May 18, 2008
Trinity Sunday/First Sunday after Pentecost [White]
All scripture marked ESV: The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Mt 28:16-20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
On May 2, 2008 the USS North Carolina was commissioned by the US Navy. The 337 foot long submarine has a crew of 144 and a flexible mission to aid in the fight against Global Terrorism.
During the commissioning ceremony, Navy Secretary Donald Winter said
"We must remain vigilant and be prepared to face the challenges that risk surprising us in the decades ahead,…With USS North Carolina, the nation has made an investment in our safety and in our peace. She now joins the world’s greatest Navy and will be cast into a wide range of missions." (FOX News, May 3, 2008)
By the authority of the US Navy, the USS North Carolina was assigned to serve as a tool to protect the US and also to serve as an agent of peace.
As with any assignment, the crew will need Direction, Presence, Authority, Assurance from its leadership, from the command levels to the American people.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ, you have also been commissioned to participate in a great assignment. An assignment to go and make disciples. This assignment through the years has been called the Great Commission.
This morning we open our Bibles to the 28th chapter in Matthew.
Matthew used the Great commission to emphasize the authority, priority, and the assurance behind Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations.
Earlier in this chapter, he describes how Jesus arose from the dead. Now, Matthew tells the story of how Jesus gathered all of his disciples together. These were the disciples that where with him in the Garden before he was taken to die. These were the same disciples that watched him walk on water. These are the same disciples that saw him heal the sick and made the lame to walk. These were the same disciples that asked him to teach them how to pray.
Now Jesus gathers them together once more to speak this word of commissioning to them.
Look with me at Matthew 28:16-20:
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.” (Mt. 28:16-20, ESV)
Jesus commands that the Great Commission be a priority for us.
How much of a priority is the Great Commission in your life? This morning, could be the day that you accept this mission to make disciples. We all participate in different ways, but we all must be apart of this mission.
As we look at this passage, we see that
1. We have been GIVEN a Complete Authority
Verse 18
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (Mt. 28:18, ESV)
The authority Jesus is above all other authorities. In fact, all other authority is established by him, so truly his authority is above all others.
In the military, we are very familiar with Authority figures. All of our authority results from the decisions made by the people of the United States, then to the constitution, then to the President and Congress that are to act on the authority, we the people give them.
In America, we sometimes forget how strange that is for non-Americans. In most cultures the authority rests in one individual. This is changing over time—but that fact remains that this idea of the people in the authority over their government is amazingly uncommon.
Jesus says “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given” to him. This is above all governments, above all peoples, above all order, and even above the natural laws.
Romans 13:1 says that
… there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. (Ro 13:1, ESV)
Jesus has authority over all. So with this authority, shouldn’t we listen to his commands?
We listen to the commands of our commanders.
We listen to the commands of our President.
We listen to the commands of the people.
We should listen to the commands of the authority over all of these.
We are familiar with authority and Christ supersedes them all. We who follow Christ have surrendered our all to Him. The very least we can do is follow His Great Commission.
What authority do you allow Christ to have in your life?
Jesus said;
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15, ESV).
Christ loved us so much that he died on a cross to save us from the grips of hell; shouldn’t we love him enough to do what he asks?
And he asks this not in the company of new believers. He speaks these words that apply to us. But, he speaks these words to his closest friends--to his most intimate followers.
He demonstrate to them that know him that he does have all authority to make the assignment and therefore takes the opportunity to speak the words and commission each us to go and make disciples.
And so,
2. We have been GIVEN a Specific Assignment
Verse19 and 20 says:
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. (Mt. 28:19-20a, ESV)
We have been given the task to go, make disciples, baptize those disciples, and teach those disciples to observe al that was commanded. This is very direct and simple. We have been called by God to do this mission to everyone we meet.
Making disciples means molding and teaching a person to become a follower of Christ.
This is much like taking on an apprentice. An apprentice watches and learns from the mentor. The mentor demonstrates his craft so well that the apprentice follows the example and applies this example in his own life.
Jesus says “Go and make disciples.”
What does that mean?
What does a disciple look like?
What are we trying to do?
We get so caught up in getting people to say the prayer of salvation, so that they maybe saved from hell. But, Jesus didn’t ask us to Go and get as many people as possible to pray the sinner’s prayer. He said “Go and make disciples.”
I read a book called The Necessity of Prayer, by E.M. Bounds, while we were in Kuwait that opened my eyes to my task as a preacher—but it provides a great definition of a disciple of Christ.
E.M. Bounds wrote;
"The preacher is not sent to merely induce men to join the Church, nor merely to get them to do better. It is to get them to pray, to trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes that they may not sin against Him." (E.M. Bounds The Necessity of Prayer, p.18)
The disciple is one who is praying and trusting in God and keeping their eyes so focused on God that they may not sin against him.
And, in turn, we need to be helping others to do the same.
We need to be people of prayer. We need to be people who are placing our faith in Christ alone for our lives—not just our salvation, something that we put on a shelf until we need it. But placing our faith in God, with each step we take, each patrol we go on, each problem that arises in our offices, and each breath that we take.
Then we need to demonstrate this faith to others who are around us, constantly teaching them to also become a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Are you being a person of prayer, setting the example for others to follow?
Are you leading others to pray, to trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes?
Jesus has commissioned us to go and make disciples—this is our assignment that comes from a great authority.
And while we have a complete authority and a specific assignment, we are also promised that we don’t have to do this alone.
3. We have been GIVEN an Eternal Assurance
Look with me at the last half of verse 20:
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt. 28:20b, ESV)
Jesus gave us the assurance that he will be with us as we pursue the assignment of making disciples. He says that he will be with us to the end of the age—I understand that to mean until Jesus comes again and he is with us again physically. He assures us that we don’t walk alone, he is there to assist us to give us the words to say, and to give us the confidence that we need to carry out our task.
In several places throughout scripture, marriage is a picture of God’s love for us. One of the reasons that God hates divorce is because it shatters this picture of God’s love for all of us—that no matter what we do, no matter how far we stray, no matter what kind of rejection we offer—Christ continues to stand with us.
This is how our marriages should be. Because of our hardened hearts, we have strayed from this objective. But marriage is a picture of God’s love for us, that demonstrates how he will never leave us, no matter what.
We need to trust in Jesus to walk with us as he promised.
We need to have faith. The Bible says;
…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.(Heb 11:1, ESV)
We need to come to an understanding, by faith, that Christ will be with us always.
Are you taking him at his word to be with you always? Are you shying away from those moments to make a spiritual impact of the friends and soldiers around you and not taking advantage of the presence of Christ?
This is a specific promise regarding Christ’s presence as we go and make disciples, but is not everything we are doing being watched?
Christ has an invested interest to help us to do the right thing, so that we may lead others to pray, to trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes. Christ is with us always, until the end of the age.
So this morning, take advantage of this, through faith, of the presence of Christ in everything we do.
If your faith is weak, read more about him in your Bible. If you don’t have a Bible, let me know I will give you one. Find out in the scripture the great and mighty deeds Christ can do in your life.
And pray. Spend time with God. Ask him to increase your faith in him. Believe in the name of Jesus, and take hold of the assurance that he will “be with you even until the end of the age.”
The same one who has the authority gives you assurance to do the specific assignment, so when are you going to started?
(Conclusion)
In a couple of weeks, Indiana Jones will once again grace the screen of America with his presence in the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. This is the fourth movie of the Indiana Jones franchise.
When George Lucus created the first three movies he was actually slated by Paramount Pictures to make five films, instead of the three. He only made three because he claimed that he could not find a strong enough plotline to warrant another adventure. (Homileticsonline.com, 18May08)
We have been slated—commissioned-- to go and make disciples. Are we going to fall short because we could not find within ourselves enough motivation to complete the task?
We have been GIVEN a Complete Authority
We have been GIVEN a Specific Assignment, and
We have been GIVEN an Eternal Assurance
We need to very simply
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. (Mt. 28:19-20a, ESV)
How are you going to do this in your life?
We have all been given different gifts and personalities to make this possible.
You are not all going to return home in 14 months and become Army Chaplains—I pray that some will, but not all of you will do that. You are not all going to lead Bible studies in your tents to share the gospel with your friends—again I pray that some will, but not all will.
But, you will all have friends. Some of your friends will be disciples, some will not. You and I both need to remember our commission to go and make disciples, to demonstrate this in our lives and to be ready to give an answer. We need to ready to tell about the wonderful God that we serve at any moment, giving hope to those who need to hear that hope is available.
However, one must first be a disciple in order to make disciples.
To become a disciple of Jesus Christ means, at the very core, that you have trusted Jesus to be your salvation from death and hell and the Lord of your life—living and following his commands.
All of us are sinners. Sin is anything we think say or do that makes God unhappy. And the punishment for sin is death. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, you accept this payment as your own. Salvation is a free gift, but you must accept it.
And you can do that this morning, right where you sit. If you would like to talk more about this decision I will be here after the service.
And as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you have the commission to
Go… and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Mt. 28:19, ESV)
Let us pray.
