Marching Orders

“MARCHING ORDERS” Matt. 28:16-20

FBCF – 5/3/20

Jon Daniels

INTRO – What does it mean to get your marching orders? It means that you’ve gotten some instructions from someone who is in authority over you, & those instructions tell you that it’s time to move out, to go to work, that there’s a job to be done.

- Jones County – tornadoes Easter Sunday & the week following – Showed up at FBC Sharon last Friday w/ our work crew. Signed in & Dwayne got our assignment, the job we needed to do, our “marching orders.” And off we went to get the job done.

- Fire Dept. gets a call to a house that’s on fire. Chief arrives on scene first, finds out that there is someone trapped inside, & gives instructions to the firefighters to go rescue the person. The firefighters are given as assignment, told the job they needed to do, their “marching orders,” & they go to work to rescue the person whose life is in danger.

- A platoon of soldiers are about to go into battle. Their objective is to capture a town that is occupied by the enemy. Their commanding officer gathers the troops together, tells them about the intelligence he’s received, & gives them instructions to go & take the town. The soldiers have been , informed of the job they are to do, given an assignment – the marching orders, & they set out to go out & engage the enemy & take the town back from the enemy.

EXPLANATION – Open Bibles to Matthew 28:16-20 & let’s talk about this thing that we know as the Great Commission.

Dictionary defines a “commission” as this:

- the act of committing or entrusting a person, group, etc., with supervisory power or authority.

- an authoritative order, charge, or direction.

- authority granted for a particular action or function. (dictionary.com)

These verses are not just A commission – these verses are the GREAT Commission. Love using a thesaurus to get some different perspectives on words. Like the word “great.” We could call it the”:

- Enormous, extreme Commission

- Immense, mammoth Commission

- Colossal, humongous Commission

- Excellent, glorious Commission

- Outstanding, paramount Commission

You get the idea? These verses are a big deal! They give us some of Jesus’ final words to His disciples before He ascended back to heaven. Extremely important to them & to us as the Church b/c it gives us a clear picture of Christ’s program & plan for missions.

So, what makes the Great Commission “GREAT”?

- B/c of who said it

- B/c of when it was said – end of Jesus’ life

- B/c of why it was said – to give clear marching orders for His K’dom work to move forward

APPLICATION – Jesus gave every Christ-follower these marching orders that must be obeyed in order to make disciples. Here are 4 facets of our marching orders:

A PICTURE OF REAL LIFE – v. 16-17 – Look at these pictures of real life - You have:

DISCIPLES: The 11 disciples had obeyed Jesus by coming to the mountain where “Jesus had directed them” – “told them to go” (NLT).

DESERTERS: Notice that the verse says the “11” disciples, not 12. They dad already lost Judas when they came to the mountain. He had deserted them, betraying Jesus’ into the hands of the authorities, showing his true colors & the reality of his lost condition & depraved heart. That’s real life – some folks are not going to truly follow Jesus. Lip service only.

DOUBTERS: When they got there, SOME worshiped Him, but SOME doubted, which means that there is a good possibility that there were more than just the 11 disciples present at this experience. This could have been what Paul wrote about in 1 Cor. 15:5-6 when he said, “[Jesus] was seen by Peter & then by the 12 apostles. After that, He was seen by more than 500 of His followers at one time…” By this time, the 11 disciples were firm in their faith & in their belief in who Jesus was, but there were still some of Jesus’ followers who were struggling w/ in their faith.

WHICH GROUP ARE YOU IN TODAY? – Disciple, deserter, or doubter, b/c that will determine how you respond to these marching orders.

A PROCLAMATION OF REAL AUTHORITY – v. 18 – The English words “authority” or “power” (KJV) are inadequate to fully explain what Jesus was saying here. His proclamation of this authority that was given to Him meant that He had ALL the right of ABSOLUTE authority & ALL the resources of absolute power, AND that HE alone has the ABSOLUTE right to use that authority & power.

- He has this authority & power in heaven. Every angelic being is subject to Him. Whatever task they are doing, they are doing it gladly as they rejoice under the authority & power of the Lord Jesus.