Following the Way of Jesus (14)

The End is the Beginning - The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16–20 (ESV)

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 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 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus did something amazing when He became a man and when He redeemed humanity from the death-grip of sin.

Through His death, burial, and resurrection, we receive eternal life.

He also did something equally amazing when He gave His followers the task of carrying the message of salvation to all humankind. He could have done this Himself, but He called His followers to join Him in proclaiming His victory over sin and evil.

Over The course of around 2 years, 81 sermons later we have come to the end of our series on following the way of Jesus. we have reached the end and we have to draw our conclusions but thankfully that is not too difficult because Jesus draws them for us, He tells us what we have to do and we discover that the END is in fact just the BEGINNING. ware to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.

I. It Begins by Working for Jesus on Earth:

“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 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

We work for Jesus because we are:

a. CALLED BY JESUS:

Jesus was insistent that the great commission, the plan is to make disciples of all nations - to baptise them, teach them so that they might learn obedience in all things commanded by Jesus - this should be proclaimed in “all the world” throughout the period of human history by the disciples and their followers!

This is the CALL of Jesus for ordinary people, who have come into relationship with God, through the EXTRAORDINARY work of Jesus, to work for Him in extending the Kingdom of God throughout the world! - (Matthew 28:16 – 18; Mark 16:14 – 15; Acts 1:6-8).

And as we have seen, the 12 disciples of Jesus were by and large simple, ordinary people. They were fishermen, artisans, farmers, merchants. They were weak in faith some even doubtful but all were subject to this promise, but still He used them! (c/f Acts 4 “unschooled, ordinary men…turned the world upside down”). Terrific that he doesn’t rely on the most gifted or eloquent or educated or influential - this was part of His perfect plan so that Paul could say to the Corinthian believers: “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”(1 Cor 1:26-30).

b. CALLED TO MAKE DISCIPLES OF JESUS:

Jesus calls us to a “make Disciples” for Him - Matthew 28:19 – 20

It’s a simple, clear to understand plan — make disciples by teaching them.

It’s a plan that requires active participation, but the freedom to fulfil the plan with any method we find useful.

It’s a plan that includes reaching out to the whole “world” but it BEGINS in the local neighbourhood - “Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria” - with their families, friends, neighbours and fellow citizens!

A pattern of ministry that every individual CAN DO BETTER than anyone else – your family, friends and neighbours are the people that know you best and you have access to them that no one else does!

What a challenge and a privilege we have in knowing that Jesus is building his kingdom and we are asked to co-labour with him.

“We must not treat the great commission like it's a great suggestion”. (Swindoll)

Jesus’ commission requires our response and action!

The scope of the mission is all authority - all nations - all things I commanded you.

The Great Commission is Jesus’ mandate to us to tell others about the His offer to forgive sins and give eternal life. There is no other plan.

“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed" (Hudson Taylor).

(i). It’s a life thing!

A new convert to Christ came one day to Martin Luther, and asked, "I have just become a Christian. How am I to faithfully serve the Lord?" Luther asked him, "What do you do?" The man replied, "I'm a cobbler. I make shoes". Luther then said, "Then make a great shoe and sell it at a fair price."

Whether you are called to Whitby or to West Africa, the Great commission applies on the level of your every day life - day in and day out, whether at work or at home, whether in the family or with the stranger

It's a call to live for Jesus with a determination to allow your life to shine for him and your words speak for Him.

Its in the mundane as well as the directly missional. It’s in the eating and drinking(1 Cor 10) or the witnessing and preaching!

Its in the showing of hospitality to the needy; the showing of kindness to the poor; the showing of compassion to the sad; the showing of sympathy to the bereaved. Its in caring for the sick; feeding the hungry; caring for the refugee; the immigrant; the teenage mother; the elderly’ the drug addict; the alcoholic and the immoral.

It’s about doing good! That’’s our calling and it's a full-time ministry.

Yes, evangelism is preaching but if it is not backed up with the doing of good at a practical level then words ring hollow and we lack authenticity!

(ii). It’s a word thing!

Preaching the gospel has content about it! “Teaching them all things I have commanded you” This is why Jesus said to Paul - “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:16–18).

In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Paul defines the gospel he preached: “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Paul never deviated from that message and he had little time for those who watered it down or deviated from it: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (Gal 1:6–9).

We are likewise called to preach the gospel! It’s not necessarily formulaic but it has a definite content. It can begin with something as simple as saying; “Can I help you?” or “Can I pray for you?” which prove to be the beginning of a conversation which in the end will require a call for people to repent of their sins and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation!

So the question for us is, “Are we engaged in this mission?”

This is such an important question. Let me emphasize it with a parable. “On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude lifesaving station. The building was just a hut and there was only one boat but a few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and with no thought for themselves they went out day or night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews were trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

Some of the new members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and so poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in an enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members and they redecorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as a sort of club.

Fewer of the members were interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in the club decorations, however, and there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where club initiations were held.

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boat-loads of cold, wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was considerably messed up. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting there was split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club.

Some members insisted on lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a “lifesaving station.” But they were finally voted down and told that, if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down on the coast. They did.

As the years went by the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club and yet another lifesaving station was founded.

History continued to repeat itself and, if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters but most of the people drown!”

This is a MODERN PARABLE ON THE CHURCH AND ITS EVANGELISTIC TASK.

We can so often forget what our main purpose is as a church – to rescue the perishing and care for the dying. To tell them of Jesus who is mighty to save!

This is the great business of the Church - "Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist." – (Oswald J. Smith).

He has commissioned us and called us and we must work for Him while there is time – John 9:4 for “night is coming when no man can work”

“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
(John R.W. Stott).

Robert Moffat, missionary to Southern Africa once said: "In the vast plain to the north I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been"!

c. CALLED TO ULTIMATE VICTORY!

This GREAT COMMISSION is GUARANTEED to BE SUCCESSFUL because it is GUARANTEED by Jesus who makes Promises to us as we seek to work for Him

Jesus promise of ultimate success is contingent upon these words– “All authority is given to me. Go therefore..” It is a promise repeated in Acts 1:6-8 - THE PROMISE OF HIS POWER - “You shall receive power..witnesss to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth”

And when you see the opening of the book of Acts and read Church history you discover something quite amazing in the power of God to change the whole world through the preaching of the Gospel. Indeed Revelation 7 tells us of a great multitude which no man can number who are before the throne of God and the Lamb

II. It Ends by Being with Jesus in Heaven:

1 Corinthians 15:50–57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13- 18; Titus 2:11 – 13

Whilst on earth; while we are engaged in the task of making disciples, we are:

a. CALLED INTO A BLESSED PARTNERSHIP!

We not only have THE PROMISE OF HIS POWER, we even more wonderfully have THE PROMISE OF HIS PRESENCE - “behold, I am with you always even to the end of the age”

In the 1860's David Livingstone(1813-1873) returned to Great Britain on his first vacation after 20 years of traveling over 11,000 miles in the interior of darkest Africa.

Livingstone was asked to speak at the University of Glasgow at a time when it was the custom of undergraduates to heckle the speakers who came. They were armed with peashooters, trumpets and rattles to make as much noise and disturbance as possible.

When Livingstone walked out on to the platform however quite a different mood came upon the audience. His left arm hung limply at his side having been almost ripped from his body by a huge lion. His face was dark and leathery brown from 16 years in the African sun. His body was gaunt due to the African fever that racked his emaciated body. He was partially deaf due to rheumatic fever and partially blind due to an accident when a branch in the jungle damaged his eye.

The students knew that here was a man that was literally being burned out for God. Not a rattle moved, not a foot shuffled and a hush crept over the vast auditorium as they listened in total silence as David Livingstone told about his journeys and the tremendous needs of this vast African population. "Shall I tell you what sustained me in the midst of all those toils, hardships, and incredible loneliness? It was a promise. The promise of the Lord that "I am with you always even to the end of the world." It was this promise that Christ would be with me personally right next to me every hour of each day that gave me the courage to continue day after day,".

This promise of the Presence of Jesus with Him sustained Him throughout His ministry was greatly tested throughout.

Years before He had written in his diary a prayer: “Lord send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me; sever any ties but the tie that binds me to Your service and to Your heart."

Livingstone's wife Mary came out to Africa to be with him and for months she sailed on the ocean and then cruised up the steamy mosquito swarming rivers to be reunited with her husband. However soon after she caught African fever and although day after day and night after night, David tended to her, Mary died. David buried her under a huge tree and then he fell on that mound of dirt and wept. There the Lord reminded Livingstone of his prayer. “Sever any ties but the tie that binds me to Your service and to Your heart.” He wrote in his diary. "My Jesus, my King, my Life, my all. I again consecrate my life to you. I shall place no value on anything I possess, on anything I may do except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ."

Again this was tested! - When he arrived back to his base, he found that the local Africans had stolen his food and even worse his medicine chest with the quinine and other medicines to alleviate the pain of those terrible African fevers. This was like receiving a death sentence and he cried out to God. "Oh, God you promised to be with me." Then he heard the sound of visitors approaching and as he looked up he was staring into the face of a white man for the first time in five years. "Dr. Livingstone I presume" said the American journalist and explorer Henry Stanley who just happened to have with him, ample food and medical supplies which would enable him to treat Livingstone and provision him for months to come! Jesus had not left him! Four months later, Stanley left Livingstone and David plunged deeper into African jungle to preach the gospel.

As the end of his life approached he wrote in his diary: "Lord help me to finish thy work this year to thine honour." He did. His strength was gone, his feet were lacerated and ulcerated with boils. He had nothing to eat but hard dried maize for months and he was so malnourished that his teeth loosened and fell out. He was deserted by everyone with the exception of three of his loyal followers. Finally, he could not walk or even stand but he asked his friends to put him on a stretcher and carry him onward. "I will not swerve one hairs breadth while I still have life." Propped up, he proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all with whom he came into contact.

On his last day on earth, Livingstone was camped in his tent and in the middle of the night his servant boy heard him stir. He got up and saw Livingstone agonizingly roll out of his cot and on to his knees and with his hands folded in prayer. After a while the boy went back to sleep but in the morning when he looked on Livingstone he saw him still in prayer. Several people came asking for Livingstone but the boy told them that Livingstone was still in prayer not to disturb him. Finally the boy became concerned and said to Livingstone softly "Sir", no answer. "Sir" still silence. He crept closer to him and touched his cold cheek. Livingstone had died on his knees in prayer.

Livingstone had lived his life in the presence of Christ and he left this life in the presence of Christ. Jesus said, "I am with you always" and He had kept His promise.

Livingstone's life consisted of 60 years, 33 of those years as a missionary in Africa. He had travelled 29,000 miles across Africa bringing light to darkness. Two million Africans were brought to the Gospel and the light he brought continues to shine to this day. For every mile Livingstone walked or was carried, he was strengthened by Jesus' promise: "I am with you always".

It is a wonderful thing to know that we have THE PROMISE OF HIS POWER but even more wonderful to know that we have THE PROMISE OF HIS PRESENCE with us!

This is vital! – Jesus says, you’re not alone! I’m with you wherever you are! I'm not sending you out to accomplish this on your own. I'm going with you.

We need to remember this because it's a difficult thing to make disciples! Indeed with man it impossible but not with God” - “I planted, Apollos watered, but GOD GAVE THE INCREASE!”

A person can only “enter the Kingdom of God” when he is “born of the Spirit”(John 3:3). Saving souls is an impossible thing for us but not for Jesus!

And it’s also tough because the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one and it will be costly to stand up for Jesus in such a world! However we need not fear because Jesus is with us and all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him! He is with us in the trials and storms of life so we will be victorious in building the Kingdom of Heaven!

I love what Richard Wurmbrand describes in Tortured for Christ: “It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners. It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted their [the communists' ] terms. It was a deal; we preached and they beat us. We were happy preaching. They were happy beating us, so everyone was happy.”

And this brings us to the end of the story in Matthew’s Gospel! NOT QUITE! It actually brings us back to the beginning of a never-ending story which continues at a pace even today!

b. PROMISED A BLESSED HOPE:

THERE IS A BEAUTIFUL SYMETARY IN THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW WHICH OPENED WITH THE PROPHETIC ANNOUNCEMMENT THAT IN JESUS, GOD WOULD BE “WITH US”(Matt 1:23) and ends with a REITERATION OF THAT PROMISE - “BEHOLD, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, TO THE END OF THE AGE”(Matt 28:20)!

Notice that language - “I AM WITH YOU…TO THE END OF THE AGE”!

There wil be an END to this world’s history and it will end when Jesus comes again!

Jesus paid the penalty for our sin on the cross, commissioned His followers to make disciples of all people, and will one day transform the world and establish His kingdom.

When He comes for the church, those who died as believers in Jesus Christ will rise from the dead. Believers who are alive at that time will be instantly transformed so that all Christians will ascend to meet Him in the sky.

The Bible makes it clear that there is an appointed time when Jesus will come a second time to earth and “make the Kingdoms of this world, the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign for ever”. This return could occur at any moment and the question is are you prepared to meet Him face to face?

Jesus will come again – Depend on it!

Jesus said in John 14:1-3 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am”. “I will come back” – Jesus will come again – And everything will be transformed! There will be a RAPTURE = The Christian’s Departure (1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 18). There will be a RESURRECTION = The Christian’s Resurrection (1 Corinthians 1519-26,37-40,50 – 57)

Jesus will come again – Be Ready for it! - Titus 2:11 – 13 “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

This provokes fitting questions as we close. Have you made certain you have received the salvation God has provided (Titus 2:11)? Are you continuing to resist living a corrupt lifestyle and instead are you seeking to honoru God with your life (Titus 2:12)? Will you, continue to keep on looking for Christ to return (Titus 2:13)?

And while we wait, oh let us take comfort in this words of Jesus for one last time today! - “Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20)

Let me close to telling you an moving and inspirational story taken from a book called “The Life You’ve Always Wanted” by John Ortberg. It’s a true story. It’s called, “Mabel’s Story” and it tells the story of an old lady who lived in a “state-run convalescent hospital...large, understaffed, and overfilled with senile and helpless and lonely people who are waiting to die. On the brightest of days it seems dark inside and it smelled of sickness and stale urine. I went there once or twice a week for four years, but never wanted to go there, and I always left with a sense of relief. It is not the kind of place one gets used to.”

One particular day he met Mabel. “I saw an old woman strapped up in a wheelchair. Her face was an absolute horror. The empty stare and white pupils of her eyes told me that she was blind. The large hearing aid over one ear told me that she was almost deaf. One side of her face was being eaten by cancer. There was a discoloured and running sore covering part of one cheek, and it had pushed her nose to one side, dropped one eye, and distorted her jaw so that what should have been the corner of her mouth was the bottom of her mouth. As a consequence, she drooled constantly. I was told later that when new nurses arrived, the supervisor would send them to feed this woman, thinking that if they could stand this sight they could stand anything in the building. I also learned later that this woman was eighty-nine years old and that she had been here, bedridden, blind, nearly deaf, and alone, for twenty-five years. This was Mabel.

I don’t know why I spoke to her-she looked less likely to respond than most of the people I saw in that hallway. But I put a flower in her hand and said, ‘Here is a flower for you. Happy Mother’s Day.’ She held the flower up to her face and tried to smell it, and then she spoke. And much to my surprise, her words, although somewhat garbled because of her deformity, were obviously produced by a clear mind. She said, ‘Thank you. It’s lovely. But can I give it to someone else? I can’t see it, you know, I’m blind. I said, ‘Of course,’ and I pushed her in her chair back down the hallway to a place where I thought I could find some alert patients. I found one, and I stopped the chair. Mabel held out the flower and said, ‘Here, this is from Jesus.’

That was when it began to dawn on me that this was not an ordinary human being. Later I wheeled her back to her room and learned more about her history. She had grown up on a small farm that she managed with only her mother until her mother died. Then she ran the farm alone until 1950 when her blindness and sickness sent her to the convalescent hospital. For twenty-five years she got weaker and sicker, with constant headaches, backaches, and stomachaches, and then the cancer came too....”

Mabel and I became friends over the next few weeks...I would read to her from the Bible, and often when I would pause she would continue reciting the passage from memory, word-for-word. On other days I would take a book of hymns and sing with her, and she would know all the words of the old songs. For Mabel, these were not merely exercises in memory. She would often stop in mid-hymn and make a brief comment about lyrics she considered particularly relevant to her own situation. I never heard her speak of loneliness or pain except in the stress she placed on certain lines in certain hymns....”

“During one hectic week...I was frustrated because my mind seemed to be pulled in ten directions at once with all of the things that I had to think about. The question occurred to me “What does Mabel have to think about – hour after hour, day after day, week after week, not even able to know if it’s day or night? So I went to her and asked, ‘Mabel, what do you think about when you lay here?’ And she said, ‘I think about my Jesus.’ I sat there, and thought for a moment about the difficulty, for me, of thinking about Jesus for even five minutes, and I asked, ‘What do you think about Jesus?’ She replied slowly and deliberately as I wrote‘I think about how good he’s been to me. He’s been awfully good to me in my life, you know.… I’m one of those kind who’s mostly satisfied. … Lots of folks wouldn’t care much for what I think. Lots of folks would think I’m kind of old-fashioned. But I don’t care. I’d rather have Jesus. He’s all the world to me.’ And then Mabel began to sing an old hymn:

Jesus is all the world to me,

My life, my joy, my all.

He is my strength from day to day,

Without him I would fall.

When I am sad, to him I go,

No other one can cheer me so.

When I am sad He makes me glad.

He’s my friend.

This is not fiction. Incredible as it may seem, a human being really lived like this. I know. I knew her. How could she do it? Seconds ticked and minutes crawled, and so did days and weeks and months and years of pain without human company and without an explanation of why it was all happening – and she lay there and sang hymns. How could she do it? The answer, I think, is that Mabel had something that you and I don’t have much of. She had power. Lying there in the bed, unable to move, unable to see, unable to hear, unable to talk to anyone, she had incredible power.”

You and I can have that same power and His presence – if we will only surrender our lives to Jesus!

If we will die to ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us to over-flowing. “Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

LET US THAN DETERMINE TO FOLLOW IN THE WAY OF JESUS! To:

BE WITH JESUS

BECOME LIKE JESUS and

DO WHAT JESUS DID!

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.”(Henry Martyn).