Kingdom Building-Sharing the Gospel

Essentials of Faith

Part 7

Sharing the Gospel

Matthew 28:16-21

Good morning Church. Are you glad to be in the house of the Lord today?

I love when the Church comes together to Worship the King of all Kings, the One name that all will confess one day, and the One who will be praised for all eternity.

The Bible says in Psalm 111:10, "His praise endures forever."

HIS PRAISE ENDURES FOREVER. AMEN?

I invite you to pray with me this morning.

How great is the praise among the earth, oh Lord our God? How perfect are Your ways? How majestic is Your Love?

Amen and Amen.

Today is our last sermon in our series "Essentials of Faith."

We have been talking about the essentials that we need to have in our spiritual toolbox as we walk the road of faith. To walk worthy of the Lord.

We began by adding essential items to our faith to use in our everyday lives to live this life for God and His Church.

We started the year with Fasting and Prayer, and we said that these two go hand in hand. Fasting and prayer are to be part of our lifestyle as believers. We then added harmony. We talked about the need to live with one another in harmony to do and be effective for the work of the Lord.

We then added the act of love. Love is the earmark of a true believer. Jesus said the people will know that we are His disciples by our love for one another.

We then added wisdom to our spiritual toolbox. This wisdom comes from the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Bible says it comes from above.

And then last week, we added serving. Which is essential to any believer. We are to serve the Lord, His church, and humanity. If we are going to become more like Christ, we have to serve like He has served us.

Today, we are closing our sermon series with the essential of sharing the Gospel.

Sharing God's love through the Gospel is essential to our faith. To make Jesus known to the world was the Apostle Paul's devotion. He knew the importance of this when he asked the Ephesian church in Eph 6:20, "Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. 20 For this, I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in Him to speak as I should."

Throughout the Bible, we find that God selected certain people to share His messages with the people.

It was Jesus who was sent to teach people of God's incredible love and become the bridge in the gap that separated sinful man from the Holy God. And it was Jesus who has now sent us to share the Gospel, the Good News, God's love to the people around us.

If you have your Bible with you this morning, I hope you do. Open your Bible with me to the New Testament Book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. It is also part of the four gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

I want you to know today that we have been created to do the work of God.

When God made man, He put him to work by naming all the living things God created. He placed man in the garden to live and tend to the garden.

Now, when it comes to work, Some of us work too much, some too little. Some work too hard; some tend to take it easy. Some work after the right things; some after the wrong things. But, the truth is, God created us for work. The choice is ours regarding the kind and quality of work we do. In our passage today, Jesus has completed His work, His earthy ministry. Now He is passing down the work to us.

Did you know that almost every resurrection appearance of Jesus ends with Jesus telling those present to tell others that He is alive?

The New Testament indicates that at least ten appearances of Jesus were in the post-resurrection state. In eight of these appearances, Christ gives a direct commission.

In five, He commands His followers to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Here is an interesting fact you should know. The some of the first words Jesus said to the disciples are; "I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19), and the last words to His disciples were, "You will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8).

The reality of those words came from the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 43. Where God is speaking as He restores Isreal and says beginning at verse 10, "You are My witnesses"—this is the Lord's declaration—and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He."

God has always called His people to be witnesses of who He is.

WELL, If you are there in Matthew 28, begin reading with me from verse 16. This is the Word of God, and it begins like this:

"Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

18 And Jesus came 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 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

The first and last words that Jesus spoke to the disciples were ABOUT sharing the Gospel and communicating the Good News to others.

Notice with me that Jesus is instructing the disciples of their mission, and He instructs us today about the mission of life that we are on. This is the central message and mission of the people of God.

Which brings us to our Take-Home Truth

Our Take-Home Truth is this:

OUR MISSION IS TO SHARE THE GOSPEL TO THE LOST.

We are commanded to help people find their way back to God by sharing the Good News of that redemption story. We are to make Jesus known in the world.

It was Jesus who took the scroll of Isaiah and pronounced His Mission on this earth: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.”

When He was done, He said to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4:18-21 NIV

But what is the Gospel?

What is the Gospel that we say yes to, that we are being invited or inviting others to have and become a part of?

The word gospel literally means "good news" occurring 93 times in the Bible, solely in the New Testament. In the Greek language, the word is euaggelion, where we get the words evangelist, evangel, and evangelical.

The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia summarizes the gospel this way:

“The central truth of the gospel is that God has provided a way of salvation through the gift of His Son to the world.”

Jesus suffered as a sacrifice for sin, overcame death, and now offers a share in His triumph to all who will accept it.

The Bible teaches us that the Gospel is good news because it is a gift of God, not something that must be earned by penance or by self-improvement (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8–11; II Cor 5:14–19; Tit 2:11–14).

THE GOSPEL IS LITERALLY THE "GOOD NEWS" because it addresses the most serious problem facing humanity: SIN.

The problem is this: God is holy, and He is just, but we are not. When we come to the end of our lives, we will stand before a just and holy God and be judged based on our own righteousness–or lack of it–or the righteousness of another, and that other is Jesus Christ.

Once we accept Jesus the Bible tells us in 2nd Corinthians 5:17, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!"

He is the thing about becoming new in Christ. Your mission becomes new; although your old lifestyle changes, your purpose for existence has changed. , Now the orders have changed.

The Apostle Paul said in 2 Cor 5:18-21 “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Our reconciliation ministry is all about the Great Commission.

Here is the thing about the GREAT COMMISSION, Our GREAT GOD- has Given us a GREAT FUTURE to tell the world about the GREAT GOSPEL. Did you catch that?

Because of this, I want to spend some time highlighting three elements of our life mission that we find in this Great Commission.

THE FIRST ELEMENT OF SHARING THE GOSPEL IS THIS:

JESUS IS OUR AUTHORITY.

When people search for purpose in their lives, most self-help books suggest that people look within at their own desires and dreams.

I read a book once that said your dreams and desires in life could come through positive thinking. We may even look towards others or look at society and try and live up to its expectations. All of these require our own authority and power. But real purpose, mission, and the fulfillment of life come from understanding and fulfilling God's purposes for putting us on earth.

In Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life, he answers the question: Why do I exist? And one of those answers he gives is that we are created for mission, designed for a life mission.

Jesus has spent three-plus years preparing the disciples for this moment when they take over the mission of reconciliation. However, before Jesus commissions the disciples to this new life mission, He reminds them of the most essential thing in our mission. His authority.

Look back with me at verse 18 “Then Jesus came and spoke to them”

The HCSB says it this way "Then Jesus came near and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."

Notice with me that Jesus has authority over everything, and look at what He does; he gets close to His disciples. It's almost like He calls them into a huddle to give them the next play.

I love this about Jesus.

Because He could have shouted from mountains, He could have floated in the air, His voice could have come from heaven with all the authority, but instead, He pulls them together and tells the plan that God has for their lives. Have you ever noticed that Jesus still does that today with us?

We have such a powerful God, but He is also a personal God. He comes near to each of us, calling, speaking, and commissions us.

Let me share two things about the authority of Jesus.

First, Jesus' authority was 'given' to Him from His Father God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Jesus, the man who was anointed, crucified, and is now risen, is also the divine Son of God and has received His authority both as the Son of God and from God the Father.

Second, notice the extent of His authority is universal - He has complete authority "in heaven and on earth."

Before Jesus' resurrected state in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus has said that He has "authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matthew 9:6).

Later we find that He states that "all things have been committed to me by my Father" (Matthew 11:27). In John 1 verse 3, John says that "all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made." In Verse 12, "He gave the right for us to be Children of God."

Now we know that He did that through the blood sacrifice and resurrection. By the way, the resurrection validates Jesus' authority, and His authority is over all things, including heaven and earth.

In the context of the Great Commission, it highlights that Christ alone has true authority over not just all creation but of heaven as well. This is an assurance to His disciples then and now that when we go to share His love through the Gospel, we are not going in our authority but in the authority of Christ. We are not on our own.

Many people fail to understand that the work we do, the life mission that we are called to do is under the authority of God the Son, Christ our Lord.

In John 17:18, this scripture is where Jesus prays for the disciples then and for us today and listen to what He prays "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world."

Jesus is extending the work of the Kingdom of God to the people through His own authority. For the very purpose of why God sent the Son- the Son sends us.

We operate under the highest authority, JESUS THE SON OF GOD.

THE SECOND ELEMENT OF SHARING THE GOSPEL IS DISCIPLES ARE TO MAKE DISCIPLES.

Our mission statement for our church is to love, grow, serve and share God's love through the Gospel with the world.

Sharing the Good News to the world is transforming the lives of people. Helping them find their way back to God.

Our vision says we influence people to change their lives through the Gospel, as examples of God's grace by walking in Christ's excellence and connecting people together to grow in faith, love, and community.

Which is the goal of our mission to transform lives.

When we first come to Christ, our lives become transformed, as we mentioned earlier – but more than our old life becoming new, we now have a new life mission to live beyond ourselves.

The devil wants us to live for ourselves, but God's plan of redemption means that we live beyond ourselves and see people's lives transformed because of the Gospel.

Folks, this is how the church began in Acts 1. Its how the church has been sustained for years, and this plan is still working today as long as we use the plan under the ultimate authority of Jesus.

So what is the Game Plan?

Jesus clearly lays out the plan to accomplish this:

Look back at verses 19-20

"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 everything that I have commanded you."

First notice, that the purpose of the great commission, the purpose of our life mission, as individuals and the Church, is to REACH THE LOST AND MAKE DISCIPLES.

The questions that so many try to answer is first what is a disciple? Second, what does it take for another to become a disciple?

Theologians and other big thinkers have muddied the definition of discipleship, and often people can be confused about it.

But If we are going to make disciples, we need to know what a disciple is.

In the Biblical days, people knew what a disciple was. The basic definition of a disciple is someone who follows the teachings of another. John the Baptist had disciples. The Bible teaches us that the Pharisees had disciples. They were students of a master who follows and does what His master does and requires.

But, what does it actually mean to be a "disciple" of Christ?

In its simplest form, I believe that a disciple of Jesus is a worshiper, a servant, and a witness.

A person who learns from Christ to live like Him, one who, because of God's awakening grace, conforms to the words and ways of Jesus. Or, you might say, as others have put it in the past, disciples of Jesus are themselves "little Christs" (Acts 26:28; 2 Corinthians 1:21).

But listen, we can never help another person become a disciple of Christ- if we are not a disciple ourselves.

Disciples make Disciples.

So Jesus teaches us what it takes to make followers of Him.

How do we make disciples? Jesus outlines this with three action words GO- BAPTISE- TEACH.

Someone should have come to us with the Gospel- we should have been baptized, and we should be under the teachings of Christ.

Let's take a look at those three words:

GO- I believe that at the heart of our life mission is to Go and see others transformed with the Gospel.

I'm going to say something to you that may shock you.

I believe there is a difference between a disciple and a Christian – A Christian is the worlds watered-down version of a follower of Christ- it is what prevents us from reaching others with the Gospel – because, by societies standard, you can be a Christian and not believe in church- you can be a Christian and never tell another about Jesus. Never step foot in a church.

Still, a disciple is a life commitment and requires us to do something with our faith; Jesus said that a disciple is on a mission to make more disciples. So for us to make a disciple, we must GO- This means to put into action. God never intended for us to be a static faith. We are not to be held within the four walls of this building, waiting for the world to come to us. The Gospel was never meant to sit inside a building. Jesus never stayed in one place for very long He and His disciples were always taking the Gospel to other areas.

We have a nomadic Gospel; as such, the ministry makes and matures disciples as we go. We are to go and engage others with the gospel.

Earlier in Matthew's Gospel, it records the famous Sermon on the Mount. One of the remarkable statements that Jesus says to His disciples is this:

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16)

The point here is this, since we are lights, we must let our light shine by how we live our lives. And the truth is people don't see how we live our lives by us laying around and doing nothing – God's work is not accomplished by doing nothing nor laziness. The keywords are, we are lights of the Gospel, and others must see our good deeds- and praise the God we love and serve. So many times, people will be first attracted to the gospel by our actions before receiving our words.

The Disciples began living out the great commission by waiting in Jerusalem, spreading the Gospel there, and when the church scattered because of persecution, the Church expanded.

The book of Acts teaches us that Church expanded to Judea, Galilee, Samaria, Corinth, Antioch, Iconium, Ephesus, Ethiopia, then into Europe and beyond. In the New Testament, Paul planted some say 14 to 28 churches.

The point is the Gospel of Jesus, our mission, is to enter our communities and cities. Infiltrating the world's darkness to spread the light of Jesus Christ, while helping other churches in their areas, we are to go into other country's different cultures to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells us to Go and tell others of the Gospel. In Mark chapter 16:15, "Go into all the World and preach or proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation."

Luke 14:23 “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

This has great importance and impact. Central to our mission is a call to preach or proclaim the good news. Folks, we have good news, in fact, the best news ever, so we must not keep it to ourselves but go and tell others in our neighborhoods- our cities and the world.

We are under the Authority of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to GO and proclaim His name.

To make disciples, we are to GO-

Look at that second word baptize.

To make disciples, we baptize those who come into the faith.

Baptism is not how someone becomes a believer but it’s a sign that someone has become one.

Why baptize?

First, it is mandated by Jesus to baptize all disciples of all nations. Amen?

Second, it illustrates Christ's Burial and resurrection.

Third, illustrates the person's new life as a believer.

It is evident throughout the New Testament that it was a vital next step after someone had repented and believed.

Through baptism, a person publicly declares that they are now a follower of Jesus, identifying with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Baptism in the Greek context here means the immersion of a person- it represents a permanent change, and it is to be done in the Name of the trinity of God- God the Father – God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

To make disciples, we are to go-

To make disciples, we are to baptize.

Then that third word – to make a disciple, we must teach.

Verse 20 "Teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you"

To be an effective teacher of the Word of God, you must know the Word, and to understand the Word, you must be a student of the Word of God. This is the definition of the Greek word- Teaching means to be a teacher- to impart instruction.

Notice I did not say that you have to memorize the whole Bible and act it out in character.

As Jesus engaged the lost, He was continually looking for others He could pour Himself into. He was looking for others to build the foundation with.

In Matthew chapter 5 is where Jesus begins to teach the Sermon on the Mount, and verse 1 says that "When He saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.2 Then He began to teach them."

Even though the crowds were around Him, He took the time to take the disciples and taught them. Jesus' focus was on those disciples who He personally selected. The goal was to mature them in the faith, teach them how to apply the Word in their lives, be faithful followers, and eventually take over the ministry as we see come to life in the book of Acts.

The quicker we help someone get grounded in the faith, the better it is for them and the church.

This can happen through our services, Bible studies, and classes.

But the best way is through life-on-life learning, mentoring, and in the context of community.

In other words, once you see someone come to Christ, your job has only just begun.

If the Great Commission's purpose is to make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching – and if it sounds all a little bit daunting, then take heart, we are not left alone… Jesus finishes the Great Commission by reminding His disciples and us that we won't do it alone.

THIS BRINGS US TO THE THIRD ELEMENT OF SHARING THE GOSPEL.

THE POWER BEHIND THE MISSION IS THE PRESENCE OF JESUS.

Look at verse 20: "And Remember, I am with you always to the end of the age."

Isn't that comforting to know?

In the opening of the book of Matthew, He introduces us to Jesus as Immanuel- God with us. Chapter 1:23 "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us.")

Now Matthew records the last words of Jesus in His gospel that we should never fear the work of God. Because God will be with us.

What a great way to bookend the life of Christ. To start He is GOD WITH US, and as HE ascends to heaven, HE assures us that He WILL BE WITH US FOREVER.

It such a comfort to know that He is with us, in all things of life, but especially in presenting the Gospel to the lost.

Jesus repeatedly says that He will be with us through the Holy Spirit of God.

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth...you know him, he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:16, 18)

Here's the staggering truth: we are never alone through the Spirit of God who comes not just to be WITH us but to LIVE IN us.

Jesus is personally present all of the time!

This the same Jesus who taught, healed, and delivered, who was crucified and is now risen, is now with us 24-7 for the rest of our lives. He is here to strengthen and comfort us in our own walk with Him. He also empowers us as we seek to carry out His Great Commission.

As disciples of Christ Jesus, we have been commissioned to make disciples.

Our mission is to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel to the lost and making Christlike disciples who make Christlike disciples.

Jesus is the source of our mission.

The goal of our life mission is to transform lives.

The power behind the mission is the very presence of Jesus.

here are some ways to share the love and forgiveness of GOD.

The 16 Words trac.

TAKE FIVE

be prepared to give an answer to your hope.

start with friends and family.

frequent places where you get to know the employees and invite them, share your 5 minute testimony.

Folks listen, The Great Commission is our life mission.

Invitation: