believers—their faith in God became known everywhere (1 Thessalonians 1:6-8). These were ordinary people, passing on the message they’d heard and received to the people around them, and then to the people beyond their own provinces.

Jesus compared this to the way yeast works, multiplying exponentially. In this week’s Bible verse (2 Timothy 2:2), Paul says he passed the message on to Timothy, who was to pass it on to other faithful believers, who would, in turn, pass it on others—that’s four generations of multiplication (2 Timothy 2:2)!

From now on –

• You are part of the equation. God expects you to multiply the Jesus-deposit he’s placed in you. You do this by intentionally passing it on to others, helping them to become faithful believers who will pass it on to others.

• Teach others, who can teach others, who can ... “And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2:2)

• Question: How would your life be different if others had not worked to reproduce the life of Christ in you?

Evangelism:

"It is the Holy Ghost in us that is everything, and the Father is willing to bestow Him upon the weakest if he will only ask in the spirit of implicit faith and entire self-surrender. My cry these days is for a Pentecost, first on myself and my missionary brethren, and then on the native Church, and then on the heathen at large." – Griffith John