The main text for today’s thoughts is
Matthew 28:16-20.
Lets hear it again.
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This text is often called the Great Commission.
Every pastor,
every Christian who is interested in mission and outreach
has read, studied and talked about this text.
Go and make disciples.
However there is something that we need to be aware of.
In verse 19 and 20 most English translations really don’t express clearly what Jesus was saying.
You see there is one major instruction in the Great Commission.
Let’s look closely at verse 19 and 20.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
That major instruction is MAKE DISCIPLES!!
And many scholars suggest verse 19 should sound more like….
As you go about your life, make disciples.
Many people are under the impression that before they can be effective as a Christian they need to go somewhere, go anywhere.
They feel they need to leave this place and go.
They feel they need to leave this town and go.
They feel they have to go to another country.
Now that is part of the Christian mission, but it is not the only part.
And going is not Jesus main instruction in the Great Commission, making disciples is.
As you go about your lives, make disciples.
Christine as you go to work at the construction firm Jesus is saying to you make disciples.
Veronica as you be a mother and a student, Jesus is saying make disciples.
Elfrieda as you go to university Jesus is saying make disciples.
Max as you go to work at the Insurance office, Jesus is saying make disciples.
Grandparents as you mix with your children and grandchildren Jesus is saying to you make disciples.
Infact whatever we are doing in our daily lives, Jesus says to us asyou go about your lives make disciples.
Sounds like a major task…
Sounds difficult.
But it is not that difficult.
Jesus gives us some more instructions.
And the first of these instructions is baptize people.
Now Max I am not asking you to lug the baptismal fount to work.
Imagine lugging that thing out of here.
Jesus doesn’t say you are to baptise on your own.
Remember the early church was a group of people.
A community of people.
A group of disciples.
And that’s how they thought about things.
And that’s how we are to think about things, as a community.
Your job is not to physically baptize people.
Your job is to introduce people to God through this community known as the church.
To encourage them to be baptised.
To encourage your family and friends to be baptised.
To encourage them to develop a relationship with God and other Christians.
This morning at Devonport we baptised a little baby, Jack.
And during that service it was made clear that baptism is God at work.
God at work welcoming Jack into His family.
In baptism that’s what is happening;
we are welcomed into God’s family of disciples.
And its not the end of the discipleship process but the start.
Think about your baptism.
Your baptism is the start of Jesus making you one of His disciples.
But the challenge is still there.
As you go about your life as one of my disciples, Jesus says make disciples.
We should be aware as we look at this text it highlights something else.
It highlights that we don’t do this by ourselves.
We have each other, the community
But more importantly we have Jesus.
In verse 18 Jesus says all authority has been given to me.,
therefore as you go about your life make disciples.
And jumping down to verse 20
Jesus says I am with you always to the end of the age.
I am with you always.
Jesus gives us the authority to make disciples and he is with us all the time as we go about our life making disciples.
And so the second thing Jesus says to us,
as we go about our life making disciples.
Jesus says teach.
There are two ways we teach.
One is through what we say.
We can say a lot.
We can teach people a lot.
We can explain things.
And the other is by what we do.
By our actions.
By how we live.
How we treat others.
Both are needed our words and our actions.
There are some things we should highlight about Jesus.
If we are going to teach about Jesus there are some things we should know about Jesus.
We don’t need to know everything.
We can even have doubts.
In today’s reading some of the eleven disciples had doubts.
And yet they still worshipped him.
And Jesus still said to them go and make disciples.
But there are some basic texts.
Basic aspects of Jesus that we should know and share.
So today I want to give you some basic texts that are foundational in knowing God.
The first comes from John 3:16-17.
If you would like to turn to John 3:16-17.
I don’t know about you but I have a view of God that God is a loving God.
A caring God.
A welcoming God.
A God who forgives sin.
A God who loves you no matter what.
Is that the view of God that you have?
Now think about some of your friends.
Your family members.
Your work colleagues, especially those who don’t go to church.
Do they have that same view of God?
Some of my friends who don’t go to church.
Some of my former work colleagues.
Some of the people I meet.
Don’t have that view of God.
They believe God is wanting to condemn them.
God is looking down on them.
God wants to take away all their fun.
God is wanting to destroy them.
That God hates them.
So as we listen to the text, take in what God is saying to us.
John 3:16-17
16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
As you go about your life making disciples the challenge for us is to teach people, that God is a God of love.
Who came to save the world not to condemn the world.
I don’t know whether it is coincidence or God at work.
Probably God at work.
However over the last month or two
I have had a number of conversations with either friends of parish members or with parish members about there friends around the topic
If I was to come to church the roof will fall in.
Well I normally answer this by saying well don’t worry about that we have good insurance.
And secondly that is not what God is on about.
He wants you to know He loves you.
I would say that this is a common thing for people to say who have little to do with the church.
And part of that view is the result of them believing God is going to judge them rather than love them.
And so John 3:16-17 is a great text to highlight.
To show them.
To show God didn’t come to judge but to save.
And as you go about your life, through your words and actions are you reflecting that God came to love and save rather than condemn?
That is only a question you can answer.
A second text I would like you to look at is Matthew 22: 34-40
It says this
34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
As you go about your life making disciples
are you teaching others that
You love God
And love others.
Its not one or the other its both.
Love God and Love others.
Through both what you say and do.
This is a tough call.
It’s a tough challenge.
Because sometimes we think Christianity may work in a small part of life but not in all aspects of life.
We think it won’t work at my workplace.
It won’t work amongst my friends.
We think it won’t at school.
And it won’t work with my neighbours, you need to meet my neighbours i can hear some of you saying.
We think that showing love won’t work in life, so we don’t do it.
I have been through that and I still go through that.
The worry we have is if I show love to someone is it going work.
Am i going to see the result and benefit from it.
But God doesn’t call me to see it work.
He calls each of us to love God and love others as much as we love ourselves.
Last night at youth we watched Pay it Forward.
Anyone watched Pay it Forward?
I won’t tell you the entire story.
But the concept of the story is centred around a young boy who begins High School and his teacher gives him a project.
The project is that he is to do something to change the world.
The young boy comes up with the idea that he will show love to three people for no reason at all.
And all they have to do is ‘Pay it Forward’ to three people each, which means another nine people receive love,
and those nine show love to 3 people each, a further 27 will receive love if the concept works.
And so the concept grows.
And the first person the young boy chooses to show love to is a drug addict.
He discovers this drug addict on the way home from school.
He is homeless, living in a rubbish dump of discarded furniture and housing materials.
He takes him home.
He gives him the spaghetti that he mum had cooked for him.
His mum’s not home, she works late.
He lets him take a shower.
And stay in the garage.
And of course his mum freaks.
This young boy shows this bloke love.
And this bloke’s life starts to change.
The bloke moves out into his own place.
He gets a job.
Life is on the up.
However the drug addict reverts back to his old ways.
And the young boy finds out about it.
He is devasted.
He is disappointed he thinks love hasn’t worked.
However that is not the end of the story.
Sometime later in the movie.
The drug addict is walking on a bridge.
And a lady is about to jump off the bridge.
He pleads with her not to do it.
She wants to know why.
He pleads with her.
He says someone has shown love to me and I want you to receive some of that love.
He pleads with her to come down and have a cup of coffee.
And she comes downs and has coffee.
But the sad part of that story is that the young boy,
never found out about that instant.
In our life when we show love to other people.
When we do that as a way of teaching of who God is.
Without worrying about whether it works or not
We are teaching people how generous God is.
And we may never know the effect it has on someone.
The other passage to have a look at,
and I often share with those who say the roof will fall in
Is Luke 10: 25-37
the story of the prodigal son.
A story that Jesus uses to show how generous and loving God is.
So our challenge as we go about life is to make disciples.
By welcoming and encouraging them to be part of the Christian community.
And by teaching them by our words and actions who God is.
That the God we follow is a loving and caring God
A God who loves us.
And we won’t get that right all the time.
I probably have days when my own children say I don’t reflect a loving and caring God.
But the beauty of God is that we have a forgiving God.
We have a God who died on the cross for us.
That loves us.
Who cares for us.
Welcomes us.
Is always there for us.
And we need to reflect that too.
So as you go about your life making disciples
Remember that God is with you all the time.
Let us pray.
