Three Pictures of Discipleship — Zac Poonen

The Two Sides of the Great Commission

When we think of the great commission that Jesus gave his disciples, we all must know that there are two parts to it. And it's because one part has been emphasized way out of proportion compared to the other that we see a shallow version of Christianity in the world today.

This is true in every country. So let's look at these two sides of the great commission. These are the last words of Jesus before he went up to heaven almost. First is in Mark 16. Mark 16 and verse 15.

And Jesus said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. That's basically that Christ died for our sins and he rose again and we can, if you repent and trust in him, your sins can be forgiven and if you sin again, you confess your sin and he'll forgive you again.

And if you keep on sinning, you just keep on confessing and he'll keep on forgiving you. Until one day he comes in glory and we're taken up. So the goal of a person who's heard this gospel is finally to make sure that every sin is confessed and to go to heaven.

That's about it. And in this business of preaching the gospel to all creation, he who has believed and is baptized will be saved, verse 16, and he who disbelieves will be condemned. So this is speaking about going into new areas and preaching the gospel to those who have never heard.

And when we go like that, in fact, the Acts of the Apostles is basically all what I call frontier evangelism. Frontier evangelism means going into areas where the gospel has never gone. Many people don't realize that when they read the Acts of the Apostles.

And everything, it was always the apostles going to some new place, some new place, a new place. They were preaching the gospel where it had never been preached. People had never heard about Jesus. And when you go like that, the Lord confirms the word, as you see in the Acts of the Apostles also, and even today, with signs following, verse 17.

In my name they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues, and you see that again and again in the Acts of the Apostles. They'll pick up serpents. Basically what that means is that if you get, accidentally pick up a serpent or get stung by one, it won't harm you.

And you see an example of that also in Acts of the Apostles, where when Peter was in the last chapter, sorry, not Peter, Paul, when he was gathering sticks, a serpent came out of it, and the people in Malta thought, oh well, this guy's going to die, there's a viper or something has bitten him, nothing happened.

And if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them. Again, you see when you go into new areas, you're not going to be able to live, in those days anyway, you're not going to be able to live in comfortable places, you don't know anybody there, and the food you eat may not always be healthy.

And so all these things mentioned here are in relation to the gospel going out to new places, and they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. And this is so necessary, and if we don't see all this happening in, if you don't see all this happening in your life, it's because you're not doing frontier evangelism, that's all.

But we've seen it again and again. Again, in India, we go into areas where the gospel's never gone, like we have some churches where there was no church for 2 ,000 years. So you go into those places, you got to deal with demon-possessed people, the demons need to be cast out, and there must be some supernatural manifestation of the power of God, otherwise how are these people going to believe?

And that's why these signs are here. Now the great mistake is when people take this and apply it to situations where the gospel is not going for the first time, and they wonder why it isn't happening.

Then people try to manufacture it and pretend it's happening and all. But you don't need to have any pretense where you're really going out for the gospel for the first time, and the reason for it is if you ever try to preach the gospel in an area where it has never, never been preached, where nobody even knows the name of Jesus, there's no Bible in the language, nobody's heard of Christianity, and no Christians in that village, and if you go to that village, have you ever thought how you will preach the gospel to them?

How will you tell them that Jesus came to earth and died for their sins? You'll have to tell them 2 ,000 years ago, in the land of Israel, they've never heard of Israel. They haven't studied geography.

They don't know where this is. Is it another part of India or is it some other country? They don't know. You're faced with people who know nothing, and you tell them, well, that's a great distance away, and they'll ask you things like, how do you know what happened 2 ,000 years ago?

It's written in the Bible. What is that? Is that a history book? So, you think of the questions people ask, and then you say, this baby was not born like other babies. He was born, his mother was born without any earthly father, and immediately he thinks you're telling him a fairy tale, and such things don't happen.

And then you say he grew up, and he healed all the sick people he met, and opened blind eyes, and raised the dead, and he's absolutely convinced it's a fairy tale, because such things don't happen. And then you say that he was killed on a cross, and the question comes, you say it was God Almighty in human form, then why in the world was he killed?

Why couldn't he just finish him off? All these questions. And then you say, well, he was in the grave, and after three days he came out of the grave. He's absolutely convinced now you're off your head to teach such a story.

And then you say he died for your sins. He just can't understand that. And then you say he's gone up and he's coming back again. That's it. How is he going to believe? And then you say, okay, how do I know he's alive?

You bring your sick people, bring your demon possessed people, whom all your religious folks couldn't help. And now you'll see, in the name of Jesus, in the power of Jesus, you'll see that he's alive and that's how he's going to deliver these people who are sick and demon possessed.

That's what happened in those days, and that's what's happening today. But that's one side of the gospel, where people are just converted, and so people get converted. And they believe in Jesus, that he's alive.

Then they begin to read the Bible, or you explain the Bible to them, because in many of those cases, there's no Bible in their own language. So you've got to teach them. You've got to read scripture publicly, like it says in one, you know, Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, you must read scripture publicly, because all the people sitting there in those days had no Bible.

So unless somebody read the scripture publicly in the church service, nobody would know what's in the Bible. So, when you think of gospel going to unreached places, you're dealing with all types of situations which all our theories here won't work.

You have to manifest the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit's gifts in those places. That was why it was so essential for those apostles to be anointed in the Holy Spirit and to have supernatural gifts, because that's the only way they could preach the gospel.

Now, if they were going into the synagogues, there was no need for that. They were there to just take the Old Testament scriptures and prove to them, this Messiah you've been waiting for is Jesus Christ.

So this is one side of the Great Commission, and very often, even when the gospel is preached in places where the gospel's been preached for hundreds of years, it's basically repent and believe. Sometimes even repentance is left out.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved and ask Jesus to come into your heart and your sins are forgiven. And years later, when you look at some of these Christians, and I've seen many of them in many countries in different denominations, there's not much difference between them and nominal Christians, those who don't claim to be born again.

If you go into their homes, I mean, they're fighting and quarreling there just like in any other non-Christian's home. So what is the essential difference? Is it really true that old things have all passed away and everything has become new?

It doesn't look like that, like the Bible says in this so-called converted person. And so gradually what happens is churches begin to accept this is all there is and it's an intellectual acceptance of the fact that Christ died for my sins, and there's nothing really more than that.

All types of sins found among nominal Christians are found among born-again people also. There's divorce among born-again people, like there's divorce there, there's pornography among born-again people as there is among them.

So what is really the difference? It's because of the shallow type of conversion where repentance is not being preached and where seriousness of sin is not being highlighted. And so over a period of time, even if a new church started out with great zeal and some really fervent disciples of Jesus, over a period of time as more and more people come into that church, you find after a few years it gradually becomes like any other dead church.

And that can happen here, it can happen anywhere. So the other side of the Great Commission is what saves us from that. Here it is only believe and be baptized, that's it, that's the end of the gospel.

But if you turn to the other side of the Great Commission in Matthew 28, and see what it says there, to me these are two sides of a coin. You can't have one without the other. If you have one without the other, it's a counterfeit coin.

A good coin is always printed on both sides, like a currency note, it's printed on both sides. So here the Lord says, all authority, 28, 18, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Now he doesn't say go and preach to all people, go and make disciples.

Baptism is again emphasized, it shows how important what a baptism is because it is mentioned in both commissions. And make disciples, that's the first thing. And once you have made them disciples, teach them to observe or do every single thing I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

So when we started our church, it was exactly 40 years ago that we started, in August 1975, we started on the basis of this commission, this part of the commission, because the other was already being preached by everybody, I looked at it like a hundred people carrying a log, which is the great commission, great commission is a log, and 99 people were holding up one end of the log, and there was one person holding up the other end of the log, and so which side should I go and help?

It's pretty obvious, any sensible person would know where to go and help. So I saw 99 of Christians emphasizing evangelism, and healing, and speaking in tongues, everything mentioned in Mark 16, okay fine, I accept all that, and casting out demons, etc.

But what about this Matthew 28 part, it's one in a hundred, and that also is difficult to find, who would go and make sure these people have become disciples, a disciple is a learner and a follower, and if you are honest and you have found frustration in your Christian life, and your Christian life is not exciting and satisfying, the failure could be here.

I can honestly say, I've been a believer now 55 years, 56 years, and my Christian life is really exciting, every single day, I'm never bored with my Christian life, not even a single day, my service for the Lord is exciting, my walk with the Lord is exciting, it has to be like that, you know it's like electricity, when there's electricity, everything lights up and works, when the electricity goes, everything becomes dark, and when we live in the part of the Holy Spirit, it's like that, and so we started out like this, and so we decided okay, first of all, let's make sure these few of us who are gathered here, are they all disciples, have they understood what it means to be a disciple?

Counting the Cost: Building the Skyscraper of Faith

We don't want to assume that everybody knows that, because when Jesus told these apostles to make disciples in every nation, he had already told them earlier, what a disciple was, they didn't have to ask them, they didn't ask the Lord, how do I make disciples, he had already told them, so when we studied the Gospels, we found that Jesus had already told them, who a disciple was, and that's in Luke chapter 14, so we spent quite some time studying Luke 14, the particular section on discipleship, from verse 25 to 35, because in this passage, Luke 14, 25 to 35, we first of all see a great multitude going along with him, and he said to them, some of the hardest words that he ever spoke to a crowd, now today if a preacher sees a great multitude, he thinks well, it's time to take an offering, or say something nice so that these people will bring others, and increase the numbers, this is like a mega church, the potential for a mega church here, and he turned and said to them, if any of you in this big crowd, verse 26, Luke 14, 25, now in 26, and you don't hate your father, and you don't hate your mother, you don't hate your wife, you don't hate your children, you don't hate your brothers, you don't hate your sisters, you don't hate your own life, just forget about being my disciple, you cannot be my disciple, and then he said, if you don't carry your own cross in another place, he said every day, and you come after me, you cannot be my disciple, and the third condition was verse 33, he said none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions, so can you imagine saying this to a great multitude of people, can you imagine a preacher who's getting nowadays 10 ,000 people in a church, and he gets up and tells them words like this, how many people would come back next Sunday, they'd find some other church, and that's why these words are, you almost never hear them preached in any church, or they preach, they skim over it and go on to other things, I mean even if you were to search YouTube for all the thousands of sermons there are, and find how many there are sermons that are preaching about taking up the cross every day, or what it means to hate father, mother, you know it's very easy, just search and find, you can find, if there are messages teaching that and giving up your possessions, you'll find it's pretty close to zero, you can try it out, and then he uses two or three examples, so I believe these examples are related to disciples, converts versus disciples, converts are Matthew 16, Mark 16, disciples are Matthew 28, so the first example he uses is a man who wants to build a tower, today we'd call it a skyscraper, it's not just a one floor building, it's a skyscraper, the Christian life is like a skyscraper, when you become a disciple, you're going to be building a skyscraper, many many floors of obedience to all his commandments, but a sensible person before he does that, sits down and calculates the cost, what do I have to pay, how much is it going to cost me to build this 100 floor skyscraper, and the cost is, hate father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, and your own life, and every day you die to yourself, every single day you die to self which wants to assert itself, and forsake all your possessions, and the chap says, well I don't want to pay that much, but I've laid a foundation, foundation is what, the foundation is, I've repented, I believe Jesus died for my sins, I've accepted him as my savior, my sins are forgiven, and on my on my way to heaven, I keep singing, my sins are all forgiven, I'm on my way to heaven, foundation is there, he's already laid it, this is not talking about a man who's never accepted Christ, it's not an unbeliever, an unbeliever hasn't even laid a foundation, you know it says in Hebrews 6, 1, therefore leaving the elementary teaching of Christ, let's not lay again a foundation, here's the foundation, Hebrews 6, 1, repentance, faith, washings or baptisms, that is baptism in water, and baptism in the Holy Spirit, by the way that's also part of the foundation, and teaching about the resurrection of the dead finally, and laying on of hands of spiritual gifts, and eternal judgment, that's just a foundation, he says don't let's stuck there, let's move on from there, beyond the foundation, press on to perfection and maturity, the same thing there, let's build a skyscraper, so here is a person who laid the foundation, that means he came to a place where he, to a church where he was told about faith in Christ, and receive Jesus into your heart, get baptized, he's done that, and he's sitting down now in church, coming regularly to the meetings, to the services, and singing, and happy, of course just defeated constantly, but that doesn't matter, because everybody around him is also defeated, and the pastor's defeated himself, so he's just a happy bunch of people who singing, my sins are forgiven, I'm on my way to heaven, not even one floor built on this foundation, and it says people who watch it begin to ridicule, the people are watching, the angels are watching, the demons are watching, and they laugh at this guy, this guy claims to be a disciple of Jesus, those are the ones who are ridiculing, this man began to build, but he's not able to finish, why in the world did he start then, have you ever seen people in a housing area, just laying a foundation, and then 25 years later, it's just a foundation, lots of people sitting like that in Christian churches today, thousands and thousands, they never built a house, it's just the foundation, and if you talk about building this, hey that's a gospel of works, we don't believe in a gospel of works, salvation is no works, so when you think of a foundation and a superstructure, turn to Ephesians in chapter 2, because this is the favorite verse of no works, the gospel without any works, Ephesians 2 8 and 9, I want to say I believe it completely, but it's only part of the truth, that's the point, the problem with a lot of false teaching is they take one verse and neglect the other, sometimes the very next verse, and I'll show it to you here, Ephesians 2 8 and 9, by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, gift means you don't pay for it, right, forgiveness is absolutely free, the gift of the Holy Spirit is called a gift, which means you don't pay for it, not as a result of works, because like it says in Isaiah 64 6, all your righteousness are like filthy rags, now all your righteousness, ton of righteousness will not forgive one sin of yours, so not a result of works, because then no one can boast, you know, otherwise one man can say I did more works than you, no, nobody can boast, the man who's done a lot of good works and the man who's just done, lived in sin all his life, both are forgiven on exactly the same basis, Christ died for you brother, you lived a very righteous life, good, but you're a sinner, Christ died for you, and this rotten sinner, Christ died for him, that's the message in Romans 1 and Romans 2, Romans 1 is about the godless sinner, and Romans 2 is about the religious sinner, and then it says in Romans 3, there's no difference, all have sinned, forgiveness is by the death of Christ, but see the next verse, 8 and 9 is the foundation, no works in the foundation, but now you come to the superstructure, the skyscraper, you begin to build that, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, so there are certain good works that we have to do, but they're not in the foundation, they're in the superstructure, it's like saying, when you lay the foundation of a building, you don't put doors and windows there, no crazy person will put doors and windows in a foundation, that's the meaning of no works in the foundation, but when you build the superstructures full of doors and windows, that's the point here, no works in the foundation, not even one door, not even one window, it's solid concrete, and then on top of that, plenty of works, every floor, works, works, works, works, works, works, 100 floors full of works, what type of works, not any hard work I feel like doing, works which God prepared beforehand, that I should walk in them, in other words, a plan God made for my life, long before I was born, because he knew that at a particular age, I would lay a foundation in my life, I would accept Christ, in my case, when I was 19 and a half, and from that point onwards, God planned that I should do certain works, of which baptism, water baptism was the first one, that's not necessary for salvation, it's one of the works subsequent to being born again, that comes in verse 10, not in verse 9, baptism is not in verse 9, there's no works there, verse 10, it's one of the works God has planned all believers should do is get baptized, and then from there, many other works God has planned, I'm so thankful that way back in the beginning, almost immediately after I got baptized, I took about a year and a half to be baptized, because I wasn't so sure whether my orthodox church infant baptism was valid or not, see, that's how blind I was, because I was sprinkled as a baby, and everybody said that was baptism, I didn't know the bible, and I studied the bible, and I discovered that was not a valid baptism, but it took me one and a half years to discover that, as I read the scriptures, because I wanted to get all my answer from scripture, then I got baptized, and when I got baptized, then the Lord began to show me the next work, and the next work, and the next work, he showed me about money that I had taken wrongfully, that I needed to return, taxes that I had not paid, that I needed to return, and things like this, apologies that I had to make to people whom I had hurt in some way, and I wouldn't have seen that if I hadn't done the first work, there were works, and then as I did that, the Lord showed me something else, something else, and something else, something else, till about three years later, after my baptism, the Lord told me to quit my job in the navy, and come out to serve him, it was one work, but if I had not done these works, you know, I would not have built floor, after floor, after floor of my life, and I think a lot of people are like that, they never make much progress after their baptism, they're not discovering new, new things that the Lord is saying, another floor, another works that I plan for you, here's a work I plan for you to do next, okay, you finish that, now I'm going to show you something else, works that God before, prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them, we're not to stand still, there's no such thing as standing still in the Christian life, to walk in the light means I'm progressing, every step is a progress, so whether you look at it as a walk, or as a building, it's progress, and so, that is the picture in Luke 14 of a building, foundation, and superstructure, so when you have a church with thousands of people, who just laid a foundation, that's not the type of church Jesus wants, every single person in that church must be told, that God has prepared works for you, specific works that He planned for you, from before you were born, that you should walk in them, so you got to find out what those works are, and it's unthinkable that God would work, make a plan for you, and refuse to tell you what it is, that's crazy, He brings you to Christ, and you have taken one step in baptism, is He going to say, I'm not going to tell you what the next thing you have to do is, impossible, He is more eager to tell you, than you are eager to know, the lack of eagerness is on your part, not His, He's just desperately eager that you should see the works He has planned, instead of doing what you think is right, I believed in those days, and I was only 21 years old, I said, Lord, if there are works that you plan, you know, amazing, I discovered these things from scripture, there was hardly anybody teaching me these things those days, but I discovered one thing when I was baptized, God's got a plan for my life, I don't know what it is, but I saw it like the pillar of cloud, that would show me day by day, where I've got to go next, if you ask those Israelites, where are you going tomorrow, I don't know, if you ask them, where are you going this evening, I don't know, because sometimes the pillar of cloud would move off in the evening, and they had to pack up, roll up their tents, and start moving, and little by little by little, that pillar of cloud finally led them to the borders of the land of Canaan, that's where God's plan was for them, but you know, they turned back, and then God's so angry with them, He said, okay, they took two years to get there, and God said, next 38 years, you're going to be in the wilderness, that is the example set before us, people who did not follow God's plan all the way, they did it a little bit, and then that's it, they turned back, and they were lost, and lots and lots of believers like that today, it says in one Corinthians 10, the thing that happened to the Israelites, has been written to be for an example for us, you don't fulfill God's plan, God was not well pleased with them, and God is not, believe me when I say, God is not well pleased with most believers of later foundation today, because they're not walking in the plan God's made for them, it's almost like saying to God, I don't care for your plan, I got my own plan, I've already decided what I'm going to do, right, I realized that in God's plan, He had planned who I should marry, I was single those days, and what I should do, I didn't know that He would call me to quit my job, He doesn't call everybody, I think one in a thousand believers He calls to quit their jobs, 999, He caused them to stay in their jobs, but I did not know that I would be one of those one in a thousand, I didn't know at all, so I just want to say, Lord show me day by day what your plan is, that's a disciple, one who has the Lord leads him on, he follows, so that is foundation and superstructure, the next picture we read in Luke 14 .31, two or three pictures he uses here of discipleship, the next picture he uses in Luke 14 .31 is when he sets out to meet another king in battle, the first one is a picture of building, the Christian life is pictured like a building, the second picture of the Christian life is a battle, that's a picture comes many times in the Christian life, and we know that battle is with Satan, throughout the New Testament, the Christian's battle is with Satan, and disciple is a builder first of all, and then a warrior, I mean the Christian life is not a picnic, it's a building process, and it's a battle, so the next picture verse 31 is of a king setting out to meet another king in battle, and God is a king, and the devil is a king, the devil's called the prince of this world, Jesus himself called him the prince of this world, or the ruler of this world, and here is Jesus Christ on one side, and the devil on the other side, and it's a battle, and that battle's been going on for 2 ,000 years, I mean Jesus defeated him on the cross, so as far as he's concerned there's no battle, it's already been won, but there are billions of people on the earth who are on the devil's side, who even Christians who don't know that the devil was defeated on the cross, who are oppressed by Satan, and Satan tempts them and knocks them down day after day after day after day after day, who's winning in this battle?

Is it Jesus or the devil? In most believers lives, very often it's Satan, but he was defeated on the cross, so here this king is now thinking, I don't have enough men, see that's the point here, forget the numbers, just look at it like this, let me paraphrase it, he has a king who's got very few people in his army, and he's got to fight with another one who's got many more in his army, and that's a picture of Jesus with very few people fighting the devil with many more people, I mean everybody knows there are more followers of Satan in the world today than there are followers of Jesus, without a doubt, everyone knows, any true disciple knows that, and so if he feels, well I can't fight with these people, there's no hope, he'll overwhelm me because he's got more people, what will this king do?

While the other is still far away, verse 32, he'll send a delegation and say, let's have peace, I will not fight with you, now that's not a disciple, a disciple never makes peace with Satan, but a lot of believers, so-called believers have made peace with Satan, okay Satan, I won't trouble you too much, I won't go and try to win souls out of your kingdom, I'm not going to have a passion to bring people to Christ, I'm okay with the people around me are lost, let them be lost, Satan, I won't trouble your kingdom at all, I won't try and snatch anybody out of your kingdom, that's the condition of lots and lots of believers, I tell you that, they have zero interest in bringing other people to Christ, they have zero interest even inviting somebody to the church to hear the word of God, they have zero interest in giving somebody a book or a DVD or something to try and win that person or at least be a witness to that person, they have made peace with Satan, I will not trouble any of your members, I have peace with you, but Jesus is not like that, a disciple says it doesn't matter, numbers are not important, you know the old testament is full of examples, think of Gideon's army, he had 32 ,000 people, I don't have time to go and read, you read Judges chapter 7 sometimes, 32 ,000 people and the Lord said there are too many, all those afraid, tell them to go home, that's the first word, all who are afraid of the devil, go home now itself, otherwise you'll bring fear into the hearts of others and 22 ,000 people went home, two-thirds went home and the Lord said 10 ,000, that's also too much, these are not wholehearted people, we've sent away the people who are afraid of the devil, afraid the devil may harm them or do some witchcraft on them or do something for them, so they made peace with the devil, like I won't trouble you and you don't trouble me, okay, I won't disturb your kingdom, you don't please don't disturb my life and the Lord says okay, that's one group gone, but there's another 10 ,000 left here, they're also too much and if you remember the story, the Lord said take them down to the river and I will test them there, now they did not know they were being tested, do you know that most of the time when the Lord tests us, we don't know that we are being tested until the test is over, after the test is over and the Lord selected some people and say hey, I didn't know that was a test, in our schools in India sometimes we have a thing called surprise tests, where there's no warning given to the students that there's going to be a test, all of a sudden students go to school and the teacher says today we're going to have a test, that's the way they make sure that people have really studied the subject and not just studied it just for that examination, but they know it all the time, so these 10 ,000 people came to the river, they were all thirsty, that's okay and that river or water is a picture of the world, you know it's one of the verses in Revelation 17, the last verses is the seas of the world, so the waters are a picture of the world and 9 ,700 people forgot all about the enemy, laid their weapons aside, buried their head into the water because they were thirsty and began to drink.

They did not, they were not alert to the enemy, they laid their weapons aside, put their head down and began to drink, but 300 stood on their feet, they said we got to be alert to the enemy and they just lapped up the water with their hands and the Lord said I'll select those 300, it's a picture of 300 people who will you know use the world but not make full use of it, it's like saying in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says that you use the world but don't get taken up with the world, we all have to use the world because you need to use money, we need to work, we need to earn our living, but we can be like those 9 ,700 that bury our heads completely in work and in making money and everything in the world and the Lord says not fit.

Retaining the Saltiness of Discipleship

And then there are others who are also living in the world, who also are thirsty, who need to drink, but they lap up with their hands. Take your time to read Judges chapter 7 sometimes, very interesting to see it and these are the 300 who went to battle and the enemy was routed, that's the picture in the Old Testament and so it's a beautiful picture of discipleship, so here's Gideon was scared you know about well can I fight these people with 300, let me show you something there which turn to Judges 7, I'll show you something interesting there because Gideon must have thought how in the world can I go with 300 people and fight, you read about this verse 6, Judges 7 verse 6, the number of those who lapped putting their hand to their mouth was 300, but all the rest of the people knelt down and began to drink the water, they buried their head in the water and the Lord said with these 300 I will deliver the Midianites into your hand, let the other people go to their home, let them all go, earlier in verse 3 it sent away those who were afraid and then you know Gideon was still afraid and so to encourage Gideon, this part I want you to see, the same night verse 9 the Lord said to him before you go to this battle, I want you to go to the camp and hear something, if you're afraid, some of you Gideon you're still afraid of the devil, okay go down, go with your servant and hear what they are saying, verse 11 and then your hands will be strengthened, so Gideon went with his servant down to the outposts of the army and the Midianites and the Amalekites were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts and their camels verse 12 were numerous as the sand on the seashore, what a massive army, it's a picture of the devil and his demons and Gideon came and he heard a man telling his friend a dream, verse 13 I had a dream, a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned out flat and the friend answered and said this is nothing less than the sword of Gideon and verse 15 when Gideon heard this he bowed in worship and he said arise with verse 15 last part the Lord has given the enemy into our hands, so what I see here is the devil said the Lord says are you still scared, just go down and listen to what the demons are saying to each other and you'll hear what they're saying, we've been defeated, we have no hope against these believers but some of them don't know that we've been defeated so we can have power over them, we can scare them, we can make peace with them and they're scared of us so they'll make peace with us, so we need to hear that, we need to hear that the demons are scared of true disciples, it's a wonderful thing to be in that small army, so that's the second picture of discipleship that Jesus spoke about in you know we started out with go and make disciples of all nations, disciples are builders who are building a skyscraper and disciples are people who have a very small number, I mean think of 300 Gideon's army compared to 32 ,000, you know how much that is, it's one in a hundred, one percent, less than one percent, 320 would have been one percent, 300 means less than one percent, that means one in a hundred among Christians who really want to be disciples, it's a picture like that, so it's a very small number and here's this massive army of the devil like it says they're like spread out like locusts and all you know as the sand on the seashore, such a huge number of demons and here we are a small group of disciples, very small church, not a big mega church, small church really seeking to fight the battle against the devil and we don't seek for peace, our king is Jesus and we don't seek for peace, we said that's all right if you're a small number we're going to overcome, so that's the second picture of discipleship that we need to see, the way to life is narrow Jesus said and very very few find it, so if you're going to gather those few you're not going to have a very big church and even if the church increases with somebody's relatives coming along and somebody's friends coming along and somebody's children growing up yet they will only be like passengers, the real the real church will be a group in the midst of that church, they're fighting the battles and winning the victory and moving the church forward in that number, that core is what must increase and keep on increasing, a core of disciples who are wholehearted radical wanting to follow the Lord, so that's the second picture and then a third picture in Luke 14 and that is salt, now we all know that when you put salt into your food it's a very small quantity that you put, think of a whole bowl of food whatever it is, how much salt do you put in it?