MissionExemplo

Human Scale Super-Heroes 

In the first couple of days of this Bible reading plan we looked at ‘big picture’ texts about the global mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are many others, most notably, ‘the great commission’ of Matthew 28:18-20 (‘Go and make disciples of all nations…’). And as inspiring as such truths can be, they can leave us wondering, ‘How?’ ‘What can I do toward such a gigantic mission?’ 

So, our last text brings things down to size. It’s sort of like moving from Thor and Iron Man and their extra-terrestrial super villains to Ant Man and your friendly, neighbourhood Spider-Man, super heroes on a more human scale. This text is a human-scale super-hero text, punctuated by what is sometimes called ‘the multiplication mandate’: 

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2:2).

Paul is writing to his disciple Timothy, probably from a prison cell in Rome, not long before his death. He’s determined to solidify his life’s work. And so, in this bit of the letter, he outlines the strategy. Paul has discipled Timothy. Timothy is to disciple ‘reliable people’. And ‘reliable people’ are to disciple ‘others’. Inside of this one verse were’ looking at three generations of discipling (1- Paul to Timothy; 2- Timothy to reliable people; 3-reliable people to others). 

This is how the great commission (‘Go and make disciples of all nations…’) is to look at the street level, across the table, on a human-scale. And it is the only way to approach winning the whole world for Jesus. 

If you’re not convinced, here’s a bit of 3rd grade math. If you were the best evangelist ever and saw a ten thousand people get saved every single day of every year of your adulthood and lived a long life, say to a hundred, we’re looking at 10,000 daily converts x 365 days x 80. That’s 290,200,000 conversions! 290 Million! Hallelujah! 

But, there are 7,7 billion people alive, today. And in 80 years, some projections put us over 11 billion people! And so while 290 million is historic, it isn’t enough (and, let’s admit, 10,000 conversions every day? Come on!). 

That’s why we need to apply the multiplication mandate of 2 Timothy 2:2. And it is something each of can do. That is, we don’t have to be a fantastic speaker or organizer or leader or theologian. We just have to find a ‘Timothy’ to disciple, to replicate ourselves in, to formally help to follow Jesus, to assimilate ‘Timothy’s’ life to Jesus and assimilate Jesus’ life into ‘Timothy’s’. And then have ‘Timothy’ do that with some ‘reliable people’. And then have those ‘reliable people’ do that with ‘others’ (all the while picking up new ‘Timothys’ ourselves along the way). 

But does the math stack up? Let’s try. If you discipled one person this year, there’d be two by the end of the year. And if each of you discipled another person next year, we’d have four by year end. And if the four of you each discipled another, then there’d be eight by New Year’s eve (three years). Eight becomes 16 in year 4… 

32 in year 5

64 in year 6

128 in year 7

256 in year 8

512 in year 9

1,024 in year 10

2,048 in year 11

4,096 in year 12

8,192 in year 13

16,384 in year 14

32,768 in year 15

65,536 in year 16

131,072 in year 17

262,144 in year 18

524,288 in year 19 

1,048,576 in year 19 

2,097,152 in year 20 

4,194,304 in year 21 

8,388,608 in year 22

16,777,216 in year 23

33,554,432 in year 24

67,108,864 in year 25

134,217,728 in year 26

268,435,456 in year 27 

536,870,912 in year 28 

1,073,741,824 in year 29

2,147,483,648 in year 30 

4,294,967,296 in year 31 

8,589,934,592 in year 32.

17,179,869,184 in year 33.

That’s 17 billion people – way larger than the projected world’s population in 33 years (which leaves us a bit of room for casualties here and there – depending on when they occur during this process). [yes, there are a lot of factors impinging on this simplistic exercise, but you get the idea]

Addition doesn’t win the world for Jesus; Multiplication can. 

This is our mission.