The Great Commission
Notes
Transcript
If this seems redundant understand that it is but that it comes from Scripture and as we have learned all scripture is good for teaching
We need to understand that Christ has a heart for the lost people of this world
And we should too
Because after all that is what we are called to do
That is what we are commanded to do church
We know the Great Commission we normally go to
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
When we normally think we go directly here
This is what we know and are comfortable with
We know that we are to go into the nations
We know that God has a heart for the nations
We know we are called to make disciples
And if we are honest maybe if you have been in church you sort of go yep and move along
Really not giving it another thought
Until you get to Acts
Last year we preached a 100,000 to 10,000 foot view of scripture
This year we are going to through Acts
As we preach through Acts we see a church take that to heart
We see a church cannon ball into the Great Commission and seek to fulfill what they have been called to do
And church let me be clear we are called to do that same thing
We are called to the lost
We are called to go and share the greatest news anyone has ever heard
And sometimes that means taking a step of faith and going next door, going to the next office over, going on a fishing trip where you spend 10 hours driving
Jesus renews their call to the Great Commission at the very beginning in Acts
We have talked about pretty recently
6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” 9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
This is after Jesus has died and resurrected
After He had spent time with the disciples
Roughly about 40 days after Jesus had come back to life
They gather together with Jesus
And they ask Him about restoring the Kingdom of Israel
Are we going to kick out the Romans and be our own bosses
Jesus’s response is the Great Commission
Jesus reminds them they don’t know time of the restoring Kingdom of Israel
And church we wait expentantly for the coming of Christ
But here Jesus then goes right into what they are to do in the mean time
In between the ascension of Jesus and the coming back of Jesus we are to be at work
That work is clear from Christ
We will receive power from the Helper
Once we receive that power that helper
Meaning church once you have repented of your sin and trusted in Jesus
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
Once you are saved you have the helper
Once you are saved you are to get to work
Please hear me this morning
If you are here this morning and have a personally relationship with Jesus you are saved and you are to be about the Fathers Business
You are to be at work
Stop with the excuses and read what you are called to do
We are given a command
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
We are to be a witness
A witness can only testify to what they have seen and experienced
In my line of work when an event happens I seek out people who have observed it
I ask them to tell me what they saw
We are to tell people what we saw and experienced with our interactions with Jesus
We are asked, called, church commanded to go and tell people our personal experience of encounters with Jesus
Tell people what we know about Jesus
You all have an expertise that you can speak to
Some of you have used that expertise to make a living that is awesome
But those of you who are saved have an expertise in Christ
You have an intimate relationship with Christ that only you can speak to
And church you need to speaking about that
I can’t speak to your relationship with God and you can’t speak to mine and church people need to hear what we can witness to in Christ
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
Stop thinking you have to have a seminary degree
Stop thinking it is only the job of the super duper spiritual hired guy to tell people about Jesus
Stop buying into the lies from Satan that you don’t know enough to share the Gospel or that is in not your job
Church those are lies from Satan Himself
We are to be prepared to a reason we have the hope in Christ and church have reason to hope if we have Christ
We can look at the lost and broken world and become depressed and it is super easy todo and yet because of Christ we can look a the same lost and broken world and have peace and comfort
Its a weird thing and hard to explain but the only answer for the hope we have is Christ and we can work on how we articulate that
Being prepared is not a script to work through but to be prepared is to know your story and practice it
We did a Bible Study years ago that encouraged us to practice our testimonty and work through giving it
The youth have done something similar
Where they role play in giving their testimony so when the real time comes you are a bit more prepared
NAMB has an app that does the same thing
You can practice with AI through NAMB in giving your testimony
That is how we prepare to share Jesus
It also means that we have to spend time with people and be open the Spirit’s leading in your life
I took a fishing trip last year and the thought was I was going to share the Gospel and I was so focused on sharing the Gospel to the point when the door hadn’t opened I thought it was a bust till the door opened
And then I was able to share the Gospel
Then church
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
We are to go out to places
We are to go to the nations both near and far
We are to share right in Jerusalem
The city in which they are in
We can sometimes get so excited and caught up with going away to share the Gospel we don’t give much thought to sharing the Gospel right here where you are
But rather we think of home as a break
When church we are called to share the Gospel be a witness in our own homes
To our neighbors, to our co workers, and families
Church yes we are to go to the ends of the age and to the nations please understand we are and we will
But we are also to go across the street
We are to go to our co workers and people we interact with on a daily basis
And then church we are also called to reach those around the globe
There is a balance
If you aren’t sharing the Gospel here at home you won’t when you go to the nations
Church we have been called and commanded to share what we know about Jesus to those we come into contact with
Church Paul gives us a battle cry
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
We shouldn’t be ashamed of sharing the Gospel
In fact Gospel went to the Jew first and then to the rest of the world
We are to rest of the world
47 “For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, That You may bring salvation to the end of the earth.’ ”
No matter how you look at it church
You have been called to share the Gospel in the mean time
The in between time in now and you and are to be about the Fathers Work
You will receive power from the Holy Spirit
When you repent of your sin and trust Jesus you will be saved
Once you are saved you have the Holy Spirit and you are to get to work
The work is to testify about what you have seen and expeirenced with Christ
What you know about Christ to know Christ you must spend time with Him
But simply put church we are to tell people what we know about Christ
to do that we must prepare ourselves
To practice
Church practice sharing the Gospel at home then start and ask people questions have Gospel conversations
It requires us to get out of the boat like Peter
As we come to a close this morning
We invite you to respond to God this morning
Maybe you have heard the Gospel and realized you are not saved
And you want to be saved we would invite you to come to the front and speak with someone and they can help you
You are welcome to repent of your sin and trust in Jesus right where you are but then we want to encourage you proclaim Jesus in front of man this morning let us celebrate with you this morning on your salvation
Or maybe you already have a personal relationship with Jesus
Maybe you need to submit to sharing the Gospel and being bold with the Gospel Message
Maybe you need to repent of not caring about the lost and ask the Lord to give you a heart for the lost
Or maybe it is just to spend sometime in prayer at the alter
The alter is open
