Made For A Mission Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

ENGAGE

In his book, How Do I Know If I’m Really Saved, pastor John Ortberg shared a story about two students from a Christian college that were going door to door sharing their faith. One of the doors was opened by a harried mother carrying an infant in one arm and operating a vacuum with the other. As they looked in, the students could hear another child crying in the background, and see a toddler scribbling on the wall with a crayon, a pot boiling over on the stove and a pile of dirty laundry in the corner.

“Ma’am”, one of them asked, “Are you interested in eternal life?”

Utterly frazzled, the mother heaved an exasperated sigh and replied, “Frankly, I don’t think I could stand it.”

Ortberg comments on that story:

I think this is how many people today think about salvation. When we die, we are either headed for the castle (heaven) or the abyss (hell), and “salvation” is knowing the right answers so that God has to allow us to cross the bridge.

In his book, The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard, wrote about this same idea in terms of “barcode” Christians. He described a popular brand of Christianity where a “decision for Christ” is believed to be all that is needed. That decision instantly grants the decider a barcode that guarantees that he or she is a Christian in good standing, guaranteed a spot in heaven, with no expectation of personal transformation. You have the barcode, you’re in!

TENSION

This week I had some interesting conversations that revolved around a question that relates to the ideas expressed by both Ortberg and Willard:

Is it possible to be a Christian and not be a disciple?

So let me pose that same question to you this morning. I’m not going to ask for a show of hands or for you to answer out loud, but I want you to think about how you would answer that question.

Is it possible to be a Christian and not be a disciple?

TRUTH

This morning’s message is the 5th of 6 messages in our current series – 40 Days with Jesus. We’ve been studying the encounters that Jesus had with various people in the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension to be with the Father.

Today’s passage is going to help us answer the question I just posed and it will also take us one step beyond that and help us understand our mission as a church and some practical ways to carry out that mission effectively.

That passage, which is found at the end of Matthew’s gospel account is probably familiar to many of us, and if that is true for you, I want to ask you to view those words of Jesus with some fresh eyes today and not let your preconceived ideas about those words keep you from seeing what I believe Jesus wants us to take from this passage this morning.

[Read Matthew 28:16-20]

While we can’t pinpoint the exact timing of this encounter, we can narrow it down. We know that Jesus appeared to His disciples in Jerusalem on the day of His resurrection and then again 8 days later. And we know that traveling on foot from Jerusalem to Galilee would have probably taken at least a week. And we know from the passage that we read last week in John 21, that some time after they returned to Galilee, at least some of the disciples had gone on a fishing trip were they met Jesus and had breakfast with Him.

We also know from Acts 1:3 that Jesus ascended to the Father 40 days after His resurrection, and that He did that in Jerusalem, where the disciples were present. So the disciples would have needed another week or so to get back to Jerusalem after this. So it appears that this encounter occurs roughly 20-30 days after the resurrection.

It is also quite likely that this is the same event Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15:

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

(1 Corinthians 15:6 ESV)

It is very unlikely that event took place in Jerusalem, where the hostility toward Jesus’ followers was much greater. On the day of Pentecost only a few weeks later than this, there were only 120 followers of Jesus gathered together. And we also know that the large majority of Jesus’ ministry had taken place in Galilee.