Sunday Morning Sermon Series - Pastor Josiah Shipley (Date:01/31/2021)

What is Peer evangelism. We got something going on on the 21st, don't we? You mean March 21st?

Yes, I do. Oh, are you talking about the spring break block party? I am. Where on earth am I going? You're gonna be at Witton Baptist Church, which is 6773 Macon Road. It's right on the corner of Witton and Macon.

Across from the Walgreens we're gonna have free hot dogs. I like free. Popcorn, snow cone machine, and cotton candy. Also, it's not just food. We're also gonna have games. So, you know, little hoops and we've got some other other games going on.

The first 100 families to come to our spring break block party on March 21st from 4 to 7 p .m. will receive a free gift bag. And that's actually what I was just working on right now. Do we have a slide?

We do have a slide. Should I post it right now? Yes, post the slide right now.

Peer Evangelism and the Gospel in Luke 24

Turn with me, if you will, to Luke 24. Luke chapter 24, please. We'll only be here for a moment and then we'll switch on over to Matthew. I just want to start here just for a moment. Thank you, sir. What is peer evangelism?

Brother Jeff talked about this the other week. Someone answer. What is peer evangelism? One to another. Peer evangelism is sharing the gospel with those God has put in your life. Okay, it's not simply standing at a podium.

It is not about teaching a Sunday school class. Peer evangelism is sharing the good news, the life-changing message of Jesus, with those in your realm. What is the gospel? There are some summary statements of it in Scripture, but I'd like to summarize it here in the gospel of Luke 24, starting in verse 44.

This was read a moment ago. Then he said to them, Jesus to the disciples, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Then he opened their eyes to understand the scriptures and he said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

That is the gospel. That all of humanity stinks, and God is the only one who doesn't, and that he provided a way to salvation through repentance, the forgiveness of sins. I'd like to point out, simply as a side note, but for your further study, in verse 44, Jesus says all that was written in the law of Moses, that's the Torah, and the prophets, Nephim, and in the Psalms or the writings, Ketuvim, were written about him.

The Old Testament does nothing but point us to the cross. It is all about him, and he recognizes that. But what I want to do today is remove every excuse for us and empower us, as the Word of God does, to boldly be able to preach the message.

And it doesn't matter that you are not a perfect Christian. That is why it is called grace. See, some of you say, or will say, that you are unworthy to tell someone else about Jesus, and you feel that way because you really are.

That's why it's called grace. That's why it's called grace. If you were worthy of that, then you wouldn't need grace. Verse 45, No words you can say, no way you can put it, no certain order is needed.

For it is God who opens people's minds to understand the Scripture. Your job is just to obey. Your job is not to say it in a way that makes it more palatable to their ears. That's not your job. Your job is to proclaim the truth.

God is the one who opens minds. That's not you. Simply obey. That is the gospel, that Jesus changes people. If you are a Christian in this room, then you know that at one point, and now, even still, you have felt the peace and the love of God.

Sharing that with somebody else is the gospel, and is that gospel that is the power of God to salvation. God could have chosen whatever means he wanted to to spread his gospel, and he chose the church.

That's us. Every one of us. Turn with me to Matthew 28. This is what will be the rest of the time, so you don't have to change anymore. We'll be in Matthew 28 the rest of the time. That is the gospel.

The Great Commission and the Removal of Excuses

In Matthew 28, 16 through 20, what we're going to do is we're just going to go through it verse by verse, and we are going to watch God remove every excuse we would have to not share this with somebody else.

That's what we're going to do today. We're going to go through these five little verses and show how he did that for the disciples, and how he does that for us. Matthew 28, 16 through 20 says this,. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

Yes, it's 11. Judas is no longer with them. He's hanging out somewhere. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Verse 17, when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted, and Jesus came and said to them, All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.

First off, verse 16. Notice it says Jesus commanded them. If you go back to verse 10, Jesus didn't directly command them. He told the women who saw him, Mary, Magdalene, and the others, to tell the disciples.

But they viewed that as him directly commanding them. Ladies and gentlemen, our job as a mouthpiece of God is to give the commands of God to other people, to show them the truth. And God has chosen to use us as that mouthpiece.

You see, God typically uses ordinary means to bring about his extraordinary purposes. Here, it was through the witness of the women that the apostles obeyed Jesus. Understand that our job is to speak the truth in love.

You don't have to be mean about it. The gospel is offensive enough on its own. You just say the truth in love. Because if you love someone, that is what you do. You tell them the truth. And it doesn't matter.

It could be through a pastor, a preacher, a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, a member of an accountability group, a one-on-one discipleship, a mother, a friend, an encouraging phone call, or a text.

God can use whatever means he wants to bring about his message. Our job is just to obey. Our job is just to obey. They went to Galilee, in your brain, that is about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. Why did he make them go to Galilee to give them this message?

See, this is not the Ascension. That was what we read in Luke. That's all the way back down in Bethany, close to Jerusalem. Why do you make them travel all the way up there to simply say this? Scripture doesn't tell us.

It could be because this is where the ministry started. It's where he called most of them. This is where he called them from their former ways of life to follow him. But I think it's best to view it as the disciples didn't know either.

They just knew they had to obey. See, you don't have to know the why before you start obeying. You start obeying and pray that God gives you the why later. Just like a parent knows. The child does not always need to know the why.

They need to start obeying and the why will come later. And it's the same with us. Don't say I won't obey God until I understand this. You start obeying and then God reveals the why in his own time. Verse 17.

When they saw him, they worshipped. He hasn't even done or said anything yet, but they saw him for who and what he is and they started worshipping. When's the last time you worshipped God simply for who he is?

Not just for what he's done or an answered prayer, but simply for who he is. Because he is worthy and he is the only one worthy of that adoration. That we are to worship him not simply for what he has done, but for who he is.

They saw him and they worshipped, but some doubted. Husbands, verse 17 is how you start to lead in prayer for your wife. And I need you to listen. They worshipped, but some doubted. Brother Hunter correctly cited a couple of weeks ago that worship is that what you do in obedience to God.

See, praise is with the mouth, worship is with the heart. Worship is that what you do in obedience to God. Notice, notice, please, they're worshipping and obeying even though there's doubt in their heart.

And Jesus doesn't rebuke them for that. You see, it doesn't become sin until you allow it to keep you from obeying. But the disciples here, some of them at least, have doubt in the heart and choose to obey and worship anyway.

Anyway. Gentlemen, husbands, when you pray with your wife, she doesn't need a theologian. She doesn't need a PhD seminary graduate. She needs someone to lead. She needs someone to lead and she doesn't need someone to say some fake oration.

She needs someone to pray from the heart, start leading and see if God doesn't bless that obedience. And I have a challenge for all of you, husbands. I want you to pick. Now, for those of you that already have your own system, fine, but for those of you who don't ever pray with your wife due to shame.

See, for most of you, it's not really laziness or apathy. You're ashamed because you know that your stuff stinks. Do you know what? That's the time to obey anyway. And to show her, to show her that it's not about having it all together, but it's about obeying it even though you don't.

My challenge for you is to pick a day, a time, and no matter what happens at that day and that time of your choosing, you pray with your wife. It doesn't matter if that prayer is 15 seconds long. Doesn't matter.

You start obeying. You start obeying. Pick a day and a time. I don't care when. And start and see if God doesn't bless that obedience. They haven't even reached Jesus and they started worshiping. Even though there's doubt in some of their hearts, they choose to obey anyway.

Verse 18, and Jesus came near to them. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. They started worshiping and Jesus came near to them, even though he knew there was doubt in their hearts. He didn't rebuke that, guys.

He didn't rebuke that because they were worshiping anyway. Somebody get out your phone and look up what the word struggle means. In fact, everybody, get your phone out, put it in your little taskbar and little Google, Google the word struggle.

And in a minute, I'm going to ask you what the definition is. Verse 18, Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus, his time of humiliation is over. He humbled himself by becoming obedient. He emptied himself by giving up his heavenly throne to come be a slave. Remember, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a slave, a person.

His time of humiliation is over. And now all authority on heaven and on earth, spiritual and physical, has been given to him. He is sovereign. He is Lord. Which makes verse 19 all the more important, therefore.

See, whenever you read the Bible, guys, look at those words, what is the therefore? Therefore, and it's to let you know that you can now believe verse 19, because all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. Make disciples of all nations. When you tell someone the gospel. As we said before, you don't need to stress about saying the right words or using a specific method because it's just simply the gospel itself that is the power of God, the salvation.

You just need to open your mouth and speak. And I promise you, his word will not return bored. It will accomplish that which he set out to do. All right. What does the word struggle mean? What's it mean?

Someone say it out loud. Violent effort, actively fighting against a violent struggle. I've said this before and I will continue to say it until we all have a proper understanding of what the word struggle means, because as I've said before, I believe that is the most misused word in the Christian language.

We often say we're struggling with sin when there's no active fight against it. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no shame in struggling with sin. That's actually obedience. So long as we all have the same definition of struggle, struggle doesn't mean experience or you're doing it.

It means you're fighting back. See, the disciples in verse 17 are fighting back. They have doubt and Jesus doesn't rebuke them for that because they're actually fighting against him. The sins in your life are not shameful so long as you're putting up a struggle.

By the way, that's how you show what grace can do. It can change people. It can change people, and that's the best gospel you could ever share with anyone else to let your light so shine before men that they can see your good works and glorify your father that's in heaven.

They can see your good works. They see him because you're actively fighting against it. If you are worried that you can't witness to X person because they would know you're a hypocrite, the answer is yes, they will.

Yes, they will know that. But if you are working to be more godly, more obedient, more Christ filled than you were yesterday, then you don't just have to tell them about grace. They can see it in a broken vessel like you.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, ethnos, peoples. Don't think that you must leave the United States to share the gospel. In your brain, picture one person right now at work, at school.

I don't care if it's on the phone. Whatever person is in your sphere of influence that, you know, does not know Jesus as Lord and Savior, because if he's not Lord, he's not their Savior as Lord and Savior.

Share the gospel of that person. But, Josiah, they know I said this or did this or acted this way. And what better witness is there than to tell somebody, hey, you know what? I shouldn't have done that or shouldn't have said that.

I'm following Jesus and I'm still figuring it out. But his grace is changing me and can change you, too. What better message is there than that? That is the message of the gospel. Not just that he saves you from hell, but he transforms you from the inside out to be a useful vessel.

That is the message of the gospel. That is the process of sanctification, the process of being made more like Christ. And maybe he chooses to do it slowly instead of in an instant so that we have a long journey of which to show other people what it means to change.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yes, as a side note, it is worth noticing. Baptism comes after they are already disciples. Look at the order here. Sorry. Other brothers and sisters in Christ, the baptism comes after the discipleship, just like this morning.

Here's probably my favorite part of this passage. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is no letter S after the word name. It's singular. See, there's three people after the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

How can that be? Because we have always confessed that our God is triune. You see that our God is one being, one essence in three distinct persons, and he has a name. And his name is Yahweh, Jehovah, which is just another way to say I am so that we can say there is Yahweh, the Father, Yahweh, Son and Yahweh, the Holy Spirit.

And that all three of them are in essence, God. Which is why we can say in the name singular of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is why it's not blasphemy for Jesus to say all authority on heaven and earth is given to me.

Physical, spiritual, heaven, earth, it's mine. I'm sovereign over it. I am the king of kings. I am the Lord of Lords. Verse 20, teaching them to observe. This is the hard part. This is the part that pastors need help with.

That right there, that one line is a biblical definition of discipleship. Let me read that again. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Notice it doesn't say teach them the Bible. Anyone can do that.

I do that all the time. That's not the hard part. It doesn't say teach them the Bible, it says teach them to obey it. Not teach them what Matthew is saying in Matthew 28, but teach them how to obey it.

That's discipleship. That's the hard part. That's the hard part. That is what God made the church for, not simply to go knock on the door, tell someone about Jesus, never see him again and never invest in him again, but to train them, to teach them how to now obey that gospel.

That's the message of discipleship. And guys, that doesn't happen overnight. That is what you can do with somebody else in this room right now. We just had or we are currently in the process of 10 people joining our church from the past three or four weeks, 10.

Most of them, most of them, not all of them, have been saved for like a total of five minutes. Several of them are first generation believers. In other words, their mother, their father were not believers.

It is both a blessing and a challenge that we have so many first generation believers in this room. It's great because we don't have the religious garbage that comes along with that. It's not great in the sense that we don't have a ton of spiritual maturity yet.

Yet, which is why those of you that are mature in Christ, notice an insane age, I said in Christ, disciple, teach them to obey it. Don't just teach them what it is, teach them how to obey it. Josiah can sit here and tell them the standard, but we need to teach each other, OK, how do I obey it?

Where do I start? That is what discipleship is. Do we understand that? I promise you, you can't walk more than three feet in this room without finding somebody who needs that. Do that. And that, guys, that doesn't just happen in this room.

That happens taking somebody out to lunch. That happens calling somebody. That happens by inviting someone over to dinner. That can happen through an encouraging text in the morning saying, hey, I just prayed for you.

And that not be a lie, that you actually did just pray for him. Notice that for those of you that are scared to evangelize. First off, you're not alone. You're not alone. Don't allow that fear to control you anymore.

Guys, when you evangelize, there's a myriad of responses you'll get. I work four days a week at Evergreen UV. We make a bunch of the lighting fixtures that Ashley was passing out the other day. And we have trucks coming in and out all day long, delivering stuff and picking up stuff.

And I often go up to the trucker who talks to like three people all day. Okay. And after we load up the truck, I simply say this. Okay. I say, hey, ma 'am, I do the same thing at restaurants with the waiter.

Hey, man, my wife and I are going to pray tonight, which, by the way, when I say that, that makes me have to follow through with it. You see that? We're going to pray. What is one thing I could pray for you about tonight?

Now, I haven't even gotten to Jesus dying yet. I haven't gotten to sin yet. You'd be surprised the different responses you get. A couple weeks ago, I said that to somebody at a restaurant. She started crying because she said, quote, nobody has ever asked me that.

That's not in North Korea. It's not in Iran. That's in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobody has ever asked me that. Sometimes people are resistant to the gospel. And ladies and gentlemen, I tell you, that's not a head issue.

That's a heart issue. And you know what? That's okay. I've got a guy at work right now in my brain. I'm picturing him right here. Okay. Now, my job is to simply tell him the truth. Okay. And I talk just like this when I talk to him.

I don't yell. I don't scream. At the same time, on the other side of my brain, I know he is one bad car wreck or whatever, away from eternal hell. I recently was evangelizing to him and he said, hey man, I don't want to hear about that anymore.

I said, I got you, man. No problem. Well, about a week later, he was talking about how he didn't use the word peace, but he had no rest. He had no comfort in his life. And I told him, my brother, you know my answer to that because there's only one source of peace and love that can fill that hole in your heart.

I left it at that. I went home and I prayed for him. The next day I just walked up to him. I patted him on the shoulder. I said, hey man, just wanted you to know I prayed for you last night. He didn't say anything, he just looked at me.

You know why? Because he's so not used to a Christian actually acting on what they say they believe. Ladies and gentlemen, if God wanted to use perfect vessels, he would have made perfect vessels. But he's chosen to use broken vessels that leak, which is why they have to be refilled every day.

And he's chosen to use that as his mouthpiece to the world. Thank you, Vicki or whoever who wrote that over the door. That's the mission field. And the harvest is white and ready. And you don't have to get a bullhorn and a King James Bible and scream the Romans wrote in particular order to get someone saved.

You show someone the truth that he's doing in your life now, now, not just when you were seven, but now that is not hiding your light under a bushel. That right there is that. One more thing, Brother Hunter, go ahead and come up.

It is you, right? OK, good. I don't want to volunteer. I'm my brother, Jeff. OK, teaching him to observe all that I have commanded you. Ironic, isn't it? One of the commands is to teach someone how to obey commands.

You're showing them obedience the moment you open your mouth and behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. You remember how Matthew's gospel started, Joseph's dream and the angel in the dream told him that his name will be Emmanuel, which means God with us.

Matthew ends his gospel by reminding you that God is still with us. And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. That's the sovereign of the universe talking to you. And I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

The word of God empowers us to go forth with his message broken as you are, because that is part of the message. That's part of the message that you don't have to be who you were yesterday because grace can change people.

And it didn't start and stop when you said a prayer when you were nine. Grace continues now. For you and for I and showing that grace is what the gospel is, ladies and gentlemen, if you feel shame or fear or trepidation about sharing that, don't be ashamed that you feel that and then keep you from doing it.

Be afraid and do it anyway. Be afraid and do it anyway, just like the disciples did here in verse 17. Worship even though you doubt. And Jesus never beat you.