God’s Marching Orders (A Father's Day Sermon, June 15, 2014).

GOD’S MARCHING ORDERS

Text: Matthew 28:16 – 20

During the week of Easter, we were watching some of the Easter movies that they had on a network known as Up (for uplifting). One of the movies (I think it was a movie called “Barabbas,” if I am not mistaken) portrays Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, (on the slope of the Mount of Olives) while he was praying. Matthew tells us that three disciples, Peter, James and John who had accompanied Him to that mountain to pray. As we know they fell asleep. In the movie, while Jesus was praying for the cup of suffering to pass from Him. It was during that scene that the movie inserts what might have been possible even though it was not recorded the following way in scripture. The inserted scene portrays Satan who appears and shows Him the future and the many who will be lost in spite of what Christ will do on the cross. Satan illustrates wars and senseless death while seeming to insinuate all over again the third temptation in Matthew 4:8 where Satan promises Jesus the world if Jesus would just bow down and worship him. Jesus stays true to God and those He came to save as God’s only begotten Son!

Once again, Jesus is on a mountain with Peter, James, John and the other eight remaining disciples (Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddeus and Simon (the Cananaean) because Judas had hung himself. There are two other occasions where Jesus taught His disciples on a mountain (Matthew 5:1 – 7:29). The first one is when He gave the sermon of the mount. The second one is when He was transfigured on the mountain (Matthew 17:1 – 9). This was indeed another significant moment in Jesus’ journey with His disciples because of the commission that He gave them. This is what we call that Great Commission. Since today is Father’s Day, we could also think of this Great Commission as our Heavenly Father’s Marching Orders.

WHAT ARE OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S ORDERS?

Matthew 28:19 tells us His disciples about their future. 1) Jesus’ Authority: Jesus gave His original 12 disciples on the job training. 2) Learning challenges: They did not always understand the lessons. How much do we resemble them today when we do not always understand? 3) Inconsistent faith: Some of them believed and yet some also doubted. 4) Marching orders: Jesus gave them their marching orders according to our Heavenly Father’s plan. 5) Greater things: Before the crucifixion, Jesus told them that they would even go on to do greater things: John 14:12 "Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, the one who believes in me will also do what I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (ISV). 6) Dispatched: In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells His disciples then as well as His disciples today that they that they are being sent out to evangelize the world---to continue to accomplish those greater things.

Do we have to understand why we were sent to our mission field before we obey as His modern day disciples? There is the story of a surgical assistant (a surgeon’s right hand man) who wanted to go to a position where he could recapture his fading passion. He prayed about and got shocked as to how God answered his prayer as he went to a position in plastic surgery. He “… wanted a job with spiritual significance … and [wondered] “Why would God want [him] in a hotbed of vanity? In time God showed him why it was important for him to be where he was. So he did something new---a new directive to “pray in God’s name in operating room 2 asking others, the few Christians in number to join him. It became a weekly thing as they prayed for colleagues and patients as ten friends became new-born Christians by the end of that year.

In his own words… “God has given me a purpose far beyond patient care. He expanded my circle of influence by transferring me to the main surgery department, where I now rotate through all four departments in the hospital campus. I have started several prayer groups throughout the hospital. Each group focuses on inviting the Holy Spirit to move in their department. We encourage each other in Christ, pray for opportunities to witness, seek God’s will, and ask that Christ be glorified in our work.

Since I realized that I could advance the kingdom of God through praying at work, I have found renewed passion for my job, as well as for the opportunities for ministry it provides”. (Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof. gen. eds. 1001 Illustrations That Connect . [— Brandon A. Bradley, “Prayer at Work: Surgical Assistant,” Pray! (July – August 2006)]. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2008). God shows the way that we are to go according to His plans even though we do not always understand it.