Text: Matthew 28:18-20, Title: Famous Last Words, Date/Place: NRBC, 7/13/08, AM
A. Opening illustration: “Hey y’all, watch this…” “Go on, get out - last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.” To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down for posterity.-Karl Marx “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist. . . .Killed in battle during US Civil War.
~~ General John Sedgwick, Union Commander, d. 1864 “I am ready to die for my Lord that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.” -Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury “We’ve never done it like this before.”
B. Background to passage: This is our final message on our vision statement that is printed in your bulletin. My hope is two fold at this point. First that our church would own this vision and when we read it on Sundays recall the meanings of these phrases, and view them as direction and not just something good and really spiritual to print on a bulletin. Secondly, I hope that some of you will feel led to help make these ministries happen, and you will feel led and called of God to minister in these areas at New River for the foreseeable future. The setting is about 25-35 days after the resurrection on a hillside in Galilee. And these are the final words of Jesus on earth said a couple of times in different locations. They are the mission of the church that will lead to the glorification of Jesus (which as we mentioned before is the reason for the existence of the church). As Southern Baptist is has historically been the heartbeat of our denomination. And yet, evangelism, baptisms, growth in general is declining. And there is talk now, after the Conservative Resurgence of the need for a Great Commission Resurgence; and it is being spread around as the ground of unity and purpose for our denomination for years to come.
C. Main thought: Hopefully we will see this come to pass on a national and international scale, BUT regardless of denominational and international church happenings, New River Baptist Church must set its face like flint with great diligence and determination to carry out the Great Commission in our church and in our lives. And taking the gospel to the nations and to the South Georgians will necessarily result in church planting. The Kingdom creates the church.
A. All Authority Has Been Given (v. 18)
1. Before Jesus gave instructions on exactly what to do, he gave them the under girding truth of the ages. Note he did use the word “therefore” to show the link between these two statements. The word exousia translated “authority” means the right to do and speak as one pleases, and the ability to command others and have dominion. Jesus was clear that every bit of authority that He possessed before eternity past, and all authority that God possesses now belongs to him. He has the absolute right to rule and reign and command in “all” things.
2. Matt 11:27, Psa 110:1-3; Isa 9:6-7; Dan 7:14; Luke 10:22; John 3:35, 5:22-27, 13:3, 17:2; Heb 2:8; 1 Pet 3:22; Rev 11:15
3. Illustration: quote from Piper and Kuyper about “not one square inch…” Sex and the Supremacy of God, p. 40-41, I used to have problems getting my son to clean his room. I would insist that he, “Do it now,” and he would always agree to do so, but then he wouldn’t follow through – at least, not right way. After high school, he joined the Marine Corps, which is where he is now. When he and I were on the plane together coming home for his leave after Boot Camp, he said to me, “My life makes sense now, Dad. Everything you said and did when I was growing up now makes sense. I really, really understand.” “Oh yeah, Dad,” he added. “I learned what ‘now’ means.” On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, ’The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents.’
4. This statement provides comfort and security to evangelists like you. It provides surety that whatever Jesus commands and desires He can bring it about; and that the Great Commission is a sure thing. It provides the basis for the command to follow about going, teaching, and baptizing. It gives us a great motivating factor: that if you didn’t fear hell for others enough to tell them, if you aren’t committed to the church enough to tell others, and if the shear numbers of lost people going out every minute into eternity, and the number of people being born that don’t have access to the gospel doesn’t catapult you into evangelistic fervor, at least do it out of obedience, because Jesus has authority over your life. And not only do you have to do what He says, but you want to! The core of the Christian life is transformed want to’s. And any child with great admiration for parents wants to please them. If you have no desire to please Christ, you are not a child of His. If you are His child, He has bought you with a dear price, and you have the responsibility to submit willingly to Him and desire to do all that pleases Him.
B. Go and Make Disciples (v. 19)
1. Several things to note about this passage. “Go” is better translated “having gone” meaning that Jesus assumes that we will be going to those that need to be made disciples. There is no warrant for asking all the lost people to come to our church to be saved. This is the central command verb of the text—make disciples. It doesn’t say make converts, church members, large crowds, big ministries, TV programs, buildings, or budgets. It says make those who follow Jesus! Make learner, seeker, followers of Christ. Produce those that walk how Jesus walked, did what Jesus did, and did it the way that He did it. The next two important words are participles describing what you do as you make disciples—baptizing and teaching them to be obedient to all the truth that Jesus had given. Both of these are practices of the church. This is what CP is so crucial. Not to mention that it is the biblical example.
2. Luke 9:57-62, 14:26-27, 33, Mar 10:21, John 6:53,
3. Illustration: tell about Phil’s mission trip where the bar owner in Ecuador decided to shut down his bar on the spot, and turn it into a youth outreach mission, “Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven.” –Wagner, Remind them of the age statistics of effectively unchurched people in our region, statistically, new churches reach people 25X better than churches 10 years old and older,
4. We must take the initiative in missions, foreign and domestic. Not that we shouldn’t witness everywhere, but that it should be something that we actively plan to do in our church. And when we go we are not to come back sharing about the 1000s of professions of faith, but about the number of disciples we made. To do that we must keep the gospel clear. Our job is not to make it easy, but get it right. We must continually teach the truth of repentance and faith, as well as the fact that genuine conversion will bring forth evidence. And we must insist on follow-up, and discipleship. We must have a process to make disciples here in Tifton. Jesus says to teach a disciple all things that he has commanded. And when disciples are made, churches will come into existence, because disciples want to be in a covenant body of believers. Followers want to be near to the One they have agreed to follow, thus in a church. We must plant churches internationally. Tell about the need in the Yanamarca Valley. We must plant churches in NA. Tell about the spiritual climate in Lethbridge, Alberta. The church culture here in Tifton is in decline. To really reach our city, one of our strategies must be to plant churches. Deal with objections. We must plant sound, vibrant, self-sustaining, and self-reproducing churches. Our need to plant a church here in Tifton; and our timeline and strategy. And everyone has a part—prayer, giving, helping, going, advertising, etc. Think about the impact of 10 new churches in Tifton reaching unchurched people.
C. I Am With You to the End (v. 20)
1. The literal translation is that He would be with us all the days. Every single day. And He used the phrase “I AM” and sandwiched “you” right in the middle of it. You and I are in union with Christ, and He has promised to go with us, in us, through us, everywhere we go. What a truth! Jesus tells them that even though He leaving, He will be with them always. The infinite source of power, wisdom, courage, strength, endurance, passion, and grace will be with them. Jesus was not asking them to do something that He was not prepared to empower them to do, and to go with them every step of the way.
2. Josh 1:3, John 16:7, 19-20, Deut 31:8, 1 Sam 12:22, Isa 41:10, Philip 1:6, 2:13, Rom 8:31-39,
3. Illustration: When her second child died, Ann Judson wrote, "Our hearts were bound up with this child; we felt he was our earthly all, our only source of innocent recreation in this heathen land. But God saw it was necessary to remind us of our error, and to strip us of our only little all. O, may it not be vain that he has done it. May we so improve it that he will stay his hand and say ’It is enough.’"8 In other words, what sustained this man and his three wives was a rock-solid confidence that God is sovereign and God is good. And all things come from his hand for the good - the incredibly painful good - of his children. “The spirit of inquiry . . . is spreading everywhere, through the whole length and breadth of the land." [We have distributed] nearly 10,000 tracts, giving to none but those who ask. I presume there have been 6000 applications at the house. Some come two or three months’ journey, from the borders of Siam and China - ’Sir, we hear that there is an eternal hell. We are afraid of it. Do give us a writing that will tell us how to escape it.’ Others, from the frontiers of Kathay, 100 miles north of Ava - ’Sir, we have seen a writing that tells about an eternal God. Are you the man that gives away such writings? If so, pray give us one, for we want to know the truth before we die.’ Others, from the interior of the country, where the name of Jesus Christ is a little known - ’Are you Jesus Christ’s man? Give us a writing that tells us about Jesus Christ." Today Patrick Johnstone estimates the Myanmar (Burma’s new name) Baptist Convention to be 3,700 congregations with 617,781 members and 1,900,000 affiliates 4- the fruit of this dead seed.
4. The satisfier of our souls is always with us. What a comfort. His commands are not burdensome because He empowers us to carry them out. And when He sends, and we answer, He does not send us alone, but goes with us to the ends of the earth. He will be with you every day in Peru. He will be with you every day at work. He will be with us every day when we begin to plant the River’s Edge Church of Tifton, GA. And He will be with those that surrender their lives there and take the banner of the gospel to some distant land that has never heard of Jesus Christ. And if they die at the hand of a Muslim terrorist, or a militant Hindu, or by a deadly virus, or wild dogs, or exhaustion, or malnutrition, He will be there to carry us across that shadow of death the glorious victory celebration of the infinite worth of Almighty Jesus, the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. May the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering!
A. Closing illustration: the story of Crosspointe Church in Valdosta, GA
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
