Faithful to God’s Mission - Matt. 28:16-20

Good morning church family and good morning guests

If we have not had the chance to meet, my name is Stefan Wilson I am the pastor of preaching and teaching here at Harvest Bible Church

I am excited for our Night of Thanks tonight and hope to see you all there

Baptismal still here - No, we didn’t forget to take it out from last week… We are doing baptisms tonight at the Night of Thanks, hence why it is set up

So all the more reason to be there tonight as we celebrate baptisms!

Well, this morning we are completing our family values series

We've been talking over the last few weeks about our core values as a church family

These core values should be what drive what we do and how we speak as a church family

Thus far, we have learned that we are anchored on God's word, we are resounding in worship

And last week Pastor Jim unpacked from Acts 2 we are united in community

And now we are going to come to our final value and that is that we are faithful to God's mission.

Now, that statement communicates two important ideas:

There is a mission

And there is a way to be faithful to it

And we have to get both right

We have to be pursuing the right mission

We have to pursue it the right way

If we are not careful, we will drift in our mission, pursuing the wrong things and thereby be unfaithful to God’s mission because we were pursuing some other mission as a church

And may that never be

May we always be a church that is faithful to God’s mission

And in Matthew 28 Jesus tells us exactly what that mission is and how to pursue it faithfully

So let’s all turn to the Gospel of Matthew and we will be in chapter 28, v. 16-20

These familiar words of Jesus in Matt. 28:16-20 are known as the Great commission, where he sends out his disciples, commissions them with the mission that will mark their lives and the lives of all followers of Jesus

So let's give these words our full attention

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.”

These are God’s words for us

Big idea: Faithfulness to God’s mission requires movement and multiplication. (6:00)

Now, to understand why this is and why Jesus gives this particular commission to his disciples, we need to go back a little bit… Well, a lot actually - We need to go back to the beginning of the world.

So, keep your finger in Matthew 28, but turn all the way back to Genesis 1.

Genesis one is another familiar passage

But I want to look specifically at his creation of mankind to get an understanding of God’s mission in the world and why it requires movement and multiplication.

So let’s look specifically at v. 26

Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Now, we don't have time to unpack all that could be unpacked from this passage, that will be a different sermon on a different Sunday

But for the purposes of understanding the mission of God in the world we need to understand why we exist in the first place, because that will inform how we live on mission for him.

When God says “let us make man in our image after our likeness” he is using two terms to give us one big picture.

The word image is the idea of a reflection - Something that represents you

And likeness is a word that communicates source.

When people see Caleb and I standing next to each other

What do you think they say? “He looks just like you!”

Right?

There is no mistaking when you look at him that he belongs to me.

So to put these ideas together,

Image = Reflect him

Likeness = Obvious that they belong to him

When God says “Let us make man in our image after our likeness” what he is saying is:

That mankind will reflect God in such a way that there is no mistaking that they belong to God.

Make sense?

Then he gives them their mission

Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…”

The mission of God given to his people at creation is to make more of what God has created under God’s authority, living for his mission

And when they have carried out the mission, the whole earth will be filled with people who reflect God in such a way that there is no mistaking that they belong to him

But only two chapters later, in Gen. 3, what happens? The man and the woman rebel, reject God’s authority, and brokenness and sin and death enter the world as a result.

The image is marred and now what is multiplied is rebellion

They are still fruitful, but instead they are filling the earth with more brokenness and rebellion and sin.

And Jesus, the image of the invisible God, took on the likeness of man, becoming like us in every way, yet without sin, and his sinless life was a perfect reflection of God to all creation

Then he went to the cross, dying as a payment for our sins

And conquered sin and death by raising again

And now, those who follow Jesus by faith have his sinless life credited to their account, his substitutionary death applied to their debt before God, and his resurrection power dwelling in their hearts

And the Bible calls this “New creation” and we who are born again are recreated in his image.

That’s why Paul writes, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone. Behold, the new has come.”

So Jesus is standing with his disciples at the end of Matthew, not giving them a new mission but commissioning them with the same mission that God gave the man and the woman in the garden.

“Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth with more who look just like me.”

God's mission throughout all time has always been the same: receive the glory honor and praise through the lives of his image bearers.

Reflecting him in such a way that there is no mistaking that we belong to him

It is to that mission that Jesus commissions his disciples

And it is to that mission that we must be faithful.

[Bridge] And Jesus is going to give us the answers to 5 mission critical questions. Kind of the “who, what, and how” of the mission.

Mission Critical Questions:

Who goes on the mission? (16-17) - 12:00

It is a common misconception that there is a small group of people in the church who carry out the mission of God and everybody else stands on the sidelines.

I think this is partly because sports and movies about conquest have conditioned us to think that there are these all stars or superheroes who really do the heavy lifting and everybody else's job is just a cheer them on

But that isn’t how this mission works

Who goes on the mission? Disciples [SLIDE]

Matthew 28:16–17 “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them…”

There used to be 12 disciples, but now there are only 11 because Judas, the one who wasn't actually a disciple but ultimately betrayed Jesus has died, committing suicide after betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of silver

So what is left are those who truly belong to Jesus - His actual followers.

And it isn’t just these disciples - If you follow Jesus by faith, you are a disciple too

A disciple is a follower of someone who hopes to look like the one they are following.

Every person in this room who is following Jesus by faith is a disciple and disciples are the ones going on the mission.

And before you say but “Goodness I mean they kinda are all-stars. Like, they are the disciples of Jesus that we read about in the gospels. Surely, there is a difference between them and us”

Look at how Matthew describes their responses to Jesus:

“And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.”

That word doubted is the Greek word for “two minded”

It is the same word that Jesus uses when Peter is walking on the water and begins to doubt and sink

He believed Jesus and was walking on the water with jesus, but his fear caused him to waiver

And these disciples are wavering here

It isn't that they didn't believe in Jesus, but they lacked confidence.

They are all responding in worship to him but some of them are insecure, unsure.

Sound familiar? I think that describes us most days

Listen: for many of us, we will go through times in following Jesus where we lack confidence where we feel like imposters, where we think there's somebody else for this job, but Jesus commissions all his disciples not just the ones who were confident.

If you are a follower of Jesus, the mission is for you, just like it is for any other follower of Jesus.

There are no sidelines in the mission of God.

The mission of God is not for a select few to do the work and the rest just consume the fruit of their labor.

Being faithful to God’s mission means that we each see ourselves as all playing a part in it - Not consuming, but contributing

And this leads to the second mission critical question

Who is in charge of the mission? (18) - 17:00

We get off mission when we start listening to the wrong person.

Every mission has someone who is in charge and we take our orders from that person.

And if we are not careful, we will take orders from the wrong person.

Well, when it comes to the mission of God…

It is Jesus who is in charge. [SLIDE]

Look at v. 18

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

When Jesus says that it has been granted to him, it does not mean that there was a time where he had no authority and now he has been given it.

It means that he is the rightful bearer of that authority.

No one else gets to make a competing claim of authority to Jesus.

He and he alone is in charge of the mission

And there is nothing outside of his authority - His authority spans heaven and earth - Supreme authority over all.

Because he is God who took on flesh

And because after taking on flesh, he did what no other human could do, living perfect obedience and conquering sin and the grave

He alone has all authority.

Listen: There will be all kinds of voices in your life and even your own voice that will try to redefine your mission in life.

You might even be living your life in submission to one of those other voices right now

But when we listen to other voices that are claiming authority in our lives, we end up living for the wrong mission.

But if we are going to be faithful to God's mission, church family, we have to see Jesus as the one who's in charge

And so we don't allow cultural voices or political voices or voices in our own homes or our lives to tell us that we shouldn't be living on mission for Jesus.

Culture is not the authority over the mission of the church

Earthly rulers are not the authority over the mission of the church

I am not the authority over the mission of the church

Our team of elders are not the authority over the mission of the church

Jesus and Jesus alone has rightful claim to all authority in heaven and on earth and so we exist for his mission

And we are stewards of his authority - We function under his authority.

I preach in submission to his authority

We minister as a church as ambassadors of his authority.

So a church that is faithful to God’s mission listens to no other authority than Jesus.

Now… if all of us are part of the mission and Jesus is in charge of the mission, then that leads to mission critical question #3:

How do we execute the mission? (19) - 22:00

Jesus gives a very simple answer to how we execute the mission: We go [SLIDE]

v. 19 “Go, therefore.”

That “therefore” is pointing back to Jesus claim of authority. When I recognize his authority in the mission I then understand that I need to respond to it - I actually do something

And the word he uses for that response is “Go”

Don’t sit around and wait - Don’t expect the mission to come to you

Go

Faithfulness to God’s mission means responding with movement.

I need to move from being stationary and self focused to being active and externally focused.

I need to see that I have a role to play in the mission and that role is not consumption, but contribution.

Now, “Going” can take many forms and can change over time depending on season of life, what means are at your disposal, how God has gifted you and called you, but there is no one who is exempt from “Going.”

For some of us, going means getting on a plane and flying halfway around the world

For others, it means making it possible for that person to get on that plane.

For some of us, going means giving our time in service, giving of our time in prayer

For others it means giving of our money or giving of our abilities.

For some of us, going simply means walking next door or opening your front door and inviting outsiders in.

In all of this, going for the mission is tied to where God has you, how God has blessed you, and what opportunities there are to leverage those things.

Going is not for a select few - It is for all of us

It takes different forms, but we are all going on the mission.

Back in the 19th century there was a young missionary to India named William Carey. He was among the first of the Pioneer missionary movement along with Hudson Taylor who went to China and Adoniram Judson who went to Burma, people who left everything they had to go to the other side of the world for the sake of the mission of God.

But for as many people like William Carey who went, there were countless more people like British pastor Andrew Fuller who supported.

Carey knew that he would need faithful Christians back home to support his work. Andrew Fuller, through his local ministry in England made it possible for William to go by reminding Christians back home of the mission and imploring them to support it.

Preparing to go to India, William Carey said to Andrew Fuller, “I will go down into the pit, if you will hold the ropes.”

Church family, some of you will be called by God to go down into the pit - To go to dark places with the message of the light of Christ

For others, you will hold their ropes for them, providing what they need.

And all of it is a part of going for the mission of Christ

We have a Spanish church plant currently building their core team - We will send them out, but we will hold their ropes

Pastor Paul Yuvaraj from Chennai, India was just here a few weeks ago - He is in the pit and we are among those who hold his ropes.

We have the Harvest compassion center providing for the needs of people in the community and pointing them to their deepest need in Christ, and when we take a bag and fill it for the toy drive, we go on mission together

So just ask yourself: What do I have or what can I do that can be leveraged for the mission of God?

Is it time? Is it money? Is it ability? Is it gifting from God’s Spirit that uniquely equips you for a particular work?

Is God calling me into the pit? Or is he calling me to hold the ropes?

Either way, all of us are going on the mission.

But I can promise you: God is calling none of us to passively watch.

All disciples go on the mission.

And a church that is faithful to God’s mission is a church that is constantly moving on that mission.

And this then begs the question - What is the end goal of the movement? Why are we going on the mission?

Mission critical question #4

What is the objective of the mission? (19-20) - 29:00

When we give wrong answers to the previous questions, we then pursue the wrong objective

And it is all too easy to get wrapped up in worldly definitions of success and listen to other voices and other competing authorities and thereby define the objective according to what those voices say.

church family, our objective is not to build an empire

Our objective is not to build a brand

Our objective is not to become famous

Our objective is to multiply [SLIDE]

Jesus says “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”

Be multiplying disciples - That’s the objective

And the beautiful thing about this objective is that it does not require a specialized strategy.

It doesn’t need a celebrity culture.

It doesn’t need to be impressive

We need only two things to pursue the objective

Look at what Jesus says we need to pursue this objective:

“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..”

Baptizing and Teaching

That is a way of saying:

Evangelism

Discipleship

Sharing the Gospel

And growing in the Gospel.

Being born into God’s family

Growing up in God’s family.

A church that is faithful to God’s mission is a church that is making new disciples and maturing existing disciples.

And the public evidence that disciples are being made is when there are new believers in our midst and they pass through the waters of baptism.

We saw this on display last week, we will see it more tonight at the night of thanks

Throughout the book of Acts, we see that baptism follows belief as a public identification with Jesus

I have believed in him, so now I publicly identify with him, going under the water in likeness with his death

Raising from the water in the likeness of his resurrection

It is an external display of the inward reality that I am now a follower of Jesus

And the church participates in that together - You are committing to following Jesus and we are committing to your growing in following Jesus

And a church that is faithful to God’s mission sees evangelism and baptism as essential elements of accomplishing the objective to make disciples.

But we don’t stop at baptism.

The mission is not “Make converts”

The mission is not, “Share the Gospel, get a decision, and move on”

The mission is to make disciples, so after we baptize, the second piece of accomplishing the mission is “teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded”

When someone begins to follow Jesus, help them to come to maturity.

Caleb - Comb

show him, let him try, help him as he tries

Friends, making disciples is no different. We do not just instruct one another in what to do

making disciples means teaching how to obey Jesus

We teach one another how to obey Jesus by demonstrating it to one another, by doing it with one another, continually living together as a church family teaching one another to obey.

We need both evangelism and discipleship to be faithful to God’s mission.

Multiplying disciples requires sharing the faith and growing in the faith.

That is a mission that we are all a part of and so it should be happening in all of our lives.

If we are to be faithful to God's mission, we should be telling people about Jesus, calling them to follow him and then when they do, we walk with them as we both follow Jesus

If you are a newer believer, you should not be walking alone - You should be with other believers throughout the week who will teach you to obey all that Jesus commanded.

If you are older in the faith, you should be looking for those who are younger in the faith, teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded.

As a church, we do this through small groups, through our classes, even through events like the favorite things party or the men’s breakfast the we just had.

A church that is faithful to God’s mission is multiplying disciples by sharing the Gospel and helping one another grow in the Gospel.

And the final mission critical question

How will we stay focused on the mission? (20) - 36:00

I said earlier that there are so many competing voices and competing claims to authority in our lives and it is so easy then to get distracted and to live for the wrong mission.

But the way that we will stay focused on the mission is grace. [SLIDE]

Jesus’ final words in Matthew’s gospel are “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

“Behold” is meant to get there attention so they don’t miss what he is about to say

"Look at me - I am with you always.”

Jesus’ presence with his people is the empowering grace that we need to stay on mission.

God’s grace is the gift of free access to himself and it is access to God that empowers his people.

When we are faithful to God’s mission, church family, we can have the confidence of knowing that God is with us.

He goes before us, he is behind us, he is in us, he is for us

And all of it is his grace, empowering and equipping us to stay on mission.

Church family, let’s pursue the mission of God in this world knowing that he is with us so we cannot fail.

He concludes with the words, “until the end of the age.”

The New Testament reminds us in multiple places through multiple authors that we are in the last age.

We are in the last period of God’s working in the world, saving people through the finished work of Jesus.

And when that age comes to an end, all will be done.

There will be nothing more to come.

Jesus is saying: In the age in which disciples will be made I am with you through all of it.

There will never be a time, there will never be a place where the mission of God will be without the presence of God.

And a church that is faithful to God’s mission depends on grace to stay focused on the mission, knowing that he is with us until it is completed.

Faithfulness to God’s mission requires movement and multiplication.

We are all in the mission

Jesus is in charge of the mission

Going is essential to pursuing the mission

Multiplying is the objective of the mission

And grace is how we will stay on mission

Amen?

Four weeks, four family values - These values define us as a church

Anchored on God’s Word

Resounding in Worship

United in Community

Faithful to God’s Mission

That’s who were are as a church family - May it always be true and may it always be on display when we gather and when we scatter, that we are Gospel people.

40:00

[Communion]

Bread and cup - Reminder of Jesus’ body and blood

This does not save you and there is nothing special about the bread and cup, but it is the Spirit’s presence in us that makes this a significant means of God’s grace in us.

For believers (visitors, guests) - If not a believer…

We must be careful how we take this

Do not mock the cross by taking the bread and cup while living in conflict with God or one another

Repent of ongoing sin

Reconcile with one another

Then take the bread and the cup as a reminder of what Christ paid to purchase our forgiveness and reconciliation.

Two cups - Gluten Free Option

Lower sections - Back sections

1 Cor. 11

[Service Close - Guatemala Team]