GET GOING!
Matthew 28.18-20
S: Evangelism
C: Mission Orientation
Th: Never the Same Again
Pr: DELIBERATELY MAKE COMMITTED FOLLOWERS OF JESUS.
?: How? How do we do that?
KW: Essentials
TS: We will find in our study of Matthew 28 three essentials to making committed followers of Jesus.
CV: “We will relentlessly reach out to people with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.”
Type: Propositional
I. WE MOVE OUT TO CONNECT.
II. WE CALL FOR DECISION.
III. WE DEMONSTRATE OBEDIENCE.
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Feel God’s heart for the world.
• Express what Jesus means to you.
• Don’t separate good news and good deeds.
• Be vital to the community.
• Serve with love.
Version: ESV
RMBC 28 September 08 AM
ILL Self-Importance
The story is told of this donkey that was filled with self-importance. He felt that he had it over the other donkeys. He was very well taken care of by his humans and that made him feel all the more special. So, he was prideful that he was called in for difficult assignments. He was strong and he could carry a lot. He also knew how to give comfortable rides to passengers.
He was not surprised to be called to give a ride to a person going into the capital city one day. But he was surprised at what a wonderful greeting he was given by the crowds. People were laying down palm branches and their own cloaks on the ground before him. “Wow! I really am something,” he thought. “People are really appreciating all that I am doing, that’s for sure.”
But the truth was, the celebration was not for him or about him. It had nothing to do with him. He was carrying Jesus. He was simply carrying the Message.
As a church, it is not about us.
It is not about the donkey.
It is all about Jesus.
We are carriers of the message.
So, our job is to keep taking Jesus places.
Someone carried the message of Jesus to us, didn’t they?
When we heard the good news about Jesus, someone brought it to us.
And when we received the good news, something great happened to us.
We were “Never the Same Again.”
That has been our theme this year during our discipleship emphasis.
When we have been changed by the good news, we know that it will be good news to others as well.
It is news to be shared.
In fact, that is Jesus’ assignment to us.
He tells us to make disciples.
We are to…
DELIBERATELY MAKE COMMITTED FOLLOWERS OF JESUS.
This is our assignment.
And what is our goal?
It is effectiveness.
It is reaching people.
It is fruitfulness.
When we lose sight of that, we will get distracted by other things that are not nearly as important!
So, listen…
The measurement of success for our church is not the programs, budget or buildings, but the production and development of followers of Jesus.
It is not programs.
It is not possessing money.
It is not to have great buildings.
It is connecting with people.
Let’s go back to the programs for a minute…
Because we have a lot of programs here at Randall, and I think we have some mighty good ones.
But programs don’t reach people.
People reach people.
Programs are nothing more than framework.
And if they do not aid us in getting connected with people, then we either revise how we are doing them or we get rid of them.
You see…
Our goal is to depopulate hell.
We want to see less people there.
But, when we are more concerned with ourselves and when leadership is more concerned with keeping Christians happy, we show our lack of heart for those without Jesus.
Why is that?
Is it because we are not convinced that the people of the world are destined for hell?
Is it because we don’t care?
What is it about us that we can’t seem to get started.
We seem to be so sound evangelically, but so asleep evangelistically.
We need to have a new attitude in this area that is reflected in our core values:
“We will relentlessly reach out to people
with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.”
That adverb is really important here.
It represents a new attitude that we need to have for people that don’t have the joy of knowing Jesus.
It is not the idea of chasing people down with our big black Bibles in hand – knocking them over the head.
In fact, we would prefer you did not do that.
We are not about coercion.
Not at all.
Instead, we want to be about people.
We want to be about people having life – full life – full of joy – as God has designed it to be.
We want to be about people being filled with purpose.
We want to be about people knowing God.
And we want to be relentless about this.
It should be our consuming passion!
So how do we do this?
We are going to turn now to Matthew 28, where we will find three essentials to making committed followers of Jesus.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The first essential is…
I. WE MOVE OUT TO CONNECT.
Making disciples is not a stationary act.
It is a matter of going.
It is the nature of the Christian to be on the move.
We do not…sit and stay.
We do not have a sedentary faith.
ILL Church (H)
A paramedic was asked on a local TV talk-show program: "What was your most unusual and challenging 911 call?"
"Recently we got a call from that big white church at 11th and Walnut," the paramedic said. "A frantic usher was very concerned that during the sermon an elderly man passed out in a pew and appeared to be dead. The usher could find no pulse and there was no noticeable breathing."
"What was so unusual and demanding about this particular call?" the interviewer asked.
"Well," the paramedic said, "we carried out four guys before we found the one who was dead."
Let’s not be caught dead in the pews!
The evidence our faith has meaning to us and that we have purpose is that we are active and on the move.
This is for everybody.
This is not for just the professionals.
You see…
The church is not looking for all-stars, but for all to start.
We all need to be moving toward those who don’t know Jesus.
So, get going!
Think of the relationships you have.
Think of the relationships you have had and that need restarted.
Think of the relationships you need to begin.
Get going.
The second essential is…
II. WE CALL FOR DECISION.
Jesus uses baptism as that picture of decision.
It is that statement of commitment that one has submitted to the lordship of Jesus in their lives.
One of the verses in the choir number this morning said:
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the power of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope
And my will be lost in Thine.
Baptism becomes that public statement that we are committed to the service of Jesus.
When one is baptized, it is more than just a statement of belief.
For…
We are called to belong, not just believe.
We belong to the church – the body of Christ.
The body of Christ is organic.
It is alive.
It is a place for us to live, grow, and reproduce.
We are not called to live the challenges before us alone.
The third essential is…
III. WE DEMONSTRATE OBEDIENCE.
One of the essentials of making committed followers of Jesus is we are to teach obedience.
In other words, what the Lord has said to do, we are to see that it is done.
While I was studying this week, it occurred to me that this kind of teaching is not done in the sterility of a classroom.
Teaching this kind of obedience is done on field trips.
Do you remember how great it was to go on field trips as a kid?
They were the highlights of the school year.
They were exciting because they were an opportunity to get out and get going.
Ideally, they melded together experience with what had been taught in the classroom.
But here is a truth.
How can we teach obedience if we are not doing it ourselves?
I would suggest that we cannot.
We cannot teach that which we have not experienced.
So here are some very practical applications that I think are essential for us as individuals and for us corporately as a church community.
First, we must…
Feel God’s heart for the world (II Peter 3.9).
Note how Peter describes God’s heart…
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
We know that God is love.
Thus, whatever He does, He does out of love.
Here, Peter expresses that God is not willing that any should perish.
He has gone all out so that people do not have to remain lost without Him.
He has held nothing back in order to win them.
In the same way, this should be our heartbeat as well.
Our hearts should be breaking that there are those that are dying without knowing Jesus.
Our hearts should be breaking when we are unsuccessful in depopulating hell.
Because, these things are breaking God’s heart as well.
The second application is…
Express what Jesus means to you (II Peter 3.15)
…always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…
Tell your story.
Give your testimony.
You are a witness.
So, tell how Jesus has changed you.
Now, you don’t have to preach a sermon.
And you don’t have to force Jesus into every conversation.
Like someone says to me…
“Well, Paul, the sky sure is pretty today.” “
Yes it is! My Jesus made the sky!”
That now, that’s not the way we want to do this.
But, as opportunities come up to share our faith naturally, we work Jesus into the conversation.
Ask God for wisdom.
He loves to answer that prayer with the affirmative.
He will give it.
The third application is we…
Don’t separate good news and good deeds (Acts 10.38).
In this passage, there is a reference to Jesus…
“He went about doing good…”
Sometimes, in our evangelistic zeal, we often think people just need more or better information in order to believe.
We think that if we just tell them the right things, then they will eventually make a decision for Jesus.
What we are finding more and more in our present day is that people are not looking for more information.
There is a ton of information available to us today.
What people are really looking for is authenticity.
You see, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
For, when people who talk about a loving God demonstrate love, the gap between doubt and faith is narrowed, and the people around them often find themselves wanting to believe.
This means then, that when we take the time to show love through serving, it helps us tell the good news more effectively.
The fourth application is…
Be vital to the community (Matthew 5.13ff.).
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”
Scripture tells us to be salt, light and leaven.
What is true about each of these pictures, is that when they enter the picture, they make an impact.
Salt gives flavor.
Light exposes what was unseen.
Leaven makes dough rise.
As Christians, we bring change to the environment that we are placed in.
We don’t head out for the desert.
We don’t hide in the monastery.
We don’t hole up in our church buildings.
We may live a different lifestyle, but it is never isolated from the culture we are placed in.
We are there to influence.
ILL Christian (S)
When addressing the Christian’s involvement in the community, the second century theologian Tertullian wrote:
(Do we not) dwell beside you, sharing your way of life, your dress, your habits and the same needs of life? We are no Brahmins or Indian gymnosophists, dwelling in woods and exiled from life…We stay beside you in this world, making use of the forum, the provision-market, the bath, the booth, the workshop, the inn, the weekly market, and all other places of commerce. We sail with you, fight at your side, till the soil with you, and traffic with you; we likewise join our technical skill to that of others, and make our works public property for your use.
We need to be vital in our community.
Please understand that churches today are more and more invisible.
When I speak to someone that I am a pastor, they ask where.
When I answer Randall Baptist, it is rare that they know it.
More often, the answer is, “Where is that?”
We are more often known as the “red brick building next to ECC.”
And it makes me wonder, if we disappeared, would anyone notice?
It is why I am picturing something different for us as a church.
I believe that we should become the soul of the community, so that, if we were gone, we would be greatly missed.
I believe we must move to be a defined asset to the community, not a liability.
I believe we must become a people that build bridges to the people around us, and not walls.
So, how do we do that?
It comes to our final application.
We…
Serve with love (Mark 10.45).
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
As believers, we need to bless and serve people.
This is to be the normal expression of our belief in Jesus.
ILL Service (S)
In 1967, Doug Nichols went to India to be a missionary there, but while he was just starting to study the language he became infected with tuberculosis and had to be put in a sanitarium.
It was not a very good place to be. It was not very clean and conditions were difficult because there were so many sick people there. But Doug decided to do the best he could in that situation. So he took a bunch of Christian books and tracts and tried to witness to the other patients in the sanitarium.
But when he tried to pass out tracts, they were rejected. No one wanted them. He tried to hand out books, but no one would take them. He tried to witness, but he was handicapped because of his inability to communicate in their language, and he felt so discouraged.
Here he was. Because of his illness he would be there a long time. But it seemed like the work that he had been sent to do would not be done because no one would listen to him.
Because of his tuberculosis, every night at about two o’clock he would wake up with chronic coughing that wouldn’t quit. Then one night when he awoke he noticed across the aisle an old man trying to get out of bed. He said the man would roll himself up into a little ball and teeter back and forth trying to get up the momentum to get up and stand on his feet. But he just couldn’t do it. He was too weak.
Finally, after several attempts the old man laid back and wept. The next morning Doug understood why the man was weeping. He was trying to get up and to go the bathroom and didn’t have enough strength to do that. So his bed was a mess and there was a smell in the air.
The other patients made fun of the old man. The nurses came to clean up his bed and they weren’t kind to him, either. In fact, one of them even slapped him in the face. Doug said that the old man just laid there and cried.
Doug said, “That next night about two o’clock I started coughing again. I looked across the way and there was the old man trying to get out of bed once more. I really didn’t want to do it, but somehow I managed to get up and I walked across the aisle and I helped the old man to stand up.”
But he was too weak to walk, so Doug said, “I took him in my arms and carried him like a baby. He was so light that it wasn’t a difficult task. I took him into the bathroom, which was nothing more than a dirty hole in the floor, and I stood behind him and cradled him in my arms as he took care of himself.”
“Then I carried him back to his bed and laid him down. As I turned to leave he reached up and grabbed my face and pulled me close and kissed me on the cheek and said what I think was ‘Thank you!’”
Doug said, “The next morning there were patients waiting when I awoke and they asked if they could read some of the book and tracts that I had brought. Others had questions about the God I worshiped and His only begotten Son who came into the world to die for their sins.”
Doug Nichols says that in the next few weeks he gave out all the literature that he had brought, and many of the doctors and nurses and patients in that sanitarium came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, too.
He said, “Now what did I do? I didn’t preach a sermon. I couldn’t even communicate in their language. I didn’t have a great lesson to teach them. I didn’t have wonderful things to offer. All I did was take an old man to the bathroom and anyone can do that.”
V. Kyle Meador
Doug Nichols lived this quote by Steve Sjogren:
ILL Service (S)
“Serve them with love, and if you go after the people nobody wants, you’ll end up with the people everybody wants.”
Steve Sjogren
Folks, we can have the
…eloquence of an orator,
…the knowledge of a genius,
…the faith of a miracle worker,
…the generosity of a philanthropist,
…the dedication of a martyr,
but if we don’t engage and express this agape love, it doesn’t count and it won’t matter.
Service with love…
Inward strength with outward focus…
Possessing a mission-orientation…
Being a people with purpose…
This is what God has for us.
This is where we must go as a church, for our immediate and future existence, practically and spiritually, is absolutely dependent on it.
For Further Study: Matthew 3.11; Luke 7.16b, 15.7; John 20.21; Acts 1.8, 2.38, 5.42, 9.31; Romans 6.3; II Corinthians 3.14; II Timothy 2.1-2
BENEDICTION:
The Church Has Left the Building is the beginning of this new mission-orientation we desire to have here at Randall.
It is the beginning of our corporate strategy to serve our community with love.
So, as you go out today, sign up!
Get involved.
Don’t be caught on the sidelines, or mistakenly diagnosed as dead in the pew.
Now may the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral
AuBuchon, Bob A Church of Impact
Decker, Paul Unstoppable
Guptill, Denn What It Is
LaRue, Joe God Wants Us to Be…A Church that Reaches Out to the World
McCosker, Michael Refocusing Vision
Other
Rusaw, Rick. Escaping the Church "Donkey Syndrome". In Externally Focused Church Conference, 2008.
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament. Colorado Springs: ChariotVictor Publishing, 1989.
