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.”
We’re moving along here in our series about making disciples. Last week we started really getting into the specifics of what Jesus says in his Great Commission. We focused on how we should want to go to all nations to make disciples because reaching the unreached is connected to bringing about the end. Today, we’re looking at another phrase that Jesus says: “Teach them.”
Now, I know that there’s another instruction before this one…to baptize the disciples that we make. But the teaching that we’re going to do will happen both before and after the baptizing. So we’re not skipping baptism. We’re just talking about teaching first…because people won’t know that they need to be baptized if we don’t teach it to them first.
But here’s the thing about Jesus’ instruction to “teach them.” If we’re going to teach others…we need to be taught ourselves. And how are we going to be taught? Well…that’s what things like Sunday School and Sermons are for, right? VBS and Camps. Conferences and Men’s or Women’s Groups and books by Frances Chan and Kyle Idleman. That’s how we’ll learn the things that we need to know about how to live and how to be Christians and the church and how we…make disciples.
*Or…that seems to be what we think anyway. And while all of those things might be helpful…those shouldn’t be our primary source for teaching ourselves…and teaching others…about how we should live and be Christians and the church and…make disciples. No…what we need to turn to…is the only source of truth and real wisdom in this life… God’s word.
**So that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning…God’s word. The Bible. It’s more than just 66 books divided into two sections filled with laws, numbers, and historical events. It is our life source as Christians. So that’s why our first point for today is this: we should desire God’s word.
Do you crave God’s word? Is it what fuels you? Is it what drives your daily life? Is it your source for getting to know your author and perfecter? Or…is it just a book you pick up and bring to church…or turn to when you’re feeling guilty…or to be able to answer any question about the bible…or just to prepare a lesson or sermon? Maybe yours just sits and collects dust.
If so…then you’re not alone. There are a lot…a lot…of Christians who misuse God’s word. Which is to say they don’t desire it…they don’t crave it. But that shouldn’t make you feel better about yourself. It should be a wakeup call.
If we don’t desire God’s word…if we don’t make it a part of our lives…we are crippling ourselves and our faith. It should be something that we can’t live without…much like water or food or air. That’s how important God’s word should be to us. Take Psalm 119 for instance. It’s the longest chapter in the Bible, and it’s basically one long love song to God’s word. All throughout it there are phrases like what we find in verse 131 which says: “I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.”
Is it the bread that we eat? Is it the water we drink? Is it the air we breathe? Or is it simply a paperweight? Or something that we skim over from time to time? Be honest with yourself…how many more things from this world do you desire before God’s word? Let’s put it this way…how many books do you read before you read the Bible? We won’t even get into TV shows and Video Games and Computer stuff and all of that. How many books do you read more than you read this right here? For a lot of us…probably a lot more. But then for some others… it’s the only book we read.
Now, if that’s you this morning…before you pat yourself on the back…do you read it out of a desire to be immersed in what it says…in what it shows you…in how it teaches you to live? If so…then you’re well on your way to being able to teach as Jesus instructed during his command to make disciples. For the rest of us though… …
The way Peter words it in 1 Peter 2:2-3 describes it pretty well… how we should desire God’s word. There, it says: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
Have you ever had a craving like that? Where nothing else is going to satisfy you until you get whatever it is you’re craving? You know what I’m talking about, right?
So how often is that craving…that desire…for God’s word? Often we have cravings…we need spiritual nourishment…but we look to the wrong things to find it. We turn to food or entertainment in all its many forms or other people, substances, or whatever else we think will fill us up.
*But how often are we left wanting? Because…what we need instead…is God? And the source through which we can have God…his holy word? That is why we need to desire God’s word. If we desire it in the ways we’ve talked about this morning…then we’ll be able to share that with others when we are making them into disciples.
**So when we desire God’s word…when we crave it like pure spiritual milk…what will we find? Let’s turn to 2 Timothy 4. What he writes here tells us a defining truth about God’s word…and gives us another reason why we should desire it every day of our lives. In verses 16-17 it says: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” So here’s our second point this morning: God’s word reveals God to us.
Did you catch the first few words of verse 16 there? All Scripture is God-breathed. When we say that this book is “God’s word,” that’s not just some adjective. That is exactly what it is. It is his holy word. It is what he has…in his infinite wisdom and love…decided to bestow upon man. Every single word contained here…was given to us by God. And every single word contained here…reveals to us exactly what he wants us to know about him here in this life.
Then from there…we’re able to do all the teaching about God that we’re able to do. We’re able to rebuke based on what God says needs to be rebuked. We are able to correct as God has shown us we should correct. We train in righteousness with the wisdom God has made known to us.
Do you want to know God? How many of us want him to reveal himself…his grand plan…his specific will…to us? Do you really? Be honest with yourself now. Do you want to know God? Then how can we go through our lives thinking that he’ll reveal himself to us through some sort of osmosis? Or that showing up to church and expecting him to reveal himself to us will be enough? Or that sitting for hours and watching TV will do it?
It all sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it? But that’s how a lot of Christians are. When the reality is…there’s only one Word that he’s given you to reveal himself to you. This is our walk during the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden. This is our burning bush. This is our pillar of smoke and fire. This is our voice from heaven. This…this is how God reveals himself to us. …
Turn to 1 Corinthians 2. Here, Paul speaks of how God reveals himself to us. In verses 9-14 he writes: “However, ,as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ – but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. (This is the Holy Spirit…and the word that his Spirit has breathed to us.) The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
*If we have the Holy Spirit and a Bible…we have everything we need to have God revealed to us. If you’re a Christian, God will reveal himself to you…and this is the means by which he will do it. It all sounds crazy to people without the Spirit. But if we’re going to teach other as we make disciples…we need to have God revealed to us. And his word is how he’s going to do it.
**So when we desire God’s word and he reveals himself to us through it…something is going to happen. What’s going to happen, you might wonder? Turn to Romans 12:2. There, Paul writes: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” What’s going to happen when God reveals himself to you as you desire his word? It transforms us.
We are going to be transformed. Transformed into what? Is it going to be stressful or painful? No…it won’t. When you read this book, you find that you’ll be transformed into a new creation. Into who God has wanted you to be all along…as opposed to the sinful, selfish people that you are when you live apart from him. Which…if you can live out your transformation, you’ll be transformed again for eternity someday. And won’t that be awesome?
If we are actively spending our lives in the word of God…it is going to transform us. That’s what we’re told in Hebrews 4:12. There, we read something about the word of God…that it’s sharper than a double-edged sword. But listen to the whole verse. It says: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword…(now really pay attention to this part)…it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
If we are craving God’s word and having him revealed to us on a daily basis…this book…these words that are God-breathed are going to touch us and change us in every single fiber of who we are, body, mind, soul, and spirit. It pierces us and we are forever transformed. We cannot help but be changed by God’s word.
Which brings us to the question that needs to be asked. If you call yourself a Christian…are you really, truly transformed from who you were before your baptism? Sadly, too many Christians aren’t transformed. Their lives look too much like the life they lived before they confessed Jesus as their Lord and Savior. One of the causes for that? They aren’t daily in God’s word. Or if they read it, it’s for the wrong reasons…so they’re not going to be transformed.
James has this to say in his letter…in 1:26-27: “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
*For too many Christians, they live with “religion” rather than faith. It’s just a status…a title…being a Christian. It’s not a transformation. … But that will not be the case for your life if you desire his word…and have him revealed to you. When you immerse yourself in this truth…you will know how you are to live. You will know what God wants you to know about him here and now. You’ll know what it means to teach them…what to teach them…how to teach them.
****And you’ll be able to…as it says in the last part of Romans 12:2 that we didn’t read earlier…you’ll be able to: “test and approve what God’s will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will.” But again… without God’s word? That’s not going to happen. You won’t be transformed. The Spirit won’t reveal God to you.
That is why we need to desire it. We should crave to know God and be transformed into what he wants us to be…and do what he’s called us to do. Then…when we do that…then we will be able to teach them as we make disciples in our lives today. But if this doesn’t apply to you? Then you won’t make disciples and follow Jesus’ command as you need to. So will you desire him? Will you allow God to reveal himself to you? Will you be transformed?
Invitation
