The Great Commission: Go and Make

Matthew 18:16-20

Good Morning, church!

I pray that you have had a good week!

I know that some of you have had difficult weeks but I know that I have a new nephew and the Underwoods have a new grand baby!

I want to praise God for the praises and pray for the difficulties.

Pray for both.

This morning, we are going to continue in our study of the Great Commission.

Last week, we looked at verse 18, talking about Jesus’ authority and how when Jesus gives a command, His expectation is that it is obeyed. We also talked about how we know that Jesus desires a love based obedience, but there also need to be a yes sir, respect of His authority when it comes to Him telling us commands.

I asked you to write down two challenge questions.

I asked you to pray and ask the Lord if you have ever obeyed the Great Commission? Have you ever personally gone and made a disciple and taught them all that Jesus commanded?

The second question was, what is your biggest hindrance to obeying this command?

I asked you to take these questions to the Lord in prayer and write down your answers.

How many of you did that this week?

How many of you wrote down some of you biggest hindrances?

Good! This morning, I’m going to address the second question to a degree but first, Let’s read our passage and I’ll let you know what portion we are focusing on this morning.

Read Matthew 28:16-20

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.”

This morning, we titled Go and make.

Next week, we are going to look at the word disciple and start asking questions like what is a disciple and even what is a disciple NOT.

But this week is focused on the Going and the making. Going and sharing the gospel. Going to bring others into the flock, the sheepfold, the family of God. Bringing people to Jesus so that He can bring them from death to life.

This commission clearly tells us that it is our responsibility to go and make disciples.

We have talked about it before that we, His church, His body, is God’s chosen path to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.

It is our job to be the ones to share the Good News! That falls on us! We have a responsibility to tell them!

Look, Can I be honest with you?

I think we have found ourselves leaning too much on certain scriptures about evangelism and ignoring other passages.

We like to lean into passages that talk about our lives being the light of the gospel. They will see our good works, our virtue, our peace, our love for one another, they will see our lives and see that there is something different and wonder what we have that they do not.

Yes, that is true and these passages are forms of evangelism but we can not ignore the passages that tell us to talk, to share, to speak with our words and not just our lives.

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Its not simply good enough to have a life that reflects hope, but you must be prepared to give an answer to speak truths that leads them to Christ if someone asks you!

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Yes, be a good worker for the kingdom, do good things but be prepared to rightly handle the word of truth!

Romans 10:14–15 NLT

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

How can they hear unless someone tells them?!

Church, we are going to have to bulldoze some of these hindrances and objections and fears that keep us simply living good lives and hoping that is enough to win souls for Christ.

Church, look around at the state of the church today… Do you think that is working for the American church?

We all have to be ready to rightly share the word of truth and give an account for our lives.

This morning, I want to look at His part, God’s part and our part in sharing the gospel with our words and not just our actions.

Let’s look at His part in the presentation of the Gospel.

His Part: His Authority and His Power Matthew 28:18 Acts 1:8

One of the objections to people sharing the gospel is often not feeling like they are good enough, eloquent enough, convincing enough, smooth enough to handle objections, ready to answer every question, powerful enough of a speaker to share the gospel well.

Well, allow me to take some pressure off of you.

It is only His authority that can save someone, not yours.

Matthew 28:18 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Only Jesus Christ has the authority to save someone and we carry that authority with us!

Think back to your salvation for a minute. Was it the eloquence of the speaker or person that shared the gospel with you that you remember?

Was it their ability to counter your arguments that won you over?

Do you even remember what they said exactly?

Or do you remember that power and conviction of the Holy Spirit drawing you into His heart?

Or do you remember coming to place of recognition that you need Jesus to save you from your sins?

The authority and power does not come from the speaker! You are a chosen mouth piece for His authority and power!

1 Peter 1:23 ESV

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

The living, abiding word of God is what made you born again!

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Faith comes not through your convincing words but by hearing the words of Jesus Christ!

Do you hear me, church? The power is not your eloquence, the power is in the Word of God!

1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Paul says, we spoke to you the word of God and I’m thankful that you received them as the words of God and not the words of man!

The words of man do NOT have the authority to save! The words of man fall short!

Only the living and abiding word of Jesus Christ, the living Word has the authority to save!

So, take some pressure off of yourself! You do not have the authority to save! Only Jesus does!

You also have to remember that the power comes from the Holy Spirit!

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

You will receive power to be my witnesses!

The power to convict and draw people to the heart of Jesus is not your’s! You have no power here!

John 16:8–11 ESV

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

You can not convict people of sin! You can point at it but unless the power of the Holy Spirit convicts them, it has no power!

John 6:44 ESV

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

The power to draw men unto the Father does not sit on you! You can not even bring people to the Father!

Look, I say all of this to relieve some pressure. We put so much pressure on ourselves in sharing the gospel. We feel like we have to be perfect or super convincing or able to answer every possible question that might pop up before we even open our mouths. We act as if the authority and power rest on us when scripture is clear that it doesn’t!

His Word and His Spirit only have the authority and power to save!

We are simply blessed, chosen conduits of His words and power!

In fact, in my experience, after leading someone to Christ, the thought often in my mind is how little I had to do with the process… I look back and go, “Wow… that was all God....”

Now, its important to know what His part is in the gospel but there is also parts of this that DOES fall on us!

Our Part: Commitment, Intentionality, and Steadfastness

Accepting the fact the authority is in the Word of God and the power to convict falls on the Spirit, is NOT an excuse to NOT be prepared!

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

1 Peter 3:15 again tells us to be prepared to share!

The first part of our part is the commitment to preparation and prayer.

We must commit ourselves to the Word of God.

We must commit ourselves to studying God’s Word.

We must commit ourselves to memorizing passages of scripture that pertain to salvation.

We must commit ourselves to know what we believe and why to that we are prepared to give a defensive for the hope in Jesus Christ that we have!

Look, we have to be committed to being prepared.

We must study plans of salvation.

We must study bible doctrine about salvation.

Study the Roman’s road.

Study the ABC’s of salvation.

Last week, our friend told us about Jesus at the Door evangelism tool. I looked into it this week and its not complicated and is written out for you.

There are a lot of resources out there to help you prepare to share.

But are you committed enough to do you part?

We must be committed to prayer!

We must spend time on our knees praying for the lost in our community.

We must pray that God would ordain times and interactions for the door to be opened to talk about Jesus.

We must pray that He would begin to prepare the hearts of our neighbors to receive the Word of God.

We are to be prayer powered in life!

Andrea was telling me about an evangelism program that asks those going out to spend an hour in prayer before they walk out of the door. I love that!

Prayer helps us walk in the Spirit and He is the guide and He is the power to be witnesses!

We must be committed to prayer, surrender and asking the Spirit to be our guides and power to share the gospel!

The second part of our part is intentionality.

We must be intentional about walking this out!

There are times in life that others will come to you and surprise you but we have lost the intentionality of the word, “Go!”.

We need to have a fire light under us! We need a drive to set out to see the lost come to Christ! We need to be passionate about seeing Christ change people’s lives!

We need a reinvigoration of evangelist intentionality! We need people that are moved with the brokenness in people’s lives that only Jesus can heal! We need people whose hearts are broken that we have neighbors here on earth that WON’T be our neighbors in eternity!

We need to be moved to Go! Its going to take us being intentional about going!

And yes, Brian, that means walking through Walmart without your headphones in hoping not to talk to people...

It every time you leave your house being intentional to look for someone that needs to hear about Jesus. Its asking the Spirit to lead you to at lease one today. Its going out with a friend in Christ to an event looking to share the gospel.

We have to get way more intentional about going and sharing and just not waiting for them to knock on our front doors or walk through these doors.

The third part of our part in steadfastness.

We have to remain steadfast even if one in a hundred receive Christ.

We have to remain steadfast in prayer.

We have to remain steadfast in knowing that do not reject us but they reject Him.

Steadfastness is not getting discouraged when it doesn’t go the way we hoped or planned.

Some are called to plant, some are called to water and some get to come in and reap the harvest.

Our job is to spread the seed and trust the God of the harvest to bring the harvest when He decides.

Sometimes we cast on beaten paths, rocky soil and weed filled soil.

But sometimes, we cast the seed of His Word on fertile and prepared hearts and we get the amazing blessing of witnessing cross over from death to life.

and let me tell you, it is worth seeing that happen one time in a hundred...

So, His part is the authority of His Word and the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Only Jesus has the power and authority to save.

But our part is to be committed to preparation and prayer, to be intentional in going, and steadfast in trusting Him to bring the harvest.

The last part of our part has to do with the second challenge question from last week.

What is your greatest hindrance of obeying this command to go and make? What keep you from sharing the gospel?

I pray that you seek to remove those hindrances. I pray that something this morning spoke to that hindrance.

But Monday night, I went down to Solid Rock Baptist Church in Prospect. One of their pastors preached a message about the great commission and it was powerful!

He said something that I hope will make us think and move us to obedience.

He said, “Go” is a powerful word. Its a word of action and obedience.

He said, there is another powerful word, “No”. and its a word of excuses and disobedience.

I pray that that is a stark reminder to us that we are called to “go” and if we don’t we are saying “No”...

7-8 years ago, I was a part of a men’s ministry at TSC and there is something that we said often there and it has honestly lead me to where I am today.

Its a simple yet powerful phrase and I suggest that it be what you take to heart this morning. We would say,

You gotta put your “yes” on the table.

It means before you ask for the details, before you get a chance to object, before He even speaks direction in your life, you put your “yes” on the table.

You commit to saying, I don’t know where you will take me, or what you are going to ask me to do but I say “Yes” to before you say a word. Because I trust you. Because I know that you are good. Because you have something amazing in store for me.

So, let us this morning, not allow our fears and worries and doubt cause us to say “No” to Him.

But let us preemptively put our “Yes” on the table to whatever, and yes I mean whatever, He asks on us.

Pray.