True Values: Reaching the Lost
Text: Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Rom. 10:14-15
Introduction
1. Illustration: The Bear and the Atheist
An atheist was walking through the woods looking at the beautiful trees and flower that had just bloomed. Because he was an atheist he couldn’t thank anyone for the beautiful landscape that he was witnessing. As he was gazing at the sky he saw a bear running toward him, he jumped up and began to run up the hill. Not knowing any better he continued to run up the hill, a bear runs best up a hill because of his strong hind legs, it is better to run down a hill, but any way… The atheist fell to the ground and thought a second and said well I don’t believe there is a God but maybe this one time I will call upon His name. The atheist said “God, I need help!” Since I don’t believe you exist, I have a request. Will you make this bear a Christian? Just then the wind stopped howling, the creek stopped running and the bear stopped - knelt to the ground and said “Dear Lord, Please bless this food that I am about to eat!”
2. As Christians, we have certain non-negotiable truths that we live by, and one of those truths is reaching out to people who have yet to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus.
3. As a church, we value reaching the lost because:
a. Jesus commanded us
b. Jesus empowers us
c. Jesus wants to use us
Thesis: As the body of Christ, we witness because Jesus has commanded us, empowered us, and wants to use us.
Transition: We value reaching the lost because...
I. Jesus Has Commanded Us (Matt. 28:18-20)
A. Go
1. In this text, known as the Great Commission, Jesus tells his disciples "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:"
a. Contrary to what many people believe, the command here is not "go."
b. Go is actually a participle and conveys not a command to go, but the assumption that the listener will automatically be going. In other words, the idea expressed is that "as you are going" make disciples.
c. It’s not the command itself, but it is an assumption based on the command.
d. In Jesus mind it is a no-brainer, we’re going!
2. The real command or imperative is to teach or make disciples.
a. Make Disciples: to cause someone to become a disciple or follower of—Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. The telling or the witnessing is only the first part. We must then teach them how to follow.
c. Reaching the nations is not merely a matter of education but the full process of discipleship, i.e., teaching and training, beginning with conversion.
3. A part of making a disciple is baptism.
a. The disciples were to baptize people because baptism unites a believer with Jesus Christ in his or her death to sin and resurrection to new life.
b. Baptism symbolizes submission to Christ, a willingness to live God’s way, and identification with God’s covenant people. —Life Application Bible Notes
c. If you are here this morning and have never submitted yourself to water baptism, then you need to see me after the service.
4. The command is to make disciples, but you cannot make disciples if you do not tell them, and you cannot tell them unless you go.
5. We are to go — whether it is next door or to another country — and make disciples. It is not an option, but a command to all who call Jesus "Lord." —Life Application Bible Notes
B. Not An Option
1. Illustration: A third grade Sunday School teacher was giving a Bible lesson on the commandment "Honor thy Father and Mother." "Now does anyone know a commandment for brothers and sisters?" the teacher asked. One particularly perceptive child raised her hand and confidently responded, "Thou shalt not kill!"
2. This text is called "The Great Commission," not "The Great Suggestion!"
3. It was such a strong commandment that Jesus automatically assumed we would do it.
4. Jn. 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
5. If we want to be Jesus disciples, then we have got to do what his commanded us to do, and that is to be a witness.
a. Witness to those who live next door.
b. Witness to those we work with.
c. Witness to those we go to school with.
d. Witness to those we come in contact with on a daily basis.
6. We must also keep in mind that witnessing is not just something we do, but something that we are.
a. We witness in the way we walk, talk, and live.
b. People watch us when they find out that we are Christians, and what they see in us is what they think about Christ and His church.
c. You may be the only Bible that some people ever read.
d. You can’t just talk the talk; you have to walk the walk.
Transition: Another reason we witness is...
II. Jesus Has Empowered Us (Acts 1:8)
A. You Shall Receive Power
1. Jesus tells his disciples in verse 8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
a. Again, this is a command. It is a command with a future twist to it. "You will be..."
b. This is the commission that still holds for today. This is not given only to a corporate body, to the church as a body; it is not a corporate commission. This is a very personal command to each believer—personally, privately.
c. It is a direct command for you and for me today. It is our business to get the Word of God out to the world.
d. We can’t say that it is up to the church to send missionaries and to give out the gospel, and then sit back and let others do it.
e. The all-important question is whether you are getting out the Word of God.
2. However, it is a command with a promise: "But you will receive power..."
a. Power: the potentiality to exert force in performing some function —Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. Illustration: Once when I was a little boy, I was spending the week with my sister and brother-in-law on their farm. They let me drive the garden tractor. They told me how to start it and how to make it go, but the one thing they never told this young city boy was how to stop it! To make a long story short, they finally caught up with me after I drove it through an electric fence.
c. Jesus would never ask us to do something, and then not give us what we need to accomplish the job.
3. Lk. 24:49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (ESV).
a. The reason that he told them to stay put was because they were not ready yet.
b. The didn’t have the right equipment to get the job done.
c. But once the Holy Spirit came upon them they would be "clothed" with power from heaven.
4. Many people say, “I really want to be a witness for Christ, but I am just too shy. I just can’t do that.
a. You’re right, you can’t; at least not in your own power.
b. However, the good news is that you don’t have to do it in your own power.
c. Jesus has made His power available to us through the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
d. He said “You will receive power…” Whose power? His power!
5. Notice, however, that once they had received that power they were supposed to use it.
a. They were not supposed to sit around and puff out their chests and say, "look at all this power I have."
b. They were supposed to go and use that power to its full potential.
c. They were to go and be witnesses!
B. Equipped to Be a Witness
1. That day came when the promise of power was kept.
2. Acts 2:4 (NLT)
And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
3. This gift of empowerment is the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues.
4. God has kept his promise to empower us, now we need to be obedient and use his empowerment for the reason it was intended.
5. It was not intended so we could:
a. Sit on it
b. Place it on a shelf
c. Set it on a pedestal to look at
6. It was intended for us to:
a. Preach the gospel
b. Win the lost
c. Minister to needs
Transition: He has given it to us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
III. Jesus Has Chosen to Use Us (Rom. 10:14-15)
A. How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher
1. The apostle Paul asks the question "how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?"
2. In verse 14 and the first part of 15, Paul creates a chain of four rhetorical questions each beginning with the word “how” (Moo, NICNT: Epistle to the Romans, 663).
a. How can they call on whom they have not believed in?
b. How can they believe on whom they have not heard?
c. How can they hear without someone preaching to them?
d. How can they preach unless they are sent?
3. Carrying God’s gracious offer involves human beings whom God has brought to Himself and then uses as His heralds.
a. The point that we must get a hold of here is that God chooses to use us.
b. Could He do it in some other means? Of course, He could; He’s God.
c. However, He blesses us by giving us the privilege of being the vehicle He chooses to use to reach people with the message of the Gospel.
4. They share God’s message of salvation because He will save everyone who calls on His name.—Bible Knowledge Commentary
5. Too many Christians get hung up with that word "preach."
a. They assume that it involves getting behind a pulpit and delivering a well-honed message.
b. However, (Since the Gr. word for, “preach,” means “to be a herald, to announce,” it is not limited to proclamation from a pulpit. —Bible Knowledge Commentary
c. If you are called by Christ, then you are called to preach the Good News to every living creature.
5. Mk. 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."
B. Will You Answer the Call
1. God Calls Busy People: In the Bible, God never goes to the lazy or the idle when He needs men (or women) for His service. He goes to those who are already at work—the busy person.
a. Moses was busy with his flock at Horeb.
b. Gideon was busy threshing wheat by the winepress.
c. Saul was busy searching for his father’s lost beasts.
d. David was busy caring for his father’s sheep.
e. Elisha was busy plowing with twelve yoke of oxen.
f. Nehemiah was busy bearing the king’s wine cup.
g. Amos was busy following the flock and raising sycamore fruit.
h. Peter and Andrew were busy casting a net into the sea.
i. James and John were busy mending their nets.
j. Matthew was busy collecting customs.
k. Saul was busy persecuting the friends of Jesus.
2. God calls people just like you to proclaim his word to a lost and dying world.
3. The only difference between some of us and all of these people of faith in the Bible is that they were willing to answer the call.
a. They have the same God as us.
b. They have the same Holy Spirit as us.
c. They have the same weaknesses and failings as us.
4. The question that I need to ask, and that you need to answer, is will you take seriously the idea that when we walk out of the door that we have entered the mission field?
a. Will you acknowledge that you don’t have to be in the jungle to be on the mission field?
b. Will you acknowledge that God has empowered you to his herald of Good News?
c. Will you acknowledge that God wants to and can use you to lead others to Christ?
d. Will we see Mt. Gilead and all of Marrow County as a mission field?
5. 2 Cor. 5:20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
Transition: God has chosen you to be his ambassador!
Conclusion
1. It is a part of our purpose to lead others to Christ.
2. We must do so because:
a. He has commanded us.
b. He has empowered us.
c. He has chosen to use us.
3. Will you accept God’s call? Will you become the soul winner that God has chosen you to be?
4. If you are a Christian, He has called you to be a soul winner. He is awaiting your reply.
