The Great Commission: Going at a Price

Text: John 20:20-21

Theme: The heart and soul of the Body of Christ is about making disciples. Jesus gives us five priorities for doing that.

Date: 07/03/2022 Title: Great_Commission_04 ID: NT04-20

A hen and a hog were strolling down the main street of their barnyard community one morning and as they passed the animal church they noticed the sermon title on the marque. It read: “What can we do to help the poor?” Immediately the hen felt compassion and told her friend, “We ought to do something to help.” To which her companion replied “What can we do? You’re just a chicken and I’m just a hog. ”

Without thinking the hen suggested they organize a breakfast and feed them bacon and eggs. The pig thought for a moment and then said, “Well, that may be all right for you. From you it requires only a contribution, but for me it requires total commitment!”

When it comes to your Christian faith, are you a chicken or a pig?

This morning, I want to preach again on becoming a Great Commission Church. Our text for this morning takes place on Sunday evening on the day of our Lord’s resurrection. The disciples are huddled behind locked doors when suddenly Jesus appears to them. He extends to them his peace and then he give them their ‘marching orders’: as the Father has sent Me, I also send you. It’s brief and succinct and it is John’s abbreviated version of the Great Commission. God the Father sent Jesus into the world to provide salvation Jesus send us into the world to proclaim His salvation.

"And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.21 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (John 20:20-21, ESV)

The Fourth Great Commission — John 20:20-21 — Reveals Our Fourth Priority Going at a Price

I. TO BE ON MISSION FOR GOD WILL ALWAYS COST US SOMETHING

ILLUS. World Evangelism is not cheap. It costs our International Mission Board approximately $124,000 a year to keep a career missionary couple on a foreign field — $10,335 a month. This is a global average of the annual cost for supporting a mission couple, and includes all forms of ministry support and personnel support (salary, medical expenses, language study, children's education, housing, visas, travel, and retirement benefits.

As of right now, our International Mission Board supports 3,563 career missionaries who have engaged 847 people groups around the world. Praise God for the Cooperative Program — Southern Baptist’s unique way of funding missionaries in America and around the world. It is our unified giving plan that allows all Southern Baptists and all Southern Baptist churches to cooperate in missions, evangelism, benevolent and educational ministries. Since 1888, Southern Baptists have given approximately $5 billion to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International missions. Since the introduction of the Cooperative Program in 1925, Southern Baptists have contributed $3.6 billion to international missions for a total of just shy of $10 billion.

1. but when I speak of the cost of the Great Commission, I’m not referring to merely money

2. while missions support is important, and while our church ought to generously support the Cooperative Program as well as special missions offerings, I’m referring to a more personal cost of proclaiming the good news a. what are some of those costs?

A. THE PRICE OF MISSIONS IS GOSPEL EXCLUSIVENESS

1. this is, I think, the great cost so many believers are not willing to pay, because too many believers have rejected the premise

ILLUS. Our culture is growing increasingly intolerant of Christians who believe in the exclusivity of the Gospel. This is the belief that in Christ alone there is salvation and eternal life. Accept this premise and you will be called intolerant and arrogant and a spiritual Neanderthal.

Liberal Protestantism long ago grew embarrassed by the exclusive claims of biblical Christianity and the historic Christian faith. Several years ago, The Presbyterian Panel, a research group that serves the Presbyterian Church U.S.A, presented to their denomination a religious and demographic profile of Presbyterians, and what they believe. Almost 40% of Presbyterian laymen and 60% of Presbyterian clergy do not believe in the exclusivity of the Gospel. This is a denomination that is increasingly losing its confidence in the Gospel in terms of the clear biblical claim that salvation comes only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, before you think I’m picking on the Presbyterian Church U.S.A, let me hasten to pick on young adults ... A 2021 survey revealed that 60% of all Christians aged 18 - 39 do not believe that Jesus is the only way to Salvation. And before we tsk-tsk young adults know this; according to another 2021 study 70% of all self-professed born-again Christians believe there are many ways to go to heaven.

2. gospel exclusivity is not just politically incorrect among the lost, it’s evidently politically incorrect among the saved!

ILLUS. Some of you may remember in 2015 when Franklin Graham received a disinvitation from Pentagon officials to lead in prayer at their observance of the National Day of Prayer. Why was he uninvited? Because in an interview a few weeks before, Franklin Graham repeated his message that salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone, that the gospel of Christ is the only message that offers salvation, and that any belief system that leads persons away from the gospel is false and empty. In a Newsweek interview after receiving his disinvitation Graham said: “I am who I am. I don’t believe that you can get to heaven through being a Buddhist or Hindu. I think Muhammad only leads to the grave. Now, that’s what I believe, and I don’t apologize for my faith. ”

ILLUS. Twenty-five years ago in 1996 Thomas C. Reeves wrote in his book The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Protestantism he shared these prophetic words, "Liberal Protestantism, in its determined policy of accommodation with the secular world, has succeeded in making itself dispensable."

3. when a church or a denomination abandons the exclusivity of the Gospel it immediately declares itself dispensable to its society

a. what Franklin Graham said is offensive to the world

1) to proclaim the exclusivity of the Gospel in a religiously pluralistic society has become the epitome of political incorrectness

b. many, if not most, of your neighbors, co-workers, class mates, and even your family believe that such a conviction is nothing less than religious intolerance

1) first, let me tell you what intolerance is

2) intolerance is the irrational suspicion or irrational hatred of a particular group, race, or religion

c. Evangelical Christians who preach Jesus as the only way to God to every people group, every race and every religion, are not being intolerant

1) I do not have an irrational suspicion of Muslims ... I do not hate Democrats, or Hispanics or Catholics

2) Gospel exclusiveness is ...

a) 1st, obedience to the theology of our Lord Jesus, who himself, on any number of occasions, declared that entrance to the Kingdom is through faith in him alone

b) 2nd, compassionate to the lost, giving them directions through the narrow gate that leads to the straight path

ILLUS. Suppose some morning after church, you’re standing in the parking lot chitchatting with another member when a car pulls up. The driver lowers the window, and says, “I’m trying to get to Chamois. It’s really important that I get to Chamois. Can you please tell me how to get there?” You then proceed to say, “Well, go about a mile east on Hwy. 50 here until you get to U Hwy. Go south ... You can’t miss it." Well, if you give them those instructions, they’re going to miss it. They’ll remain lost.

Or you can tell them, “Ya know, there are lots of ways to Chamois. You can take Hwy. 50 three miles east to Hwy. 89 north, or you can make a left out of the parking lot and go to the bottom of the hill, and take Hwy. 100 north, or, if you desire the scenic route you can take Loose Creek Hwy. to Country Road 403 to Hwy. W, go north one mile then make a right on Country Road 424 until it turns into Country Road 427 which will take you to C Hwy. You’ll then want to take “C” to Country Road 432 that’ll take you to County Road 435. Make a left and follow 43Cuntil it turns into Country Road 436. Don’t go left, ‘cause that dead-ends at St. Aubert’s Island. Instead turn right on 436, that finally takes you to Hwy 100. Make a left and it’ll take you to Chamois. (That’s ‘works’ isn’t it)?

c) or you could say, “I’m going that way, just follow me”

2. it’s when Evangelical Christians refuse to preach Jesus as the only way to every nation, every people group, every race and every religion, that we are being irrationally hateful

a. to refuse to be honest about the exclusivity of the gospel is telling folks, "/ know the true way, but I’m not telling you because I don’t want to be accused of intolerance”

3. folks, the exclusivity of the Gospel is nothing new

a. it is not the 20th- century invention of fundamentalist Christians

b. it is the heart of our Saviors Great Commission

- "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6, ESV)

4. what price are you willing to pay to reach the lost?

a. one price may be the price of criticism — or “gasp” even being “canceled” by friends on Facebook because you believe in the exclusivity of the Gospel

B. THE PRICE OF EVANGELISM IS RESOLUTE OBEDIENCE

1. this is the price we are asked to pay

a. obedience to the call of disciple-making entails sacrifice

2. 1st, being on mission will cost you some of your privileges

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8, ESV)

ILLUS. The apostle Paul was so in love with his Savior that to do anything else but share the gospel was, for him, unthinkable. For the sake of the evangelism Paul abandoned many of his personal privileges. He never married; he never owned a home; he never had a family other then his "brothers" and "sisters" in Christ. He never got involved in the social clubs of his day. In his letter to the Christians at Corinth Paul asserts that he willingly denied himself those things which are considered a normal part of life for most of us in order to concentrate his efforts on evangelizing. He says,"/ have denied myself certain privileges "I have not exercised my rights ...," "I have not taken advantage of what is rightfully mine ..."

a. God may not ask you to give up your right to family, a home or involvement in different groups, but evangelism will cost you some privileges nonetheless

b. what are you willing to give up to tell others about Jesus?

3. 2nd, being on mission will cost you some of your prejudices

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb/’”’ (Revelation 7:9-10, ESV)

a. there is no room for discrimination among the people of God

b. if God is no respecter of persons, then neither should we be

1) evangelism may force you to give up your religious prejudices

ILLUS. The Catholic and the Mormon need to hear the saving Gospel as well as the Muslim and the heathen.

2) evangelism may force you to give up your racial prejudices

ILLUS. Remember the V.B.S. ditty: "Red, yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight"?

a) you may have to mortify (put to death) any racism in you heart

3) evangelism may force you to give up your social prejudices

a) you might need to witness to a poor person ... our you might need to witness to a rich person ... or — heaven forbid — you might have to witness to a liberal!

ILLUS. In the early church we see the Holy Spirit leading devout Jewish Christians to witness first to the Samaritans, and then to the Gentiles. We can’t even begin to imagine the social prejudices that had to be crossed by Jewish Christians to do that, but they did because they realized that obedience to Christ means going to people who weren’t like them.

4. 3rd, being on mission will cost you some of your luxuries

a. the most significant luxury Christians must be willing to give up is the luxury of soft living

1) what will it take before God can get your face out of your iPhone long enough to have a gospel-conversation with someone?

ILLUS. Herb Miller, in his book Fishing on the Asphalt, shares that the average Church member has listened to 6,000 sermons, heard 8,000 prayers, sung 20,000 hymns, and asked ZERO persons to accept Christ as personal Lord and Savior.

b. you may also have to give up the luxury of spiritual assumptions

1) never assume that someone else is evangelizing the lost

2) never assume that "it's the preacher's job" (it is ... but it’s also yours)

3) never assume that a person is a Christian because he or she is living decently

ILLUS. Most of your neighbors are living pretty decent lives compared to the broader culture, but that doesn’t mean that they are a Christian.

ILLUS. Charles Chaney, former President at Southwest Baptist University has written that"... the United States is not a Christian nation that needs to be fixed, but it is a mission field of hedonistic pagans that needs to be evangelized. ”

5. 4th, being on mission will cost you your right to yourself

“... do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God,” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ESV)

a. when we see God for who He really is, it destroys our spiritual consumer mentality 1) what I mean is — it destroys our “What’s in this “Christianity thing" for me?”

b. when we see God for who He really is it sends us out

ILLUS. Remember Abram before he became Abraham? He’s going about his business in the City of Ur when he hears God’s call. In that encounter he hears God say, “Get out of the familiar culture where you’re known, and where you’re comfortable. Get out of your homeland, where everybody knows you. Get out of your safety zone. Go to some place I’m not even going to tell you about before you get there. Take a risk with Me. Leave ... NOW!”

1) wouldn’t it be a fun experience to organize a mission trip, but not tell anyone where your going?

c. everywhere in the Bible we see God sending His people out

1) none of them were “super-saints” or “heros of the faith” before God called them 2) they were normal, unextraordinary people — until they experienced God

II. The Church Needs a Priority Shift: WE NEED TO SHIFT OUR THINKING FROM COMFORT TO SACRIFICE

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ” (John 15:13, ESV)

ILLUS. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis because of his testimony, made this statement: "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die."

1. if you and I are to take seriously the calling given to this church by the Lord, Jesus Christ, then we will need to step out of our comfort zones and walk by faith where the Lord chooses to lead

ILLUS. In January of 1936 B.B. McKinney was leading the music at the annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist Sunday School Convention. The featured speaker was Robert S. Jones, a long-time missionary to Brazil. For reasons of health, Jones had been forced to come home to the States and a few days prior to the convention, had learned he would not be able to return to Brazil. With heart-felt concern, McKinney inquired as to Jones’ future plans. The missionary replied, “Wherever He leads, I’ll go.”

That afternoon, McKinney went back to his hotel room and penned the words and music to one of the most well-known hymns of the last 75 years. (Hymn #437 - Read stanzas and then the chorus)

“Take up thy cross and follow Me," I heard my Master say; "I gave My life to ransom thee, Surrender your all today." Wherever He leads I'll go, Wherever He leads I'll go, I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, Wherever He leads I'll go.”

“He drew me closer to His side, I sought His will to know, And in that will I now abide, Wherever He leads I'll go. Wherever He leads I'll go, Wherever He leads I'll go, I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, Wherever He leads I'll go. ”

“It may be thru' the shadows dim, Or o'er the stormy sea, I take my cross and follow Him, Wherever He leadeth me. Wherever He leads I'll go, Wherever He leads I'll go, I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, Wherever He leads I'll go. ”

2. what is the price of missions and evangelism that you are willing to pay?

a. what is the price that you are willing to pay for your life to be consumed with sharing the good news of Jesus Christ?

1) evangelism is not merely for evangelists

2) missions is not only for missionaries

b. missions and evangelism ought to be a part of who we are as a congregation of believers

3. what price for missions are you willing to pay?

4. we are to go at a price

Bow with me in prayer. "Father, may you listen to the prayers of your children in this moment, where you ask us if we are being obedient to those last words your Son said before he ascended to you: "You will be my witnesses." And Lord, where we have gotten too busy to do the best, where we have substituted the good for the best, break our hearts. Give us the vision, the heart that you have for a lost, for a dying and hell-bound world. Give us such an overflowing love of you in us and what you have done through us and what you are doing, that Christ cannot help but show through in all that we do and all that we say. Let us never get too busy to tell people about your son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen."