Speaker: Well, hey church, welcome to, uh, a different edition of
what we normally do on Sundays.
This is, uh, flashbacks to recording in, in empty auditoriums
and doing videos during shutdowns and everything else like that.
But hey, we're, we're not meeting because the roads are not safe for us to meet and.
We feel like this is the best thing for us to do in the best interest of our people.
And also even just as we were looking around at what was going on in some
of the other churches in our area, we were watching what some of them
were doing, decisions they were making just to make sure we wanted
to make the best decision possible.
And we really feel like as much as we want to be in person, and as much
as I hate that I'm doing this sermon.
In my office, uh, I, I think this is what's, what's good for us overall
to make sure that everybody stays safe as well as our unique position
as a church plant was setting up and tearing down and everything else.
So welcome to church.
All that to say, you may notice I've got a, a little bit of a, a
less formal look and part of that is because this is our brand new
swag, our to live as Christ hoodie.
It says on the back to die as gain in the same block lettering there.
It's got our, our church right here on the sleeve.
These are gonna be available for you next Sunday, as Lord willing
will be back together in person.
No charge.
We're gonna give 'em away.
We did a run.
If we run outta sweatshirts, we'll order more.
Uh, but we'd love for you to grab these and to wear 'em around and to
represent our church and really, uh, to represent what it is saying on the front.
And this has a lot to do with what we're talking about today,
and that is to live is Christ.
Uh, as we've been meeting together and, and talking about what the
church is, we've looked at week one, the church being the called
out ones that are called to gather.
We talked about gathering under ecclesial authority, gathering under,
uh, the, the authority of the word of God as handled by the, the pastors
that God has entrusted to the church.
And then last week we looked at gathering together and being
called out and into community.
That we have to have these relationships with each other, these one-on-one
life, on life relationships that are essential to us doing what we're
called to do as believers to stir one another up towards love and good works.
Well, today we're gonna wrap up this series on the church, and I wish we were
doing it together, but still nonetheless, we're, we're doing it this way.
Uh, we are wrapping up the series on the church here by focusing
in on being called out to.
Be commissioned, called out to be commissioned.
Uh, not only have we been called to gather, and this is ironic, don't
worry, it's not lost on me that I just preached last week about the fact that we
shouldn't neglect meeting together and.
Here we are.
This is different though.
This is weather related.
This is not because we don't feel like it, but not only have we been
called out to gather, we've been called out to gather in community.
We've also been called out and commissioned, or
you could put it this way.
We've been called out to call out, and that comes back to this
sweatshirt that I'm wearing right now.
When Paul was saying to live is Christ in Philippians chapter one.
What he was doing was, is he was saying, my whole life is about honoring Christ.
In fact, he says that.
He says, whether I'm gonna live or I'm gonna die.
My bent, my goal in life is to exalt Jesus.
I wanna make sure that Christ is exalted in my life.
And he was doing that to live his Christ for Paul.
I mean, he was chained to Roman soldiers and he was telling them about the gospel.
He was in prison spreading the good news of eternal life in Jesus
Christ as far and wide as he could.
And, and so for Paul to live, his Christ wasn't, Hey, I'm gonna just wait
around until Jesus comes back to live.
His Christ was, I've been given a mission.
I've been given a charge.
I need to take the gospel to the lost.
I need to get out and reach people for Christ.
Have you ever wondered why we're still here as a church?
Have you ever thought to yourself, wait a minute, if, if heaven is
as good as they say it's gonna be.
If, if heaven is as good as God says it's gonna be in the
Bible, why am I still here?
Why wouldn't he save us and then immediately call us to be with
him if that's really better and we believe that it's better.
In fact, Paul says it's better.
In that same passage in Philippians chapter one, he says, I desire
to be to depart and be with Christ for that is far better.
But then he says something interesting.
He says, but I'm convinced that I'm gonna stay here because there's
work that God has for me to do.
You in a similar fashion.
The reason you and I are still here, the reason the church is still here is because
God has work for us to do here that we're not gonna be able to do in heaven.
And that is what we're gonna look at this morning together from Matthew chapter 28.
And that's the great commission.
So take your Bibles.
I know you're at home.
Maybe you're watching in your pajamas, whatever.
Take your Bibles.
Open 'em up to Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20.
It's a familiar passage, a familiar text.
It's called The Great Commission and and we're gonna spend the rest of our
time together this morning looking at the Great commission and unpacking
together what is the work that God still has for us to do here that
we're not gonna be able to do there.
And so the called out church is the called Out church.
That's also the commissioned church, Matthew chapter 28.
We're gonna read verses 18 through 20.
I'll go ahead and read it together for us.
It says this, 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, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe.
All that I have commanded you, and behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
And so as we pick this up, Jesus is with his disciples.
In fact, in verse 16 it says He's with the 11 disciples.
Sometimes, especially post-resurrection.
When the term disciples is used, it can mean a, a large group of
people, but it appears at this point, he's appearing to his 11.
And it says in verse 17 that when they saw him, they, they worshiped him.
But some of them were troubled, some of them were, were doubting in their hearts.
We're going to come back to that in just a minute, but Jesus approaches
them and it's important for us to set the stage here because this is not.
After he appeared in the upper room and let Thomas feel his hands inside.
This is not after making breakfast for, for them on the beach.
This is early, early, early after the resurrection.
The, these are some of the first words that the disciples are hearing from Jesus.
You remember Jesus told the women to go tell his disciples, his,
his, the, the disciples that were still back in the, the upper room.
Go to Galilee and you'll meet him there.
You'll see him there.
So this is one of the earliest interactions that Jesus has
post-resurrection with the disciples.
And he comes up to them and he says this, he says, all authority in heaven
and on earth has been given to me.
Authority is in the Greek.
That, that word that means absolute power here, it's an internal authority.
It's not one that's that's derived from a title or an office, but
it's something that somebody possesses because of who they are.
And Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth.
In other words.
There, there's no other authority that exists.
He has it all, and all of it has been given to him by the father.
This calls to mind for us the interaction of Daniel chapter seven,
where Daniel sees one, like the son of man come before the ancient of
days, and the ancient of days gives him the the glory and the power, and.
Everlasting kingdom, the dominion that he would rule forever and ever.
This is Jesus, and he's stepping into at least the partial fulfillment
of that, though the full reality of his kingdom still awaits.
Its its culmination, though.
It's still awaits, its ultimate fulfillment in the millennial kingdom.
The authority that Jesus will possess when he reigns here on earth after
he returns for his bride and sets up the millennial kingdom later on.
The authority that he will have, he currently possesses.
And so he approaches the disciples after his resurrection.
And he says this.
He says, all authority.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
But I also want you to note here that Jesus moves towards his disciples.
His disciples who were fearful, and again, in the text to come back to it,
it says, some of them were even doubting.
You wonder, why would they be doubting?
Well, I don't think that they were doubting whether or not
Jesus was truly resurrected.
I think that they were doubting in their hearts about what sort of welcome
they would receive from the Savior.
They had abandoned in his hour of greatest need.
They were nowhere to be found.
They fled from him.
And so now they're wondering, okay.
What's he going to say to us?
What's our reception gonna be from, from him?
What's he gonna do?
And it's to this group of his closest followers that it says in our text,
Jesus came to them and said to them again, Jesus is moving towards them.
He, it's, it's in some ways a microcosm of what he does with Peter later on
in John 21, where he restores Peter.
This, in some essence, is Jesus restoring his relationship with the 11 disciples,
and he's gonna do this by giving them a job, but before he gets to the job.
He wants to establish the, the sobriety of the whole thing.
That, that this is something to take seriously.
This is Jesus coming to the 11 Post Resurrection and he starts out with
this amazing statement of his authority saying, all authority in heaven
and on earth has been given to me.
This is not something to trifle with.
This is the Lord of the universe.
This is the glorified Christ and the disciples.
Were meant to hear what he was about to say with the appropriate seriousness.
As you and I think about the work that God has for us to do today, still
as the church, as you and I think about, well, why aren't we in heaven?
Why are we still here?
What is this task that we can't do in heaven that we can do here?
First thing that we have to understand about it is that this task is
something to be taken seriously.
So along those lines, our first point this week, and forgive me, I don't
have the projector screens to put up here or anything else like that,
but, but our first point is this.
It's pretty simple.
All three points will be pretty simple as this.
Take the commission.
Seriously take the commission seriously.
Uh, the commission being the great commission again, that's what this
passage, Matthew Chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, that's what it's
known as is the Great commission.
The commission of the church.
And again, a commission is something that is, is given to
somebody who's sent with a purpose.
It's they're sent with a mission.
And, and so this is what Jesus is doing with the church.
He's sending the church with the mission.
He's giving the church her marching orders, and the first thing that
we need to know is he has the authority and the right to do that.
That he has the, the power, he has the, the clout to say,
church, this is your job.
This is your main job.
From this time forward, there's a lot of different types of churches.
As we think about even just the last 2000 years of church history or even
most recently, as you consider the, the landscape of churches in the world,
there's all types of different churches.
And, and there's gonna be differences and variations of doctrines here and
there, but one thing I, I'm confident is that you won't find a church
that's gonna stand the test of time and honor Christ without faithfully
submitting to the Great Commission.
Y.
You won't find it without taking the Great Commission seriously.
In fact, we know that this was something that Jesus cares about because in
Revelation chapter two, he approaches a church and writes a letter to a church.
That's the church at Ephesus.
Now the church at Ephesus is probably a church that we would
feel really comfortable with.
It's a church that was doctrinally sound.
It was a church that had the right polity.
It was a church that had the, the boxes checked.
They were doing a lot of things really well.
We would probably feel at home there.
And yet Jesus levels this indictment against them.
He says, but this I have against you.
You've abandoned the love you had at first.
It, it's my conviction though.
There could be a lot of things there about the love and, and
ultimately it's a love for.
For Christ, but it's my conviction that this had to do with them abandoning their
pursuit of the Great Commission as well.
Obeying the great commission.
Taking it seriously is one of the, the, the greatest ways that you
and I can show our love for the father and our love for others.
Remember, uh, Jesus was asked the question, teacher, what's the greatest?
And he said this, it's to love God and love one another.
The, the greatest commandment or the great commandment is realized in the
Great Commission for us as believers, if we are not gonna take this seriously,
if we're not gonna be a church that's saying we're gonna take evangelism
and reaching the lost, seriously, then we can't claim to be a church.
That takes the great commandment seriously.
Because we may be a church that loves one another really well.
We may be a church that can get into our holy huddle.
Right.
Our, our, our consecrated clique and, and hang out there and say, look at how
well we love each other, but if we aren't loving the lost, which we've been called
to by taking the gospel, by going and making disciples of them, then we're not
really fulfilling the Great commission.
And I said, we have to take this seriously.
We're not fulfilling the great commandment that is.
We have to take this seriously.
And, and you say, well, is it really that big of a deal?
And, and I would say yes.
Back in Revelation two, five, Jesus said this to this church at Ephesus.
He said, remember, therefore, from where you falling.
Repent.
In other words, you're in sin.
And do the works you did at first.
If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand.
That is the church itself from its place unless you repent.
So how much does Jesus care that we be a church that is not forgotten?
Our first love that we be a church that is all about the great
commandment and the great commission.
How much does he care about that?
So much so that he would say, I would rather have no church at all than a
church That may be doctrinally sound.
It may have the, the, the boxes checked in so many areas.
But there's no love for the lost.
You know, if you go to Ephesus today and, and I haven't been there yet,
I hope to at some point, maybe we'll lead a church trip there at some point.
But if you go to Ephesus today, you know what you're not gonna find.
You're not gonna find First Baptist Ephesus.
You're not gonna find Compass Bible Church, Ephesus.
You're not gonna find Redeemer Presbyterian, Ephesus.
And instead what you're gonna find is you're gonna find the remnants.
You're gonna find the ruins of what used to be the church at Ephesus.
Jesus followed through and removed the landt stand from that place.
And, and that should be a sobering thought for us to think that God would
rather have no church at all somewhere than a church that's doctrinally sound
and yet devoid of a love for the lost.
If we don't take the greatest commission seriously church here at at Compass
Bible Church, if we don't realize that we have been commissioned.
If we don't take this seriously, we could very well find ourselves without a church.
And we need to be serious about what we're doing here.
So normally we're in church on a Sunday morning and, and you're
gonna look around and you're gonna see empty seats in the room.
And I want you to start thinking about those empty seats and start thinking
about those empty seats as a reminder of this charge to take the Great
Commission seriously, because each one of those empty seats represent
somebody in your life who needs to hear the gospel that could fill that seat.
I, I mean, if you think about it even bigger, we could go even larger scale.
We, we could go to two, three services at our church and
fill that room up each time.
And so you could look at the seats and be like, let me multiply
that two, three times over.
And so I want us to think about, and, and to realize, man, we've got a mission.
We're not in heaven yet because there's still work to do here.
And we as a church have been commissioned and we have to
take that commission seriously.
We have to take the commission to reach the lost seriously, and
to make sure that we do it in a way that's gonna exalt Christ.
And so we may say, yeah, I love the Lord and I love my
brothers and sisters in Christ.
Okay, but does that overflow into your love for the lost as well?
Are you taking it seriously?
Having established his authority, Jesus is now gonna give this charge.
He's gonna give the commission back in verse 19 in our text, we're just
gonna read the first part of verse 19.
At this point, he says, go therefore and make disciples of All nation.
Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.
Y you've probably heard this passage preached before
and, and maybe you haven't.
And so I'll just reiterate it.
The, the main verb, the, the verb of command in this passage is not go,
and we're gonna see two more verbs of baptizing and, and teaching.
It's not baptizing, it's not teaching, it's not go, it's the verb.
Make disciples.
That's the command verb here.
And, and so the, the go is, is modifying make disciples.
How am I gonna make disciples?
Well, I have to go.
I, I, I have to take the gospel, in other words, to the lost.
But let's start by saying, what is a disciple?
'cause that's important for us, right?
If we're gonna take this seriously, if we're gonna go and make disciples, we
have to say, well, what is a disciple?
Biblically, I think a, a disciple is one who was a, a follower of a,
a rabbi, a follower of a master.
A follower of a teacher.
That's who the disciples were to Jesus.
They were following him.
They were his pupils.
We read in Luke six 40, it says this, A disciple is not above his
teacher, but everyone when he's fully trained, will be like his teacher.
That's a disciple's objective.
A disciple's objective is.
To become fully like his teacher.
So if we are to make disciples, we have to ask ourselves, make disciples of who?
Well make disciples of Jesus.
So our goal in making disciples is to see people made just like Jesus.
That's our goal.
We'll talk about that a little bit more later on too.
And that's the goal of those that we're trying to reach with the gospel.
But how did Jesus make disciples?
How did he make his disciples that he had when he was on on
earth during his ly ministry?
Read in Matthew four 19.
Uh, Jesus approached them and said, follow me.
And I'll make you fishers and men.
So this invitation to follow him there, or Matthew 1624.
Jesus there told his disciples who were already his disciples, but he's clarifying
some of what it looks like to follow him.
He says, look, if anyone would come after me, in other words, if anyone
would follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Okay?
So we're beginning to understand there's a cost involved in
discipleship here, John one.
37 through 39.
Uh, there's a, a scene here where two disciples are, are
following Jesus at this point.
They're disciples of John, but John told them, go become his disciples
instead, because John understood.
So John said, go become his disciples instead.
So these two disciples are following Jesus, and Jesus turns and looks at
them and says, what are you seeking?
And they say, rabbi, we, we wish to, to s.
To spend time with you.
And that's why they say, we wish to see, uh, where are you staying?
The implication is, can we come spend time with you?
And Jesus turns and he says to them, come and you will see again
beckoning that's part of discipleship.
Come and and find out who I am.
That's, that's part of Jesus calling these disciples to be his disciples.
So then how do we make disciples then, if that's the way Jesus made disciples?
How do we make disciples?
Well, in John 1 46, Nathaniel who had.
Been called by Jesus when to go find his friend here, Philip.
And in going to find Philip, he says, we, we think we found the Messiah.
You should come Philip.
Philip says, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
And Nathaniel's response is come and see.
So part of our process of making disciples is going out to the loss and saying,
we want you to come and see Jesus.
We want you to come and meet Jesus or John 4 29.
The woman at the well after Jesus has had this interaction with her, she
departs and she goes back to Samaria and she says this in John 4 29.
Come see a man who told me all I ever did, could this be the Christ?
And so we go as those convinced that he is the Christ, that He is the Messiah, but we
want to go to the loss just like she did.
And we wanna say, come and see.
Come and see Jesus.
And so here's what discipleship is.
Discipleship is ultimately about this.
It's about a right relationship with God.
And that comes through becoming a follower of Jesus.
There's no other way that a person can have a right relationship with God.
So as we live in a community of Hindus and Muslims and we live in a community
of atheists, the only way for them to have a right relationship with the
true God of, of creation is through becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.
That's the.
Only way we can make disciples is calling people to follow Jesus.
And so through faith in what he did to save us, this is how
we become a follower of Jesus.
We put our faith in what Christ has done to save us, that he died on
the cross, so that our sins might be forgiven, that he rose from the dead
so that we might live with him forever.
And we put our trust in that and we commit our lives to him in full devotion.
This is what it is to become a follower of Jesus.
And so this is why it's imperative for us to go with the great commission
because the only way, again, the only way someone can be right with
the God of creation, the only God is through becoming a follower of Jesus.
And so that's why Jesus says your job is to make.
Disciples make disciples, in other words, share the gospel, reach people with the
good news of faith in Jesus Christ that restores their relationship with God.
Paul talks about our urgency in this and our need for this in Romans chapter 10.
After saying, anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
That's that faith, that's that trust in Jesus becoming a follower of Jesus.
In other words, and then Paul says this in Romans 10, 14 through 15,
he says, but how are they gonna call on him and whom they've not
believed, and how are they to believe?
And whom, uh, uh, in the one of whom they've never heard, and how are they
to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it's written?
How beautiful are the feet of the ones who preach good news?
In other words, you need to go with the good news because that's
the only way people are gonna hear and become followers of Jesus.
And this is why Jesus says, go therefore and make disciples, go therefore, and make
disciples again, the church of primary mission and thereby our primary mission.
Our purpose, our main goal, the thing that we have to be doing is
going out to make disciples of Jesus.
The great commission isn't only for people who have the gift of evangelism,
and, and maybe that's where you're sitting listening to this, to this point,
you're thinking, okay, and, and we need people in our church who have the gift.
We need people in our church who will go door to door.
We need people in our church who will talk to the person at, at the grocery store.
We need people in our church who will talk to the their, their cashier.
The Great Commission is not just for people with the gift of evangelism.
It's not just for pastors.
The great commission is given to every disciple of Jesus.
Everyone who follows Jesus is meant to go and make disciples.
And, and you may say, okay, but still, I, I, I have, I have concerns about myself.
Maybe you're just like, Moses was with God, but, but God,
can't you send somebody else?
I'm not the most eloquent person.
Listen to what Paul said in one Corinthians chapter one,
verses two through three.
Or excuse me, one Corinthians two, two through three, Paul said this.
He said, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And then Paul says this, and I was with you in weakness and
fear and in much trembling.
And so if you're there going, man, I just, this is overwhelming.
This is intimidating for me.
You can know that that man, Paul felt that to a certain extent as well.
But what I want us to understand is this great commission is still for you.
Even if you are intimidated by the fact of, of God calling you to say, Hey, I want
you to, to take the gospel to the lost.
Still the great commission is for you.
We're gonna give you some resources and talk about that in, in just a minute here.
But I, I want you to understand that not only do we have to take the commission
seriously, but every single one of us in taking it seriously as part of the
called out ones as part of the church, every single one of us in taking
it seriously also need to do this.
Point number two, take the commission personally.
Take the commission personally.
There's, you may have heard the old saying, there's no I in team.
Right?
That's what we're talking about here.
To, to accomplish the mission, to accomplish the commission,
the great commission.
We need everybody playing their part.
Everybody is participating in this.
Everybody has a place on the front lines of the great commission.
I mentioned a couple weeks ago, my friend Clint, who was overseas
during the war in Iraq, and he was a helicopter mechanic, and, and he was
on that base that I was talking about.
And, and so the thing is he never saw.
Any action.
His job was to stay on the base and to repair and maintain the helicopters
that were going out to see the action.
So he had a overall, a pretty cushy experience.
While he was there, he told me about how they had Taco Bell on the
base and other things like that.
I, I mentioned a couple weeks ago, his life was never in danger and, and that
wasn't his job to put his life in danger.
His job was not to be on the front lines.
His job was to be repairing the, the, the stuff that would go to the front lines.
That's not how the church works though.
I know some of you probably wish it was, I know some of you probably
wish it was like, Hey, can I be the helicopter mechanic for the church?
Can I sit back and just support those whose job it is to be on
the front lines with the gospel?
And the reality of it is Jesus has all of us on the front lines of the gospel,
and the reason is this, every single one of us has different spheres of influence.
Every single one of us has, has different spheres of influence.
I I, if you think about our church, think of all the families, the extended
family, think of all the neighbors and the sports teams that are represented,
and the coworkers and the baristas, and the coffee shops, and the plane flights,
and the Uber rides, and the coffee orders, and the, the grocery store trips.
Think of all of those people that I just mentioned in those different spheres,
and then think about the fact that your sphere looks different than mine.
And mine looks different than Pastor Rods and Pastor Marks and Kelly's and others.
We have to understand that, that God has put us in a place and
surrounded us with people that he wants us to take the gospel to.
He's given us the great commission because he's put us in a mission
field to reach people for Christ.
And so your sphere of influence is different.
And if your approach is, well, I'm just gonna sit back and wait for somebody
with the gift of evangelism to share the gospel with my neighbor, you need to come
to the reality that God has put you there to share the gospel with your neighbor.
No one else has come to do it.
It's yours to do.
It's your task to do.
And this is where it comes down to something that I think is important
for us to understand and wrestle with.
Uh, Lewis brought it up, uh, during our men's Bible study, but it's
this idea of the intellectual versus our functional view of God.
And I think that really comes to bear here when it comes to our
understanding of the gospel and the need for the loss to hear the gospel.
I'm confident.
I'm confident that all of us would say that we believe that we should be taking
the gospel to the lost in our lives.
I, I think all of us would say, yes, I understand it intellectually.
The Great Commission is for me.
And, and I believe that all of us would agree that yes, God has placed people in
our lives that need to hear the gospel, that need to be reached with the gospel.
I believe that we would intellectually all agree to that.
But the question I have is, is that showing up in our functional view of God.
In other words, are we acting on the knowledge that we have?
Are we using faith to bridge the gap from what we know to be true
to what we know we need to do?
And, and, and then are we doing it?
James said that we need to be not just hearers of the word, but doers
of the word and, and so if we hear the great commission, but we don't
do the great commission, then we're really not obeying the Lord.
In.
In fact, James even goes on, he says this, let me, James two 14 through 19
says this, what good is it my brothers?
If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed, lacking in daily food, and one of you
says to them, go in peace, be warm and be filled without giving them the
things they need for the body, what?
What good is that?
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead.
But someone will say, you have faith in, I have works.
Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one you do well, but even the demons believe and shudder.
And so if, if we're going to see that, that our faith is greater than the
demonic belief that hey God is God, then we need to put our faith into action.
And and that comes down to when, when you're saying, my neighbor, if my neighbor
were to die today, they would go to hell.
You may believe that.
But I would say if, if you really believe that to be true,
then we need to act on it.
We need to cross that bridge between the intellectual and the functional view.
We need to say, I, I, what can I do about it?
I, I can at least share the gospel with them.
I need to do that.
I need to take the Great Commission personally.
Maybe you're still nervous.
Maybe you still feel inadequate for this.
You have a fear of failure, or you have a fear of making God look bad, or you
have a fear of being asked a question that you don't have an answer to.
You have a fear of, of just looking foolish.
Maybe you have a fear of persecution.
You have a fear of, of the argument and things getting tense between you and, and
your neighbor, you and your family member.
Maybe you're just afraid that you're gonna look like one of those Christians.
This is where we have to come back and remember something here.
This is what God is commanding us to do, and God wants us to do this.
He's telling us to do this.
And if God is telling us to do this, then when we obey God, God's
gonna honor our obedience to him.
He's gonna honor it because it's gonna work out for his good,
for our good and for his glory.
And so I'm not saying that every one of your conversations is gonna go, well,
I'm not gonna say that you're gonna bat a thousand and share in the gospel.
You're not, and not every one of your conversations will go well, but you
can have a confidence that God has you and that you are doing something
that pleases him and that he knows what you're doing and where you
are, and he's going to care for you.
I, I, again, lemme just bring it back to this and, and I think this is, is helpful
to overcome some of those fears as well.
I, if we intellectually believe that our, if our neighbor dies, that they're gonna
go to hell today, the question we have to say is, is are avoiding that awkward
conversation or that scary conversation or that difficult conversation.
For an extra hour or two of comfort that we might gain this side of
eternity, are we willing to trade that for their eternal condemnation?
I don't know if I've told this story before, if I have.
It's been a while and it's worth revisiting.
Pen Gillette, notable atheist, was once given a Bible by somebody who
was at one of his shows, and he said this afterwards, he said, I don't
respect people who don't proselytize.
Okay, this is an atheist.
I don't respect somebody who's not taking the great commission
personally and seriously.
In other words, I don't respect that at all.
He said, if you believe there's a heaven and a hell and people could be going
to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well, it's
not really worth telling them this because that would make it socially awkward.
He said, how much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize?
How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life
is possible and not tell them that?
And then he says this.
He says, I mean, if I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming
at you and you didn't believe it, but the truck was bearing down on you, there's a
certain point where I would tackle you, and this is more important than that.
It's an atheist.
Saying this, eternal life is more important than that.
How much do you have to hate somebody not to take the Great Commission?
Personally, how much do you have to hate somebody not to have the
conversation with your coworker, your neighbor, your family member?
And so church, I, I want us to start planning for that.
I want us to start saying, okay, this is the person that needs to hear the gospel.
I, I, I want us to start putting a timeframe on that, and I'm gonna share the
gospel with them within the next month.
I'm gonna set myself that goal and I'm gonna pursue that goal.
God has commissioned the church to make disciples.
And the outwork of that looks like each one of us as part of our
church, as part of those that have been called out reaching those
that God has put into our lives.
So who will that be for you right now?
Who needs to hear the gospel?
Who are you gonna tackle this week because the bus of eternity is coming at them?
Who have you been functionally hating by not sharing the gospel with them?
And who do you need to add to that list and begin to say, okay.
It is time to do it.
It's time to get from the intellectual to the functional, and I'm gonna
go after them with the gospel.
I'm gonna take the great Commission.
Personally, the good news is there's, there's still time.
There's still time.
Well, we've been commissioned to make disciples and, and we have to do that.
That's, that's the mission.
That's what we're talking about.
And that begins with sharing the gospel with the lost.
But once a disciple is made by believing in Jesus Christ, by believing to
the gospel, by responding in faith and repentance, our job in making
disciples, it doesn't stop there.
And so pick up back with me in, in the rest of verse 19 into 20.
He says that we need to make disciples of all nations.
And then he says, it's baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
And so there's.
Two more things that that show up here.
Two things that we're supposed to do with disciples.
The first is baptizing them, the second is teaching them.
So let's talk about baptism.
Baptism is one of the two ordinances of the church.
That, and communion.
And so baptism is something that, that we practice.
It's something that's been commanded and there's a lot
of different views on baptism.
And this isn't necessarily meant to be a sermon on baptism, but I'll just say this.
If you look at this text, ask yourself the question.
Who is being baptized here?
Go and make disciples of all nations.
And we talked about how one becomes a disciple, right?
A, a disciple is somebody who becomes a follower of Jesus, and you become a
follower of Jesus by repenting from your sins and putting your trust in his atoning
death for you and his resurrection.
So.
If we're to baptize disciples, it seems that it would follow that
it's wise and best practice for us to baptize believers, right?
Because disciples are believers and what are we supposed to do with them?
We're to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And I think this Trinitarian formula is there because they
all have a role in salvation.
The spirit regenerates us.
That is causes the, the person to be born again, to have the faith,
to then put in the sun, into to Jesus and his death on their behalf
and his resurrection from the dead.
And that faith then is what causes God then to declare us righteous, to
declare us justified in his sight.
So when we baptize and, and we do this together, what we'll gather out in that.
You know, mobile hot tub under the, the blue awning at church there,
somebody gives their testimony.
Why do they give their testimony?
Because we're baptizing disciples, right?
Somebody who's been made a follower of Jesus, and, and
then we're gonna baptize them.
And that's meant to picture what the, the change that's taken place.
They've been united with Christ into a death like his.
So we bring them under the water in that burial sim symbolism, and then they'll,
they'll be raised to life in a life like his, which is why we then bring
them back up out of the water, right?
And they're raised to newness of life, but we baptize them in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because all three elements,
all three members of the Godhead, they all have a role in the Saving Act.
So we baptize them.
That's important.
That's something that we have to do.
That's another part of continuing the process of making disciples.
But then this next part says baptizing them and.
Teaching them to observe.
The word observe means to obey, to follow.
Teaching them to observe or obey or follow.
All that I have commanded you.
This is why the task doesn't stop at conversion.
In fact, this is why there's a very real sense in which no one has ever
fully discipled this side of eternity.
After somebody is saved, they need someone to teach them to observe
or obey all that Christ commanded.
In other words, they need someone to come alongside them.
Right?
And that's, that's us.
That's the church.
And, and to teach them what it looks like to live as a Christian.
So we want to take the Great Commission seriously.
We want to take the Great Commission personally.
And then finally, we want to take the Great Commission thoroughly.
We wanna take it thoroughly that, that our job doesn't end when
somebody says, I want to follow Jesus.
Our job doesn't end with conversion.
Our job doesn't even end with baptism.
Our job continues on.
If you think about where you were when you first came to Christ and
where you are now, uh, uh, my guess is there's, there's quite a, a, a
difference between those two places.
And the reason there's quite a difference between those two places
because you had somebody take the Great Commission thoroughly in your life.
They were instructing you, they were teaching you what
it looks like to follow Jesus.
And so when you share the gospel with someone, I want
you to think about it this way.
When you share the gospel with someone, you are committing to
their continued discipleship.
Should they get saved.
At least that should be your mindset.
Now, that doesn't mean that you are always gonna be the one
that is going to disciple them.
For example, if you're traveling and you share the gospel with somebody while
you're traveling with them, then what your commitment to their discipleship
looks like is saying, I, I wanna make sure that you get connected to a good church.
Tell me where are you coming from, what churches are nearby.
Let me do some research.
I'll talk to my pastors.
I wanna make sure that you do a good church.
Let's exchange phone numbers.
Because, because this is important.
You need somebody to be investing and teaching you and,
and pouring into your life.
So maybe that's gonna be the, the situation or, or maybe.
For example, you're of the opposite sex.
You share the gospel with, uh, you're a woman, you share the gospel with a man,
and, and he comes to faith in Jesus.
Well, it's probably wise unless you're married and, and even then you need more
than that, it's probably wise for you not to be his discipler and vice versa.
And so maybe you're gonna hand them off to somebody in your church.
You're gonna hand 'em off to the men's ministry in your church.
You're gonna hand her off to the women's ministry in your church and,
and you're gonna trust that your church is gonna come alongside to, to.
Pursue this discipleship process as well.
And, and, and that's just it, right?
If we're gonna disciple thoroughly, it is us individually with one
another, but it's also corporately.
And that's why we as a church, do men's bible study and women's bible study.
And that's why we do biblical counseling intensives, and, and I'm sure we're gonna
do more things like that in the future.
It's, it's why we have community groups.
It's a huge reason why we have community groups so that discipleship
relationships are continuing there.
It's why we do kids ministry.
It's why we do our True North Student Ministry, the, the discipling
thoroughly that process, carrying out the Great Commission thoroughly.
This is a corporate pursuit as well as part of the called out ones here, but
there's another resource that we have that I just wanna plug for just a minute
here in the discipleship process, and that is our resource known as Partners.
Partners is our one-on-one discipleship manual.
So what partners is, is it's 10 chapters.
And it's meant for you to go through with somebody that's already been through it.
And as you go through these chapters, this is gonna be discipleship in the sense
that you're gonna be going through things like, uh, the, the what is the gospel?
That's chapter one, right outta the gates, the character of God.
You're gonna be talking about what does it look like to study the Bible.
You're gonna talk about prayer.
You're gonna talk about the Holy Spirit in the role of the Holy Spirit in your life.
You'll talk about the church and, and what it looks like
to be a part of a good church.
You're gonna talk about serving and why that's so important.
You'll talk about.
Fellowship with other believers.
You'll talk about evangelism like we're talking about this morning, and you're
also gonna talk about sanctification or living a holy life before God.
Uh, 10 chapters.
It's using God's word and it's causing us to, to, to have opportunities
to have good discipleship based conversations with people.
So that's called partners.
If you haven't been through it, we'd love for you to go through.
You can sign up for it on our website.
If you have been through it and, and your partner said, man, I think you'd be great
to take somebody else through that, then who are you taking through right now?
And maybe you can identify somebody and say, okay, this looks like me
continuing to take discipleship and take the great commission thoroughly here.
I want to participate and engage in this.
When we gather on Sundays, we gather as those who are at different places in
this journey called discipleship, right?
We gather in a room full of people that are, are all at different places in
their spiritual, spiritual maturity.
So for us to be a church as the called out ones, that's gonna take
the Great Commission seriously and personally and thoroughly.
That's why we need community with each other.
Man, I need more mature believers to come alongside me.
I, you need more mature believers to come alongside you and, and to carry
on the great commission in your life to cause you to become a more rounded,
more fully devoted follower of Jesus.
Because remember, that's what discipleship is really all about,
is becoming followers of Christ.
And so we are about the Great Commission.
We have to be about the Great Commission.
The the Great Commission is something that we need to take.
Seriously, the Great Commission is something that we need to take personally,
and the Great Commission is something that we need to take thoroughly.
Realizing that discipleship is a journey that won't end this side of eternity, and
so we want to teach these disciples to observe all the crisis commanded with us.
All the way through, and, and that's the most encouraging part of this passage,
and that's the last part of verse 20 when he says this, and behold, I'm with you
always to the end of the age, behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
That should be the most comforting thought to you.
If maybe you're sitting there thinking to yourself, okay, but
man, I just am, am not sure.
I feel.
Uh, I, I, I feel uneasy.
I feel awkward, I feel unprepared.
Those words from Jesus, I'm with you, always to the end of the age,
should be an encouragement to you.
That you have the spirit of God dwelling within you.
You have the presence of Christ in your life, and you have the
ability to go with that confidence to take the gospel to the lost.
This is why we're still here, church.
This is why we're not in heaven, because this is the job that God
has for us to do here that we're not gonna be able to do there.
And so as a church, we need to get after it 'cause that's what we're here to do.
This is our mission.
We're about, and we'll say this in our, our mission statement as
a church, reaching, teaching and training that comes from this passage.
We wanna reach people for Christ.
That's evangelism, that's sharing the gospel, that's
calling them to be a disciple.
We want to teach people to be like g like Christ, that's teaching them to
observe all that they've commanded him.
That that Christ has commanded them and we want to train people to serve him.
And, and, and that's the outflow of all of it.
And so we wanna be a church that's busy about the work that God has for us to do
that we can't do once we get to heaven.
So let's be sure that we're gonna be a faithful church towards that end anyways.
Can't wait to be back with you guys next week.
Love you guys.
Lemme pray and we'll be done.
God, thanks for your word.
Thanks for technology that we can still.
Gather, so to speak, under the preaching of your word through YouTube and
through videoing sermons and through microphones and everything else.
Well, this doesn't feel great because it's, it's not what you've designed.
It's not what it's supposed to be.
We're supposed to be together, and I, I'm grateful.
I'm thankful that it doesn't feel good.
To have things happen this way, and yet, Lord, we know that your
word is true no matter what the context is in which we hear it.
And so I pray, Lord, that we would give our attention to it, that we would live
it out, and that we would be faithful to the task at hand, especially that
Lord, as we think about our church, we wanna be a great commission church.
We wanna be a church that sees the empty seats in the, in the auditorium
filled up because we wanna be a church.
That's about the work that you have for us to do, that we're not
gonna be able to do in heaven.
And so we pray all this and ask that you bring it to fruition in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Can't wait to see you guys in person.
Lord willing, next Sunday.