Building Gospel Bridges: Kingdom Multiplication

The concept of Kingdom Multiplication stands as the final distinctive in our church's foundational series—a vision that propels us forward and completes the circle begun with expository preaching. Just as Christ began the Great Commission with His authority and ended with His presence, this message shows how our future growth depends on both divine power and practical action.

Diving deep into Matthew 28:18-20, we discover that the heart of discipleship isn't complicated—it's about one Christian who's a little further along taking a younger believer under their wing. The command to "make disciples" breaks down into three practical steps: evangelizing (going), initiating (baptizing), and instructing (teaching). This simplicity cuts through our excuses and reveals that every Christian—regardless of age, education, or experience—is called and qualified to participate in this mission.

What sets this message apart is the introduction of the "gospel tipping point"—the transformative moment when 20% of a community becomes Christian, creating a cultural shift that impacts everyone. For Henderson County, that means 1,400 people confessing Christ as Lord—an audacious goal that keeps us dependent on prayer and divine intervention. Through community engagement events, personal evangelism, intentional discipleship, and eventually church planting, we lay the groundwork for multiplication that extends beyond our lifetime.

The most powerful moments come when we're challenged to consider our eternal legacy rather than worldly recognition. As we build "gospel bridges" through service and love, we create pathways for truth to reach those who might initially react with fear or hostility. Kingdom multiplication isn't about institutional growth—it's about participating in God's redemptive work that extends far beyond our physical church walls.

Ready to move beyond spiritual consumption to kingdom contribution? Join us in pursuing a mission bigger than ourselves—one transformed life at a time.

Chapters

• 0:00 Kingdom Multiplication: Our Last Distinctive
• 7:08 The Great Commission Explained
• 17:44 Three Steps to Making Disciples
• 25:48 Gospel Tipping Point: Our Larger-Than-Life Goal
• 29:08 Reaching Out Through Community Engagement
• 34:13 Growing Through Evangelism and Discipleship
• 35:50 Multiplying Our Church's Kingdom Impact

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Tonight we'll be going through our last distinctive, which is kingdom multiplication. Similar to how the beginning we learned about expository preaching as our first distinctive, and it's kind of the anchor upon which everything is grounded. Kingdom multiplication is more of the vision for the future of where we are going and how we're going to get there. So if you will, please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20. Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, and this is God's holy word. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Let us pray. Father, we ask that you would bless this time where we preach and teach your word, where we receive your truth. Please give us ears to listen. Help us to honor your truth. And Lord, may your word go into our hearts and change us from the inside out and transform us and make us new. Please help us to set biblical, God-honoring guardrails for this church. That the train tracks that we begin today would be sure and steady and steadfast for the years and years to come. And may you be honored and glorified in everything that is thought and done and said in this church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we'll go through this verse by verse, and then I'll show you kind of an interesting graphic to help balance out what this is going to look like in a simple way. This is called the Great Commission. It is the ultimate and final command of all Christianity. It says, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Now everyone knows the go therefore and make disciples of all nations part, and yet that part, that command, cannot exist outside of their first being an authority for this ultimate command. So Jesus begins and ends with what we're going to call security. He says, Do not worry about trying to fulfill this command on your own, in your own power, in your own authority, in your own way. All authority, not some, not a little bit, not most, but all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It's not split up, it's not divided. There is no equality where Jesus gives you all the power and says, Now you have all the power. He always has all of the power that is the force behind the Great Commission. And then in verse 19, the actual command begins and it says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Now this is a this is where learning some Greek is helpful because in the original languages, the word go there is actually not a verb. It's a participle for the main verb, the only verb that's in this entire sentence, which is to make disciples. So the command is to make disciples. And then we'll have three hows to get that done. It is impossible to make a disciple without first going. So for instance, earlier in Matthew, you'll see Jesus give certain commands where he says, go and take this. The implication being it would be impossible to go take something if you didn't go to it to take whatever it is. So it can be translated as a verb, and rightly actually is, but it is a subordinate verb to the primary, which is to make disciples. Jesus says, All authority is mine, and thus, as my followers, here is my final will and testament. Make disciples. Now I don't know about you, but I have not grown up my Christian life with that being the bread and butter of my life. That has not been the blood, sweat, and tears that I've worked for every year of my Christianity. You see, most of my Christianity was spent looking for someone to disciple me. Most of my Christianity was spent watching people drop the ball and fail to pass the baton. It is very easy to get comfortable in our own salvation and to put on cruise control. And to say the famous, the famous phrase in most churches is, I've already done my time. I already did that. I already served. I already sacrificed. In that moment, we act as though God has not given us the breath in our lungs today as a living sacrifice to be given back to Him in worship. You see, the art, the necessity, the action of making disciples does not begin or end anywhere within my Christian life, but rather as a command that supersedes my Christian life. And as I'm installed as a Christian, it is already a part of me. Every Christian is a disciple, and every Christian must be a disciple maker. And you and I can get overwhelmed and use way too many words to describe a disciple or the discipling process. And what we said earlier when we were teaching doctrine is that discipleship is very simply one Christian who's a little further along, taking a younger Christian, living life with them, and teaching them the things they've learned and they know. That's it. It's not complicated. There's no degrees required, there's no title that's necessary for that. In fact, the only title that is necessary for this position is to be called a son or daughter of the Most High King. Nothing else qualifies us for this position of disciple maker. And this is the ultimate focus of the gospel. The ultimate focus of the gospel is that it spreads, that it goes forth. And the go, you'll see, if we do the participles in a row, the first participle is go, the second one is baptizing, and the third one is teaching. Those are not verbs, they're participles. So it is impossible to make a disciple without first going. So what is the go emphasizing in the Great Commission? The go is emphasizing the beginning of discipleship, which is actually evangelism. It is impossible to make a disciple who has not been evangelized, which is why we must go and make disciples. So you and I are all commanded by Jesus in his last words here on earth to go forth into the world and to preach the good news. Now, again, this is important as well because I grew up in church. I never once thought that. And yet I have been idle. I have dropped the ball. I have failed to pass the baton. I have not taken advantage of the opportunities that God has given me. Because there are people in my life that I have been able to reach with the gospel that you would never be able to reach. And there are people in your life that you can reach with the gospel that would never come to this church, that would never set foot in a church, and yet God is calling you to be able to reach out to them with the gospel truth, with the life-changing, life-saving-altering truth of God. It is impossible to make a disciple without going, and the going is evangelism. Thus, every Christian is not only automatically qualified and quantified into a disciple maker, but is also immediately qualified to be an evangelist. That does not mean that you need to get behind a pulpit, doesn't mean you need to get a microphone and go preach in the cities or on any street. But it does mean that you and I should take Peter's exhortation truly as it is, and be ready to give a defense, to give an answer for the hope that is inside us. And when we don't have that, we are dropping the ball. That should be something that's in our hearts that pushes us and says, I need to train more, I need to ask more questions, I need to read more, I need to ask for help more. And every Christian is an evangelist. Why? Because God said so. It is not a position, it is a practice. You and I are not uh like we don't we don't have this like uh moment where we're like, okay, on Tuesdays at 8 a.m. I'm an evangelist, and I go into my work on Tuesday mornings, and I'm really intentional to share the gospel on that day. No, no, no. I live in a sphere of life where at all times I am prepared not only to build someone up in the faith, but also to reach out to a dying and dark world and show them the light that changed me. This is not a light matter, and yet often it's something we take for granted. The Christian life is one that is so overwhelming in different ways, and yet you and I will make it a performance mindset when it comes to reading our Bibles or your prayer time or your attendance. But it's very rare that you find that in the average church there's this competitive nature, this performance unhealthy mindset when it comes to sharing the gospel with other people. We don't actually go there. Like there's like something that's missing where we're like, uh, yeah, no, that one's a little too uncomfortable. That one's a little too hard. So the interlegalist in my mind says, we don't want to go there. You and I are commanded to go and make disciples. Now, to make a disciple, the word actually, the root of it, is to create a follower. So we're creating followers of who? Of all nations, which is why the local church is God's primary plan for evangelizing the world. That's why the most important missions we will ever spend our time investing into, our money investing into, our energy, is not over there, but is right here. Most churches are out of balance when it comes to their viewpoint of giving towards missions out there when they have neighbors whose names they don't know. You and I are called to this local area. All nations will be evangelized and we will focus on missions. But the primary intent of this church, why God has planted this church, is for this area. You and I are to go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. How do we do that? What does it look like? The words baptizing and teaching, I want you to think of them as these two words instead. They could very easily be the words initiating and instructing. What does it look like to make a disciple? Well, we evangelize, and then once they are a disciple, we initiate them, and then we instruct. It says to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Number one, we need to recognize that that is one of the beautiful moments where the Trinity is highlighted. The word name is singular, and yet Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all referring to that. Our God is three and one. And when we baptize, we baptize in those three names because our God is triune. Now, here is what this is not trying to narrowly focus on is just the moment that you dunk someone in the water. That's not what this is about. Again, the heart behind this is the initiating. It is the idea of we evangelize to the world, and there's a moment where they're wrestling with their faith. And they're wrestling with, am I a Christian? And they're wrestling with, is this for real? Am I gonna change my life because of this? We are to be there with them, which is why the idea of a crusade is nice theoretically, but leaves many people high and dry, wondering what happened. Because the process is not to be disjointed. It is necessary and helpful if the person who evangelized you is also the person who initiates you, who also is the person who instructs you along the way. That continuity creates a strength of bond of relationship. It creates a security that you and I crave, that we need. There is this moment where we've taken them from understanding the gospel intellectually to agreeing with the gospel that the gospel is true, to now they are trusting in the gospel. And they're able to look at you with a clear mind and a clear heart and say, I believe this with everything I have. And in that moment, it's now our job to say, here's the next step. Don't stop, don't delay. There's something great on the other side. In the same way that when you have a young couple that want to get married, and they got their finances in a row and their lives are on track and they've gone through their counseling and they got the things in order and everything's ready to go. If they looked at you and said, We're gonna wait a couple years to get married still, though, you would say, I don't know, that's the wisest course of action. It would be wise probably to do it sooner rather than later, since you guys have already done all this work and you have everything already prepared. In a similar sense, with young Christians, with baby Christians here, we want to urge them into this obedience once they've shown the fruit, once they have a living testimony of the God who changes people, they are able in that moment to say, I want to be baptized. And in that moment, they are then symbolically showing and declaring to the world what has already happened on the inside. They're making an announcement, much like a marriage ceremony, of what has already happened in their heart and in their life. And after that, then we initiate them into membership in a church, because a baby with no family will die. And so we put them into the family and say, Come and eat at the table. There's room for you. Sit next to me. And we hold their hand and we go to the next part, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. We make disciples by initiating. We evangelize, we initiate, and then we instruct. And this is really important because there is a sense in which our culture is anti-intellectual. It's very into like, what do you feel about this? And I'm here to tell you that what you feel about a certain sense of scripture doesn't matter that much in comparison to what the scripture actually means, what the authorial intent of the God of the universe was when he wrote it. What we teach matters. And so are we to teach them the traditions of our church? Uh you don't sit in that pew because the parkers sit there. Uh yeah, we don't run in the church building after church because it's improper. Do we act as if those things are law? I could go on, but I'm not going to. Or do we realize that our job is a lot simpler than that? You and I are not meant to keep the status quo. In fact, our job is much, much simpler than that. God says, Here's what you tell them. Read my word with them. Explain my word to them. And then encourage them to follow it. And that's it. There's nothing else. There's no complicated order here. There's not a make sure that you don't offend that family or do these things. Make sure you dress a certain way on Sunday morning, or else people will look at you. It is ultimately and totally about God and his word. And I'm here to tell you that if you and I, our traditions were as important as God's word, they would be in the Great Commission. But they're not. Our preferences do not take priority. God's word is the ultimate priority. And God says, here is how you make a disciple. The ultimate command I have for your life, Christian. Every single one of you, whether you're single, whether you're old, whether you're young, whether you're married, whether you have a wife, kids, grandkids, it does not matter. Your job description is to go and to tell people the gospel. And if you can't do that, you need to get training. You need to ask questions. You need to grow. From there, it is to initiate those that you have preached the gospel to and to hold their hand as they take those first steps of faith. And from there, it is now a lifetime journey of teaching them not your preferences, not your opinions, but God's word. You see, if I teach my disciple my opinion, they might modify their behavior for a season. And it will get uncomfortable and they will eventually crack, and they'll realize that the foundation upon which they changed was not eternal. People do not change truly because of what we say. They change truly because of what God has said. And when we are the tool upon which God uses for them to understand what God has said, then we can hope and pray that one day we will hear the words, Well done, my good and faithful servant. This is the task. This is the task of family shepherds. This is the task of moms and grandmas. This is the task of neighbors. No one is not included in this. Now, Jesus began with his authority, and then he ends with his security. And he says, And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. He begins by saying, My authority, that is everything I give to this command. So don't worry, you're not like gonna go in there and preach the gospel, and people are gonna be like, Who are you? Like, it doesn't matter who I am. At the end of the day, when I'm weak, when I fail, when I falter, when I lose hope, I can look at Christ's words and he says, I am with you always. That's my Jesus. My Jesus doesn't give up on me when I fail or fall short. He doesn't give up on me when I give into the same sin again. He doesn't give up on me when I refuse to share the gospel again when I should have. What's at stake is an eternal legacy. You see, many people in the world are worried about what the world will say and think about them in this life. Some are worried about what the world will say and think of them when they die. The only thing that you and I should be worried about is what people will say and think about us when we are in eternity. You see, there will be no greater joy in your life than if God were to use you one time with one person to share the gospel with them, and their life is changed forever. And you're in heaven one day, and you see them, and you bur you both are in eternal joy and bliss and hope and love, and there is nothing holding either of you back, and there is no sin and no crying and no pain. There will be nothing to take that moment away from you, and Christ will look at both of you and will say, I have loved you, and I will always love you. Let us live like we are dying. Let us live like the world around us is dying. Because this life is soon to be gone, and only what we do for eternity will matter. If we're to break this down, the picture I have on the next slide makes it very easy. That the command is to make disciples, and there's three hows. The first how is to go, the second how is to baptize, the third is to teach, and we are resting in the security that Jesus is with us. Now, with all that being said, you can go to the next slide. There is this phrase that Tim Keller came up with that I really enjoy called the gospel tipping point. Some of you might have heard me talk about this, but now it's official. The gospel tipping point is really what I call a larger-than-life goal. And those are good because those are the ones that make it so that you and I can't be proud if this happens in 50 years. Those are the ones that make us realize our desperate need for prayer and for God to do something. Here's the idea of the gospel tipping point that when 20% of an area's population becomes Christian, their collective influence leads to a broad, positive cultural transformation within the entire community, impacting non-Christians as well. The idea being this that when one out of every five people in a community are Christian, how you talk to someone at the gas station changes. How people react to crime and to prejudice changes. And so that's the goal. Now, will that happen in your lifetime or mine? I don't know. But I would rather have a larger-than-life goal that keeps us constantly looking to the future, that keeps us constantly looking to the Savior, than to create a minuscule goal that allows us all to put on cruise control and to relax and to say, hey, we made it. Don't worry, Pastor Dan's salary is covered. So we can just relax now. That's not the point. There is so much more to life than that. So that number, if you're curious, would be 1,400 people in Henderson County that would confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Now you might look at that and your face might drop and you might say, okay, that sounds insane. But I'm here to tell you that if you and I will strive for a lifetime, I believe that God can save 1,400 people through the efforts of our ministry. And it might begin this year with just one person, but that's great. Because if we can make the next year two people and go from there and multiply degree by degree and make our lives matter for more than just this moment, I think you'll be surprised at what God will do. So there's three things that we need to do to make this happen. The first is we need to reach out. Next slide. So how do we reach out? Well, we have two primary things that we do at this church. You guys know them well. I've talked to them about them a couple times. We have the fall block party, which is an event for us to engage our community and build gospel bridges through fun activities, food, and fellowship. And our goal in this is to show the people of our area that we are normal people just like them and that we would love to serve them in this way. You see, the people in our area do not care how much you care about them, how much gospel truth you have that can save them, until they're able to see how much you care for them. Today. So, the love we show today, we pray God will use to build a gospel bridge for tomorrow. The other event that we will do, these are all in events for our church, is Serve Day, which is an event for us to engage our community and build gospel bridges through practical means. Sorry, boys. Physically serving and uh trying to get the betterment for our community. So the goal in this is to do some tangible good for our community, being the lead servants where he has planted us. You see, our community will notice us and notice the gospel as they notice we do things differently that impact their lives today. Now that sounds kind of funny saying that us putting a kid's park together in the spring is gonna build a gospel bridge that someone's gonna get saved from. And yet it's true that us doing that action, planting flowers this coming spring, mowing lawns, cleaning up streets, whatever it is, us doing those actions, especially for people that don't like us, especially for people that don't trust us, it breaks down the barriers. Much like uh one of the things that's a beautiful illustration, actually, is if you've ever uh I'm not a big animal guy, but I have had a lot of animals in my life. I know, I know. And one of the things I offended a lot of people there. One of the things, one of the things that you realize with like shelter dogs or dogs that have been tormented in life, that have been beaten, is they are so skittish and they're so aggressive and fearful that even if you're just going to love them and pet them, they will bite you. As a young child, that didn't make any sense to me. I was like, if you've been hurt before, you would, and someone's like, I'm gonna love you and give you a pet, you'd be like, Yeah. Um, that's not how it works. Human beings are the same way. You see, you and I, we are on this side of the cross, right? So we're free, we are joy-filled, we are love-filled, we are peace-filled. Every year that the world continues in their sin, they become further and further disenchanted with the life they've been sold. They become further and further in their brokenness and in their pain. And so, when gospel love reaches out, guess how the world on the typical day reacts? With hysteria. They freak out, they yell, they scream, they run, they ignore, they hide. These moments, making a playground set, cleaning up someone's yard, cleaning the streets, serving a local business, these moments are very similar to how you disarm the frightened dog. When you show the dog that you're able to pet another dog next to it, and that dog is doing okay and is good, that helps. And as you continue to ease further into the relationship, they eventually break down, let loose, and then they are relaxed in your arms. Our goal is the same here in this community. There are many herding people in Henderson County and the surrounding area. And you and I will serve them and love them and build gospel bridges and pray that the Lord of the harvest will give us a great harvest here. So we have to reach out. What else do we do? We have to grow. So, how do we grow? Two ways personal evangelism and intentional discipleship. The most effective form of evangelism is one-on-one. To enact the Great Commission here in Henderson County, we will train, practice, and engage in personal evangelism. We will be intentional to pursue gospel moments with those around us and to equip our church in this vital area. If we are not a church that is regularly talking about evangelism, that is not regularly trying to train our people in this truth, I am here to tell you, two years from now, we will all forget it because evangelism might be the most uncomfortable portion of Christianity. We don't all like to naturally dwell in that area. And so we must push into this because the most effective form of evangelism is one-on-one. Not only that, evangelism is only the beginning. Once someone has been saved, we are committed to seeing every believer come to maturity in Christ. So we will offer one-on-one discipleship, Bible studies, and classes to ensure our body continues to grow in gospel fruit and effectiveness for the years to come. But ultimately, if we're gonna shoot for a goal of 1,400 people, we'll say hopefully in my lifetime, we need to multiply. So, how do we multiply? Well, number one, we need to grow our church. Healthy things grow. And we wish for our church to be a healthy and flourishing ministry in Henderson County. So we will regularly invite our neighbors, friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances to join us at Sovereign Grace Bible Church. And we will regularly share the gospel with others praying to the Lord of the harvest. If we are not sharing the gospel with people regularly, and we are not inviting people to church regularly, we should never look around and wonder why is the church not growing? It's because we are not on mission. A church on mission will not grow. You see, you and I have this wrong viewpoint of just more numbers in the building means something's grown. I'm here to tell you there are many churches that are just very bloated. They have not actually grown, but rather have an excess of consumers that have infiltrated. We will be a church on mission, and we will invite our neighbors and share the gospel. Why? Because God has called us to, and we wish to be faithful. Lastly, how do we multiply? We multiply by planting other churches. If you don't know, by the way, we are the first technical church plant in Henderson County in over a hundred years, technically speaking. So, most likely over the years, we will not grow to a church of over a thousand people. So it is wise to plan ahead and prepare to multiply by planting here in Henderson County. Our current goal is to have planted another church within 10 years of our church beginning. So, some people might say that's really fast. Others might say that's really slow. I've heard both sides of the coin. This is our starting point, is it would be beautiful if in 10 years we had a small launch team and a man trained up to preach, and we said, go. So, these are the goals. And why are these the goals? Because they are all grounded in the Great Commission, which is the ultimate command of our Lord and Savior, until He returns. Let us pray. Father, we come before you, honestly, just trembling before this command. This is so much greater than us, Lord. And we so easily look at these ordinary means of grace that you've given us and act like they're not powerful enough, act like they're not fancy enough, act like we need some sort of experience, some sort of moment. And yet, Lord, you work through the smallest details. Lord, you work through small people like us. And so, Lord, we declare that we are nothing in and of ourselves, that we are a bunch of nobodies trying to tell everybody about Jesus Christ, the one who saved our souls. Lord, please help us to be on mission, to be on fire, to pursue this with passion, and to not allow this flame to go out. It is so easy to become the next religious institution in the area that has a building and has traditions and has enough people. Lord, keep us uncomfortable. Keep us pure, keep us motivated with your mission in mind. And may your kingdom come and your will be done here in Henderson County and the surrounding area. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.