Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
So your Bibles turn to Matthew chapter 28 this morning.
Matthew 28.
And it's hard keeping those tears back.
Coming up here just thinking about all that God has done here
at Middletown Baptist Church these past three and a half years.
And I promise you, I, I, I selected this sermon and this passage
before this last week's event.
So there's nothing politically tied to this or anything.
Just completely the Gospel of Christ, Christ's resurrection.
And I was praying about it and I said, what was the, what would
be the last message that I believe God want me to speak here?
And the message today is to make much of Christ, to make much
of our risen savior, risen king Jesus Christ.
Appreciate the worship this morning.
Every single song was just so enriching and meditating on thinking
about how we are praising our risen Savior and risen king.
Well, the book of Matthew in the New Testament, there was a period
of time for several hundred years right before Matthew that God
seemed to be silent.
Where is God?
Where was this promised Messiah?
Who is to come?
What's, where is he?
Who would he be?
We need some of the details.
In the Old Testament, he would come, be born in Bethlehem, he would
be born of a virgin woman.
But how would that all be tied together?
Well, Matthew wrote this book to prove that Jesus is the Messiah,
the eternal king.
Now Matthew was a Jewish tax collector.
He became one of Jesus disciples.
This Gospel forms that connecting link between that Old
Testament period into the New Testament period.
And so you see this emphasis on the fulfillment of prophecy.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:17, think not that I am come to destroy
the law or the prophets.
I am not coming to destroy, but to fulfill.
Matthew is filled with messianic language.
Son of David is used throughout Old Testament.
References are 53 quotes and 76 other references.
The Gospel was not written as a chronological account.
Its purpose was to present the clear evidence that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Savior.
Today we're looking at Matthew chapter 28.
Right before this, we had a whole period of events that were
going on here.
You had Christ's crucifixion.
He was scourged, he was beaten, he died, he was buried in
the tomb.
And Here in Matthew 28 we see some excellent news, the best news
in the entire world.
We see in Matthew 28 here that Matthew records the last words of
Jesus before his ascension.
A bold mountain top commission for every believer in every every
place, for all time.
These words are not merely good advice, they are our marching
orders before Jesus gives us commission.
Matthew unfolds the narrative of the resurrection, the ultimate
validation of his authority to send us.
In this chapter we see three keys to living in the power of Christ's
resurrection.
Number one, believe the resurrection.
Number two, stand firm against opposition.
And number three, go in Christ authority.
And today we're going to see that God wants you to live and to
go in the resurrection of the power of Jesus Christ.
And there's three truths.
The first truth is this.
You must believe in the reality of the risen Christ.
Look at verse 1, Matthew 28, verse 1.
It reads in the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward
the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary to see the sepulcher.
And behold, there was a great earthquake.
But the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and
rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.
His countenance was like lightning and his Raymond white as
snow.
And for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead
men.
We will pause there for a minute.
So first we see that you must believe in the reality of the risen
Christ.
We see here in verse one, it gives the time here, it gives a timestamp.
It says in the end of the Sabbath, literally after the Sabbath,
making it the first day of the week, what had just taken place,
Christ had just been crucified.
His disciples were tempted to abandon him.
And Christ was taken.
He was isolated, he was scourged, he was crushed for our
iniquities.
Isaiah 53 talks about that, how he was crushed.
He was bruised for us.
He shed his blood for us.
The Bible declares that without the shedding of blood, there's
no remission of sins, no forgiveness of sins.
And so it was necessary, it was essential that Christ had his
death.
But his death wasn't just the end of it, was it?
No.
He had to rise from the dead.
That's a clearing power and authority in his life that he would
become the King and Lord of all.
And so we see in verse one here, there's two ladies that come
up to the resurrection, to the resurrection scene here.
Mary Magdalene and this other Mary.
These are faithful women who have remained at the cross.
But now they're here.
First at the tomb now remember these ladies, they had just witnessed
Christ's crucifixion.
They had just witnessed his death.
And now they're here at the tomb.
And they're, they're, they're, they're, they're waiting, they're
seeing what's going, what's going to happen here.
What happens?
Look at the next verse there, verse two, it says, and behold, there
was a great earthquake.
For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and
rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.
And so there was this earthquake.
It was a divine disturbance that this was announcing.
There was a major intervention going on here.
There was, there was something major going on.
You have this angel, this angel appears, a message with heaven's
authority.
His appearance was like lightning.
And so you, and so just visualize this scene.
You see these two ladies are there at the entrance of this tomb.
And then you see this angel has come.
And it's like lightning, this flash and then a huge shaking quivering
of the ground as earthquake happens.
What's the responses of these people?
Always see the guards, they became as dead men.
They were fully alert, alive, right?
But then it says that their, that their response here, verse three,
verse four, it says, for fear of him the keepers did shake and
became as dead men.
What were they being forced to recognize with?
They were being forced to recognize that God, the power of
God, God's authority was intervening in this specific situation.
This angel, like comment, this angel was rolling away the stone
like the rising sun, dispels the night.
The resurrection of Jesus shatters the darkness of fear and
doubt forever.
But the resurrection truth is not just an event to acknowledge,
it's a Savior to follow.
Look at verse five.
The angel answered and said to the woman, fear not ye, for I know
that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
He looks at these ladies over here, he knows they were at the cross,
they were watching Christ be crucified.
And he says, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, for I know who you're
seeking.
You're trying to find this man who had just been crucified.
But don't be afraid.
Verse 6, he is not here.
Could you imagine?
He is not here, for he is risen as he said.
And that right there is a specific phrase of truth that has
completely transformed lives all around the world.
That simple truth that Christ is risen.
He was no longer in the tomb, he is risen as he said.
And so we see this angel's announcement, this contrast.
You have these women and these guards, right?
Believers, we don't have any fear in this world.
Why?
Because we have the eternal hope through Christ.
And he says, it says, it says here that he literally said this.
It means it was a fulfillment to what he said, God, that he was
bringing that news that I'm going to rise from the dead.
And that happens.
He is risen.
God the Father raised him from the dead.
Let's go on.
It says, come see the place of the Lord Lay.
Verse 7.
Go quickly.
Don't just stop.
Go and share.
Go tell people.
Verse 7.
Go quickly.
Tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead.
And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee and there shall
ye see him.
Lo, I have told you.
And see, we see the sequence here.
We see this, the sequence of experience with their force, of this
encounter of Christ's resurrection.
But then they're commanded to go, go tell Christ's disciples, go
and declare this to his disciples.
Verse 8.
They departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy
and did run to bring his disciples words.
And so we see this mingled, these mingled emotions here, right?
There's this awe and there's this celebration.
Do we have times in our lives where we have that fear and celebration,
Right?
Fear and celebration.
Here they were, they were excited because they said, look,
Christ's death is in the past now.
He has risen from the dead.
He has risen.
And they're going to declare it.
Verse 9.
As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them
saying, all hail.
And they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him.
And so they obeyed God.
They obeyed the angel here, the messenger of God, saying, go
and tell the disciples.
And Jesus meets them on the way.
Could you imagine this, this encounter here where Christ had just
been, just died and he rose from the dead.
And now these ladies who are waiting to go tell his disciples,
they encounter Christ.
They encounter him.
And he says, all hail.
And what was their immediate response?
What was their immediate response?
Look at the last part of that verse there.
It says they and held him by the feet and worshiped him.
Their immediate response was not just a Jesus, you're here.
It was, I'm on your feet, Lord, you're resurrected from the
dead.
Hallelujah.
Praise you, God.
You are worthy of my worship.
You are worthy of my praise.
You are worthy of everything in my life.
We just see this humility from these ladies.
They, they, they, they go down to his feet and they worship him.
They say, you are God.
You are God.
Do you remember the first time when you encountered Christ in your
life?
Remember where you were.
I remember where I was.
I was confused.
I was lost.
And I had.
I didn't have a purpose in my life.
I was just kind of doing my own thing.
And then when I encountered Christ, the preacher was preaching
about the last days, preaching about there was coming this punishment.
One day I was forced to recognize that I cannot do anything
in on myself to save myself.
And I encountered the risen Savior, Jesus Christ.
Remember right after you got saved, that joy that filled your
heart, the excitement of wanting to go and waiting to share.
Is that joy still real today?
Is that excitement still there?
Do you remember where you came from?
Paul said the Corinthians.
He said, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received.
How that Christ was Christ.
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
He was buried and he rose again according to the scriptures.
Paul had that hope.
Paul shared that hope with the Corinthians.
And today we share that same hope with Christ.
We share that same resurrection.
That no matter what is going on in this world, that no matter
what's going on with transitions and different changes
and everything, that Christ is still the head of his church, that
Christ is in charge.
Christ is the one who we all serve.
He is the great shepherd, the shepherd who pursued after us and
who continues to lead us and to guide us.
Let's go on to the second point.
Here you must stand firm against deception and opposition.
Look at verse 11.
I go back to verse 10.
Then Jesus said to them, be not afraid.
Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they
see me.
So Jesus here says the same thing, don't be afraid.
Why?
Well, because back then you had the rulers, right?
They had just killed.
They had just killed Christ.
And now, and now he's telling him to go and share it.
Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid of the gospel.
Don't be ashamed of the gospel of Christ where the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believe it to the Jew first
and also the Greek.
We see here this, this command from Christ, don't be afraid.
Go and tell my brethren.
And they go into Galilee and there shall they be, see me.
Verse 11.
Now when they were going, behold some of the watch came into
the city.
So now here's, here's some of that authority we're seeing coming
out here and showing to the chief priests all the things that
were done.
And so you had these guards, right?
They heard what happened.
Verse 12.
When they were assembled with the elders, had taken counsel, they
gave large money Unto the, unto the soldiers.
Right?
Okay.
Reality hit right?
Okay.
This has actually happened.
This truth is spreading.
But guess what?
We're going to spread lies.
We're going to go against what, what, what, what, What Jesus
was talking about.
Because we still want to be, we still want to be the authority.
We still want to take control.
We want to manipulate the, the people to follow our narrative rather
than following the narrative of this truth that Jesus has risen
from the dead.
The very soldiers who had been there at the side of the tomb, the
soldiers who had witnessed Christ's death, witnessed him dead
going in that tomb.
Who had witnessed the whole process of the angel having sat down
on the tomb and having seen this lightning, shadow of lightning,
appearance of this angel and this earthquake happening, they allow
themselves to be bribed on.
They allow themselves to deceive.
They allow themselves.
Even though they witnessed the exact same thing as the ladies had
experience and they chose to take this bribery.
Verse 13.
What do they say?
What was this lie saying?
Say ye, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we
slept.
And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade
him and secure you.
So now we see this fabricated story that's coming on the scene.
These disciples, they came by night, right?
How could the disciples come by night, right?
There's, there's some fault in this.
There's some faulty wording going on here.
This faulty logic, this is logical, it's inconsistent with the
facts.
A couple of, a couple of realities back then was the penalty
on the soldier's head was death.
Why would they take the bribery, right?
But they took the bribery.
Christ's disciple abandoned Jesus at the garden with the arrest,
why would they want to show up now, right?
These disciples, they had been in Christ, right, When the hardest
of hard times were then, oh yeah, they're going to come and they're
going to come sneak it, sneak into the tomb of Jesus and take him
away, right?
No, they feared the Roman guard.
They were afraid of them.
Why would they go in there?
Why would they want to go in there and try to mess with the Roman
soldiers?
How could they know that the disciples took the body of Jesus
because they were asleep?
How could, how could they know they weren't keeping their watch?
But this lie persists here.
It says it is unto this day, verse 15.
So they took the money and did as they were taught.
And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this
day.
And this lie, this lie has been a lie that has been consistent
all throughout time, ever since on the garden of Eden, right?
Yea, hath God said, doubting God's word, questioning God's word.
And then you had that promise where God said, there's going to
be a Messiah who's going to come.
Where sin originated with the fall of man, where man chose to disobey
God.
And as a result of that, God cursed the snake and said that there
would be a seed that will come from the woman that would crush the
head of the serpent, and that serpent would crush the heel of that
seed.
And we know that's Jesus Christ, that prophecy there.
But that lie has been going on all throughout time.
And then we see this lie.
It continues to today.
There are influences.
There are people out there today who have witnessed the gospel.
They've witnessed people's lives being changed, and they've
chose to reject it.
They've chose to say, I don't want it.
And in fact, they're taking on their own lies.
They're taking on their own deception, and they're going out
and they're trying to prevent people from receiving Christ as their
personal savior.
They're trying.
They're.
They're trying to go out and to declare a false narrative from
what the Bible says.
And so we see that this lie has persisted to this day.
The resurrection.
This is like a floodlight on our dark street.
Have you ever.
Have you ever been out in a really, really dark night and.
Or going outside your house and the floodlight pops on?
And I know for me it's, you know, sometimes I was like, I'm just,
you know, trying to walk out of the car or whatever, and then
the floodlight pops on.
And.
But with truth, though, truth, there's darkness.
And when light pops on, there's two responses that people
take, right?
One response is, oh, thank you for popping that light on, because
I couldn't see where I was going.
But the other response is, why is that light on?
Keep it away from me.
I want to keep navigating and going in my own darkness.
And so the lies of the world, they make the truth of the Great
Commission all the more urgent.
And it is very urgent.
This message that God has for us is absolutely urgent, that we
maintain that we stand strong in the faith, being faithful to him.
But even before this trial had begun, even before this whole thing
had happened, Christ had declared.
It was determined that Christ must die.
There was no innocent until proven guilty in this situation.
False witnesses, they were sods.
They were sought to testify against Jesus.
Usually the religious leaders, they went through a whole elaborate
system of screening witnesses to Ensure justice.
These fault, these false leaders, they had gone, they had
gone to the Roman government, they had gone to these soldiers and
they had said, hey, go and go and spread this lie, spread this
false deception.
No defense was sought for Jesus.
It wasn't even allowed.
Luke 22:67, 71.
Jesus was basically put on this trial.
It was conducted at night.
And this is actually illegal.
Back during the time this trial was illegal, Mark 14, 53, 65
and Mark 15, verse 1.
This was illegal according to the religious leaders own laws.
They were completely going against their own practices.
They were being hypocritical.
But they knew, they knew what they were doing was wrong.
But they decided to do it instead.
They decided, they said, you know what?
There has been this exposing light.
There has been this truth that has been declared and I'm.
And we're still going to do what we want to do.
The high priest put Jesus under oath, but then after putting
him under oath, incriminating him for what he said.
Cases involving such serious charges were to be held, were to
be tried only in the Sanhedrin's regular meeting place,
not in the high priest home.
So you see, this entire thing was manipulated by these high priests.
They didn't care.
They were doing what they wanted to do by, by, by trying to
manipulate this whole process through this entire thing.
Let's what's the last truth today we're going to see is this.
You must go in the authority of the risen king.
Look at verse 18.
And the 11 disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where
Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him.
But some doubted.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nation, Baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever.
I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
So we're seeing it throughout this entire passage.
There is this whole buildup going on.
First part of Matthew 28, you see the Sabbath, you see, you see
this, this first day of the week, this resurrection has happened.
And this angel tells the ladies, go, go, go share, go to this
to go to.
Go to Christ's disciples.
Jesus told the ladies to go on their encounter with him.
And then the disciples have been told, go to Galilee.
And so they're all gathering in this place.
They're all going to this place.
This is a fulfillment of Jesus's Words back in chapter 26,
verse 32, it says, as they came out, they found, oops, sorry,
wrong chapter there.
26, verse 32, it says, Peter answered and said unto him, it's
again this.
All right, verse 32, there he goes.
Verse 33, after I am risen again, I will go before you into
Galilee.
And so we see that Jesus himself had told the disciples, he
said, I'm going to go before you.
I'm going to meet you there at Galilee.
Meet me there.
And so you just see this alignment.
You see this connection of Jesus being intentional.
He's bringing his 11 disciples together at the Mount of Galilee
into this mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
So then Jesus appears, right?
Finally, right?
He went through this whole process of the disciples.
They had left, some of them had abandoned him.
But they all came together and they.
They're found.
They're finally here.
Christ appears before them.
What was their response?
Verse 17, it says, when they saw him, they worshiped him.
You see this common theme, the resurrected savior, Jesus Christ.
The one who had said, if you tear this body down, this temple
down, it'll be raised up again in three days.
It'll be rebuilt in three days.
The one who had said that, I'm coming to fulfill the Father's will.
I'm the one who has come to fulfill what he has declared all
throughout.
All throughout the past, right?
That one seed, that one deliverer who would be that hope?
It was Jesus.
And he said, I'm going to come.
I'm going to live that life.
He gave his life as a ransom for many.
He gave it up willingly.
He said himself, he said, I give my life willingly as a sheep
before her share is his.
Dumb.
He did not open his mouth.
He humbled himself.
Philippians 2 talks about how he humbled himself.
And he gave himself for us.
Humbled himself.
The death of the cross.
And these disciples here, all these thoughts, all of these things
here at this time, these disciples are seeing this.
It says, what do they do?
They worship him, right?
You're risen from the dead.
Wow.
It actually happened.
It happened.
Some of them.
And it says here, though, even.
Even back during this time, it says that some of them doubted.
Some of them were still doubting.
Some of them were still struggling.
Is this really real?
This is.
Did this actually happen?
I got a question for you.
Where is your faith with Christ?
Let's put aside.
Let's put aside everything that's going on in the world, but
let's take this simple message of the Gospel of Christ.
The death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ.
Are you living in that reality today?
Have you forgotten what Christ has done for you?
And you say, well, of course not.
I mean, it's easy, right?
Jesus died on the cross.
He was buried.
He rose again from the dead.
No, but is that resurrection, the eternal life, that hope?
Are you living with the reality that you have a hope in Christ,
that your life is a continual thing?
This isn't the end all be all here, right?
It isn't just, okay, you got saved this one day and then you stop
living for God, then you stop living for the Lord.
No, it is a continual decision, a continual lifestyle decision.
I'm going to continue to obey and to follow Christ.
And you know, Pastor Josh had mentioned back in February, when
I was first made aware of this transition here, where it was like,
lord, I love it here.
I love it here at Middletown.
And as we're going through this transition, Joy and I both,
you were like, lord, this is where you're calling us to go.
And we have to be obedient to what he tells us to do.
We must obey the message.
And I love the theme this year, Pastor Joshua and preaching
you on the theme of going, going and obeying the Great Commission.
Are you going in your life?
It could be anything.
It could be in your workplace.
It could be in your home with your children.
It could be as you get together with some.
With some of your friends at a local place.
It could be when you're taking your kids into going grocery shopping,
right?
All throughout your life, the.
The life of following Christ, the life of realizing that this light
is not the end.
All be all.
I must be sharing Christ with other people around me.
I must be obedient by declaring it.
I must be obedient by going.
Verse 18, it says, Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
It's important that I bring that up, right?
We're not just going out doing this ourselves.
But it says all, all authority, all power is given unto
Christ.
The supreme claim that Christ says.
He says the authority, the right, the jurisdiction, the universal
sovereignty is given to Christ.
And he is commissioning every single one of us to go, every single
one of us to go to fulfill that great Commission.
So where is that for you in your life?
Are you being faithful, leading your families in the home?
Are you being faithful in taking care of your children in your
home?
Are you being faithful?
Maybe.
Maybe you don't have any children.
Maybe you say, you know what?
There is somebody who God's been Putting in my heart.
Maybe it's a spiritual son, maybe it's a spiritual daughter,
maybe it's a spiritual brother, spiritual sister in Christ
that God's been burning on your heart about.
Are you obeying God by being a gospel witness to that person?
You see that person sitting in your workplace.
You see that person discouraged?
You see that maybe get your wife at home, she's exhausted, she's
wiped out, right?
Honey, I'm gonna help you out, right?
Being a faithful husband, being faithful wherever God has you
doing in your life.
We see here that we're not just going in our authority, but
we're going in the authority of Christ.
Now we see the Great Commission and this, this is the
most exciting part.
I mean, it's all exciting, right?
But here is the really exciting part.
And this is what really is at the core of everything.
For, for this charge for us today.
We see Christ says in verse 19, he says, Go ye therefore and
teach all nations, baptizing them them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, 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.
And so we see this Great Commission.
And so people have called it right, this Great Commission.
This is, this is a final command that Christ gives his disciples
to go, go and to declare.
But what does he say to go do, right?
I mean, what am I supposed to do?
He says that go you therefore, right?
So what was that first commandment?
Remember back in the context here, what did the angel told the
disciples to do?
He told the disciples, he told the ladies to go, right?
Now Christ is here commissioning his disciples to say,
go, go share the gospel.
When was the last time that you have personally witnessed to
somebody who you saw was in that need of needing a savior in
their life?
Maybe you're in the, maybe in the audience today and you say, you
know what I have.
What is salvation?
What are you talking about?
Well, the gospel is very, very simple to understand, but there is
a heavy commitment to it following up after that.
And I'll clarify.
The gospel is simple.
Romans 3, 23 states, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
Now, who has sinned?
What does that verse say?
There it is.
All, all of us have sinned.
We've all done bad things.
I mean, and there's clearly wrong things going on in our world,
right?
You can agree with me.
There's sin in the world.
All have sinned.
Come short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23 states, the wages of sin is death.
The payment of our sin is death.
And the sin.
That's the, that's all the wrong things that we have done.
Lying, stealing, cheating, adultery.
All those different.
All those different things.
If you've done one of those.
James, the book of James, he says, if you have broken the law
in one point, you're guilty of the entire thing.
I heard an awesome illustration this last week where
you have, you have all these different chains.
It's a chain, different links coming down, right?
And how many links does it take for that chain to break before
you, before you, before you fall?
It only takes one of those links.
And that, and that's.
And that's all the different commandments, right?
All the different sins.
If you do one guess what you're guilty of.
All of it.
That's what the Bible says.
But there's hope.
The wages of our sin is death.
But the gift of God we've been talking about today, the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
John 3:16.
For God so loved the world.
God so loved every single one of you.
Whether you're here in person, you're watching online, everybody
in the entire world, God loves you.
And God sent his only begotten son for you.
They say, well, that's great, but what do I do with that?
Romans 10, 9, 10 states that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth,
the Lord Jesus, right?
You say, lord, I believe that you are God.
Believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
I believe, Lord, that you paid for my sins, that you died on the
cross, that you rose again from the dead.
I believe, and I trust in you to be my savior.
I believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved.
You could be saved today.
You can be saved before you walk out these doors, before this
live stream cuts off, you can be saved right now by acknowledging
that God saying, lord, I have sinned.
I acknowledge that you are God, that you rose from the dead
and that you paid for my sins on the cross.
Now, also with that, Pastor Johnson mentioned this before recently.
It's been the same idea with me, where just because you get saved,
it doesn't stop there.
Right?
And I'm sure, as you know, some newer believers in here, you
think to yourself, oh, okay, what am I supposed to do?
Right?
Well, there's.
There's some, thankfully, there's.
There's some easy steps that you can take.
The first step is to get A Bible.
And just to read the Bible for yourself.
The Bible says that thy word is a lamp unto my feet and light
unto my path.
How are you Christian?
How are you doing in your time with God?
New Christian.
This is.
This is a good first step here to get a Bible.
Second thing is this.
Pray, talk to God yourself.
Hebrews 4 talks about it, says that we have a great high priest
who has passed in the heavens.
Jesus, the Son of God.
Let us hold fast our profession.
Let us hold fast the calling that God has for us, that we are
sons, we are daughters of a living king, of a living God.
He is our father.
Romans 8 talks about that we have this liberty with Christ.
We have this freedom to approach him ourselves.
And so these are some simple steps to take.
We were called to go, and now listen.
So you're reading the Bible for yourself.
You're praying, you're talking to God.
But now here's where the next step comes in.
Look at verse 19.
It says, go ye therefore.
Then it says to teach all nations.
God is not designed for you as a Christian to sit in your seat and
do nothing else with your life.
God has called every single one of us in here to find where God
has us to get plugged in and discernment.
God has called you to get involved.
God has called you.
You're a part of the body of Christ.
God has given you a gift.
God has commissioned you in this great commission to go and it
says here to teach all nations.
That literally means there to make disciples, to find people who
you can lead.
Who you can lead them through the gospel and say, here's how you
can be saved.
People who get saved, then after they get saved, take them and
then grow them and disciple them.
See, salvation is just not.
Isn't just the finish line.
We are called to live a life of obedience to him, walking and
knowing God, following God, reading his Word, spending time and
then going and investing in other people around us.
Are you investing in somebody else today?
You as a believer, are you investing in somebody else?
Well, that's kind of hard because once I start telling somebody
else how they're supposed to live their life, what comes back
at you?
Well, are you doing that?
Right.
So it's a challenge, right?
Just like for these disciples, they're being.
They're being commissioned here, right?
This is a very heavy challenge, but it is an encouraging
challenge because you are not doing it in your own authority.
You're doing it in God's authority.
You're doing it with the authority of Christ.
His power in your life, go ye therefore teach all nations.
And then there's an identity that comes in with that, a public
identity.
You look at the next part of that verse, it says, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
And so now there's baptizing, right now there's a public identity.
Okay, so you're saved.
You're learning how to walk with God.
You're committing to coming, to being connected with the church,
getting.
Getting plugged in other people.
I want me to learn how to be discipling disciple, to be a disciple
and discipling somebody else.
But then there's also a baptism.
And baptism is that public identity that each of us as believers,
we're called to do.
Why?
Because just as these people, right, the angel tells the lady,
Jesus tells his disciples, right, to go.
They're taking a public identity with Christ.
And I'm not sure if you've realized that, but when you receive
Christ as Savior, you are now taking on his identity.
And there have been people in history who have taken on that identity.
They have taken on that this commission, and they have died for
it.
They have died.
And as a result of that, the church.
The church grows in times of persecution, the church has grown
through history of believers who have gone through those hardships
to see how his church comes together, to live for God, to follow
God, to say, look, this brother over here has died.
Let's continue picking up the torch.
Let's keep living the faith.
Let's keep passing on the torch of the gospel and that gospel
message, making disciples and baptism, taking that public identity,
coming up here and making your statement to say, I identify with
Christ.
If you have not been baptized yet, talk to Pastor Josh.
Make that next step in your life personally for what you need
to do between you and him.
So there's this great commission.
But then look at the.
The next part here.
In verse 20, it says, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I've commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
And I should make.
I should make that a point.
The first part of verse 20, there we're saying, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.
Everything that Christ has shown to you, everything that you
have learned in your own walk with Him.
God wants you to share that with others.
And so teaching them to observe all these things.
The last part of verse 20, he says, Lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of this constant, unbroken presence, you have Christ
once again as that great high priest, that faithful God who will
lead you.
He will guide you.
He will strengthen you.
When you're weak, he will lead you.
When you have times of loss in your life, he will fill the void
in your life.
His love.
He'll fill you with his love.
He'll fill you with his peace.
He'll fill you with the ability to keep moving on for what
he's called you to do.
When a commander gives his final orders before departing, the
troops carry them out.
Matthew 28 is Jesus's final earthly words to his followers here.
And he comes wrapped in his resurrection, glory, unwavering authority
and unfailing presence of our great commander in chief, Jesus Christ
himself.
There's three different truths here tonight.
I want to emphasize these things as we're wrapping up here.
Number one, the tomb is empty.
Believe it.
Believe it and talk about it.
Don't be ashamed of the gospel.
Romans 1:16.
Paul said, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes,
everyone that believeth you believe Christ as Savior.
You have his power in your life to do what he wants you to do
to fulfill that great commission.
Number two.
The world will lie and the world does lie.
But we are called to stand firm.
We are called to stand firm in grace, in humility, but to stand
firm with the truths.
Not.
Not compromising on what the Bible says and not compromising on
the Gospel.
Not compromising on this commission that God has given us.
And lastly, the king reigns.
Jesus reigns.
He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords.
And one day we're all going to gather together with him, with him
for all eternity to be able to praise and worship him.
Beloved, our time together in this place is coming to an end.
But the mission does not stop until he comes.
Live in the resurrection of the power of Christ.
Go, obey and trust Him.
And we meet again.
Whether it's here in this life or if it's not, until glory.
May he find us, each of us being faithful to sharing and declaring
and living out that gospel message.
Let's pray.
Dear Father, I thank you so much for this passage.
Lord, I thank you for this encouraging, these encouraging words,
Lord, that we find of how you.
You rose from the dead, Lord, that message that you called these
disciples here, Lord, these ladies to go and tell.
And I pray that you please help us, Lord, to be faithful to
kind of that gospel message to those around us.
Jesus name I pray.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
Podcast I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You you can also email me directly at Josh massaro@middletownbaptistchurch.com.
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.