-we are in the second half of our series about what happened after the resurrection.
-I hope last week you heard some stories where you realized you have heard it before but didn’t realize it happened after Jesus died and rose again.
-well, last week we talked about things that happened for the weeks after Jesus rose from the dead, things He taught about and people He visited before He left.
-today we’re going to look at the last few minutes Jesus was on earth before He went up to heaven.
-we’re going to do it a little different today, we’re going to look at two different accounts and then pick them apart at what Jesus wants for us to know.
**Matt. 28:18-20 -> 18Jesus came and told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NLT)
**Acts 1:8-9 -> 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.” 9After saying this, He was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. (NLT)
-these are the last two things Jesus says before He goes up into the clouds. Which, if you want to have fun tonight, you can go home and read Acts 1 and see where Jesus goes up, and the disciples just sit there waiting. Finally two angels show up and say “He’s gone. Get on with your lives. Go to Jerusalem like you’re supposed to.”
-anyway, there are some things in these two little speeches that apply to us still. The first should be obvious:
1. GO
-we are supposed to go out and tell people about Jesus. In Matthew, after Jesus says He’s God, next is, then, GO.
-and that section in Acts, Jesus says we are to be telling people everywhere about Him. Those places Jesus mentions, they are the city the disciples are in, the provinces they are in and next to them, and then the world. For us, it would be like Jesus saying we are to be His witnesses in Fishers, and in all of Indiana and the United States, and to the ends of the earth.
-but there is a very distinct point there. We are to go. Movement. Even last week we looked at a section where Jesus said He was sending us as the Father sent Him.
-see, there’s a model there. Jesus didn’t just sit in heaven and wait for us to come to Him, wait for us to make the first move. He left His home, He left where He was comfortable and He moved, He came here so we could know Him. We’re supposed to do that too. We are supposed to leave these four walls and go out and tell people about Jesus.
-as much as you feel uncomfortable going to somewhere unfamiliar or un-Church friendly and talking about God, how uncomfortable to you think people who know nothing about God, how uncomfortable do you think they feel about coming to church, especially if they don’t know anyone or no one has invited them? Do you think people are going to come and find you if they have a question about God? If they do, it’s probably only because you laid the groundwork so they know that you know something about God and they feel comfortable talking to you.
-the first generation of Christians, they went. They told everyone about Christ. In one generation, by the time the last apostle John died, the story about Jesus had made it all across Europe, to the ocean, to Spain, the story had made it as far east to India, and all of northern Africa. All these areas had heard about Jesus. In one person’s lifetime, with no phones, no cars, no planes, the story of Jesus had made it further than the Roman Empire had managed to go in four hundred years.
-they went. They were go-ers. They didn’t sit and wait for people to come ask them about Jesus, how would people even know about Jesus? They went and found people and let them know there is a God who loves them and about the sacrifice He made for them.
-but there’s more than just going. We are told to go and:
2. MAKE DISCIPLES
-it wasn’t enough to just tell people about Jesus. We are told to go and make disciples of all nations.
-see, Jesus didn’t want followers. He had plenty of those. People who would walk around and listen to His teachings. Yay, who cares? Jesus wanted people who would live out what He was telling them to do.
-we have to first realize there is a distinction between someone who hears and someone who does. There is a difference between a follower and a disciple. Like for me, I have a favorite hockey team, Montreal. I follow them. I know who’s doing well. I look for scores. I watch them play. I follow. But I’m not a disciple. I don’t actually help the team at all. I will never take the place of someone on the team and help lead them to victory or anything like that. Hey, I don’t even have any say on what they do. I have no part in the team, I am nothing more than a follower.
-Jesus didn’t want followers, He wanted disciples.
-another big difference is how you bring about disciples. It’s easy to get followers. Get someone excited about something and they will follow. But getting someone to invest their time, their effort, investing themselves in someone or something, that takes a lot more work and time.
-in his final speech, Jesus gives us two things we should do to make disciples.
BAPTISM
-one is to baptize people.
-now I want to explain baptism a little. Because there are so many churches and different ways of baptism it can get a little confusing.
-the simple explanation of baptism is this, you are publicly saying you follow Jesus. The act of baptism, being put under the water and coming back up is saying that you are making a choice to be like Jesus, you are laying your old self, your selfish person in the ground and then you are rising again with Jesus. You are saying publicly that you are going to be a disciples of Christ.
-this is a big thing, and here’s why. It is impossible to be a secret disciple.
-I can be a follower and you would never know. Go back to the sports thing. I can follow a team and you would never know. I can follow without ever really cheering or wearing Montreal jerseys or anything like that.
-you can follow Jesus and keep it a secret. It’s not hard. People do it all the time.
-however, you can’t be a disciple and keep it secret. If you are a disciple of Christ, you have said your old life is gone. Your priorities are different. What was once important to you is not anymore. You are living for something more, for Someone else. You can’t do that in secret. If you are planning to live for God you have to be public with that. If you want to be a disciple for Christ, you have to be public with that.
-that’s really what baptism is, publicly saying this is who I am giving my life to.
-it’s like marriage. You can like someone and keep it a secret, some of you do it every day at school. But when you decide to commit your life to someone and only that one person, what do you do? You stand up in front of family and friends and you publicly say you are no longer living just for you, you are living for that person too.
-that’s why many times in the Bible our relationship with Jesus is described as a marriage, the church is the bride of Christ.
-so that’s one part of being a disciples, being able to publicly say that you are no longer living for yourself and you want to be one with Christ. But there’s another piece Jesus says there:
TEACHING
-Jesus says the apostles are to make disciples by teaching them to obey the commands or teachings of Jesus.
-see, a follower doesn’t really do anything. As a fan, I don’t train like the athletes on my team. I don’t learn the plays, I don’t even get off my couch. I sit there and go “yay”.
-disciples are living for God, they have said publicly they will, now they have to learn what that means and do it.
-this is why we push things like Downpour Bible Study so much. I know, we don’t like words like Study, or sometimes even Bible, but that’s really what we do, we look at pieces of Scripture then we talk about what that means and how we should be living it out.
-there are four whole books of Jesus’ teaching, plus another twenty-one by people like Paul, Peter, John and others helping us figure out what it means to live out that teaching. And that’s just New Testament (and not even all of it).
-and the amazing part, two thousand years later it still works! Jesus’ teachings still work at helping us to live better with Him, live better with each other, how to treat people, what should be important in our lives, it’s all still good!
-but none of these teachings do anything unless you’re living them out. And you can’t be living them out if you don’t know them or understand them.
-like the Golden Rule, one everyone knows, “Treat others like you want to be treated.” What does that really mean though? How do you do it? Do you just give people everything you own because you want people to give you everything they own? Or is there more to it?
-and notice too it says to teach the disciples, as in you don’t do it alone. We should all be working together with this. There are many, many things in God’s Word that I understood only when someone explained it to me or made me think about it. I didn’t just read it one day, magically get it, and move on. Sometimes I still have to talk with people or look up stuff to find out more.
-so we should be making disciples, through baptism and through learning God’s commands. But there is one more thing Jesus tells us here.
3. HE IS ALWAYS WITH US
-Jesus said that He would always be with us.
-it’s amazing how God works. He doesn’t need to be constricted by a physical body like us, He is made of spirit and can be everywhere!
-have you ever thought about how amazing it is, how lucky we are to think that God can be with us wherever we are, that we can talk to Him whenever we like, that God cares about us so much He will always be with us?
-the people in charge when all this happened were the Romans. You guys ever looked at Roman mythology (or Greek mythology, it’s all the same)? There were hundreds of gods and you would have to give offerings to a specific one at a specific place.
-so let’s say you have a family member that is in the army and at war. If you wanted them to be safe, you would have to ask Mars, the god of war, to be with them. And to do that you would have to travel to Mars’ temple, the Temple of Mars Ultor (mars The Avenger) in Rome.
-to many people throughout history and many still in the world today, their god, whoever he is, cannot be known or a friend like ours. They are far away and they really don’t care unless we convince them to care by giving them something.
-we take it for granted. God is always with us. We can talk to Him anytime. He cares about what happens in our lives. He is actively a part of what we do.
-He is such an active part of what we do that He has promised us that if we will trust Him, God will send His Holy Spirit to be a part of our lives and not just be with us, but empower us to do the things He wants us to do.
-again, do you know how mind blowing that is for so many people? We are so used to hearing it we don’t think about it. We serve a God who is willing to help us be who He wants us to be.
-think of it like learning an instrument or a sport. Which is easier, sitting at a piano and just figuring it out yourself, guessing at how to read music or what the white keys mean, or having a teaching teach you, show you, help you, sometimes even taking your hands and forming them the right way so you play properly?
-God is willing to do that in our lives. He is willing to be an active part at helping us live for Him, helping us make right decisions, helping us learn and obey His Word, helping us explain who He is to other people so they can know there is a God who loves them and wants to be a part of their lives and empower them to have the best lives ever for God.
-the key is you have to make a decision to let God do that. I don’t know where you are with God, how well you know Him or even know about Him, but there are tons of people that want to know Him more here and you can join us in that. You can know for certain that God loves you and that you are living a life that He wants you to live.
-but you have to make the first step. You have to talk to God, talk to one of us so we can help, you have to do something. Being a disciple is not passive, it’s not for people who sit back and have others do things for them. Disciples are pro-active and you should be too to know Jesus personally.
-it all goes back to what Kristin said last week. Are you willing to follow Christ? Are you willing to be a disciple and do what needs to be done to know God more?
