Cultivating the Kingdom | Multiply

Last week I spoke about 2 men who dared to defy Earth’s gravity by climbing the Dawn Wall of El Capitan mountain at Yosemite Valley.

In 1972 on the 17th and final mission of the NASA Apollo program, Gene Cernan dared to defy Lunar gravity by becoming the last astronaut to date to touch the moon’s surface.

Hopefully that changes in the next 5 years with the NASA Artemis program.

Following Apollo’s final mission, Gene Cernan quoted Sir Isaac Newton and said that he walked on the moon while standing on the shoulders of giants!

In the middle of the university that I attended - Alderson Broaddus University - Go Battlers! - stands a statue called Apollo.

[[[show Apollo pic]]]

The statue commemorates the Apollo program and lifelong learning with an abstract rendering of one individual standing on the shoulders of another.

Nearly every day for four years I passed by the statue. Sometimes I walked right by it without giving another thought, but other times, I passed by the statue and thought about all of the people in my life who hoisted me higher to reach further!

In fact, the very reason why I am standing on this platform today is because of countless individuals who invested into my spiritual growth and maturity.

As I reflect on this, my heart feels overwhelmed by all the men and women who stood in the gap for me, including my mom, grandparents, great grandparents, my in laws, uncles, pastors, scout leaders, coaches, professors, and a special mention to a cadre of octogenarian men from my childhood church who modeled Christ to my brother and me Christ with a humble servant hearted love and also told us some really rad stories from world war 2.

Lord knows I needed every single one, including our very own senior pastor who has been like a father in the faith and a mentor in the ministry to me.

I thank God every day for providing me with broad shoulders of men and women on which to stand firm and hoist others to reach greater heights!

This past week, at student camp, 145 teenagers stood on the shoulders of more than 60 leaders ranging in age from 19 to 72 to reach higher.

These 3 pictures show just a glimpse of how kingdom multiplication occurs when a few make themselves lower to help others grow higher.

[[[Christy Rodriguez pic]]]

[[[Macgowan and Camacho pic]]]

[[[.                                                    Pic]]]

Revelation 12:11 says, “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

Victory, faith, and the regeneration of new life and kingdom growth come by way of sharing the story of Jesus’s salvation in you through his sacrifice on the cross!

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; [[[it is gone, don’t go back to it! Stop going back to it. Leave it on the cross where it belongs. ]]] a new life has begun! 1 Corinthians 5:17.

Regeneration and new life always leads to multiplied growth.

I once heard someone offer a leadership axiom that said, ‘healthy things grow,’ which means healthy leadership grows others.

In our current series, Cultivating the Kingdom, we’re seeking to build high by growing deep in 3 key characteristics of kingdom leadership:

model, mentor, and multiply.

Jesus demonstrated every one of these characteristics throughout his life and ministry.

With every step he made, he sought to cultivate the kingdom in others, and in John’s Gospel, we see Jesus embody all three of these characteristics most acutely and urgently in the final hours before his death and the first hours after his resurrection.

In the first message of this series, we learned how Jesus modeled the kingdom through humble, servant hearted love in John chapters 12-13, and we asked the question of ourselves: what are you modeling because behaviors model beliefs?

Then, last week, in John chapters 14-17, though we only referenced John 14, we observed how Jesus mentored kingdom leadership by offering the opportunity for all people to grow in clarity, discovery, and empowerment through his Word in the community of his Body, the church. As God’s people, we closed with the challenge to defy gravity together by finding someone to help you grow so that you can help someone else.

Today, in the final message of this series, John records Jesus in the first moments after his resurrection giving a clear, unwavering call to all those who follow him to multiply God’s Kingdom through others.

Today, Jesus confronts us with the question: whose kingdom am I cultivating? Whose standing on your shoulders to see further and reach higher?

First on the scene on Easter Sunday morning, Mary arrived at the tomb to care for Jesus’ body, but much to her surprise, she saw no body.

Nobody expected to see no body, so she ran back to town to tell Peter and John. They rushed to the tomb, and after they saw no body, too, they went back home, but Mary stayed to mourn the loss of her Lord.

Beginning in chapter 20, verse 11:

11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. John 20:11-12

John wants us to notice that the image Mary saw resembled the lid to the Ark of the Covenant called the ‘Mercy Seat’ or the ‘Atonement cover.’

[[[show picture of the Ark of the Covenant]]]

In Number 7:89, we learn, “When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him.

In addition to Yahweh God meeting Moses atop the cover on his Mercy Seat, the atonement cover also held a significant role in Israel’s most sacred worship ceremony of the year: the Day of Atonement. On this day, a series of sacrifices would be offered on the atonement cover to make amends for the sins of all God’s people.

The Atonement Cover foreshadowed the time when God would one day accomplish the complete forgiveness of our sin through Christ Jesus. In the tomb where Jesus’ sacrificed body laid, Mary saw the fullness of God’s atonement for sin. The empty tomb was Jesus’ Mercy Seat. It was no longer a cover on the ark. It was an empty grave. In the death and resurrection victory of Christ, God atoned for the sins of the whole world!

John continues:

13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him.

15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener.

“Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

16 “Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). 17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” John 20:13-17

Here, John so subtly, yet majestically, records the most pivotal moment in world history…

[[[which as an aside, Jesus revealed to a woman. Mary was the first human being in history to herald the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. Every good news announcement ever since has been a progression of Mary’s first announcement.]]]

Jesus’ resurrection redefined God’s relationship with humanity.

In verse 17, Jesus said to Mary, Go find my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. John 20:17

Up to this point in John’s Gospel, Jesus had only spoken about God as ‘the father’, or ‘the father who sent me’, or ‘my father,’ and had only referred to his followers as ‘disciples’, ‘servants’ and ‘friends’.

But following Christ’s victory over death in the resurrection, Jesus leveled up a whole new way for us to relate to God the Father, as our God and our Father, and to Christ himself as our brother, representing our restored relationship to God.

He made a way for God’s people to know the Father with the same kind of intimacy and depth as the Son knows the Father. We are his sons and daughters, and Jesus is our Brother who intercedes on our behalf with the Father.

From the beginning, this was always God’s intention. God created Adam and Eve in his own image and related to them in full intimacy without any barrier to their connection.

God said to Moses: This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son. Exodus 4:22.

God said to Jeremiah: I am Israel’s father. Jeremiah 31:9.

God’s heart has always been to love his people like a good father loves his children, but our sin divided us against God and one another.

Yet, because of the Father’s love for us, he sent his Son to us to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He atoned for our sins, reconciled our relationship to the Father, and made the impossible possible in Christ Jesus.

Following Jesus’ first interaction with Mary, John records that later that same day, Jesus visited with his disciples.

Beginning in verse 19:

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them!

“Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!

21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:19–23.

Scared and hiding, Jesus mysteriously appeared to the 11 - minus Judas - and showed them his wounds.

He wasn’t a ghost or a premonition of his former self. Rather, Jesus was alive, but different.

Jesus said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. John 20:21.

In their presence, Jesus charged his disciples then and now to continue the Father’s work by helping others live free from sin and restored to their Heavenly Father.

Then, John says that Jesus breathed on them, and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit,’ who is our advocate and ever present help to empower us with his strength and wisdom.

One of the images that John weaves into his Gospel is the image of new creation: ‘anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person.’

We saw this image a moment ago when Mary confused Jesus with the gardener, who in a very real way, now tends to a new fruit-bearing, multiplying garden called the church.

Jesus’ breath is a direct teference back to the garden when God breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” Genesis 2:7.

In the beginning, Creator God breathed life into humankind, and now our Risen Lord breathes eternal life and the gift of his Spirit into all those who place their trust in him.

The breath of his Spirit is what energizes us to continue his work in the world, to do “even greater works” John 14:12, to cultivate the kingdom through multiplied leadership, and to engage with one another through humble, servant hearted love.

His breath is life. His breath is your strength.

Then, Jesus said something that I don’t think anyone expected to hear:

If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. John 20:23.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, doesn’t God alone forgive sins, then you’d be right. God did this once and for all in Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. It’s done.

The Apostle Paul captured this principle when he wrote,

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8–9.

God alone achieved our salvation. There’s nothing you can do to earn it. It’s yours to receive, and if all you do is receive it, then your life is secure in Christ for all eternity.

Period, full stop.

But, imagine if someone bequeathed you a large gift in their death, but you never accessed it?

Jesus gave you the gift of his salvation, so whose kingdom are you building with it?

His salvation work is done, but the mission isn’t over. Now the next phase of kingdom building continues through us, his church, Christ’s living Body in the world, not as his special forces or favorite people, but as ones who have been reconciled with the Father through the Son.

Jesus’ charge to send us into the world only makes sense in the context of our restored relationship to the Father, which means: as Christ’s Body in the world, we can only cultivate the kingdom insofar as we remain connected with the Father through the Son by the power of God’s Spirit alive in us.

Thus, when we announce the message of Christ’s forgiveness to all who place their trust in him, the Lord forgives sin through us. If you forgive someone, the Lord forgives them.

Likewise, when we warn others about the serious consequences of their sin, which Jesus says: “steal, kill, and destroy.” John 10:10, Jesus shows the way to God’s healing forgiveness through us.

As the church, we neither save nor condemn. Rather, Jesus invites us to serve as his hands and feet to offer his forgiveness of sin, as well as his warning against sin.

What a high honor that Jesus would invite us to lead with him!

This means that - like Jesus - we need to get up close and personal with others, share life, and let others get to know us, not as people better than others but as graced people showing grace.

Modeling what you believe in your behaviors and mentoring others to reach greater heights!

Like compound interest, the constant return to modeling and mentoring the Gospel produces multiplied fruit over time to cultivate kingdom growth.

Multiplication is the result of modeling and mentoring.

Jesus showed this to his disciples by giving them a haul of 153 fish in John 21. While this number may very well be part and parcel to eyewitness testimony, some scholars have speculated about what that number means.

A trusted 4th century theologian named Jerome speculated that the number 153 represented all the known species of fish in the first century, indicating that Jesus desires to fish for every known person in the world.

Regardless of what John meant by 153, we know for sure that Jesus provided a massive return on their effort and every person matters to God.

We don’t save them, but Jesus does call us to go looking for them. Why? Because someone obediently followed Jesus to help you find and follow him.

That’s how kingdom multiplication works.

Missionary D.T. Niles once said that sharing the Gospel is really about one 'beggar telling other beggars where to find food.”

That’s the simplest definition to kingdom multiplication.

We forgive. We warn. We help. We lead, and we offer the way to find living water to quench our dry and weary souls.

It begins with a restored relationship to the Father, Jesus’ Spirit made alive in you, and his provision to help you multiply faith in others.

One Christ Journey family has modeled kingdom multiplication throughout the years. Let me introduce you to the Jagessar family.

[[[Jagessar story]]]

----transition out of their story

Multiplication always results from new life.

The lower we make ourselves for the sake of others, the higher we grow together as a community!

Cultivating kingdom leadership requires all of us, regardless of social, ethnic, or economic standing - no one’s exempt. We need all of us serving together. That’s the beauty of the Kingdom. Everyone has a place, and we need each other to reach the highest heights.

All of you have been given a gift to cultivate kingdom multiplication:

For some compassion

Others justice

Some of you have extraordinary gifts for leadership

Others of you are prayer intercessors

Jesus doesn’t prescribe a method for multiplying kingdom building. The method changes depending on time and culture. Don’t get caught up in the method. Get caught up in the mission.

Date the method, marry the mission.

He invites you to join him as he breathes his Spirit of life and shalom peace on you, so are modeling and raising up leaders “for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:12-13

Are you stepping into the fullness of your Christ-given calling, empowered by His Spirit alive in you?

Whose kingdom am I cultivating?

Only one kingdom wins in the end, and if you’re not cultivating your Heavenly Father’s, then you’re cultivating something else.

Let me close with this: this past week, I saw a picture posted by a productivity influencer named Michael Hyatt on LinkedIn.

[[[show 90 dot pic]]]

This is a picture of 90 dots, each one representing a single year in a 90 year old person’s life.

When I saw this, I thought: Life is a vapor.

Live with your legacy in mind. Who needs your presence? Who needs Christ’s forgiveness through you, his warning spoken through your tongue, his grace, mercy, and love modeled and mentored by you?

Who needs to be lifted on your shoulders to see further and reach higher?

[[[Jim Thurmond pic]]]

Tell his story…

Don’t live this life just for yourself. You’ve been saved. You’ve been called, and you’ve been commissioned. Choose today to cultivate kingdom leadership that builds into eternity.

Will you pray with me?

VISUALS:

[[[show Apollo pic]]]

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

Model, Mentor, and Multiply.

Whose kingdom am I cultivating?

Nobody expected to see no body

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. John 20:11-12 NLT

[[[show picture of the Ark of the Covenant]]]

“When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him. Numbers 7:89 NIV

“Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” John 20:13-17 NLT

Go find my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. John 20:17 NLT

This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son. Exodus 4:22. NLT

I am Israel’s father. Jeremiah 31:9. NLT

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:19–23. NLT

Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. John 20:21. NLT

God breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Genesis 2:7. NLT

‘Even greater works’ John 14:12 NLT

If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. John 20:23. NLT

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8–9. NLT

Steal, Kill, and Destroy. John 10:10 NLT

Graced people showing grace.

Missionary D.T. Niles once said that sharing the Gospel is really about one 'beggar telling other beggars where to find food.”

Jagessar Story

The lower we make ourselves for the sake of others, the higher we grow together as a community!

Date the method, marry the mission.

For works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:12-13 NIV

Whose kingdom am I cultivating?

[[[show 90 dot pic]]]