His Call of Commission

Introduction

Video: Understanding the Remaining Mission Task (4:30)

Good Morning

Today is an exciting day. Not just because we are going to get to enjoy a picnic lunch to bring to a close our Sunday School year, but that also means that we are bringing to a close our “CHRISTOS” series that we have been working through since last September. This series was designed to dive us deeper into the life, mission and ministry of Jesus.

When we began this series we recognized that we all had some understanding of who Jesus was and what He did, but that we each still have more to learn. That is why I felt that this video was a fitting introduction to our last week in this series, because in many ways the end brings us back to the beginning. As we listen to one of Jesus’ final teachings before He ascends to heaven we find in it our call, our commission to bring what we know of His story to the rest of the World.

Tension

So two things that I hope this information awakens in us this morning:

First of all, I hope that there are some here today or listening online whose hearts are bring drawn...even right now... into being someone who goes into one of these “Un-reached people groups” to be the Christian influence that is so desperately needed there. If that is you, then let me encourage you to not ignore that tug on your heart, but to explore what that could mean for you. If you are looking for a good place to start then let me know and I can point you to a couple places to look into frontier mission work like this. I would love to see God rise up someone from our Church with a heart for this type of ministry and then see us play a significant role in sending and supporting them in their call. That would just be awesome.

Secondly, I hope that none of us are sitting here this morning unmoved by the fact that so much of the world has not even heard the message of the Gospel. Hopefully no one is just checking out here because they have no plans to move around the world and so they think that this message doesn’t apply to you.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ then know that He HAS called you to play a part in this mission.

For one thing, we saw how even though 33% of the world identifies as a “Christian” only 10% are truly believers. Many are “Christians” in name only. So we should be working to see them deepen their faith in Jesus and come to a personal relationship with Jesus and not just with with the label “Christian”.

On top of that, one of the reasons that Christians are spending so much time, money and resources in areas that are considered “Reached People Groups” is because even though there are Churches, Bibles and Christian influence there, there is still great need. There are many people who are still “un-reached” - even among what is called “reached people groups”.

So that is the primary task that each Christian Church has. We all already know the language and the culture here...so we can and should be living out the “Great Commission” that Jesus gave us right here in our people group. Growing that 33% in discipleship and reaching the rest with the Good News of Jesus through evangelism. That is our role right here, even as we look to play a supporting role in seeing others go out to the “Un-reached People Groups” around the world.

So open up your Bibles with me to the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 28, page 835 in the Bibles in the Chairs and we will take a look at the mission that Jesus has gave His Church 2,000 years ago that we are still after today. As you are turning there, I will pray...

Truth

Let me set the scene, as we have jumped around a little here at the end of the series, especially last week when we joined together with Harvestime South, which was so fun…but I want us to know where we are in the story.

We will be reading the very last words of the Gospel of Matthew, but that doesn’t mean that these are the last moments of Jesus’ life on earth. The other Gospel authors give us some other things that happen after this moment, including the details around His ascension into heaven. But Mathew closes his Gospel account with these words because he wants to leave us with the “ on-going” call of Christ for His Church. So in a way these final words are less of a closing and more of an opener to all that will happen from here on out.

That being said, at this point He has accomplished every aspect of His earthly mission:

Perfectly lived as a Human

Proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God,

Proved He was the Messiah in His message and miracles

Prepared His Disciples to carry on his work and ministry... and most importantly

Purchased our salvation through His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection.

We walked through all of these this past year, and now for the past 10 days or so Jesus has been meeting with His followers in His resurrected body, revealing to them how the prophecies of the Old Testament point to Him and teaching them even more of the Kingdom of God. But every day grows closer and closer to the time for Him to return to His rightful place at His Father’s side.

And here, near the end, is where Jesus delivers what we call “The Great Commission”, the ministry plan for His Church then and for us today. The first thing we see is that...

1. As followers of Christ, we minister to others under His authority (Matt. 28:16–18)

Starting from verse 16...

Matthew 28:16 ESV

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

It may seem strange to us to see “the eleven disciples” refereed to here, but John tells us that after Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, He went back to the Chief Priests to confess that he had betrayed an innocent man (Maybe, one of the biggest understatements of all time) he returned the silver and then in great anguish took his own life. So at this point we have only 11 disciples.

Truth be told, we could have only had 10. Didn’t Peter betray Jesus even three times. For that matter, everyone of the Disciples ran away when Jesus was arrested. But Peter and the rests of the 11 were relying on the grace or mercy of Jesus - even while Judas again took matters into his own hands. The truth is, If there was no grace and mercy then there would no disciples left to gather in Galilee, even as there would be no hope for any of us.

But by the grace of God goes everyone of the Disciple of Jesus Christ.

And while Matthew only mentions the 11 disciples going up to the mountain, most theologians believe they were not alone. Many believe there was a great crowd gathered on the mountain that day, especially because Jesus often addressed large crowds in this type of setting. This may have been one of the places where Jesus met with the “more than five hundred brothers at one time” that Paul talks about in 1 Cor 15:6.

Keep that crowd in mind as we read the next verse:

Matthew 28:17 ESV

17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.

Seeing that Jesus has already appeared to the 11 Disciples a couple of times at this point, even working through the “doubts” of Thomas who wasn’t there for the first appearance, it is most likely that Jesus is talking about people other that the 11 disciples who are doubting here. But this is still encouraging to us, isn’t it, as we often struggle in seasons of doubt.

The Greek word for “doubt” here is the word “διστάζω” (distazo) to doubt, waver or hesitate. Interestingly enough the only other place in the Bible that this particular word for doubt is used is when Peter first b showed great faith in stepping out of the boat to join Jesus as He walked on the water - but then He looked around at the wind and the waves and he began to sink, because he wavered, he hesitated, and...

Matthew 14:31 ESV

31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

It appears that God is patient with our hesitations, or waverings knowing that in the middle of the storm we don’t always see how He is moving right away, but He does not want us to persist in unbelief. Like Jesus told Thomas after he showed Him his hands and feet “Do not disbelieve, but believe “(John 20:27) to which Thomas worshipfully replied, ‘My Lord and my God!”

So we have a mixed bag of disciples up here on the mountain. Those who have bowed down or worshipped before Jesus and those who are hesitant. The 10% and the 33%, just like in our world today. And I don’t know what our numbers would be here at Friendship Church, but I do know that God is always working to grow our faith to the point that we would have the assurance and confidence that James 1 speaks of and respond in faith and worship to our risen Lord Jesus, especially in light of what He says next:

Matthew 28:18 ESV

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

Authority is a major them through out Mathew’s Gospel, as it was an important aspect of Jewish life and Rabbinic teaching and Matthew’s primary audience was Jewish. Over this past year we encountered many stories when Jesus’ authority was questioned and criticized by the religious leaders. But despite their many accusations we saw how Jesus...

Taught with authority.

Did miracles with authority.

He forgave sins in His Authority.

He had the authority to reveal the Father.

He even gave His authority to the Disciples for a time of ministry.

So what has changed? Now that Jesus has risen from the grave, what does his declaration of having been given “ALL authority in heaven and on earth” mean for us.

Well as Jesus walked the earth He had absolute authority, but His exercise of that authority was restricted to his human existence. Which is a mysterious thing to try and wrap our mind around. The Bible says that “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) and Jesus “made himself nothing” or “emptied himself” (Phil 2:7).

We can’t fully understand where the God part off the “God-man” let off and man part took over but certainly it has something to do with willingly restricting Himself to aspects of His authority that He could wield in His human form. But here we have Jesus declaring that because He accomplished His mission of the perfect life, death and resurrection - God the Father has now given Him “all authority in heaven and earth” .

This is something of what Daniel spoke of in Daniel 7 where it says:

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

This is the position that the God-Man Jesus has now been given, and it is an essential aspect to the “Great Commission” even though it is often overlooked. Because the very next words in Matthew 28 are “Go Therefore...” and being the Bible Scholars that we are training you to be… you know that whenever we see the word “therefore” in the Bible we are supposed to ask the question: “What is the “Therefore, there for?

Everything that we have been asked to do in the Great Commission is built on the foundation of Jesus’ all encompassing authority.

And this is great news, because when we see statistics like we did in the video the task that Jesus has commissioned us to do is clearly overwhelming. For just 10% of the world to be called to impact the other 90% is an overwhelming task for sure…except for the this promise that God has given us.

That as followers of Christ, we minister under His complete authority.

It is not like something that Jesus has given us to do and said, “Just let me know when you get that done.” His authority over all things is what makes it doable. Without that, the Great Commission is just an empty expectation and exercise in futility. But since His authority IS certain, we can take this great challenge. Our second theme is...

As followers of Christ, we are challenged to reach the world for Him (Matt. 28:19–20a)

This is where most people start the reading of what is most commonly called “The Great Commission”

Matthew 28:19-20a

“19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

So I am not trying to awake the nightmares of High School English class here - especially for those of you who just graduated - but verb tenses and sentence structure are important aspects of understanding what Jesus said to people on the mountain that day.

First of all, the word “Go” is translated to sound like a command in English. But in Greek, the term is actually a participle, which is a word formed from a verb but used as an adjective or noun. So it is more accurately translated as “going” or “as you go.” The Greek word carries the idea of proceeding, traveling, journeying, living, and conducting one’s life.

So it is not necessarily a command to leave one place and “go” to another. As we said earlier, 40% of unbelievers have Christians in their own people group who wouldn’t have to “Go” anywhere to tell them about Jesus. Some are to go to other people groups, but some will stay in their own people group.

And while we are one the subject of people groups, the Greek word translated as “nations” here is the word “ἔθνος” (ethnos) from where we get our word ethnic or ethnicity. This is important because we are probably pretty close to sharing the Gospel with ever “country” in the world - there is only about 200 of them, but there are 16,000 different ethnic or people groups. For example, Pakistan is one country but they have 400 distinct people groups. When we think this way, the command of the Great Commission is even greater in scope.

And if “Going” isn’t the command, then what exactly is “The command” of the Great Commission.

The only “imperative” or command verb form in the Great Commission is the command to “make disciples”. The rest of words that look like verbs are actually participles telling us what accomplishing this one command will look like.

So we Make Disciples as we are going along by baptizing them in the name of our triune God and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded us. It is one thing: Making Disciples and 3 ways that we are to do that one task.

So whether we stay here in our “reached” people group or we answer God’s call to one of many “un-reached people groups” we are to be about the same thing. Making Disciples of Jesus Christ.

This was not how discipleship typically worked. Typically, a disciple would follow a Rabbi until he gained a following of his own, then He would become the Rabbi, but Jesus didn’t call the 11 disciples to become rabbi’s with their own disciples, they were all to make disciples of Jesus Christ who also made Disciples of Jesus Christ who made Disciples of Jesus Christ and on and on.

This is where Church leaders can get themselves in trouble, when their ministries seem to be focused more on how many people are following them rather than how many are following Jesus.

Because remember, Jesus was no ordinary Rabbi. He is our Savior and Lord and none of us need anyone but Him because He never leaves His disciples.

Our last theme for the week is...

As followers of Christ, we are guaranteed His presence at all times (Matt. 28:20b)

The last sentence in verse 20 reads:

Matthew 28:20b

20b “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Earthly Rabbi’s, Leaders and even Kings were always replaced eventually - but not Jesus. He promises to be with His followers at all times so that we can make Disciples of Jesus around the world because Jesus is not limited to this world. He is no longer operating in his earthly restrictions, but is seated at the right hand of the Father and calling unto all people through us to become His direct Disciples.

And He will continue to do this until the day of His physical return, but until that day He has given us the Holy Spirit that works in and through us to become the Disciples Makers that He has called us to be.

Gospel Application

If you took some time to look back over these few verses that we have looked at this morning there is one little word of just three letters that you will find over and over again. It is the word “all”. It is a small little word but it holds a great deal of weight. To have “ALL” of something is to have it in completion. To have every last little bit. That is a lot.

And Jesus said He has been given ALL authority

and because of that we are to make Disciples of ALL nations or people groups

they are to be baptized and then taught to observe ALL that Jesus has commanded

and this may seem impossible, but it isn’t because Jesus will be with us for ALL time.

Matthew ends his book with this declaration from Jesus because All of these “All’s” tells us that this is to be an on going process that continues on long after this moment.

Landing

And in closing, let me add one more “ALL” that should seem obvious but we might have missed it. This Great Commission is a call to ALL of Jesus’ Disciples. Not just the Pastors, The Overseers, or Sunday School Teachers or whoever else we might want to throw in there...but everyone of us who consider ourselves a Disciple of Jesus Christ has been called to play a part in Making Disciples of Jesus Christ.

And we saw how the Christian Church is doing around the world, but how are you doing in your part of world. Who are you Discipling? Pointing them to Jesus and walking side by side with them and teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us?

Do you know what Jesus has commanded us? If you don’t, then that is great place to start. If you have been with us this past year in our Christos series then hopefully you know more now than you did 9 months ago. Who are you going to share that with?

And let me just say...Parents, your first discipling responsibility is your children. How much of Jesus have you shared with them? Our Sunday School teachers did a great job this past year, but they are just to be supporting what you are doing at home. They only have them less than an hour a week. How much of Jesus’ life, ministry and teachings are read, reviewed and discussed in your home? That is a great place for you to start.

And for the rest of us, what might God be calling you into? Maybe you recognize that you are just a part of that 33% and you are no longer satisfied with being there. You want to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus. What steps can you take to move in that direction.

Or maybe God has been bugging you to reach out to start meeting with a friend, family memeber or coworker to start discipling them - what is stopping you from calling them up and asking them about that this week. They may be waiting for a small nudge that you can offer.

Or maybe God is calling you to consider going to one of the thousands of unreached people groups around the world. Wow, would that be a ride. It would take a lot of commitment, but we would walk with you in it. If God is tugging at your heart in that direction then please don’t wait. You have seen how great the need is.

Jesus fully accomplished His mission and now He has given us ours, but He has not left us alone. His grace, mercy, authority and presence will be with us all the way. Are you ready for it.

Let me invite the worship team up as I pray for us...