Acts 6:1 begins: “Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number…” This is the first use of the term disciples in Acts. The word translated disciple is the same Greek root used in Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 to his apostles to make disciples (of Jesus). Like the twelve, a disciple of Jesus was a learner from and follower of Jesus. The command to make disciples is the grammatical base of Matthew 28:19-20; with three participles to explain how they were carry it out; namely, by
- going – taking the initiative to proclaim the gospel Jesus is the Christ, and that He died for our sins and was raised from the dead;
- baptizing – an act by which those who believed the gospel unto salvation publicly identified with Jesus Christ and His church; and,
- teaching believers to obey all that Jesus commanded them.
Back to Acts 6:1, the phrase “was multiplied” (KJV) or “were increasing in number” (NASB) is best translated as a composite of those two renderings. The Greek word is a plural participle; i.e., “they were multiplying,” from a Greek root from which we get our English word plethora which has the idea of superabundance. Thus, we could translate this phrase, “while the disciples were multiplying…like crazy!” In other words, the apostles were obeying the Lord’s command. They were going and proclaiming the gospel, believers were being baptized, and then they were being taught to obey what Jesus commanded – which included the command to make disciples. Multiplication, not simply addition, was taking place. Can we learn something from the New Testament Church in action about how to do ministry? I hope the answer is obvious: making disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching.