The Mission
Notes
Transcript
The Mission: Go and Tell
The Mission: Go and Tell
Well my friends, here we are. We are at the end of the Gospel of Matthew.
We have spent the last 15 or so months walking through the Scriptures looking at the life of our Savior as God directed Matthew to tell and write for generations to come.
What a blessings to see Jesus in every aspect of life, and it blesses us, it gives us hope and reminds us that God’s grace is available to all.
So this morning I want to invite you to turn with me to the last portion of chapter 28, and we will look at verses 11-20, - 9 verses.
11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
_________________________________
Now Matthew doesn’t give us all the details about Jesus encounters with His disciples and others after the resurrection. Why? We are not sure, we know that the other gospels record some of these moments.
But for us, we can look at the text here and see what the message is for us from the Word of God.
So three thoughts today...
The first is this....
1. Fake News...
I want you to know that phrase and what is stands for has been around a very long time. In truth we can apply that phrase to the spreading of any type of untrue information.
Now I classify that for our sake here today, the spreading of false information, un-true information that is intended to mislead others.
It was happening in the first century as well.
The guards who stood watched over the tomb of Jesus had witnessed those events that morning. They knew the stone was in place but saw the angel appear, the earth quake and the stone was rolled away. Those guards were scared to death.....
And as they came back to Jerusalem, the guards told the chief priest what they had witnessed, verse 11..
Can you imagine that conversation… Uggghh Sir, your holiness… it’s true, He must be the son of God.... The angel came this morning and rolled away the stone.. and he, you know Jesus, he wasn’t in there. The ground shook, it was so scary for the others. not us, no. But we thought you needed to know...
They bore a faithful account of what they witnessed that morning, but even then the religious leaders of the city, even the Chief Priest didn’t want to hear it, let alone believe it. So lets look at their response.
12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
So they (religious leaders) assembled the all their elders, and they took counsel, they met concerning the problem. And so they came up with a plan… a plan of mis-information, fake news.
Look at their plan...
A. The bribed the soldiers. When they had given them a sufficient sum of money. This was hush money, but also money to make sure they told the right version of the story they wanted out there among the people.
B. Report the Disciples Stole His Body.... They were to tell people, we nodded off and His disciples came quietly and stole his body way.... all right under our noses cause we were alseep.
C. Don’t worry about the Governor… We will take care of Pilate, the governor if he gets news of this.... You will not suffer any problems, we promise you of that.
D. The Official Report goes out… And so it was, the Bible says that the soldiers took the money and began to spread the lies they were directed to tell, and it is still spread unto this day, verse 15.
So while the disciples are hearing the news, He is risen! The community leaders were spreading the word at the same time, they are liars, They stole Jesus corpse away from the authorities....
But here is where the difference lies, The message the disciples shared was true.... not a bunch of lies.
Jesus appeared to His disciples and others… over the course of the 40 days between the Resurrection and His Ascension in Acts 1, we know Jesus appeared to more than 500, including the disciples, many of those ladies like Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, and yes especially Peter during that 40 day period.
Jesus did what He said, He would suffer at the lands of the religious leaders, He would be put to death, and He would rise again.
Jesus arose from the dead my friends, He arose and He is alive!
And this is the true message we share even today, He died for my and yours sins, was buried and rose on the third day.
It’s not fake, its not a fairy tale, it is the gospel message and its true!
It’s true....
Now lets move to our second thought today.
2. He has all Authority...
Now as we have just talked about, Jesus appears to many, but as His time of departure came near we know Jesus meets with those 11 men and shares some important last words...
Lets look again to the word…verses 16-18
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Now Jesus has directed the 11 to meet Him on the mountain in Galilee, and most likely the mountain isn’t like some high peak, but it is the hill country like where He taught them - the sermon on the mount.
And let me say this, when you hear thought of meeting God on the mountain, the sense is we are getting ready to be taught, to hear something important from the Father that we need to hang onto.....
So they are on the mountain with Jesus and they worshipped him, some doubted, some probably didn’t come up there, like the religious leaders and others...
Yet, verse 17 gives us the correct response to seeing the resurrected Jesus, they worshipped Him. They were in the presence of almighty God and they bowed down and worshiped Him… beautiful my friends, just beautiful.
And then Jesus shares a word with them… Matthew 28:18
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
All Authority has been given to me… pay attention to this, it’s important. Why? we see a clear distinction between God the Father and God the Son.
Jesus says, power, authority has been given, passed down from the Father to the Son. Now this is a clear fulfillment of Scripture in the Old Testament..
Let me take you back to Daniel.... Daniel is going to share the word of God that was revealed to him. Daniel 7:13-14 Listen to Daniel...
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.
____________________________
Can we say Wow....
So when Jesus says that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him… Here is what it means...
Because of this sacrificial death, burial and now the resurrection, Jesus has been exalted, and the power given Him is to carry out the mission of Father..
Looking back at Daniel, Daniel says the Father presented to the Son dominion, glory and a kingdom. He is given a kingdom, a universal Kingdom, the whole world and all that is in it. And Jesus is given power and authority to rule.
God has said that the Son’s kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom, it would not be destroyed and His dominion, would not pass away.
Paul in the Book of Philippians builds off this thought in Phil 2:9-11
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
_______________________________
Paul says Jesus has been given a name that is above every name. He has been exalted, He is the king and He is the Lord and as such, at that wonderful, precious name, at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
This bring glory, it blesses the Father when people worship the Son.
It doesn’t matter, the greatest saint and the vilest sinner will bow down and worship Him. I think of dear saints of God that we have known through the years, they have been faithful to praise God. I remember one lady, man she prayed, She shouted and She knelt before Jesus.
And I think of those who have shook their fist before God, but one day they will stand before Him and confess His name. They may be hell bound but they will pass by and bow to Jesus on their way.
He is King of Kings and Lord or Lords.....
Now there is just one last thought my friends..
3. The Mission is Ours...
Friends, if there is anything I want you to know, to hear today. Jesus died to save you, and with your salvation, He has empowered you to carry out His mission.
You see that is our job.
Lets go back and finish out the message from verses 18-20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Do you see it, verse 19 … There is it is. Go… Because we have been saved, Jesus is telling us to Go.....
So what does the word Go mean, well it implies action, it is a movement forward. One leaves or depart to accomplish the task at hand.
And we don’t have to wonder what we are supposed to do, I say supposed because to often we are not doing it.
We are to go, verse 19.. and make disciples of all nations. baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and finally teaching them to do all I have commanded.
So we are to go....... and make disciples, Lets understand this.. What is a a disciple? A disciple is a maturing follower of Jesus Christ.
So we are to go that people would hear the word and be saved. People cannot hear unless we are going and telling. Right? So we do that they would hear in hopes of being saved.
And once they are saved, we are to help them grow up in Christ.
So let me ask you, Where are we going too? Where are you going too?
Are we going out into our community? Are we going out to bring people in… And I know out world changed with covid, but we cannot let the fear of covid stop the mission of God.
People lives depend on it, listen if there was a sink hole out here we would do out best to make sure no one falls into it, right? People are taking steps closer to hell every day… Are we trying to stop them?
Are we witnessing, are we loving, are we inviting are we telling...
We have to make disciples...
And the message is clear, of all nations, literally in the Greek it is all peoples. People from all over the world.
So people in America need to hear the gospel, And people from all over the world need to hear the gospel. But unless we go… it will not happen.
People tell me at times, I cannot go. Why?
Let me jump you over the res of this in Acts 1: 8-11
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.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Verse 8 is super important. At the moment of your salvation, the Holy Spirit comes upon each person and what does the Spirit do? He empowers you. me, all of us.
And for what reason does He, the Holy Spirit empower us? So we can go and be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
So our mission is to be His witness as we go to the world. I like that Word witness… It is a legal term in the Greek. It is the idea of being called to the court of law, we are asked to come and take a seat in the witness box and give a truth account of what you know, what happened to you.
My testimony is I was lost, I was dying and going to hell. One day Jesus called and I understood my state. I realized I was lost, in need and needed to be saved, I needed Jesus to forgive me and save me and He did!
And at the moment I was saved the Holy Spirit entered me and empowered me to go and tell. I remember the next day I was telling all my friends, I got saved last night, I got saved and my life was changed.
We are to take that message, the message of what happened to us and what Jesus will do for them to the whole world.
How, where?
First in Jerusalem. For us our community, Big Stone Gap, East Stone Gap, ,,
Second is our Judea. Which is Norton, Pennington, Wise…Tri- cities
Thirdly our Samaria .. all across our state, North East Tenn....
Finally to the World… Mexico, South America, Puerto Rico, Europe.. Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal, France...
How are we going to do it… we must come together my friends with a common goal having a heart felt, Spirit led desire to reach everyone around us outwardly to the whole world.
We must do it, and if we cant go somewhere, we can help send someone else and share in the mission.
My friends, our community right here needs Jesus.
Our world needs Jesus..
And we don't have to be afraid....it’s scary to step out for God, for in doing so understand the devil wants to discourage you, upset you and keep you from serving.
But lets go back to Matthew 28:20
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
What does Jesus say… as we are going and doing, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Listen it’s hard to go, it is scary to go, but when we do go, we are not alone.. Jesus has promised to go with us and the Holy Spirit will empowers us.
We have a mission.
Let me ask you? Are you serving on the mission He has called you.
Here is what I believe...
God is calling you, you need to settle that in your heart, say Yes and see what God is going to do in and through your life. No matter were He is leading, we as your church are here to support you.
The world wants to spread fake news, Jesus is dead or you dont need Jesus to me happy...
Jesus has all authority and He has set us on mission to make disciples.
Lets pray...