Jesus Commands Us to Go — Andrew Strom

Really, again, pray for your Holy Presence to be amongst us, Father. We truly want to honour and glorify you, Father. Father, I pray this would be a message from you, that it would not be just from myself, Father, but that you would be speaking to everybody.

And, Father, let your Holy Presence come down. We want to have a meeting with you today. Thank you, Father, for bringing us all here in this place. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay. Please turn with me to Matthew 28.

The Great Commission and the Command to Go

Kind of a continuation from last night, but, obviously, we're talking about living out the faith. Living out our faith, living out the faith. As Jesus commanded, these are things, obviously, we've heard before, but, hopefully, God can renew and make them alike to us in a new way.

So, Matthew 28, verse 19. Here's some famous words. So, Jesus is speaking at the very end. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, unto the end of the world. And Mark 16, of course, is kind of another, throws more light on this. So, Mark 16, verse 15. And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they'll cast out demons, they'll speak with new tongues, they'll take up serpents if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them.

They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So, we're commissioned to go and do that. The command to go, the command to go, obviously, is just as important as the command to get our own lives right before God.

If we're not obeying the command to go, we might as well, as many people have pointed out, we might as well have been raptured to heaven overnight and not be on this earth. The command to go is so strong, it's such a compulsion from Jesus.

So, in a sense, he's saying get right, get filled with the Holy Spirit and go. There's something else I want to look at, but let's just reiterate what the signs are that follow those that believe. So, they're casting out demons, they're speaking with new tongues, they're unharmed by poison and deadly attacks of the enemy, they're laying hands on the sick and those shall recover.

These are all things, of course, that Jesus was doing. And one of the important things I want to point out today is the kind of people that Jesus was ministering to and one of the big reasons why we're not seeing the kind of results in this area that they were seeing in Bible days.

Jesus’ Ministry to the Poor and Brokenhearted

So, just turn with me, please, to Luke chapter 4. I'm going to go through a few scriptures today. Luke chapter 4 is Jesus describing his own ministry. Verse 18. And Jesus said, The Spirit of the Lord has pondered because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And the big question that I would like to put before us today in this regard, and we're going to look at other scriptures to back this up, but one of the questions is, what if Jesus didn't have any poor people to preach to?

How well would he have got along? What if there were no blind people around to have their eyes open? What if there were no lepers where Jesus was and so no leper ever got healed? What if there was hardly any crippled people anywhere that he could see?

What if the streets were not filled with people in need and people in poverty? What if widows and orphans had vanished out of his culture and there was hardly any widows and orphans in any desperate need that he could find?

What if he was in that situation? Do you know what happens? Jesus can't do most of the mighty works that are recorded. He cannot do them because his audience is so utterly different from that which he wanted to come and reach.

Do you understand what I'm saying? We find ourselves in a culture today where in fact most of those things that I just said are the actual truth of the matter. If I went out on the streets today and went around looking for orphans and widows in poverty I'd be very hard pressed to find any.

They do exist somewhere but they're not in the abject poverty that all of them were in these days. We've got to go to third world countries to find that. What if I want to go and find a whole lot of blind people or lepers down the road?

Well, I don't know where to find them most of the time. Where are the desperate needy people? Where are the poor of the earth? Where are the ones that Jesus wants to minister to? In our culture the government takes care of almost all of them.

And where is the church left? What are we supposed to do in a situation where the people that Jesus would minister to we hardly can find them. If we scratch around and really are desperate we can kind of come up with ways but most of us never see real poverty walking around in our culture unless people are drug addicted.

I would find often the same thing in the United States. Sam and I were talking about this last night. So in America, when we were living in California for instance we would go down to Skid Row in the weekend maybe on Saturday and Sunday and I'd take my family and we'd take a team of people and we'd feed the homeless people.

It was like, Skid Row was like to me a third world country sitting in the United States. So dirty and filthy and people just everywhere. If we want to reach any poor people if we want to reach any poor people now are those the ideal kind of poor that Jesus would go to?

Not really. But they're the only poor that we could find. When Jesus was talking about poor that were desperate in his day orphans and widows and crippled and blind were everywhere. They were just all over the place.

Lepers, no shortage of these. So we would go down and there's mostly drug addicts mostly people on crack and of course it was dangerous but it was the best thing for my family that probably ever happened to us in the United States was getting involved in ministry to the poor because it's not just important for the people we're reaching it's actually important for us.

I came to the point after listening to friends of mine talking about this stuff and then going out there and starting to really do this kind of thing I came to the conclusion in the end that I don't know if we can have Christianity without the poor.

That in fact Christianity without the poor without real needy people starts to fall over, it starts to implode because it becomes inward focused it becomes just a kind of little inward club and we can have everything correct and none of it matters because we're not actually able or we're not actually living out the very basics.

If there's no demon possessed people around the two things that we'd find out on the streets in America and you'll see the same with homeless people in most developed nations they're mostly either mentally unbalanced and they've been evicted from some home or some halfway house or they've run away from home or they're drug addicts or they're drunkards and that's kind of it.

So we'd feed them, we'd preach the gospel to them we'd get to pray over them sometimes we'd be casting demons out of people we had a couple of baptisms down on Skid Row where we actually got a horse float thing a horse trough and stuck it on the back of a ute and we baptised two women that I think both of them were ex-prostitutes down there we baptised these two women in front of everybody on Skid Row because it was to be a sign and a witness to them and that was a glorious day we saw lots of things go on we experienced stuff as a family that really changed my family forever after we'd done these kind of things and heard the testimonies of friends that go into the third world all the time my family was just totally different because it wasn't just words and it wasn't just preaching it was reality that they saw and experienced.

So our girls, our older two girls Jasmine and Kirsten their faith really deepened during that time in particular. So what I'm trying to say is this is that if Jesus came to minister to these people which he says he did now if we go over, let's look at another scripture on this we go over to Matthew chapter 11 verse 5 again Jesus is describing his ministry and I want us to really look at this in the sense of Jesus is describing a ministry that he left us here to continue.

The Signs of the Kingdom and the Church’s Mission

So Matthew 11 verse 5 now John the Baptist's disciples have come to Jesus verse 3 and they said to him are you he that should come or do we look for another? And Jesus answered and said to them go and show John those things that you hear and see verse 5 the blind receive their sight the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

So he just described in one verse if you could sum up what everybody saw and heard when they came to Jesus for the first time if we were observers and we just went and we want to describe in one verse what Jesus' ministry looked like there it is.

And the question is when I look at that verse why does the modern church and particularly the western church look and sound nothing like that. Why do they not say that about us? Part of the reason is in that last line the poor have the gospel preached to them.

You see when you get involved with ministry to the poor even if it's pretty imperfect. I mean when I say imperfect you know ministry to homeless in rich countries you know you're talking a lot of drug addicts and people with ingrained problems.

Not really the kind of poor that Jesus was ministering to but it's still powerful and it's still important and it's still incredibly impacting. And you're still involved in the same kind of stuff. And the great thing about you know to give you a comparison one time we went and held an outreach up on Hollywood Boulevard which was the exact opposite experience.

So there on Hollywood Boulevard where all those gold stars are all on the ground and everything people are so scurrying back and forth. There's thousands of people there. People are scurrying back and forth looking for ways to entertain themselves.

They're in the entertainment zone in their heads and it was absolutely pointless trying to talk to anybody. But when we were down on Skid Row no one had anywhere to go. There were just people all around on the streets you know all kinds of conditions and states that they were in but they were willing to talk.

They wanted to hear they were willing to listen. You know we live in a busy mad world and the western world is probably the worst and we can't reach a lot of people. There are people even here in Australia who do nothing with their day and who are for whatever reason still out there and still in desperate need.

If we want to reach start seeing real New Testament stuff. We have to go further afield and start going into third world countries of which Australia is ringed about within a $300 or $400 flight. You can be bang in the middle of this type of stuff because you're talking about the real poor of the earth the third world nations.

They're all around. I was in Papua New Guinea two years ago came home with malaria. I was in the back blocks of Papua New Guinea. I was one of the places I preached in. There was no electricity no cell phones and I literally was sleeping in a bark hut.

This bark hut was six feet off the ground. You know you climb up into it and yeah, got malaria. But here you go had a powerful time. I just absolutely loved it totally loved it. You're literally amongst the people of the earth who are just like the ones you read about in scripture.

They have a simplicity to their faith. They have a hunger about them that you can't find because we're so sophisticated and educated. You know, hunger has almost vanished out of the western world. You want to see real hunger.

You go to Africa and you go to a third world country and people will walk for miles to come and hear some guy even if he's going to tell them to repent which they knew I would. You know I've been in situations where I'm preaching to idol worshippers every night out in the school grounds in the middle of Nigeria.

And instead of the audience growing less and less because I'm up there speaking about their idols and how wrong it is and how the true God desires worship and Him alone will be worshipped and so on. The crowds grow every night people walking for miles to come and hear.

That's hunger. That's the kind of thing Jesus saw every day. Now we have to we have to do some real hard and heavy thinking when it comes to this I'm telling you because the difference between the New Testament church and actually seeing a lot of New Testament stuff literally happen in front of our eyes is often the difference who we are ministering to whether they're needy and whether they're hungry people or not.

I don't know about you. I often find New Zealand may be even worse than here but about the same just that incredible lack of hunger almost frustrating beyond words to try and deal with. You know when you're dealing with people they almost have no hunger at all.

They're entertained to death. They have they have their playstation at home. You know they have anything they want to entertain themselves. They they don't. You know they're of that type where rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.

And our world is full of that. Those are the people that we if we go out there to the neighbours around here and go knocking on doors many people won't be interested at all. Why? Their life is absolutely fine.

We'll find the odd one who are desperate for some reason they're in depression or whatever. But you know their life is basically absolutely fine for the most part they're not really desperate for you know for the vast majority and they just watch television.

They live an ordinary life and they're happy. We have to go so far out of our way to find the type of people that Jesus ministered to and I want to put it to you unless we do we're not going to see the kind of Christianity becoming true of us that was true of all the early disciples.

We're just not going to see it and so we have to do something about that. You know. Or do you know do you realise the blessing that the poor had upon them. Let's just turn to Luke chapter 6 for a second.

Jesus’ Blessings and Warnings Concerning Wealth

I just want to open our eyeballs a little bit wider with something kind of shocking that Jesus said which we glance over too often when we're reading through the Bible. So Luke chapter 6 is called the Sermon on the Plain as against you know the Sermon on the Mount.

It's a very similar kind of thing but even more direct. So Luke chapter 6 verse 20. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said blessed be ye poor for yours is the kingdom of God. You notice he doesn't say poor in spirit to me this is a shocking statement especially given what he's about to say.

Ok so he just comes straight out and says blessed be ye poor. Yours is the kingdom of heaven. Which immediately starts you questioning it's kind of like what's going to happen to all those middle class and rich people then you know if we're really taking what he says seriously which so many people including in the church don't bother doing if we actually take Jesus' word seriously when he talks about the poor the rich, positions and all this stuff which he does all the way, you know mammon and all that stuff it's a very shocking picture, seriously.

So verse 21 blessed are you that hunger now for you shall be filled. Blessed are you that weep now for you shall laugh. Blessed are you that men shall hate you when they separate you from their company and reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake rejoice in that day and leap for joy.

For behold your reward is great in heaven. For in the like manner did their fathers to the prophets. Now listen to this verse 24 but woe unto you that are rich for you have received your consolation. Some translations will say comfort.

That's the root of that word there. So woe unto you that are rich you've already received your comfort. Imagine preaching that around Australia today woe unto you that are rich, you've already received your comfort.

Jesus is rebuking you. Amen, imagine doing that woe unto you that are full for you shall hunger, woe unto you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you when all men speak well of you, for so they did to the false prophets.

So there's a rebuke to the rich, remember the rich young man that comes to Jesus. Jesus just didn't say to him you need to repent. Jesus said to him go and sell everything you have and give to the poor and then you can come and follow me.

You get the depth of that. You get the fact that if we spoke that in the western church everybody would walk out rather than listen to a preacher like that. Can you understand the horror of what Jesus says if we apply it to our modern world and to our modern fat cat comfortable society.

Jesus said to this guy because he just came to him and it says he had many possessions, that's what it says he had many possessions. He says sell what you have, give to the poor by the way that's the only way in the new testament that you can get treasure in heaven by selling things or by giving to the poor.

That's the way according to scripture that you actually get treasure reserved and saved for you up in heaven, we have a heavenly reward. This is why the bible in the new testament is so strong on works following faith.

James says faith without works is dead. What is the kind of works that are being talked about. Jesus says to the disciples sell what you have and give alms. What is alms? Alms is money to the poor. We're not involved in these things.

And do you know what a church that is not involved. I'm talking globally, the church the western evangelical church as people, if we're not involved with the poor I question if we can have Christianity.

That's how strong. That's how strong it is. We looked at the book of Acts church, Acts chapter 2 yesterday, do you realize those guys feed the widows of Jerusalem everyday. Do you think about that instead of the government feeding the widows of Jerusalem a large city, who feed the widows of Jerusalem everyday.

It was the church if you can believe it think about that. We say why were the first 7 deacons appointed. Why did they go looking for 7 new leaders specifically so those 7 guys could look after the feeding because it was a massive operation the daily feeding of the widows.

Salvation, Sanctification, and Works of Mercy

None of this is on the church's radar because what we've done is we've actually separated two things. We've separated salvation and sanctification, we've kind of got those in a category over here and we've got service and charity way over here in a totally different category and we don't bring them together at all and say this is supposed to be one package where as soon as I become a real follower of Jesus I become a disciple that goes and does the things that Jesus would do.

We've separated them out. So we have salvation way over here and we have guys that travel the world talking about salvation, salvation, salvation. It's all kind of you know separate. My view is this you cannot be a disciple or a true Christian without obeying the words of Jesus Christ.

You can't be that because we've separated and we say oh yes you can come to faith and you can be a follower and be that Christian and simply listen to the word and fill yourself up on it but not actually have to go and be doing all this.

No involving with the poor is needed nothing you know no going into all the world, no praying for the sick none of it forget all that, that's all totally separate. I say that's totally wrong. And these things go together just like a tree produces fruit and if the tree for a while you know Jesus did this if the tree for a while or in it's time will not produce those figs.

Jesus says I curse this tree to the ground. It is absolutely useless for anything and it will not last. And it's gone because what goes with our Christianity fruit. I'm not just talking about fruit of the Holy Spirit.

I'm talking about the results and the things that grow and the works that grow off of a true Christian. If we separate that from salvation I believe we're in a kind of delusion. The western world has done that for years.

We've done it for years. We've kind of invented churchianity in the sense that you can just go to a place, listen to the word people congratulate themselves which is a mystery to me that they go to a place where the word is really good.

You know what, I don't care about any of that. I want to know, Sir are you obeying the words of Christ. It doesn't matter where you go. I don't care. Are you obeying the words of Christ. Is it happening.

Is it reality. You know it's not rocket science. It's not even hard to understand. But because we've divorced those two things we now have entire realms of churches where nobody does anything. There aren't any commandments of Christ being obeyed or very little.

You just attend a big building jump around to the music and go home and that's a Christian activity, what's the main Christian activity. It seems to me going to meetings. Going to meetings the church you know what the church is here's what the church is.

The church is true disciples of Jesus continuing his work in the earth. That's what the church is. We don't have that we're not. That we're not continuing his work in the earth. We're not ministering out of that anointing, ministering out of that power.

He said all authority is given to me. We didn't actually read that just before the verse where he sends them. He says all authority is given to me and I'm sending you bang, out you go get filled with the spirit of God and go and if we divorce that and just sort of you know we can have lovely meetings.

I've been to a hundred lovely meetings a thousand lovely meetings, I don't know none of it matters if we're not the body of Christ going out there and being Jesus in his Word. So the problem arises for those of us that are in the richest countries, and we are I dare say you know, I've literally travelled the world.

Wealth, Responsibility, and the Western Church

I've been to many parts of Europe UK, Canada, America you know, New Zealand around the Earth. I want to tell you my view is that Australia is the country that's doing the best in the world and New Zealand is sort of you know, second or lagging slightly but still right up there.

Australia is the country in my view that's doing the best in the whole Earth. If I was to tell anybody to go live in a place if you wanted to be literally comfortable and set up for life. I've seen them here.

I don't particularly want to do that to people, but I've seen them here. Australia is very, very, very well off just unbelievable how well this country is doing because most of the rest of the West is in a very, very bad recession still not recovered and Europe's falling to pieces seriously falling, it's just falling apart and that recession will deepen and deepen and deepen, it will get worse and worse and worse, they're never coming out of it because it's not a recession it's it's European demise so you know, and the seeds for that have been sown for years.

I can't go into it but that's what we're facing and America's facing. Australia's doing fantastically well what does that mean? It means that Australia has to stand up and Australian Christians that want to be real Christians have to stand up and say, you know what with this comes a great responsibility with this wealth that we have with this Christian belief that we have, with what God's blessed us with, comes a great responsibility and we're not going to fail Jesus today, we're going to go and we're going to do what he's told us to do.

Amen? Amen. So Jesus wants a church that looks like him. Jesus wants a church that sounds like him. Jesus wants a church ministering amongst the kind of people he would go to so as I was saying, it's so hard in our modern society, we look around us you know, I don't know about you, but I didn't pass any lepers, you know, limping down the road on the way here.

I didn't pass, you know I haven't seen a blind person for ages. It's a struggle even to go and find widows and orphans that are really needy that they're not on some pension from the government. So what are we going to do?

Because seriously we have a need for them just like they need to hear from us. The church actually needs to be around needy and poor people. I'm telling you, it is the key difference makes all the difference in the world.

So we have to come up with ways either of going into the nations or of finding the small groupings of people that are here and beginning ministries to them and so on we've got to be led by the Holy Spirit, we're not going to do all that in the flesh but I'm telling you, it's an imperative it's not something we can just put to one side until a few years time.

The Early Church’s Ministry Among the Needy

It's something that the church exists in the church is actually supposed to kind of live in that, in the midst of the poor. That's essentially what the bible church did. So there they are, ministering to the widows every day what ends up happening when you're ministering to very needy people, there's need everywhere there's demons that need casting out there's sick that need to be healed.

You know, why is Peter when he's passing down the streets his shadow is passing over the poor and needy and crippled people and they're being healed because they had so many so many, hundreds and hundreds to bring out on the streets like that we need to process this we need to work through it we need to realize God's blessing on the poor.

Why does God bless the poor, because they're hungry. I believe the poor have a hunger about them, I've always found it, whenever I've gone overseas, if I want to really see spiritual hunger I've got to leave my own country and go overseas, and I see it, and I go yes, this is what Jesus saw, these are the hungry these are the people that have a simplicity about them, that we have totally lost, and you start to go, my goodness the rich aren't so blessed after all, we're blessed with possessions, blessed with stuff, but what have we lost, we lose so much, why we lose our child-likeness we lose our simplicity, we lose our ability just simply to believe like a child believes, just simply to be told something, and go yes I believe that that's true, I'm going to chase that hunger and pursue after that, you know, that's what we lose, because we're just so we've got everything, so well educated, we think we know what's going on.

There are actual rebukes given all the way through the New Testament to rich people continuous rebukes. Jesus even told a parable where the rich guy just goes straight down to hell just, rich guy goes straight down to hell, poor guy Lazarus, is in Abraham's bosom, in paradise, and you go I wonder what the point of the parable is, but part of it is, Jesus is again, rebuking the rich, he did it all the time, so to me, you know, James he says, go to now you rich man, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you, you have heaped together gold for the last days.

Now if you want to see some rebukes look through the rebukes against rich people, they are horrendous. We have a Christianity in my opinion that is really divorced from the reality of the early days. You know, I was talking last night about how we went through the dark ages and just lost our ability to see things, this is one of the things we've lost we look at it and we think we know what it's saying, and we just don't have a clue we just don't even know and we go, I wonder why it is that we're not really like that.

I wonder why it is that we're not seeing these things happen, why could that be. I wonder why that might be. You know, we got filled with the same Holy Spirit. What's going on. We're missing so many obvious things we need to be living out Book of Acts Christianity we need to be making those decisions and counting that cost that will take us from where we're at into the New Testament, it will cost us it will take us out of our comfort zone.

Counting the Cost of Obedient Discipleship

It, in many cases, will be dangerous. There's certainly danger attached to it. When we used to take our daughters down to Skid Row, we'd obviously be saying to them, you know, don't go more than 10 feet away from where I'm standing, that kind of stuff.

Why, because there's literally people off their heads. You know, I remember one time I remember one time, and I don't even know why this lady just went crazy and started chasing around one of the girls that had been baptized with a piece of glass, trying to cut it you know, just right rushing around us you know, with us yelling at her to calm down.

You know, you don't even know why these people are doing it, you're dealing with crazy and sometimes drug addicted people, you've just got to be aware, this is where God calls us to be, there aren't any poor people in the world where it's totally safe.

This is non-existent. It doesn't happen. You're automatically going into places that are less safe than where you live. Jesus was sent down to the most dangerous place, planet Earth that God could think of.

You know, He abandoned Paradise to come down into the riskiest place where the Son of God Himself would be placed at risk put in danger to a place that was volatile as anything, where there's people with swords, you know, wanting to fight the Romans at a moment's notice etc, etc, that's where Jesus was sent, the apostles were all sent out along roads and through pirate infested waters and stuff.

You know, every day of their lives we live a safe Christianity, what is it that we have? We have safety. I don't know that we have Christianity. We've just got safety. We read our Bibles and say, oh I'm a Bible believing Christian.

Listen, I want to see it. I want to see that we're a Bible believing Christian. I want to see this stuff come to life, I don't want to hear that we believe the right things. Don't tell me that we believe the right things, I want to see it.

We need to be doing it. It wasn't just about believing the right things. That's part of our false dichotomy, that's part of our assumption, we think that's ok it's not so God is calling to us and He's saying, get out of your comfortable ship, you know you can't float here no more.

You better go to a place where I'm calling you to be, you better go search for those people I'm calling you to. You cannot stand still, you cannot sit where you're at go, and isn't it amazing that the first word, both times the Great Commission starts with the word go.

Isn't that interesting go Matthew 28, Mark 16. So with that challenge obviously I challenge myself with this. I haven't always felt this way interestingly enough. I had to go to America to be challenged in these areas and it was guys that were living it that started challenging me and like I say our whole family changed, we changed from being a family that was into the theory of it, that enjoyed you know family, Christianity together.

We went from that to being looking outward and saying goodness. Christianity involves out there not just in here. Amen. Alright please stand let's pray together if you just want to surrender to God just in a new way in this area.

A Prayer to Become Disciples Who Go

It's a calling that's different for every person but sometimes corporately as a body God will have maybe this group do something together that's along these lines. I don't know what God's got for you but just if you want to and if you really want to commit yourself in a new way to stepping out beyond the comfort zone to do with the stuff that we've talked about today please just raise your hands together right now and I'll just pray for us.

Father God, Father we say again Father we want to be disciples. We don't want to be just hearers of the word Father God, we want to be disciples of Jesus, Father make us a people that have that air of the New Testament days about us God, God let us move through this earth shining like lights because we're not just being filled with the Holy Spirit but we're walking in that authority that you sent us outwards from Father let it be reality.

Send us to the people that you want us to be sent to God. Let us not be comfortable and just sitting in our own comfortable boat where we sail along, Father make it real, send us forth make us a people that go and let us go with authority with anointing, send us to the right people.

Father God lead us by your Spirit show us who to speak to and who to minister to God, especially in this comfortable western world where we have to go looking for those needy ones. Father, help us God.