What We Believe About Evangelism And Missions Series

Famous last words have always been fascinating to me. Some people say words of great profundity and some people don't know what they are saying. Luciano Pavarotti -- one of the greatest opera singers ever in the world -- said "I believe that a life lived for music is an existence spent wonderfully, and this is what I have dedicated my life to." Now, those are beautiful last words and there are worse things to live for than music but this life is not about music.

On the other end of the profound spectrum is Stan Laurel, one half of Laurel and Hardy, the comedians of a generation ago, who said "I'd rather be skiing" when he realized he was about to die. I guess so. Just before Sir Winston Churchill slipped into a coma, his last words were, "I'm bored with it all." Do you remember Todd Beamer? He was one of the passengers on Flight 93 on 9/11. Do you remember his last recorded words? "Let' roll!" After being injected with the horrible drugs that would kill him, John Belushi said to the person who injected him, "Just don't leave me alone." Spike Milligan said, "I told you I was ill."

But my favorite one is the Union General John Sedgwick, who was facing Confederate sniper fire, and told his men, "Don't worry, boys. They can't hit an elephant at this dist..." Famous last words. What do you want yours to be? Something profound? Something funny or ironic? How about life-changing words for those who hear them?

The Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- tell the story of Jesus and His birth, life, death, burial and resurrection. He rose again after being dead for three days and ascended back to Heaven where He lives today and forever but the book of Matthew tells us His last words while He was here on earth.

You know the passage. Go ahead and turn to the last chapter of Matthew. Matthew 28 and let's read again these famous last words. Let's see what our orders are in Matthew 28:18-20. Yes, you recognize that passage. It is the Great Commission. We have studied it several times before and I don't guarantee that we won't study it again several more times this year. We might ought to at least discuss it every week. It is that important and it is that neglected. If a soldier in the army was given a direct order by his commanding officer but failed to carry out that order, what do you think would happen? Would he get promoted? Would the CO tell him how proud he was of him and give him shiny medals?

Maybe today that is why you are struggling in what you are going through. Maybe you have a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus and yet God has not blessed you like He could. One reason for that might be because you have received your orders but you have failed to carry them out. Let's look at those orders right now in Matthew 28:18-20.

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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."

I have a friend named Bud Elkins who was in the US Army Air Corps which became the US Air Force in World War II. Bud was the navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortress which was the main big bomber of the day. He had some incredible stories of flying mission after mission into enemy territory and dropping bombs on military and strategic targets.

Bud told me that one time they were given the order to fly from somewhere in North Africa up to Germany and drop some bombs on a certain ball-bearing plant, if I remember right. That would have been an acceptable and understandable order except for one thing. The B-17 had a flight range of something like 2000 miles and the target was about 1500 miles away -- one way. That wouldn't leave them with enough fuel to make the return trip.

Bud said everybody on the crew knew what their range was and what the mission was and do you know what they did? They didn't talk about it. They just suited up. They got on the plane. They taxied to the end of the runway and just as they were about to take off on what surely would have been a suicide mission, they got word from headquarters that the weather was too bad over the target and the mission was aborted. He said the exact same thing happened to them twice. That's the "Greatest Generation" for you, right there. Twice they were not just prepared but expecting to give their lives for the greater good of their nation because an order was given.