Proclaim the Gospel

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.”

We are continuing our series titled, Christ Builds His Church. I spoke last week that for us to see true growth in the church, Christ needs to be the cornerstone of our foundation. If our lives, our actions, our beliefs, and our teachings are not aligned with Christ, then anything we try to build will fall and be of no heavenly value.

Today we will look at our mission as the Church, the body of Jesus Christ - to Proclaim the Gospel.

Big Idea: The mission of the church is to proclaim the Gospel.

There is a quote that is often attributed to St Francis of Asissi that says this: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” I have seen many social media posts where people post this quote and say things like, “This is so good!” or “Amen!” However, there are a couple of issues with this quote.

First of all, there is no proof that St Francis ever said it. His life and works show that he modeled a servant’s heart and helped many people, but there is no evidence that he ever made this statement. It is much like the internet meme that goes around all the time with a quote that says, “Everything you need to know is on the internet and it is all true,” - Abraham Lincoln.

Second, this quote gives a false representation of what preaching the Gospel is. According to this quote, preaching the Gospel is something that can be done in our actions and without words. However, the gospel must be proclaimed with our mouths. While our actions can help to verify our devotion to the message, its hard to preach the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection without words. This quote about the gospel is the equivllent of saying, “Feed the hungry always, and when necessary use food.”

Our passage today from Matthew 28 is the Great Commission that Jesus gave to his followers on the day he ascended into heaven. Though these instructions were given specifically to his followers in the first century, this commission applies to us as the Church of Christ today also. In order for us to carry out this commission, we need to have a proper understanding of what the Gospel is, what it means to proclaim the Gospel, and how we go about doing it.

What Is the Gospel?

There are many answers to that question - though only one answer is correct. The word “gospel” comes from the Greek word, “euangelion” which means “good message” or “good news”. Today, that Greek word is also translated as “evangel” where we get our modern term, “evangelical”. An evangelical church is supposed to preach “the good news” or “the gospel”. But as we may know, there are many churches that claim to be “evangelical” who do not preach good news at all.

The word “gospel” has been used to refer to a lot of things. There is the “prosperity gospel”. This is the “good news” that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy. For that to happen, you often have to give a “seed offering” to certain ministries so that God will bless you with more money and health. If you are sick or are struggling to pay your bills, its because you haven’t given enough money to the church, or you just don’t have enough faith for God to work in your life. That doesn’t really sound like good news does it?

After the Civil War in the 1870s, there began a movement called the “social gospel”. The rapid growth of cities and industrialization were creating harsh conditions for the working class of America. Applying the saying, “love thy neighbor” became a rallying cry to address social issues like poverty, child labor, and poor working class conditions. This is the movement where the phrase, “What would Jesus do?” actually originated. But if we only address the social issues that people are facing without addressing their hearts and souls, is that really good news?

Perhaps you are a big fan of animated Disney movies and so when you hear the word “gospel” you think about the muses in the opening of the movie Hercules who say that the story of his life is the “gospel truth.” Ironic since the original story of Hercules from Greek mythology was actually a tragedy and nothing good came of it’s ending.

None of these things have anything to do with the actual gospel. When we look at Scripture, we see that the ultimate story, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is that we as humans are sinful creatures that are in rebellion against the Holy God who created us. Our rebellion and sin separate us from God, and the punishment we deserve is death and the judgement of his wrath. In our rebellion, even the good things that we do are stained with our own pride, selfishness, and greed.

BUT GOD…

God had a plan to redeem fallen humanity by sending one who would take the punishment for the sins of others. God came to us in his son, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. Jesus lived a life that perfectly obeyed the Law of God as set forth by Moses in the Old Testament. Jesus was the only human that never sinned. Then, Jesus offered his own life as the payment for our sins. He was beaten, bruised, and died on the cross, marking those who put their faith and trust in him by his own work since our good deeds count for nothing in bringing us closer to God. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we may once again have a relationship with God like Adam and Eve in the garden when we put our hope and faith in him.

THAT is the gospel.

I would love to see someone be able to communicate that successfully and completely without words.

Now that we know what the real gospel actually is, what do we do with it? We must start where Jesus started.

Matthew 28:18

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

Christ has all authority in heaven and earth. As we read last week in Colossans 1, all things were created by Christ, through Christ, and FOR Christ. He conquered both sin and death in his death and resurrection. So we see here that Christ is our military general who is giving his soldiers orders. He is our parent giving us the chore list that we are to do our best to complete before he comes gain. This does not mean that it will be easy to follow these orders. We will still have trouble in our lives as we try to follow this great commission.

Though Christ has defeated the enemy already, we must think of the devil as a wild animal that has just been captured and caged. Though its efforts to fight to escape its restraints will ultimately be fruitless, it can still cause damage and potentially kill those who approach him without the proper wisdom and caution. Though the enemy still fights, he has already been defeated.

Because of this authority that Christ has, we see Jesus give four commands to his disciples. I want to take some time to dig into each of these four commands that he gives his followers and how we are to act in response.

First command: Go

Matthew 28:19a

Go therefore…

In sharing the gospel, action is required. We cannot expect that every opportunity to share the love of Jesus is going to come to us if we just sit in our homes.

Keep your finger at Matthew 28 and turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Paul is telling his listeners that there is no difference between Jewish believers in Christ and Gentile belivers in Christ for he says that anyone who believes with their heart and confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord will be saved. But he does not stop there.

Romans 10:14-15

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Paul is using a grammatical tool here where he asks repeated, rhetorical questions in which the answer should be obvious.

How can someone call on God if they never believed in him? - They cannot.

How can someone believe in God if they have never heard about him? - They cannot. (Quick side note - notice how Paul says that no one can believe in God if they haven’t heard about him? This is one of many places that shows that quote from earlier to be theologically inaccurate.)

How can someone hear about God if no one preaches to them? - They cannot.

And how can anyone preach if they are not sent? - According to the apostle Paul, they cannot.

Evangelizing, preaching the good news of Christ to those who need to hear it requires both words AND actions. We are commanded to go out from where we are to proclaim Christ.

In Acts chapter one, if you want to flip to there really quick, we see more instruction from Christ as he is on the mountain speaking to his disciples just before he ascends into heaven. This is the same event from Matthew 28 just with different words recorded by Luke. He tells his disciples about what they are to do when they receive the Holy Spirit:

Acts 1:8

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.”

When the Holy Spirit came upon the followers of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, they were in the city of Jerusalem. But that was not where they stayed. Jesus told them that they would be his witnesses in all of Judea(Southern Kingdom of ancient Israel), not just Jerusalem, as well as in Samaria (Northern Kingdom of ancient Israel) and then to the ends of the earth. The disciples took this command from Jesus to “Go” very seriously.

These are the believed areas of preaching of some of the apostles:

Andrew - Greece and modern day Turkey

Thomas - believed to have brought Christianity to India

Philip - Turkey and possibly Carthage in N. Africa

Matthew - Persia and Ethiopia

Bartholomew - Iraq, Ethiopia, possibly India

Simon the Zealot - Egypt, N Africa, Persia

Paul - All over the Mediteranean and modern day Turkey, was planning a trip to Spain when he wrote Romans, only to be arrested in Jerusalem before he could make the trip.

These men followed Christ’s instructions and went out to proclaim the Gospel wherever they went.

Next Step: Where am I to “go” and preach the gospel?

It could be that you are to go throughout your neighborhood and proclaim the gospel, or to your school, or to your work. God may call you to start a ministry in inner-city Seattle, or Spokane, or Portland. Perhaps God is calling you to proclaim the gospel to peoples in Africa or Asia who have never heard the good news of Jesus. Wherever he calls you, go!

Second Command: Make Disciples

Matthew 28:19b

… and make disciples of all nations,

This is where our proclaimation of the gospel comes in. When we are in the places we have been sent to, we share with others the good news that we no longer need to be defined by our past, our mistakes, our sins, our relationships, our family, our jobs, or even the world’s standards of identity. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection we no longer have to carry the burdens of this world. We can put our hope in him, let him rearrange our priorities, and serve a God that loves us, cares for us, and will never fail us.

To help show people the transformative work of the gospel, we should share our testimony. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said the disciples would be his witnesses to all the world. How we live our lives in light of the gospel should show the world around us that there is something different about our lives. As I said last week, when Christ is the cornerstone of our lives, we will know his love, his peace, his grace, and his mercy. Experiencing those attributes of God helps us to be able to share those attributes with others.

I do want to clarify one thing really quick. Your personal testimony is not the gospel. Again, the gospel is the saving work of Jesus Christ through his life, death, and resurrection. Your personal testimony is the opportunity to show how that good news has impacted and changed your life for the better.

Our testimony, I believe, can be compared to the miracles that Jesus performed in the time of his ministry. Those miracles were not the gospel. They were not the reason he came to earth. Those miracles simply showed people the truth of who Christ was. Jesus did not do party tricks to get a laugh or a big reaction. Jesus performed miracles to show the people that he was the Messiah, the Chosen One of God who had come to take away the sin of the world.

You and I are all miracles. God transformed my heart, taking out a heart of stone and putting in a heart of flesh. He has transformed my mind to hate my sin and the things of this world that would pull me away from him. And he has used me as a broken vessel that he is continuing to mold and shape as a potter with a lump of clay, into his child, that I may proclaim his glory. I can think of so many instances in my life where if not for the miraculous work of God in my life, protecting me from my own stupidity, I would not be here today to lead you in serving the Living God.

When it comes to sharing your faith, you may be hesitant because you are not sure what to say. You may think that you won’t have the right words to say. I want to encourage you with a quote from a book called 9Marks of a Healthy Church. In the chapter on evangelizing, Pastor Mark Dever says that we don’t have to have a prefect presentation for God to work and save lives.

Some of us became Christians through presentations of the gospel that may have been terrible in a number of ways. The person who shared the gospel with us may have been scared, stuttering, forgetful, intimidating, pushy, or even obnoxious. But somehow the truth was there amid the errors, and God’s Holy Spirit used the encounter to bring us to repentance and faith. If God can use someone else’s sputtering attempt, surely he can use you! Tell people about Jesus!

Remember our sermon series title: Christ Builds His Church. Christ builds his church. We are not the characters from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross who should, “always be closing.” We don’t close the deal for God. We proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and then, through our proclamation of the truth, God works on the hearts of men. Our job is to be faithful and let him bring the increase.

Next Step: I will share the good news of Jesus with someone this week.

If you are a parent, you will have LOTS of opportunities to share the gospel with your children.

Command Three: Baptize

Matthew 28:19c

…baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…

Baptism is the next step for Christians after they have put their hope and faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is not required for salvation. The thief on the cross next to Jesus, to whom Christ said, “Today you will be with me in paradise,” was never baptised, and yet Christ told him that he would be with Jesus in heaven.

However, baptism is a part of our testimony. It is an outward sign to others of an inward transformation. When we go under the waters of baptism, we are showing that we are dying to our own self, and from our earthly wants and desires. When we come up out of the water, we are showing that we are sharing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are a new creation in Christ.

In many ways, baptism is the New Testament equivalent of Old Testament circumcision. Where circumcision was an outward sign that the Israelites were a different people, chosen by God, separated from the world, baptism is an outward sign that we are washed, made clean, and no longer spiritually dead, but made alive in Christ.

We also are to baptize in the name of each member of the Trinity. The theology of the Trinity is a lot more than what I want to tackle today. There have been volumes of books about how we understand the trinity. One great book that I would recommend for you to read on this subject is, Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves. Our God is one God, but in three distinct persons acting in accordance to the same will.

Next Step: I want to get baptized

Command Four: Teach

Matthew 28:20a

…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Once someone has had their heart transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and taken the step of baptism, there is teaching that needs to take place. If we don’t just give an infant a ham sandwich and $50 and say good luck with your life and send them on their way, why do we do this with baby Christians when they first put their trust in Christ?

We have a responsibility to shepherd people in righteousness and truth. Just because someone says that they are a Christian does not mean that they understand all that it entails. Almost all babies know how to nurse when they are born because it is a natural instict. However, they do not know if what is coming into their system is actualy good for them. They are completely dependant on their parent or the nurse or whoever is looking after them to feed them good food that will nurish and sustain them.

This is how we should view those who are new the the faith! If we let them go and start taking in any teaching that they find - who knows where they could end up! There is a lot of abhorent “Christian” teaching out there that has nothing to do with Christ. So we need to be pointing new Christians to a proper understanding of the Word of God so that they can grow, eat meat instead of only taking in spiritual milk, and become stronger in their faith.

It is not just new Christians who need to learn more about the truth of who God says he is. Even the most seasoned saint in the congregation needs constant reminders of the love of Christ and our purpose as his children.

I have songs that I listen to over and over because I know they are pointing me back to the truth of Jesus Christ. I have started crying in my car as I am driving down the highway listening to songs about Christ on the cross and how he has saved me from my sin.

You may get tired of me always pointing back to our need to depend on Christ for everything, that we can do nothing without him, but the reason that I will tell you over and over again is because there will be a time when you need to be reminded of the goodness, mercy, and grace of God. We forget too easily how much God loves us and has provided for us in our time of need. I will remind you of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection every time I preach because I need to hear it that often too.

Next Step: I will teach and remind both myself and others of the goodness of God.

Finally, as we get ready to close, we end in the same place that we started, Jesus. We have a promise from Christ that we are to hold onto in the process of all of this:

Matthew 28:20b

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

We can have the confidence that Christ is with us in this life. Though we may not be able to see him right in front of us and put our fingers into his nail scarred hands and side as the disciples did, we can have confidence that he is with us. When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit resides in us, reminding us of Christ’s love for us.

Christ has authority over all of heaven and earth. We can go, make disciples, baptize, and teach because the one with all authority is with us. He will never leave us or forsake us.

Perhaps you are here today and you have never put your faith in Christ, but you have heard me talk about the goodness of Jesus today. You want the one with all authority in heaven and on earth to be with you to love you, comfort you, and guide you through this life of trial, despair and hardship. I can tell you that he is the only one who can give you the peace, hope, and grace to endure this world. Submit your life to him today.

Next Step: I will put my faith in Christ

If that is you, the elders and I will be available after the service today to pray with you, encourage you, and help guide you along this journey of following after Christ.

Let us pray.

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