Observe all that I have commanded you
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Matthew 28:16-20
Matthew 28:16-20
Good morning, church!
I believe we only have two more weeks in our study of the Great Commission.
I know that I have enjoyed this study.
Are you okay with going this deep into a few verses?
We have broken this passage over the last two months and we are wrapping up soon.
Let’s read the passage and take a look at the next part of the Great Commission, together.
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 are looking at the sentence,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
For some reason, the question on my heart is why? Why is this something that we all must do?
Let’s say that you have been obedient all the way through the great commission to this point.
Let’s say, you went and led someone to Christ. They were lost. You went and introduced them to Jesus and they received by faith the grace of God and they were adopted into the family of God.
And let’s say that they are all in. They are sold out for Jesus. They are fired up for the Lord and they are ready to surrender it all if He were to ask. They are ready to renounce all that they have. They are willing to sell there home and give up all financial security if Jesus were to ask them to.
They are holding nothing back from Jesus and daily taking up their cross to be a disciple of Jesus.
Let’s say that you baptize them and they understand the meaning of being buried with Christ means that they are dead to their former sinful way and Jesus raised them to a new life with Him.
The next phase is to teach them to observe all that Jesus commanded us.
Does that give you pause?
Does that make you feel certain things?
Is there resistance to that?
In the current age of the church that we are living in, there are two things that people have been hurt by. And they have become words that can give us certain fears when it comes to a verse like this.
Religion and legalism.
If you have walked someone through all of the previous steps of the great commission, this is the part that you can lose people. Because you start talking about things that you can do, and things that you can’t do anymore.
We start talking about things that are out of bounds for a Christian and should be stopped.
We start talking about disciplines that need to be added into your life.
This is where we start talking about the churchy phrases like, “Quiet time” and “Fasting”.
This is where we starting talking about rules and commands of Jesus and needing to observe them in our lives.
Now, you feel it don’t you.
We don’t like to be told what to do and what not to do, do we?
We don’t like having rules and commands to follow, do we?
For example, we have been talking about the Great Commission for 2 months now, as a command from Jesus and how to do it.
Don’t raise you hands but honestly, to yourself, how many of you can honestly say that you have been obedient to this in the past two months? Have you gone and shared the gospel in the past two months?
Look, I’m not trying to make you feel bad because I can’t say that I have. I’m just trying to prove a point.
We like our independent lives.
We like to keep the commands that we are already following and we would really like to stay right there, where we are.
Now, pastor, you’re starting to sound a little legalistic!
See what I mean?
Inside of us is push back against talking about this but yet, this is what Jesus commanded us to do.
So, first let’s see if we can identify why there is push back and fears of legalism and “religion” in our hearts and minds to this command.
I want to take us back to a passage that I read last week and honestly, I skipped this section.
There are some words in here that immediately turn our hearts and minds off.
Turn with me to Romans 6:15-19.
How many of you know or have heard this thought before?
The kingdom of heaven is the inverse or opposite of the kingdom of Earth.
On Earth we have hatred, malice, anger, wars, murder, theft, and all things like that.
and the inverse, or the opposite is
The kingdom of heaven has love, forgiveness, reconciliation, life, provision, and all of the good things.
Let me actually rephrase that that statement.
The kingdom of earth in actually the inverse or perversion of the kingdom of heaven.
Meaning, the kingdom of heaven is perfection and sin flipped everything in earth on its head.
Meaning, something like death can mean life.
Meaning, if you want to be first, you must be last.
Meaning, turn the other cheek.
Our flesh and our reaction might be the opposite of what the Lord’s meaning and commands are.
With that in mind as we read this passage.
Paul, in chapter 6 is talking about what we talked about last week. When we were baptized, we were baptized into sin to our sin and raised to new life in freedom from sin.
For one who has died has been set free from sin.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
So, he is addressing the argument that because we are not under the law of Moses anymore, that we can do whatever we want to because of grace. Some were making the argument that because of grace, we didn’t have to be obedient to commands anymore.
And Paul after talking about what we talked about last week, attacks the mindset that causes that thought and puts it in simple terms.
He says,
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Paul uses a word that can cause us all to flinch and I want to make sure we understand what is being said here. Remember that the kingdom of earth is the inverse of the kingdom of heaven.
Paul used the Greek word Doulos here when he says slave.
Its the same word that Jesus uses
Matthew 20, when He says whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.
It the says term that Paul, James Peter and Jude all identify themselves as in the beginning of Romans, Galatians, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude. There it is translated servant.
Sometimes it is translated as bond-servant.
The word doulos is defined as a slave that obeys the commands of his master.
Do you see how that ties into the command to teach them to observe all that He commanded us?
Essentially, we are supposed to teach people to be slaves or servants to God and to obey His commands.
Again, here me clearly, the kingdom of earth is inverse or the opposite of the kingdom of heaven.
God can say a word and it can mean something different than sin and mankind has contorted it to be.
There is a guttural reaction to the word slave or slavery and rightfully so!
Mankind and sin has taken this principle of the kingdom of God and contorted it into one of the most evil acts that a person can do to another person. The audacity, horror and sinfulness of the act of purchasing a human being and treating an image bearer of God as property is an evil thing on this earth. That can not be overstated.
However, in this Romans passage and in multiple other places, it appears to be a spiritual fact that we are slaves.
It says here that we present ourselves as obedient slaves, to whatever we obey.
If we obey sin, we are slaves to sin.
If we are obedient to the commands of God, then we are slaves to righteousness.
The first things that we need to understand is that we are all slaves to whatever we are obedient to. As much as we hate that word, in the spiritual world, we are all slaves, either to sin or to righteousness.
Possibly one of the greatest deceptions that the enemy has pulled over our eyes in that ultimately you and I are free. Free to be independent. Free to be neutral. Free to find a place of obeying neither God or satan and sin.
There is a deception out there that we can be at a place of not being a slave to sin and at the same time not being a slave to righteousness. That because we hate the word slave or servant, we can be independent to both side. There is middle ground that is safe and doesn’t jump in either camp.
This is the individualistic mindset. It says if I just take care of me and what I want, I’m in an okay place.
Or I have found a balance of the amount of commands that I need to keep.
Think about what the world is teaching right now. Its all about me. Its all about what I want. I’m not interested in religion, its just about myself and what I want to believe. I can find a neutral ground of being the best me and not be a bad person. Myself and my individuality is ultimately what matters.
I do not have to conform to any standard apart from what I feel like is right. Your truth might not be my truth. Your command might not be what I’m “called” to.
Do you see how this deception has been brought into the church?
What if that independent, neutral place of being free to be you, is actually a being in a place of slavery to self!
What if you don’t have to serve satan to be opposed to God?
What if that neutral place is a place of slavery to self and opposition to God?
That’s what this Romans passage is say.
Slavery to righteousness is obeying the commands of God.
Slavery to sin is everything else and it is opposed to God and that includes self.
What if this freedom to being yourself and following your desires is actually slavery to self?
Scripture uses sin and flesh interchangeably.
A couple of chapters later,
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
The deception is that there is safe, neutral middle ground that you can run to and just take care of yourself and your desires and be free from slavery.
But the Word is clear, in the spiritual world, we are all slaves to what we are obedient to.
So, it begs the questions, what am I obedient to most in my life? What am I a slave to? Sin? Selfishness? or to the righteous commands of God which leads to sanctification and life?
And if your not sure how to answer that question, Peter tells us a test question to find out.
2 Peter 2:19 (ESV)
For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
Whatever masters or defeats you or overwhelms your thoughts and is one of your primary goals in life is what you are enslaved to!
This a question that we must ask ourselves.
What am I a slave to?
What master is giving the orders that I am being obedient to?
Is is sinful desires?
Is it seeking a place that you can just be you and be left alone by both sides?
Or are you overcome by teachings and commands of God and striving to be obedient to your Master and Lord, Jesus Christ?
This is why Jesus instructed us in the Great Commission to teach other to observe all that He has commanded us.
This deception of the enemy has actually convinced us that to surrender my life to Christ and become a slave to righteousness and observe all that He has commanded us is to LOOSE YOUR FREEDOM!
It has deceived us into believing that we are free in ourselves and we are submitting to a yoke of slavery by surrendering to Jesus’ commands. Do you see the lie in that?!
Instead of the actual fact that we are NOT loosing our freedom but we are stepping out of slavery to self! We are stepping out of slavery to self, satan and our flesh!
To submit yourself to being a servant to God, you are actually being set FREE from the oppressive and brokenness of sin and the flesh which LEADS TO DEATH!
Jesus said,
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
If you abide in, obey, and keep my words and commands then you will see the truth, you will walk in the truth and the truth will set you free!
Both the Romans passage and the Galatians passages tells us that when we walk in the Spirit and not the flesh, we are walking in freedom because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom!
Slavery to sin and slavery to God look VERY DIFFERENT!
Slavery to sin has weight, oppression, guilt, death, shame, brokenness, anxiety, worry, fear and uncertainty.
Slavery to God and the commands of Christ has life, freedom from sin and self and oppression, righteousness, cleansing, sanctification, Christlikeness, eternal life, and knowing God!
Its worth it!
There is not neutral ground! You are being obedient to a master, but is it the great, good Master!?
This is why this command is apart of the great commission. Because is not the essence of discipleship, looking like Jesus and doing what He said to do with His word and with His actions.
So, to make a disciple is not simply to inform that what a disciple is but teach others where to find the example and talk with them through the application.
This is why Jesus included teaching them to observe all that He commanded in His Great Commission.
In closing, there is one other deception that we can fall victim to in this process of being a disciple and sanctification.
One of the temptations will be as we talking about full surrender, and giving it all up for Christ, there is a temptation to begin to think that WE are making a huge sacrifice for Him. That WE are the ones that have given up so much for Him.
We must be cautious with this line of thinking. Because it can lead to spiritual pride or spiritual arrogance.
Or worse, the attitude that God owes us because of the sacrifices that WE have made for HIM...
When we begin to remind God of all that we have sacrificed for Him, we are taking our eyes off of the greatest sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross!
The second that we start to have expectations of God because of what we have given up for Him, we mustn’t be surprised when He holds us to that same standard.
Because if the expectation must meet the sacrifice, then the expectation on us would be HUGE because we are eternally in debt to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
That is a dangerous mindset to have, church.
Because the truth is, our natural neutral state of independence IS a place of slavery, bondage and oppression.
Because the truth is that if we are not slaves to righteousness, then we are slaves to sin and self.
Because the truth is whatever overcomes us, we are enslaved to!
Because the truth is it’s NOT a huge sacrifice to die to ourselves! It actually sets us free from ourselves! It breaks us free from the bondage of sin! Its breaks open the prison doors!
The truth is, He is setting us free and we have the audacity to tell Him that we are making the sacrifice here!
There has been many lies and deceptions that have been pulled over our eyes, church.
Yes, its not about religion, its about relationship but relationship with Jesus is submission and obedience to His commands!
But the main point is this, to follow Jesus, to be His disciple, to take up your cross daily is not actually a huge sacrifice.
It is stepping into the freedom that comes in Christ. It is freedom from slavery of sin and self.
Jesus says, I do not call you servant, but I call you friend, brother, sister, co-heir with me.
That, Church, is true freedom. Oneness with Christ.
