Let’s get to our passage. Turn over to Matthew 28. This passage might be pretty familiar to you, but that’s ok. When you get to Matthew 28, we’ll read verses 19-20. Pay attention to this passage…as it lays the foundation for what we’re studying today. Let’s read our passage for today…again, it’s Matthew 28:19-20.
It says: 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.”
Last week, in this series of Disciple Making, we looked at the importance of discipling…disciple-making…within the church. Part of Jesus’ instruction to go and make disciples and baptize and teach needs to happen within a local congregation. We need to trust and follow our leaders, help keep one another from straying, we encourage one another, and care for believers and share the gospel with unbelievers.
This morning we’re transitioning from discipling in the church…to discipling as the church. Now, we’re not talking about how we’re all a part of a royal priesthood, as it talks about in 1 Peter 2:9…that we all supposed to proclaim Jesus to the world around us. Because hopefully we already know all about that. And if we don’t, we’ll get into how we each, individually live out the Great Commission in the coming weeks.
For now…we’re focusing on how we can…as a unit…as a body…as Antioch Christian Church…can go and make disciples and baptize them and teach them…together…every one of us…as the church.
*It’s important that we make disciples as a church because we’re called to be a city on a hill, as Jesus put it in Matthew 5. Others in our communities should see God through us as a whole. Something I read recently put it this way. The church needs to be a lighthouse, guiding people through their troubles. But all too often we function more as a bomb shelter…hiding from trouble…hiding from the world around us.
**So how can we be that lighthouse…that city on a hill…for others to see and be drawn to? How can we continue the work that Jesus said he’d come to do, which was to seek and save the lost? And how can we do this together as the church? Well, one way we’ll live out Jesus’ Great Commission to us as the church…is when we are a church that loves.
Love. That’s one of the church’s foundations, right? Love is the basis of everything that God is…of everything that He does. And so… since we are his church…love needs to be a part of who we are and what we do.
It’s the two greatest commandments for us. That’s what Jesus tells those around him in Mark 12:29-31: “The most important one… the most important command…is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Love. Of faith, hope, and love…Paul writes that the greatest of them is Love. God’s love. His agape love. We know what this love is because of what we read in Romans 5:5. He says: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
We are commanded to love God and love others…and we know what kind of love we’re supposed to love God and others with because God has shown us what kind of love to love him and other with.
It’s the love that caused him to send a part of himself…his only begotten Son Jesus to this earth…to live a perfect, sinless life…then die on the cross as the sacrifice that covers and forgives all of our sins. It’s the love that he reveals to us by sending us another part of himself, the Holy Spirit…to dwell within us when we come to God through Jesus.
That’s what kind of love we’re talking about here. A love that is patient and kind and doesn’t envy or boast and isn’t proud or rude or self-seeking or easily angered or keeps record of wrongs or delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It’s a love that always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres, and never fails. That is the love that we give back to God as the church…and show to others as the church. … …
*But here’s the thing. Does the world see us loving God in that way? Does the world see us loving one another in that way? Does the world see us loving them in that way? … Turn over to John 13. Here Jesus is speaking to his disciples the night before he was crucified. And listen to what he says to them in verses 34-35. He says: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (And really pay attention to this part) By this… all men will know that you are my disciples…if you love one another.”
How is the world going to know that we’re disciples of Jesus the Messiah…the Son of the living God? By the nice building we meet together in? By the good youth program Connie and Shari put on during Wednesday nights? By the style of worship we hold on any given Sunday? By the preaching? By the food pantry or other programs we might put on? No…no that’s not how they’ll know we’re his disciples.
*If we want to disciple as the church…then we’ve got to start with love. If we don’t love God, which we can prove by obeying his commands…if we don’t love each other which is what Jesus says to do… if we don’t love the people who are out there…with the very same love that God has for us and for them…then they will not know who we belong to. And if they don’t know who we belong to…then why would they want to belong to him? Why would they want to join the church? That is why we need to be a church that loves.
**Now, we could maybe stop there this morning…or, actually, elaborate a bit more on this point…but there are a couple of other things that we need to be as a church that will help us make disciples together as the church. We started with how we need to be a church that loves because it’s probably the biggest key…the most important factor to how we disciple as a church. But then beyond that, we are to be a church that is united.
Unity within the church is very important to how well we make disciples as the church as well. Going right along with what we’ve talked about…about love…Paul writes in Colossians 2:2: “My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in…love…so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ…” Again, what’s the foundation of our unity? Love! See? I told you love was important.
At the same time, unity in the church is something that is stressed several times in the New Testament. Paul writes that we all must function together as a unit…as a body. And each of us should use whatever gifts we’re given so that we work better…even if it’s not always easy.
Which is something else Paul writes in Romans 15:5-6: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of… unity…among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Unity…being a church that is made up of a group of united people…united in God…united by one Holy Spirit…united in purpose… will help us make disciples as we’ve been instructed to do. But…we must be united. If we’re not united…if we’re not together in this…then that’s going to harm our ministry…our outreach…our disciple making. It’s going to harm us as the church.
*And that’s one of the world’s biggest arguments against coming to Jesus or joining a church, isn’t it? They say, “Well, they don’t even agree with each other! I don’t want to be a part of that!” Or “I visited that church but they didn’t really seem to get along…they were all disjointed. What’s the point?”
If we’re not united, then we will struggle with making disciples. But did you know that unity is something that Jesus prayed for you…for us? Turn over to John 17:20-23. After his supper with the disciples, he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My prayer is not for them alone (his 12 disciples). I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Jesus prayed for our unity.
*But did you notice why he wanted us to be united? So that the world would know. So that the world would be drawn to God and join in the unity. A unity that is with others…and a unity that is with God and Jesus…the Father and Son. … If we’re fractured and broken…not together in love and purpose? Then there’ll be no unity for the world to see. …
**Let’s move on to our last point for this morning. If we’re going to be a church that makes disciples…then we’re going to be a church that loves and is united. And along with that…we are to be a church that has hope.
Let me ask you something…do you have hope this morning? … Boy, that sure sounds like you have hope. And that’s part of the point. We say we’re a church that has hope…but then when someone…IN A CHURCH SERVICE (!!!) asks if we have hope, our response is…silence. Maybe a little head nod and a little smile. And that’s what the world sees. Why would they want to be a part of something that…when the subject of hope is brought up…the reply is nothing but crickets?!?
Church, we have a hope that is the greatest hope of any hope that has ever been or ever will be known to man. But it’s a crying shame that we don’t live our lives…we don’t live as the church…in such a way that others see it and wonder what this whole “hope in Jesus” thing is about.
Is there any hope outside of Jesus? Of course there isn’t! But people put their hope in all kinds of other things. We hope for money. We hope for returned love from another. We hope that something in this world will satisfy us. We hope for good health. We hope for a good future for our children. We hope, we hope, we hope, we hope.
But there is only one true hope…and that’s the hope that comes when you’ve given yourself over to God through submitting your life to Jesus. When you have your sins washed away in the waters of baptism and come up a new life, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and know that you have eternal life to look forward to someday. That is hope! …
But again…we hardly ever live out that love as a church for others to see. Or…take even what we do here on a weekly basis. Is the hope that we have evident in our interactions with one another…in how we worship…in our fellowship…in our communion…in the message? Do people see the hope we have here within the building…much less when we leave these walls?
*It says in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” Do you think people will ask you about the hope you have…if you’re not living like you have a hope that’s different from theirs?
*Do you think people will want to remain a part of the church if they don’t see the hope that we have in what we do during our time here? Honestly…are we a church that has hope? Do we act like it’s a better hope than anything else worth putting hope in? We should be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks us why we have hope. That answer…is because we are in Jesus and we belong to a church that remains in him.
****That’s how we’re going to disciple others as the church. When we are a church that loves, a church that is united, and a church that has hope. God said something to Abraham in Genesis 12 that is still relevant for us today. He blessed Abraham so that he could bless the rest of the world through Abraham.
We have been blessed today so that we might be a blessing to the world. But if we’re not working together to help the unbelieving world around us become followers of Jesus…then we’re missing the point of our salvation. If Antioch Christian Church is not actively blessing our surrounding community, then we are ignoring God’s mission. Is that what we’re going to be known for?
The way that we function matters. And we’ll function best if we love…if we’re united…and if we have hope.
Invitation
