Share the Word

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Learn what "disciple-making" means as Matthew 4:13 becomes the launching point. Jesus taught the disciples to share the Word, show the Word, teach the Word and serve the World. Two simple words, but a lifetime of modeling the Person of Christ.

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If you have a Bible, and I hope you do. Let me invite you to open to the book of John. Let's start off this morning with a little Bible quiz. One question … probably pretty simple … hopefully. I want to know when and where Jesus said these words? When and where was He when He said, “It is finished?” Anybody know? He was on the cross! Okay. That’s our first answer. That is one of the places where Jesus said those words.
Look at John 19:30.
John 19:30 NKJV
So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
One of the times where Jesus says, “It is finished.” This is where we often immediately think … well, when Jesus said He is finished, He was done, He finished all that He was supposed to do; it was John 19:30.
Does anybody know the other time when Jesus said that He was finished? Turn back two chapters to John 17:4.
John 17:4 NKJV
I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.
Jesus uses the same word there. You kind of miss it because it is translated in some of our translations differently but it says in verse four, “I have brought you glory”—this is Jesus praying to the Father. “I have brought you glory on earth by completing”—or finishing—“the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). Same word in the original language of the New Testament that we see in John 19:30 is now used here in John 17:4.

The Work of Jesus...

Now here is what I want us to do today. I want us to think, if Jesus said it is finished on the cross but He also said I have finished the work you have given me to do in John 17 before He went to the cross. This doesn’t say that the cross wasn’t important, that was obviously a very important part of His work but there was also another work that He was doing here. That He could say even before He went to the cross, “I’ve finished the work you have given me to do.”

The strategy of Jesus on earth revolved around two main aspects...

John 19:30 - A message of redemption

that was the picture on the cross that Jesus was giving His life to redeem men and women, which basically was to restore us to God. That was part of His work and obviously the central part of His work giving His life on the cross but in John 17, before He even went to the cross, He says, past tense, “I’ve finished the work you have given me to do.” What’s He talking about there?

John 17:4 - A method of reproduction

What you’ve got here is two aspects to Jesus work. Yes, He went to the cross and died on the cross to restore us to the Father. At the same time, he’s showing us a picture here of how His work also involved how that message is going to be reproduced throughout the entire world. I think that is the picture we have in John 17. He says this at the beginning of this prayer, “I have finished the work you have given me to do.” Then, he begins to describe that work. Over the next 22 verses we’ve got a picture of Jesus summarizing His work on earth.

In John 17, Jesus never mentions the miracles he performed or the multitudes to whom he preached, but over 40 times he mentions the men whom God had given him out of the world!

So here’s what I want you to do. You’ve got John 17 open. If you are okay with marking in your Bible, here’s what I want you to do. We’re going to read through this prayer and every time you see the word disciples or even us, as disciples of Christ two thousand years later mentioned, then I want you to put a box around each word in this chapter that describes His disciples or us. You might circle it, put a square, underline it or whatever it might be but every time you see the disciples mentioned put a mark there in your Bible. Let’s read this together now.
Now keep in mind; we are coming into a conversation between God the Son and God the Father right before He goes to the cross and He prays this prayer out loud for a reason. His disciples are there in the upper room and they are listening. Here’s what He says, verse 1:
John 17:1–5 NKJV
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Now some of you are thinking, "Alright, we've got a long way to go to get 40 plus times." Well, get your pen ready.
John 17:6–20 NKJV
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
This is where disciples of Christ come in after that, including us...
John 17:20–26 NKJV
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Do you get the point? Over and over and over again, Jesus says at the beginning, “I’ve finished the work you have given me to do.” And then, 40 plus times, He references this small group of men that He had poured His life into. Could it be that His work, yes, exemplified in the cross was preceded by His work of pouring His life into a few men, i.e. making disciples? They were His life that He had poured into so that He comes to the end of His ministry, He says, everything is staked on these guys.

Jesus’ strategy depended on a few disciples’ faithfulness to advance the message of redemption by following His method of reproduction.

His whole work, His whole life in ministry hinged on the faithfulness of these few guys. As a result, I think John 17 gives us a pretty incredible picture of the heart of Jesus, the master disciple maker. It gives us a picture in to: What kind of work did Jesus do on earth? How did He do it? How did He pray for the people around Him? What it’s going to do over the next four weeks, this week and the next three weeks, it’s going to begin to unpack what it means to make disciples. We are going to learn directly from the heart of Jesus, Himself.
And here's the urgent need...

If we do not reproduce ourselves in disciple-making, then we will do a meager job of advancing the message of redemption.

If we do not reproduce ourselves in disciple making, then the message of redemption on the cross in John 19:30 will not be advanced in the way Jesus desires for it to be advanced. You know it’s funny that in a day where we have more faculties and more resources to advance the gospel to the ends of the earth than ever before, in this day and age with all that we have, do you realize that there are more unreached people, more people today on the earth who have never heard Jesus than there were before we invented the horseless carriage.
That brings us to the urgent question...

Will we be faithful to obey His plan?

Will we be faithful to obey His plan? Don’t miss this! Because if this mission is dependent on us using technology and resources wisely, if it depends on us using all the things we have at our disposal, then that means that those who don’t have all those resources, can’t accomplish the mission without them.
So what I want us to do, over the next four weeks, is to dive into four components of what it means to make disciples. If you were not here last week, the goal is that through this series that you would be able to ask anybody at the Church at Brook Hills, “How do you make disciples?” And we would be able to say, “This is how you make disciples.” I want to show you four practical components and not just be able to say we know how to do it but we are doing it. I want you to see a foundation in this prayer and then I want to dive into the first component.
The Foundation of Disciple-Making... So let’s start with the foundation for disciple making. It’s in these first five verses and I want to read back over them one more time. Instead of circling all the “they’s” and “them’s,” I want you to look for one word that is mentioned a couple of different times that really becomes the focus, the driving force, behind this prayer. Listen to John 17:1–5.
John 17:1–5 NKJV
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Did you see one word mentioned five different times? “Glorify your son, that you Son may glorify you; the glory I had with you before the world began.” The driving force in this prayer is the glory of God. We see it in two different ways.

God is glorified in the completion of the Incarnation.

This has been the driving passion at the heart of Jesus. Over and over again in the book of John, I think seventeen different times, we see this emphasis on glorifying the Father through Christ. It is Jesus’ driving passion. In John 12:28 he’s praying, “Father what shall I say, ‘Save me from this hour’ ” as He prepares for the cross and He says in verse 28, “No, this is why I came. Father, glorify your name. Clothe yourself with splendor through my life.”

God is glorified in the continuation of the Incarnation.

But that is not where it stops. If it stops there, with Jesus going back and the incarnation being completed, and that happened two thousand years ago, how does that affect us today and how did that affect these disciples then? What we see is that God is glorified by not just in the completion of the incarnation but God is glorified in the continuation of the incarnation.
Christ is making Himself known through us. We are His hands. We are His feet. We are His mouthpieces. We are the Word made flesh today. That’s why He prayed over and over again for these guys. It is almost as if Jesus is saying to the Father, “Father it is best for your glory that you bring me back to you because when you do then I will show the Word made flesh in each one of these guys as they go out into the world.” The incarnation will continue over, over and over again. Here we are getting into the heart of disciple making.
We know, Scripture is clear, that we were all created to bring glory to God. How do you do that? How do you glorify God? The picture is you let the Word become flesh in you in your life and you let Christ live through you and Him to become a reality in and through you on a daily, on a weekly basis. So that is the foundation. As a result, the Word is at the center of disciple making. The Word and the sense of the person of Christ living in us as well as the Word we are about to read in just a second. It shows the emphasis on His actual words, His commands.

The First Component of Disciple-Making: SHARE THE WORD...

So with that foundation, here’s what I want us to dive into. The first component of disciple making that we are going to see here in John 17. Component #1: To share the Word. This is where disciple making starts. I want us to dive into John 17 verses 6–8 in particular. I want you to see how Jesus began with these guys. How He began to bring them to Himself and how He began to make disciples. Listen to what He says,
John 17:6–8 NKJV
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
Now the overarching theme there is the fact that Jesus has shared the words of the Father with them and they’ve accepted them. Since they obeyed His Word, they accepted His Word, they believed His Word, they had come to that initial point of faith in Christ. That is where disciple-making starts.
We see it not just in Jesus’ life with these guys but in their response to Jesus. Turn with me back to John 1. Go back to the first chapter in John with me. I want you to see three different people that encounter Jesus, This is the introduction to Jesus in John 1 and three different people encounter Him. I want you to see what they do first thing as they encounter Him.
John 1:29 NKJV
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
So as soon as John sees Jesus, he proclaims, he shares the truth about Jesus. “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:40–42 NKJV
One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).
So John sees Jesus, he announces who He is. Andrew sees who He is, and first thing he does is he goes and tells Simon, then look down in verse 44,
John 1:44–45 NKJV
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
So three people encounter Jesus and the first thing they do is what? They share that Word; share Christ; introduce others to Christ—share Christ with people around them. This is the first component of disciple making and it is very simple, it’s natural. If we are going to make disciples of Christ, then we have to introduce people to Christ, right! It only makes sense and it was natural for them in John 1.
What we’ve got to realize first of all is that evangelism is not a program in the church and discipleship is not a program in the church.

Our confidence in sharing the Word is grounded in God's sovereignty, not our savvy

John 17:6–8 NKJV
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
Who is doing most of the work here? It’s the Father! If we didn’t know Jesus’ heart and the way He loved these disciples, we would think He was a little frustrated at this point. God you gave these guys to me. They are not that sharp but they are yours. You put me in this place, and I gave them the words you gave me and now I am stuck with them. So I have come to the end of my life and I’ve finished the work and this is it. The Father’s is sovereign behind this whole thing. He’s the one who gave these guys. He gave the words. He gave them to Him. He sent Him to them. God is sovereign over this whole thing.
I want you to see in those verses what the Father gave Jesus, and the implication is what He gives us.

He gives the people

The Holy Spirit is telling us that we are the Father’s gift to the Son. Let that soak in for a second for you, personally, to realize that you are a gift from God the Father to God the Son, precious and honored and valued by Him in a way that nothing in this world can compare with. So He gave the people, He gave them to Him.
And He will give them to us if we're willing to invest our lives in theirs.

He gives the words

He gives the authority

Could it be since He did it for Jesus, He will also do it for us? He can provide us the people who are ready to hear the Word. He will give us the words to say. And He gives us the authority to share those Words.
He gives us the people; He gives us the words; He gives us the authority! This is why Jesus says at the very beginning of the Great Commission, “All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.” Matthew 11:27, Luke 10:22, both say that all authority has been invested in Jesus. He has authority over every world religion, philosophical system in the world today, to bring people to eternal life. Now, with that behind you, think of the confidence this gives us in making disciples. That He gives us the people, He gives us the words and He gives us the authority.
He gives us the words! He gives us the people! He gives us the authority! This is our confidence in disciple making. It is not dependent on our savvy but on His sovereignty.
Can I let you in on a little secret here? You got to keep it in here okay! Here’s the secret: God’s got this thing rigged! This whole mission is in the hands of the Father and it cannot fail. His plan will be accomplished.

When we share the Word, we share eternal life, not religious laws

Over and over again we see the central purpose of Jesus that the center of His mission was to impart life. So when you come to John 17 and it says, eternal life is this the emphasis is not on the fact that it is everlasting existence, the point is that you now know the everlasting God that you walk with the eternal God. He says that they might know the true God.
This word is more than just intellectual knowledge. It’s a word that we see all throughout Scripture to describe it. Intimate faith and intimate trust. Even in Genesis 4 just to give you a little picture and Greek translation of the Old Testament He uses this word to describe how Adam “knew” his wife Eve and they had a child as a result of “knowing” each other. That is more than intellectual assent in Genesis 4:1. It is an intimate relationship. That is the picture we are getting here of knowing God. Life is found in each and every day from now through all of eternity. Each day exhausting more and more the infinite goodness, grace, mercy and greatness of our God. There is no end to His goodness, no end to His greatness. We will never tire of this life. It starts now!
That’s the picture. So when we share the Word that’s what we share. I want you to think about how we miss this. Often times when we think about sharing the Word and the whole evangelism thing we begin to think about all the things that we need to know to say. Things we need to say. This is what you do. For many people when they talk to others, they get caught up in religion rather than relationship.

If we share laws...

We need to have programs

We need to memorize presentations

We need to organize projects

Now, I am not saying that any of those things are bad in and of themselves. In fact some of them can be very helpful tools, but I want to free you up some. One of the reasons we think we cannot be effective in sharing the Word is because we haven’t been through the program or we don’t know the presentation or don’t have the assigned project when the beauty of it is...

If we share life...

We only need to know a Person

Now some of you at this point are thinking, “Pastor, I’m not buying it. I’ve tried this thing before. I’ve tried to share the gospel and you don’t just need a person you need some help. You need to know what to say how to say this or that and you don’t want to mess up. All these things, you need some training!” I’m not saying training is bad, but I am saying training is not necessary. Did any of these guys in John 1 have training when they introduced these other guys?
Let me bring it into our world. How many of you are grandparents? Those of you who are grandparents let me ask you a question. How many of you, as grandparents, enjoy talking about your grandchildren? Most everybody does. If that is the case, then let me ask you, how many of you trained in how to talk about your grandchildren as a grandparent? How many of you have taken the course?
God help us, what’s on our minds and what’s on our heart comes out of our mouths. May it be so that Jesus Christ is at the center of our minds, and He’s at the center of our hearts so that it comes out of our mouths and may we not be a people who come up with a list of reasons why he’s not coming out of our mouths. May we be a people who share the Word. Let His life flow through you! This is good news that we don’t need these things, we have Jesus who gives us the people, the words, and the authority.

Sharing the Word is designed to humble us and honor Christ

Everything Jesus did pointed back to the Father. It's not about us. It's about Him. Now think about how that relates to us. The greatest obstacle to sharing the Word is fear, anxiety or intimidation, whatever you want to call it, it’s fear. If you have ever felt that kind of fear when it comes to this idea of sharing the Word, I want you to be comforted by this; if you experience fear then that’s a confidence you can have that God designed it for you to have fear. He made it that way. Now you may not think that is very encouraging, but it is because it’s in our fear that He shows His power most clearly. It’s in our intimidation that He shows His strength. This whole thing is designed so that our weaknesses are put on display and His strength is magnified and people don’t say, “This guy did this in my life; they say God did this in my life!”

The comforting truths:

Christ is exalted through our weakness

People are saved through our witness

Some of you are thinking, as we are going into this series on disciple making, “I need to get some things right in my own life and then I’ll start making disciples.” That is not the point. The point is that when we begin to take responsibility for the plan of Christ and give ourselves to making disciples it causes us to shape up. It causes us to do what we have been putting off forever because now our spiritual life is beginning to affect the lives of others around us and that is exactly what Christ said.

The challenging question:

Will we live so that Christ receives glory in others?

Now you see why disciple making cannot be self-centered, and why it is no longer about “in my life.” Put a box around my life, my family, my house and we will live to glorify God. If that is what we do and we make disciples in our house, which we need to be doing, mom’s and dad’s across this room pouring their life in their children and showing them Christ. But if we stop there, then how will we ever reach an unreached world with the gospel?
What happens when, just like we live for those people that are closest to us, we begin to live so the glory of Christ is seen in others around us and we live our Christian lives not for our sake but for others sake so that they see Christ in us? Now you see the core of disciple making! Why it’s not about us, but it’s about them?
That’s what Paul says, you get to 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20. He’s telling the church there, he says, “You are my crown. You are my joy. I live for you. If you succeed with the gospel then that is a picture in my life. I glory in you. You’re my crown. You’re my joy. What happens when an entire faith family of believers begins to see others in their community like that? Or, begins to live for others sake?

So What Now...

Do you know the Word?

Will you share the Word?

God I praise you for your gospel … for your Word … and for the privilege of introducing others to you. God I pray that you would draw people to yourself for the first time. God I trust that you are working in hearts all across this room and I pray that you would bring men and women to eternal life through Christ just as you did all throughout the Gospels. We pray that you would do it here. God we pray that you would raise up your church to surrender ourselves to this mission and that we would begin by surrendering ourselves to sharing the Word. God put on our hearts your heart, your heart for the people around us that we may begin to live so that they see the glory of Christ in us and they come to know eternal life. We pray that you would raise people up, who despite weakness, despite struggle, would trust in your strength and we give ourselves to your plan. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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