My new business has introduced me to the amazing leverage in network marketing.   I might know 200 people.   Each of those know 200 or more.  That is 40000 new people.  And they know 200 and so on.  The whole world is literally one person away.

That is the basic concept of discipleship.  Jesus poured his 3 years of earthly ministry into 12 disciples.  He could have waited to come today, and had arranged world wide conference calls every Tuesday morning.   Jesus could have had his own blog that had 6 billion hits every day.  Jesus could have joined Facebook and had 6 billion friends join.  However, Jesus worked with 12 for the most part, and of those 12 there was the inner circle of James, John, and Peter that truly were able to experience greater fellowship and a greater friendship and love than the other 9.  They were closer to the action and they were allowed to experience Jesus on a far greater level.  You would have thought the King of the Universe would have wanted a greater kingdom of loyal subjects, yet he went against the grain.  His focus was on duplication and discipleship, not a mass crusade where everyone got in on it.

Jesus built a strong team with his approach.  Our earthly judgment would have clouded our leadership. We might have also reacted different, when told in,  John 6:70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?We would have tried to figure out who it was and cast him out of the 12 and immediately replace him with the next great evangelist coming through.   After a week of hearing Jesus, we would have thought the disciples by now surely must be ready to go get their own 12.  Yet Jesus didn’t abandon them and even when he died and rose again, he sent the comforter and was able to say in Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Jesus poured his life and himself into these men.  When Jesus poured out his life with blood and water, his disciples recognized who he was and everything they were taught they now internalized in their heart.  They turned the world upside down and could now bring a message because the messenger was with them.

Today we focus on the billions and forget it just takes one to start the dominos falling.  We are trying to fish with open hands and go after the sea of minnows.    Instead of following Christ and he making us fishers of men, we get overwhelmed by the amount of fish, and don’t think there is enough time to learn to fish.   We make a splash, and when the fish slip through our fingers we get discouraged and throw in the fishing pole.

Now is not the time to quit.  But now is the time to focus on the ONE.  We could fill First Niagara Arena where the NHL Buffalo Sabres play day in and day out.  We could preach to 18,000 every day.  Yet there is something about pouring your life into 1 person or 2 people over for an entire year.  And after seeing they are trained to do it themselves.