GOD’S MARCHING ORDERS
Text: Matthew 28:16 – 20
During the week of Easter, we were watching some of the Easter movies that they had on a network known as Up (for uplifting). One of the movies (I think it was a movie called “Barabbas,” if I am not mistaken) portrays Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, (on the slope of the Mount of Olives) while he was praying. Matthew tells us that three disciples, Peter, James and John who had accompanied Him to that mountain to pray. As we know they fell asleep. In the movie, while Jesus was praying for the cup of suffering to pass from Him. It was during that scene that the movie inserts what might have been possible even though it was not recorded the following way in scripture. The inserted scene portrays Satan who appears and shows Him the future and the many who will be lost in spite of what Christ will do on the cross. Satan illustrates wars and senseless death while seeming to insinuate all over again the third temptation in Matthew 4:8 where Satan promises Jesus the world if Jesus would just bow down and worship him. Jesus stays true to God and those He came to save as God’s only begotten Son!
Once again, Jesus is on a mountain with Peter, James, John and the other eight remaining disciples (Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddeus and Simon (the Cananaean) because Judas had hung himself. There are two other occasions where Jesus taught His disciples on a mountain (Matthew 5:1 – 7:29). The first one is when He gave the sermon of the mount. The second one is when He was transfigured on the mountain (Matthew 17:1 – 9). This was indeed another significant moment in Jesus’ journey with His disciples because of the commission that He gave them. This is what we call that Great Commission. Since today is Father’s Day, we could also think of this Great Commission as our Heavenly Father’s Marching Orders.
WHAT ARE OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S ORDERS?
Matthew 28:19 tells us His disciples about their future. 1) Jesus’ Authority: Jesus gave His original 12 disciples on the job training. 2) Learning challenges: They did not always understand the lessons. How much do we resemble them today when we do not always understand? 3) Inconsistent faith: Some of them believed and yet some also doubted. 4) Marching orders: Jesus gave them their marching orders according to our Heavenly Father’s plan. 5) Greater things: Before the crucifixion, Jesus told them that they would even go on to do greater things: John 14:12 "Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, the one who believes in me will also do what I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (ISV). 6) Dispatched: In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells His disciples then as well as His disciples today that they that they are being sent out to evangelize the world---to continue to accomplish those greater things.
Do we have to understand why we were sent to our mission field before we obey as His modern day disciples? There is the story of a surgical assistant (a surgeon’s right hand man) who wanted to go to a position where he could recapture his fading passion. He prayed about and got shocked as to how God answered his prayer as he went to a position in plastic surgery. He “… wanted a job with spiritual significance … and [wondered] “Why would God want [him] in a hotbed of vanity? In time God showed him why it was important for him to be where he was. So he did something new---a new directive to “pray in God’s name in operating room 2 asking others, the few Christians in number to join him. It became a weekly thing as they prayed for colleagues and patients as ten friends became new-born Christians by the end of that year.
In his own words… “God has given me a purpose far beyond patient care. He expanded my circle of influence by transferring me to the main surgery department, where I now rotate through all four departments in the hospital campus. I have started several prayer groups throughout the hospital. Each group focuses on inviting the Holy Spirit to move in their department. We encourage each other in Christ, pray for opportunities to witness, seek God’s will, and ask that Christ be glorified in our work.
Since I realized that I could advance the kingdom of God through praying at work, I have found renewed passion for my job, as well as for the opportunities for ministry it provides”. (Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof. gen. eds. 1001 Illustrations That Connect . [— Brandon A. Bradley, “Prayer at Work: Surgical Assistant,” Pray! (July – August 2006)]. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2008). God shows the way that we are to go according to His plans even though we do not always understand it.
AS EARTHLY FATHERS WE HAVE MARCHING ORDERS
Like discipleship, fathers have learned by on-the-job training. I remember the very first time I became a father. It was both exciting and scary. I carried my oldest daughter CeCe down the hall to the nurses at the nursery. I remember walking like I was on eggshells. There was a country music song that reminds me of my beginning journey into early fatherhood. It was recorded by artist Ricky Van Shelton describing both joys and uncertainties during fatherhood entitled “Keep It Between The Lines”.
Keep It Between The Lines
He was a sitting beside me in the passenger seat.
As I looked through the window at the quiet little street.
He was a smiling so proud as he gave me the key.
But inside I knew he was as nervous as me.
I said “Daddy, oh Daddy are you sure I know how?
Are you sure that I am ready to drive this car now?”
He said, “I’m right here beside you and you’re gonna do fine
All you have to do is keep it between the lines.
Cause it’s a long narrow road,
Only the Good Lord Knows, where it leads in the end.
But you’ve got to begin,
So keep you hands on the wheel,
Believe in the things that are real,
Just take your time and keep it between the lines.”
I was sitting in my chair and a sneaking a look
At him lying in the floor with his coloring book.
And he caught me watching and climbed on my knee.
Said, “Daddy, oh Daddy would you do one with me?”
Then I hugged him so tightly as we turned the page.
Said, “I haven’t done this since I was your age”.
He said, “I’m right here beside and you gonna do fine.
Daddy all you’ve gotta do is keep it between the lines.”
So we finished the picture and I put him to bed.
Got down on my knees and I bowed my head.
And I said, Father, O Father, I feel so alone.
Are you sure I can raise him with his mommy gone?”
And the answer came back so gentle and low.
In the words of my daddy from so long ago.
Said, “I am right here beside you and you gonna do fine.
All you’ve got to do is keep it between the lines.
So keep you hands on the wheel,
Believe in the things that are real,
Just take your time and keep it between the lines.”
Godly fathers understand how God will help us “keep it between the lines” through prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Earthly fathers have to remember that oftentimes they are considered heroes by their children.
Here are two of the most important things Michael Tait of dc Talk learned from his dad:
• Love people. “That’s what he taught,” says Tait says, “and that’s what he did. He cried with people, he laughed with people. Everybody was his friend. He couldn’t care less about your race, your nationality, your socioeconomic status, whatever. All he cared about was you, your soul.”
• Live for God. Tait sums up the lesson this way: “Don’t get caught up in the things of this world, because they’re just fleeting. The world will get the best of you if you let it, so live for God.”
Tait was visiting his parents in Washington, D.C., during the Christmas holidays in 1997 when his dad complained of stomach pains. Michael took him to the hospital, where doctors found cancer. Michael was present a few weeks later when his dad breathed his last. “The man was my hero,” Tait said.
(Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof. gen. eds. 1001 Illustrations That Connect . [— Mark Moring, “My Dad, My Hero,” Campus Life (May – June 1999)]. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2008).
Godly fathers have a big role in helping to shape the lives of their children to become disciples. We live in a day where there are lots of absent fathers. There are a number of reasons why a father might not be in the picture: death, divorce, abandonment. Consider the sentiments of those with missing fathers:
“The enormous response to Bob Carlisle’s 1996 ballad “Butterfly Kisses,” which speaks of the tender love between a father and his daughter, makes Carlisle feel sad.
“I get a lot of mail from young girls who try to get me to marry their moms,” he says. “That used to be a real chuckle because it’s so cute, but then I realized they don’t want a romance for mom; they want the father who is in that song. That just kills me.” (Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof. gen. eds. 1001 Illustrations That Connect . [— Mary A. Kassian, “Father of the Fatherless,” Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Spring 2000)]. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2008). For that reason, godly fathers can never underestimate the little things that children remember that help to shape the legacy that they pass on in making disciples of their children.
One thing that disciples of old, modern day disciples and fathers have in common is that they have not always understood where God sent them or why. But, one thing is certain, when we trust and obey God, He will get us through it----through it all they have learned to depend on God.
