OUR Great Commission

David Poland

Matthew: Kingdom Authority • Sermon • Submitted 6 months ago • Presented 6 months ago

Matthew 28:16–20

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The final sermon (96) in a series through the Gospel of Matthew

Notes

Transcript

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 35

Psalm 35 ESV

Of David. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me! Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them away! Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them! For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life. Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it—to his destruction! Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, “O Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?” Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning. But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered; they gathered together against me; wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing; like profane mockers at a feast, they gnash at me with their teeth. How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions! I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you. Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause. For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit. They open wide their mouths against me; they say, “Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it!” You have seen, O Lord; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me! Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord! Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me! Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, our heart’s desire!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.” Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me! Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

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.”

Sermon:

Well once again and as always good morning church, i was glad when they said to me, let us go. And worship in the house of the lord.

Well, here we are 96 weeks into our series in the book of Matthew. It's a bittersweet day. It's exciting to get to finish this series. tie — hopefully — tie a bow on it, be done. It's also a little bit sad. I've grown to be familiar and love the book of Matthew. We've been in it for Over two years now and so To have to go pull out a different book of the bible to get ready for my sermons on Sunday. I don't know, i will just say that I'll miss the book of Matthew. So, But here we are. To a passage that We've heard countless times before. Because I've read it most Sundays that we've been going through this series. We have said together a portion of it together already this morning. The title of the passage. If you have a heading, and really in almost every translation that has headings, this titled as “the great commission.” And it is great. and it is a commissioning where jesus sends his disciples to go and to do what he says.

But i'd like to look at it in a very particular way this morning. Because it's not just “the” great commission as in there is this commission that exists out there and it's great and it's, it's floating around. But rather it's important, we understand this is OUR great commission. This is something that we are called to do. That we are called to fulfill. The promises here, Are our promises, the commands here, they are commands to us, as well. Truly, these commands are for all of his disciples regardless of the time and place that they live in.

And so this morning, we will be looking at our great commission seeking, to understand what jesus is saying to us, what god's word is saying to us. Trying to tie a bow and bringing together. All that we have looked at in the book of matthew. Our reading for today, matthew chapter 28, we're going to start a little early than i usually start this, verse 16. Instead of verse 18,

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 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.”

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let's open with the word of prayer.

Dear lord. We thank you for today. We thank you for Our lord and savior, jesus christ. The one who lives forever to intercede on our behalf. The one who made a way when there was no way. The one who Seals us, sanctifies us And then calls us To live Holy lives. Thank you for the spirit at work within us. Moving us shaping us bringing to us knowledge and understanding. We Pray that you would speak to our hearts this morning. Pray that you would cause us to be a people who hear your word, Are changed and then become doers of your word. It's in jesus name that we pray. Amen. And amen.

So as we approach this great commission, OUR great commission There's a few things that i'd like to Look at that, teach us exactly what is going on and what we are called to hear. But before we get into the great commission itself, i'd like to start by looking at the background.

The BACKGROUND

Now, there's a huge background. There's the background of the entire book of Matthew we've covered so far. If you'd like to understand all of that background, you could go listen to all the sermons in this series, i guess. Simply put, if we look back, In fact, i'll actually look back A slide here.

In case you didn’t know, or want to know, what does David think a book of the bible is all about, it is on each and every slide At the start of a sermon. I make it the subtitle of a series. So 1 and 2 Thessalonians was “hope in a hopeless world” Isaiah was “God saves sinners” Our next series, spoiler alert, will be Ecclesiastes: Living in a broken wold” and here, Matthew Is a book that's been all about kingdom authority.

Jesus is building the kingdom and he has his authority. And so understanding that kingdom and authority are the background issues. Matthew's been dealing with for 28 chapters. Start to give us the background to read and understand. All of the words that are going to be said, by jesus, But we're going to dive into those words, and that background will be thrust to the forefront. So the background i'd like us to see here is just a little bit different. And this is the background of the disciples that are going to hear this call.

Interestingly, verse 16 starts with a weird phrase. When we haven't heard in the book of Matthew. Up to now We've heard over and over again about the 12, the 12. But then we started reading about Judas as we got to the passion narrative in his betrayal of jesus. And even then even in the betrayal, he was still listed as one of the twelve. But he did betray Jesus and then he killed himself. And now there's only 11.

So we read in verse 16 now, the 11 disciples, And I think Matthew's being intentional here. I think he wants us to understand that even this group of disciples, It's a little imperfect. It's not the full 12. Twelve is a good number, it is a complete number. The 12 das of Christmas, the twelve tribes of Isreal, the 12 disciples. 12 is good. In fact, 12 is important enough that they are going to promote someone in a bit to get back to that complete number in Matthias. But here, the imperfect 11.

And in fact, these 11 They're not going to say anything. They're going to do something in this passage. But the last time we heard from these 11, Was verse chapter 26. Verse 56. All the disciples left him in fled. So it's an imperfect number of imperfect disciples. Because there's not the full 12. And it's people who have abandoned Jesus, who could not stand with him or for him. Yet here is the hope: They're they're getting to come back because of the grace of jesus after they have fled.

And when they see jesus, they worship him. Congratulations disciples, got this one right!

But they're still imperfect. Even here. Even confronted with the risen messiah, even seeing all of this, hearing all of this. Matthew doesn't give us all the other details about peter and jesus, walking through walls, thomas and his doubting in them eating together and placing his hand in the side, and feeling the scar. We don't have all of that. But this is what we know. They see him. And something about seeing jesus. They understand. He is worthy of worship. They see and understand this is one who we owe all our worship to.

And even seeing this, There's still some doubt. There's still some trepidation. To be called to be a disciple of jesus. Means we bring with that A whole bunch of baggage. The background here shows us, the great commission isn't given to just the perfect highest greatest saints, who have no doubt. it is not given to disciples who have no struggles or trials, It is defiantly not given to disciples who always have it all together. The great commission is given to disciples who Maybe still want to flee sometimes. Who struggle with bravery and faith. Who worship but still sometimes, maybe even experience, doubts and trepidation. That is who the great commission is given to. It's given to me, and it's given to you.

This is why it's important to know and understand the background of our great commission. Because sometimes we read and hear things like this and think, I can never be like, the disciples. We read the book of acts and we read sort of the, the moving forward, and this great commission in in action as the disciples go and plant and build and grow the church, i can never… I am Not that strong, or That faithful or That good or even That wise, that eloquent, that gifted... I'm not... i couldn't...

In Matthew, the background of the great commission. Sounds a lot like us. And so we can go forward. And walk in this. And what gives us even more motivation and thought here Is then to see the backing.

The BACKING

The background is broken disciples hearing the words of their savior. Their savior Who is the one who backs up this commission.

All authority. In heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus says. So what is the backing?

When we think of sort of being commissioned your commissioned, by someone who has authority to allow you to do that. For example, i have been ordained by the bible fellowship church denomination, they have in a real way commissioned me to come preach the gospel in this church, So, someone with greater authority has given me some authority that i am now enabled, and authorized to go do something, i have the backing of the denomination.

If you're commissioned officer, you have the backing of the us government that's giving you the authority to work in and be in whatever they've called you to do in your role in the military. To to have a commission in this sense means you go with the backing with the the Go ahead and do this. In some sense, the power of the organization backing you

So what's the backing of our commission? What power, what authority, what weight have we been given? All of it. Jesus says, With all the authority with all the power that is in heaven And on earth, i am calling you to go do this thing. This is not a commission, we can shy away from. We have no room to weasel out of this. We don’t get to say, well, no, i don't want to, i can't ... whatever.

the one who is saying, now go do this is given in himself, all of the authority and power of heaven and earth. We don't get to deny this, the backing. Is all of the power in the universe. So we do what it says. We walk in and follow the command.

The COMMAND

A lot has been said — and we're going to dive in and look at what makes up the command that's what the next little blanks are going to be. But i want us to see. This is a command. Given to us all.

A lot of times when you're reading you listening to sermons or reading books and they talk about the great commission. They sort of go two ways. And neither one of them is fully right I don't think. One way is to sort of minimize the command here. To say, well, It's not fully a command, jesus has the authority, jesus one is doing this, he's sort of pushing you and They minimize the fact that this is jesus saying, you must do this.

To the other extreme are the ones who think that every person has to fulfill every aspect of every part of what this command is in, every way. This command ultimately is given to the church. And by that, i mean, the church universal. But then that means every individual church has to find their way to fulfill this great commission as their part of the universal church. And then, in that, every member of every individual church has to find their role in fulfilling, what the church is called, to fulfill what god has called the global church to do. There's no wiggling out of this for any individual. This is a command, Given to us. That we may all fulfill. Through the empowering work. Of the spirit. Our job is to do it. Ourt responsibility is to understand where we fit in, and HOW we follow this command, but to follow it is not an option. So what is the command? there are four Action words That help us understand what we are called to do. And here's the meat of the great commission.

GO

Go Therefore... it starts with a simple word. That's also one of the most difficult words. Go... Go into the world. As we read. And this is what we'll talk about Thursday and grace group. As we read Luke's, telling of the great commission, we are to go and be his witnesses in jerusalem, Judea Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We have to go. It's not enough for us to live out the christian life trapped in our own little world where we never see or experience, or talk to or deal with the world around us. This go is a command. though the destination is not given to us.

So, maybe for us, it's a go across the street, knock on the door and talk to your neighbor. Go down the street, go to the gospel rescue mission. Go to the street corner where there's the homeless person. Go to mexico, go across the world. I don't know where The WHERE is,but we are all called to go.

So we go. We heed and hear the command of jesus, and we go sometimes physically, we go sometimes emotionally, we invest in and care for missionaries and those who are called to physically go Maybe the way we go is by putting an investing, our energy, our time, and even our money and that is what goes for us. But it's not enough to just say, oh well, i gave some money, i'm done. Our life should be about going and preaching and proclaiming and doing what jesus has called us to do.

Then we Make.

MAKE

The command that we have, is to go and make disciples, Not make converts. Not make friends, not make people who you get along with. We make disciples. We make people who follow Jesus.

One of the sub themes throughout the entire book of Matthew has been that there is a very big difference between the crowd and his disciples. Between the greater large group, the crowd that's all around and those who follow, know and love jesus. We saw way back in Matthew chapter 5 when he was beginning, the The sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5 verse 1.

Matthew 5:1 ESV

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

We're not called to make a crowd or crowd to make the disciples. We saw it in chapter 16. When peter is going to confess, jesus is the christ is who do the people, who does the crowd, who does everyone say that? I am. Oh well they say you're Elijah some prophet someone. Who do you Simon Peter? Who do you my disciple? Say that I Am. You are the christ, the son of the living, god. We saw this as he enters in, at the beginning of the, the passion narrative of the triumphal entry, the crowd may even cheer on jesus. They might even think. Yeah, jesus is awesome for a moment. But then we get to the last supper. Where his disciples are. We are called to make Disciples.

We go and make disciples. How do we do that? Well, all the details are not given, we preach the gospel, We love, we “give an answer for the hope that is in us, we “preach Christ crucified”. but one detail is given, and it is an important one. We baptize.

BAPTIZE

I don't want to get into a theological discourse and i don't think this is necessarily the exact, right Passage to get into a full why we have the beliefs We have about baptism.

So i'm going to say a few points that i think are important. One note, the nature of the baptism verse 19,

Matthew 28:19 ESV

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,

We are baptized in the name of the triune God. This is... In all of the bible... if i were to try to go to one verse to defend the doctrine of the trinity, it would be this because it's a pretty simple. It is one name of three persons. It is THE name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit one god, three persons. And this is what we are baptized into. It is his name, we are identifying with the triune god. Who created the universe, and all it is in it. That's the first thing.

The second thought here is Note the order of what jesus tells us to do. We go. We make disciples. And we baptize them. This is why we believe that we baptize disciples only. WE proclaim, in line with what we believe the bible teaches not just here, but elsewhere as well... that a proper baptism is done for those who have confessed with their mouth that jesus is lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead.

We call it believers baptism, credo-baptism... Whatever we want to call that phrase, whatever sort of Theological lingo We want to use The order that we see here in the great commission, i think it's important. We make disciples and we baptize THEM.

And so the final note, which is probably the most important. i'd like to say here is if you have never been baptized as A person who confessed that jesus is lord… So here, what i'm saying is that If you have never been baptized after a confession of faith, Please come talk to me. When we can fix that. Because we're called to Baptize. We're called to be baptized and then we as the church are called to baptize believers into our fellowship.

It is also of note that This particular part of the command is not as individual as the rest of it. Because we don't just go around individually. Baptizing people. Like we walk into people's houses. Hey, here's your bathtub baptize You baptize you. The church is the one who baptizes, but we are called to draw people to that point. And so the final thought here is, if you haven't been baptized, please come talk to me and we can make that happen. And the reason we do this, the reason we get baptized the reason we do baptism. Because we've been told to, Because this is part of following what jesus has said. And so we receive the baptism, it stirs our affections and we are following the commands of jesus. So, what is he called us to do? we go. We make disciples, we baptize them. And finally, We teach.

TEACH

We teach them specifically to observe all that i have commanded. We have to be very careful. But again. I want to harp on look at the order. Of the commission.

We go. We go out to a lost to a broken to a hurting word. And from that, we make disciples That's the first step. The first step is calling people to turn from their own ways and just follow jesus, just be Jesus's, serve him, love him know him. When you're there, we baptize you, you and you are welcomed into the fellowship and the family of believers. You're one of us now. And now that you've decided to follow jesus now that you have made the can profession through your baptism now, We teach you to observe all that is commanded.

notice following the commands of jesus does not get you. Saved. You're already disciple. We don't even just baptize people because we look at their lives and think, well, your life is finally good enough. We baptize them THEN we teach them to live Holy lives.

Part of the christian life. Is living righteous. Holy good. Upright lives. Here in the great commission. It's the LAST step. And so, we need to be careful that we don't mix this order up. Where we go to people and we teach them to live holy lives then we try to make them into disciples and then when we think they're good enough then we baptize them. We need to be careful that we will mix up this order where we baptize then hope that we can teach them to live holy lives. And then, once they're living good enough, then you can be a disciple. We're called to make disciples from the broken lost world around us. And so, that's what we do. And we end. With, what is our precious. Hope.

The HOPE

The background is this. We are broken. We don't have as much faith as we always should. We don't live. As we always should. We're not the best disciples. We don't do things. We should Okay. Because we still have the backing of the one who has all the authority of heaven. And in earth. And he's given us a command. And it's a big one. It's to go and make disciples of all the people around us of all nations. Every tribe, tongue nation. We are to go to make disciples to baptize them to teach them as what we are called to do. What is our hope? How can we have any hope to be able to do this? Immense enormous infinitely, big infinitely, important job. Our hope is, The presence of jesus.

The one who resurrected. The one who conquered sin and death. That one, that Jesus Promises to be with us. Not just to be around. Not just to be available. To be WITH us. Not sometimes. Always. To the end of the age. The other way we can say this he will be with us until he comes back and is with us.

He will be with us, he is with us he will continue to be with us and then one day he will physically visibly descend on the clouds and we will see him and he will still be with us. From this moment, from when jesus said this, and now to eternity, he will be with his people. That's our hope. But we're broken, he's with us. But he gave us a big job and he's with us. But he wants me to go and make and teach him baptize. I don't know how to do that. Don't worry. He's with you. Is with you always?

I was reading a sermon on this text, and he said he wanted to name the sermon: The Four all’s, for y'all. Which is pretty clever. Because this is what we note. How do we live out this great commission? What we look at the alls.

Jesus has ALL Authority. that is the first all. So we have to listen to him

And he has told us to go to ALL Nations. that's the second all. So we go everywhere and anywhere in the hope of making disciples and spreading his fame.

And We teach them ALL that Jesus has commanded. that's the third all. There is no teaching of Jesus to be left out.

But the fourth all is what ties them all together. ALL Ways. that's how long he will be with us. There is no time that we will not be sheltered under the constant care and compassion and love and work of our precious savior.