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Don Filcek; Matthew 28:16-20 Sent by The King

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called
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Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church.
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I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here. Optimistic with the shorts this morning. So spring.
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How many of you enjoyed the weather this week? Did you? Oh, it was glorious. How many of you are looking forward to the weather this week? No.
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OK, but we know this spring is here and we can look forward to summer. I'm really glad to be a part of this church gathering.
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I am so glad to be here. God has brought us together this morning from a variety of different walks of life. We gather united by the common goals that we see clearly expressed in the text of scripture we're going to be going through this morning.
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We're wrapping up a series that I began over 10 years ago, preaching through the book of Matthew.
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Now, we haven't been obviously solid in Matthew for 10 years, but it's been a series that I've gone back to in between preaching other books of the
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Bible. The way that the Gospels are written, it's kind of easy to enter into them. Not a lot of context is needed.
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Life of Jesus. You can just enter into the stories. You can enter into the parables and take off. And so we've taken this off little chunk by chunk over 10 years.
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And Matthew has been a companion along the journey of me becoming a pastor. Really, I think that that's kind of a process for a person.
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And so over the over the last 10 years, that's been he's been like right here with me. But before I get too far into introducing the text, let me tie our text to our core values as a church, reminding you what our core values are.
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Our name is an acronym for replication, community, authenticity, simplicity and truth.
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You see that over the donuts. If you get donut holes on Sunday morning, they're right there above you. Your focus is on the donut holes, though, so you probably don't see that very often.
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But I want to spotlight and focus on the first one of these core values, which really is the text in a nutshell.
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It's replication. Now, ironically, and those of you that have been kicking it around here for a little bit longer.
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Ironically, we originally called this first core value reproducing. We call it reproducing.
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We changed the name. It's a couple left. Yeah, I see where this is going. We decided we didn't want to sound like a cult.
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And so somewhere around like 2014 ish, we decided to change it to replication.
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What I've noticed, though, is that the nursery continues to grow. So, you know, there's that.
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But all joking aside, we want to be a people that are seeing the work that God is doing in us replicated in the lives of other people.
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What I mean by that is just if you could think about your own personal testimony of things that you could say that God has done for you. I'll go ahead and go through some for me.
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He has saved me, and therefore I want to see others saved. I want to see that reproduced, replicated in their lives as well.
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He has forgiven me. I want others to experience the freedom of forgiveness in Christ. He has given me purpose.
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He has given me direction. I want others to experience that purpose and direction for their lives. Are you getting it?
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The replication of the things that God is doing in our lives, not just for our benefit, not just that we become glutted or or bloated with the blessings of God, but that we we spill over into the world around us with the good things that he's given to us, that we want to, in turn, share with others.
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We want to see God's good purposes, good blessings in the lives of others. Replication is a fundamental purpose of the church.
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And this is not for the purpose of self -affirmation, as if the goal is that we just pack this place with more and more and more chairs, as if the goal of replication is just mere numerical growth, despite the fact that God has.
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You look around, you say, well, we have been growing, but that's not the point. The point is that God is blessing more, that more are being brought into his favor, more are being brought into his blessings.
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Our desire to be a replicating church flows from a direct mission that Jesus gave to his followers in a very major, what we're going to be looking at, a very major post -resurrection appearance recorded for us in our passage today.
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Jesus Christ has been crucified. He was buried and he has rose again. And we're going to be looking at an appearance of the risen
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Jesus to his followers. But all of this ties in with a fundamental thing that I think all of us know, but it's a little it can get dicey in our minds and a little foggy.
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We are a people on a mission, right? We are at least called to be a people on a mission, a mission given to his first followers and passed along to us through the record of Matthew here, so that what we see him give to his 11 followers here, and probably quite likely more in the context, but what we see him commissioning, sending, giving them a mission, it's not just for them because it's recorded for us.
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It's there for us to read, too. It's there for us to take on and tackle. Our text this morning is just five small verses, and some have considered it too small an ending to summarize such a broad and sweeping book on the life of Jesus like Matthew.
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But these five verses pack a punch as they resolve the major themes of the book of Matthew and land on the fundamental purpose of the church that Jesus Christ has left here to be his hands and feet in the world.
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Our text is meant to do more than inform us about a mission. Let that settle on you.
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It's meant to be more than a mission, more than information. It's meant to be the very words of our risen
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Savior calling us into this mission with him. He's alive, church, and he is going to call you and enlist you this morning.
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He's going to ask you to be involved. He's going to say, this is what my people do.
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You follow me. This is how you roll. This is the way that you live. And my prayer is that this is not merely an informational lecture this morning, but rather God would be urging us all the motivation and empowerment and action because of encountering him, his voice through the pages of Scripture, calling out to each one of us to fulfill the mission that he has given us.
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So let's kick it off by turning in our Bibles or devices to Matthew chapter 28, the very end.
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So this is it, wrapping up Matthew. Matthew 28, starting in verse 16, just those last five verses.
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Recast, this is an awesome word. All of it's glorious from beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation.
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But this is what God desires for us to take in together this morning. Now, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which
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Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.
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And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
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Let's pray. Father, we know what we're made of, if we're honest, if we have any self -assessment, if we take even just a moment of quiet.
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It's hard to find a moment of quiet in our American culture, in our society, where we can put AirPods in and listen to something 24 -7.
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And we love to drown ourselves out with noise. But Father, in those moments where we have just those slivers of self -reflection, we know that we are frail.
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We know that we are broken. We know that we are not all that we need to be.
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And so how glorious it is for me to meditate and consider this week and for us to take in that you choose to use us.
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You have a mission for us. You have a calling for us. You have a purpose for us. It goes so much bigger, so much broader than our internal battles, our internal fights, our internal self -loathing or self -esteem, or whatever it might be that we think of self, self, self.
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But you have a purpose that lifts our eyes up outside of ourselves to the purposes that you have for us in the world.
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To be having an impact, to be having an influence, to be genuinely changing the world through the power of your
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Spirit and through this mission that you have set us on. What would you do in this community and in this region and in this state and in this country if we would grab a hold of the mission that you've called us to and the empowering that you give us to do it?
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Father, I pray that this morning would be a day of decision for us, a day of hearing your voice and responding, hearing your calling to be enlisted this morning in your cause and in your purposes, to recognize that the engine under the hood of the
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Christian life is about making disciples, is about declaring your praise and proclaiming you and pointing to your
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Son, Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that even the songs that we sing this morning would point our hearts in the right direction, point our hearts toward you and remind us of what a great salvation we've been given, that we have this opportunity, even this morning, to think about passing that along to others.
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Be here, present with us, receiving this as praise and worship to you this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.
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And as I say every Sunday, get comfortable, keep your Bibles open to the passage that we're going to be digging through and walking through.
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That's Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 to 20. If at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes, take advantage of that.
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And then the restrooms are out the double doors down the hallway on the left -hand side. And so if you need those, you're not going to distract me if you need to get up at any time during the message.
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But here we are at the end of a book. But just like so many endings, we also see this passage as a beginning.
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Matthew has taken us on a long journey of discovery over the life of Jesus, starting with the royal lineage of Jesus in the very beginning of this book, going through the birth narratives, his baptism, his temptations, his many miracles, five very detailed sections of his teaching called
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Discourses that Matthew records for us. Matthew packed a lot into these 28 chapters.
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And then he spent the last few chapters on the final week of Jesus leading up to the cross and resurrection in which there's a really interesting one of those five discourses, isn't it, last week where he talks about end times?
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Always a little bit of an interesting section there. If you want to go back, all those sermons are recorded and they're available on the website.
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And so under the teaching tab, if you ever want to go back and hear any of the book of Matthew, they're there. You have to you have to sort through them a little bit, but you can find them.
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So and now we come to just five short verses in these five short verses. He's going to describe the point of it all, the purpose of it all.
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We have read about and studied the unique life of this man, Jesus Christ. And I entitled this sermon series ten years ago.
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And I and I love it because it actually worked. But not your average savior. That's been that's been the sermon series all along.
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And nobody could read this book and think that this man was ordinary. You can't read this and go, this is just, yeah, this is a normal guy.
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The very explicit ending of this book, of course, calls us into action as a result of encountering this man,
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Jesus Christ. Now, many have called this passage. You may be familiar with the phrase. How many raise your hand if you've heard the phrase great commission?
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You heard the phrase great commission. Many call this a great commission. And yet I want to demystify that title a little bit and bring it down a notch for us.
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Despite the fact that most scholars and people will just title this the great commission kind of for the purposes of identifying what we're talking about in scripture.
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When I was younger, the phrase great commission evoked in my mind the special people. The called out and sent ones.
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That's what commission means is sent out or called out or sent out. You know, these are the ones who left
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America to go share the gospel in Africa or in Asia or in the Middle East. Great seem to modify their ideals, but great also seemed in my heart and in my young mind to even modify the people themselves.
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They're the great ones. What do you know what I'm talking about? Were you raised in a church like that? The elevation of the missionary, the elevation of the one who is going out and sacrificing everything to go.
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I think part of my and Linda's journey is in part because of being raised in a church in that context where the rock stars were the missionaries.
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If you wanted to be a rock star, you sold everything, went studied and then went to the mission field.
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And so Linda and I did that and I mean, God used it. We were there for two years and we were spit out by the system and we're back in the
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United States. But it seemed like it modified a lofty ideal and the people themselves.
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But recast, this is an ordinary commission. If you get anything out of the message this morning,
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I hope you hear this as just ordinary bread and butter Christianity. This is ordinary.
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This is normal. This is a normal commission. This is not for the special ones here today.
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Everybody else can take a look. I've got my ministry. I've got my calling. I've got my thing that I do here.
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So who there's obviously a couple people here that need this. Not at all.
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This is an ordinary commission. Jesus wants to talk to you this morning.
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He wants to talk to you about your life with him. That's what this is about. It is ascending out of all of his disciples to be about the mission that he has for all of us.
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It's not a unique calling for some special followers. It is a calling for all and I'm going to outline our text in four sections this morning that I think flow out of the text itself.
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Hey, it didn't take much work to alliterate this week. So I went ahead and did it. I really only need to like work on the fourth one on the context of the commission versus 16 and 17 the cause of the commission verse 18 the content of the commission the big chunk 19 through 20 the start of that verse and then the latter half of verse 20 is the comfort of the commission.
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So let's start in the beginning with the context which is set out for us in the first two verses. Now, I don't know about you, but I have found that oftentimes great insights in my life.
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If I have a couple here or there those insights often come out of a little bit of confusion. If I start confused about something
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I start wrestling in my mind with something I start with something I don't understand and then when you come to understanding it lodges there because you had to wrestle with it.
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Are you getting what I'm saying in it? If you have to wrestle through it if there's some confusion about it something doesn't seem quite right and you mull it over you wrestle with it.
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It isn't making sense, but you keep studying you keep researching keep talking to people about it and suddenly you gain some further insight.
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Maybe it's a conversation with a friend or maybe it's a teacher who reveals something to you or a book that you read or probably not
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Google, but something snaps into focus, right? And then and then it's like oh and you grow because the tension is resolved where there was tension in your life and you're trying to figure it out.
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It gets resolved and the context of the giving of this commission begins with confusion among the 11 disciples.
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I want to point that out that that's it's it's foggy. There's something that's murky to them and we see it here in these first two verses now the context directly actually what's going on is a post -resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ.
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Now Matthew doesn't record them all for us actually actually none of the Gospels record all of them that we compile those harmonize the different accounts and find that actually this is not the first time that Jesus has met with the disciples.
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He met with them in Jerusalem before they actually went up here and it's there's a little clue in the text that he's already met with them before but most scholars see what
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Matthew is recording for us here in this context is the most significant one meaning that it was just the most people at this one.
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This is likely a larger group than just the 11 now Matthew highlights at the 11 are there but he doesn't say that there's not more and many think that this is this is an advertised get -together.
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That was the one that Paul mentions in first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 6 in that context
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Paul records for us that Jesus appeared to 500 people at one time the way that this is advertised the way that this is pushed forward the way that it's like hey the angels tell the ladies make sure that you tell them to go up to this place in Jerusalem and Jesus meets with the ladies and tells them hey make sure you go up there and then
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Jesus meets with the disciples and sets up the location all of that indicating that there's like a big meetup going on the ladies were told at the empty tomb that they were to tell the disciples.
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Go up to Galilee and Jesus will meet you there and and that process of of that that routine.
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He has directed them to a specific mountain location. He met with them in Jerusalem at those resurrection appearances and he said hey want you to get everybody together.
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Pull a bunch of people together and I'm going to meet him on this mountainside in this location. They were from Galilee. They knew the area they had traveled it with Jesus.
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Some people actually think it may have very well been the sermon on the Mount of the place where he delivered the sermon on the Mount up in Galilee on the shores of the
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Sea of Galilee. But regardless of the location we see who meets with him here according to Matthew.
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There are the 12 minus Judas the betrayer meaning 11 and they are waiting for him at the appointed time and place quite likely.
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It's a little speculative but quite likely with a crowd and when they saw him. What are the disciples do?
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Anybody see it in the text? What do they do? They worshiped him. And in this comes the confusion in this comes the fog.
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It says they worshiped him but some did what? Some doubted according to the
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English Standard Version. Some doubted. The nature of the doubts might be confusing to us.
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Like what are they doubting? And how many of you have you were just making this up would not record that they doubted.
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You know what I'm saying? Like if you were writing this about yourself Matthew being one of those 11. I might just leave that part out, right?
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But he includes it here. Some doubted the nature of the doubts are best understood in the light of the way that Jesus alleviates those doubts.
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What is his answer to it? How does he respond to the doubt that he's he's receiving? You see
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I often thought that they doubt in this passage that the doubt was about the resurrection or even a question like is this really
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Jesus or are my eyes deceiving me? But all of those doubts specifically about the resurrection were resolved in the the previous resurrection experiences.
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If you're going to harmonize these Gospels Thomas has already said I doubt and put his put his finger in the in the scar from the nails and Jesus hands.
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He's already seen the scar from the the spear in his side. Like those kinds of doubts have already been resolved for these dudes.
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So what are they doubting? I think it really does matter when we get down to understanding what's going on here.
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After studying this more. I'm very confident that the nature of these doubts are more of the long along these lines reasonable
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Jewish mind understanding should we really be worshiping him?
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They're on their knees in some form of worship going is this hey guys, this is all right. Can you imagine?
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I just put yourself in in the mind of a little Jewish boy or little Jewish girl has been raised from their youth to say frequently behold
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Israel the Lord your God the Lord is one should we be worshiping him thou shall have no other gods before me.
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What does it mean that these men are on their knees in worship to Jesus Christ? How many of you think that there might be a little mystery to that a little confusion a little need for oh my goodness.
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Are we we're all in? That's a big step for these these men who are coming from a
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Jewish perspective. Should we really be worshiping him? I want to tell you just a little a little personal anecdote here.
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I had a similar confusion during my junior and senior year of college. I had almost this exact question on my mind.
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Should we actually be worshiping Jesus? I don't know where that came from, but it was stuck in my craw.
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I had this unsettled feeling about singing to Jesus praying to Jesus or otherwise maybe potentially in my mind my young mind thinking maybe we're over deifying him in the church.
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Maybe we had a maybe maybe where God the Father says I am a jealous God. Maybe we're making him jealous like I was thinking that and so I thought saw things like the first two commands and and I read about the oneness of the
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Jewish God in the Old Testament. I had a week but developing Trinitarian understanding and so I spent those couple of years reading and wrestling with Scripture.
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I went to the sources with the main purpose of settling my heart and mind on the position of Jesus Christ in my worship.
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Where should he be? Is it kind of like I ought to be worshiping the father and you know kind of glad for the son or something like that?
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Was I taking away glory from the father by worshiping the son was the question. Was I making an equal to one who has no equal and it's an important question that the church has had to answer down through the ages and yet I wanted to see it from the word.
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I didn't want to I don't want to listen to what Augustine said about it. I want to read what the church father said about it. I don't want to talk to a pastor about it and get his opinion about it.
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I wanted to see what the word of God has to say about it. So I read the Bible and I read it with that one question in mind.
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Is Jesus worthy of worship? We just saying it. Do you believe it? Is he worthy?
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He is and I can tell you that alleviating that confusion for me and it was indeed alleviated by and if you have any questions or qualms or thoughts and even if this conversation here plants a thought in your mind, wait, why?
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What led you? I've got all kinds of passages, all kinds of places that I can turn you. This being one of them, this very passage that I'm preaching on now is one of them.
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But alleviating that confusion for me meant all the difference in the world in my relationship to God, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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And let me encourage you from this point toward a first point of application, Jesus is gracious to handle our doubts and confusions.
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The fact is that here in this gathering of sending out his people to be on mission, there is doubt and confusion and he is big enough and his word is comprehensive enough to give us what we need to know in order to act rightly.
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Don't be afraid to come to him and his word for answers to any doubts that you might face. So many things that once were shrouded in mist and confusion have been cleared up for me by going to the word or they've just proven to be a smokescreen and they weren't really an issue in my heart.
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They were just something that I was kind of like throwing up because of my flesh or something like that. So they prove not to be even a significant issue to begin with.
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But here's the thing, church. Got questions? He has answers. Run to him for answers.
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He can handle it. The context of the commission itself here flows out of a misty confusion that needs to be cleared up before they can move forward.
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Should we be worshipping Jesus, say the disciples, from a position of kneeling before him?
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We're going too far? And Jesus uses that confusion to launch out into our second point this morning. The cause of the commission is the answer to the question.
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The cause of the commission is the answer to the question, is he worthy of your worship? That's in verse 18.
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His answer to this point of doubt is the reason that we are launched out into mission.
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He approaches them and answers the fundamental question of their heart in just a few words. By the way, note that they didn't ask a question.
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He just answers it. I love how Jesus acts this way often throughout the Gospels. He responds to their hearts.
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He responds to their confusion. He responds to the feelings that they have inside. A few words.
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All authority in heaven and earth have been given to me. Worship away.
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Here I am and you will never worship better. All authority.
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In heaven. And on earth belong to Jesus Christ our
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Lord. It's all his. He answers the fundamental question.
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Is he worthy of our worship? More than that. He's worthy of much more than that.
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What's on their minds? Should we worship Jesus? What does he say? I am the king and sovereign Lord over heaven and earth.
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So much for that placard over his head that mocked him saying king of the Jews. Here is the king of the universe declaring so.
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He is here being very tailored and intentional in his answer. By the way, he knows his audience.
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All good Jews were taught from diapers only to worship the almighty God and have no other gods before him.
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And he is giving a solid Old Testament reference that comes from Daniel 7 13 through 14. I mean, it's quite likely.
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Very likely that this crossed the disciples minds in his statement. All authority given.
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What context does that happen? They have a Jewish understanding of that found and I'm jot that reference down.
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It's a beautiful reference. Daniel 7 verses 13 through 14 says this. I saw in the night visions the words of Daniel the prophet hundreds of years before Jesus was born.
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I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. What did Jesus love to call himself?
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The son of man. There came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days.
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Who's the ancient of days? God and was presented before him and to him was given
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Dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples nations and languages should serve him.
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His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
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And Jesus here says, hey boys, I'm that one. I'm that one.
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The one who has received all authority from on high. He came to Earth took on humanity being made in the likeness of us and Jesus the man as the unique God man has now been exalted to his rightful place beside the father.
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He the man rules also as the divine son of God. He is indeed to be worshiped as our
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Savior and our Lord and our master and our God, but in very
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Jesus like fashion. He uses the answer to the question to springboard into his own agenda.
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He said I didn't call this to just demystify everything. I called this meeting for a purpose and this seems like a good segue.
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He says in essence, you doubt whether to worship me. I'm the true Lord over all all authority is mine.
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Even when he man shouts. I have the power. It cannot compare to the Declaration of Jesus and all authority six of you got that the rest of you that got it still didn't think it was funny.
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So that's good. As far as as far as a second application let this sink into us in a way that affects our hours and our days and our months and our years.
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Church nobody's ever made Jesus Lord. We talk about receiving Jesus and ask him to be your
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Lord and Savior or something to that effect. How many of you ever heard that phrase like it in evangelism? You know, just just ask
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Jesus to be your Lord. He already is. He already is he is your
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Lord. He is the one to whom you will give an account. He is the rightful judge. He is the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth and all will stand before him one day.
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Everyone and either we recognize his authority or we ignore that authority, but it's all there. He already has it all.
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But for those who belong to Jesus Christ by faith, we can take deep comfort and knowing that our
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King is in charge. Amen. He's in charge. He who is
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King in heaven is also King here on earth. Don't give Satan too much credit. Satan only has derived authority.
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He has to go to God to ask permission to touch Job. Did you know that? Satan doesn't have his own authority.
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It's derived. Jesus is sovereign. And that means that the worst we will ever experience in this world is somehow a work of the one who loves us and draws us deeper into him.
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Think that through. Let me say that again. The worst that we will ever experience in this world is somehow a work of the one who loves us and draws us deeper into him through the hardships, through the challenges, through the difficulties.
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I can testify only on my personal experience, but I think we could probably open up the mic and many people could get up and testify about the way that God has brought you through hardship to make you stronger.
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How many of you would just raise your hand just to testify that there are specific things that God has brought into your life that you wish weren't there that have made you a better person?
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For me, the loss of both of my parents. I lost my father when I was eight. My mother passed away when
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I was 22. Engaged to Linda, neither one of my parents at my wedding. It has been simultaneously the most difficult emotional hurdle in my life and the most spiritually formative, strengthening thing that has ever happened to me.
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It's really this side of my salvation. And I would even point out that my conversion began with questions in my young heart about the context of the death of my father.
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All authority is his. He's working a plan. All authority is his.
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And that declaration of authority causes a mission to form. He has a plan to work through his disciples.
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His followers are sent out, therefore, on a mission to declare his authority.
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That brings us into our third section of the text, the content of the commission, verses 19 through the first part of 20.
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This is a little bit of a bigger chunk and this is where the rubber meets the road in this commission. What is the content of what he desires for his followers?
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What is the command that will define all of us? This is a let's get under the hood and see what's driving this thing kind of question.
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The follower of Jesus will hear this message and be able to assess their connection to the purposes of Jesus.
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And be warned because God wants you to take an assessment this morning. Be warned that some of us might open the hood and find that someone has stolen the engine.
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There might be nothing under there. Because this is like Christianity 101. These are these are bedrock things that are true of Christians.
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Jesus here is telling us what Christians do. That's what you do if you follow me. If you are my disciple, you do this.
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This is what it looks like. According to verse 19, what do we do? We make disciples and we do this by going and baptizing and teaching.
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That's what we do. We make disciples. That's the main command in verse 19. The form of the others are all supportive.
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All the other words supporting the one main command in this passage make disciples. The other three commands of go baptize and teach support all of that.
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And so we have to consider what it means to make disciples from the beginning and I need to get something out of the way right here.
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I do not like the word disciple used as a verb. I fear that by using this word it reflects exactly what so much of church ministry often falls into and becomes.
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It ends up becoming discipling people. When we use that as a verb, it often ultimately results in them being our disciple, not
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Christ's. Of course, that depends on the content of what we're teaching them. That's fundamental, but often it ends up becoming do things like I do it.
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We tell them what movies to watch and what shows to watch for decades, if not centuries, the church has been quick to make disciples of ourselves.
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Too much of what the church is meant by the verb disciple is bringing people into our own preferred ways of pleasing
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God. No cards, no chew, no girls that do. And certainly, certainly, certainly, under no circumstances are you to dance.
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Right? Anybody know, does that resonate? I mean, I don't know if I'm just kind of like, that was, that's the way I was raised. Anybody with me on that?
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I don't know. Go ahead and raise your hand because I really do want to see who I'm talking to because it might be a very different context now,
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I think. But that's the way I was raised. So how does a person make a disciple? That's a fundamental question we have to ask, and it's simply this, by introducing another person to Christ the
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Lord and Master. That's what we're doing. That's what it means to make a disciple. The one who has all authority, introduce them to him so that they might be a disciple of him.
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This is not a parsing of words. This is a fundamental thing that I fear has plunged the church into the wrong mission for years, if not decades.
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We have over -owned a work that the Spirit is going to do in the lives of others. So with a central command of make disciples, let me be clear that this means simply proclaim the gospel.
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How do you make disciples? Point to Jesus and what he's done. That's how you make disciples.
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And that calls for people, it's a message that calls for people to come to him, follow him, come be his disciple.
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Are you inviting? Are you enlisting others to come follow him? We are to be arrows pointing to him in his glory.
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Not come act like us, not stop being naughty and come behave, but come and connect your boxcar to Jesus and let him as our engine carry you on the tracks where he's going.
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Connect your life to him. He will take you places. That's first, that's foremost, that's central, and we do this in three ways.
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There are three modifiers to the idea of making disciples. Three modifiers to the way that we connect other people's lives to Jesus.
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We make disciples in, first, a going kind of way. A going kind of way.
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The going explains part of the method of making disciples. What's the opposite of going? Staying, right?
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Note that Jesus doesn't give us the place, the location. Oh, by the way, you're all supposed to go here.
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Instead, he tells us to make disciples in that way, a going kind of way. In other words, engaged in our world.
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We are not called to be a soaking -it -up people. We are not here to marinate in the warm sauce of forgiveness and love from Jesus.
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We are a going -out people, church. Not a staying -home -with -Netflix kind of people.
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And a good convicting question to me, and likely to all of us, is where am I going in my life with the purpose of making disciples?
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What does going look like in your life? Where are you going? Where are you intentionally going to make disciples?
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What's that look like in your life, church? Jesus assumes that that's happening. He's told us to.
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It's fundamental. It's the thing that he wants his followers to get. Where are you going?
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You won't make disciples without going outside of your homeschool -church -going friendships. You won't make disciples by hanging around 24 -7 with Christians.
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How many of you know that that's just true? Raise your hand if you know that. You know it. You're going to have to get out, church.
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You're going to have to go somewhere. A global pandemic put a huge damper on our going, did it not? And if you haven't recovered, let this be a kick in the pants, not from Don, but from Jesus.
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Let him kick you in the pants today. Church, let's get going. Some going to the village council.
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Some going to PTAs. Some going to coffee shops. That's been an intentional part of my going. I find just my personality.
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I can strike up conversation with people pretty easy. I'm an extrovert, and I'm just like, hey, what are you reading? Next thing you know, we're talking.
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Some going to neighbors. Some going to Stryker. Some going to UPS. Some going even to the ends of the earth.
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Yes, some even called out to pull up roots and go. But all making disciples in a going kind of way.
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An out and about kind of people. Making disciples in a going way. We also make disciples in a baptizing kind of way.
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That's the second thing. Baptism is the outward sign of initiation into the family of God. It requires some definition, and that's helpful.
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It's the outward sign of being plunged under the water and brought back up.
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The word means in Greek, immersion. And I'm confident that Jesus has water baptism in mind here when he says this.
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And yet the root word of baptism in Greek is very helpful in understanding our mission. The word immersion.
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Baptizing is immersing disciples of Jesus into the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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A life that is baptized by water, in obedience to Jesus, has come to faith in him, understands his salvation, is becoming a disciple, and is seeking to be surrounded by Almighty Father, Almighty Son, and Almighty Spirit.
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Inviting God to be above us, around us, in us, through us, beside us in the present, in front of us in the future, behind us in our past.
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Like, yes, that kind of immersion. We go under the water to be drowned to our old way of life. And we are brought up out of the water, symbolically immersed into the life of God.
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I would like us all to recover a bit of New Testament perspective on baptism this morning. Baptism is initiation, not graduation.
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Let me say that again. Baptism is initiation, not graduation. Far too often, baptism has been treated as the culmination of knowledge, even associated with finishing a class, go to a class, and the graduation of that class is baptism.
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But if baptism figures so predominantly in our mission, and figured so predominantly in the ministry of the disciples, in the book of Acts, where somebody says, oh,
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I believe, well, then you should be baptized. Done. We should be quicker to baptize anyone who wants to take that first step.
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If you have faith in Christ and have not yet been baptized, I'm going to say something fairly harsh, but direct.
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You have not yet taken your first step in obedience to Him. You've not yet taken your first step of obedience to Him.
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The first thing He calls His followers to do when they become His disciple is be baptized.
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How many of you knew that? It's important. I think we substituted, by the way, here's the problem.
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We substituted something else in there, and I can leave room for us to be a little bit like kind of, you know, struggle with this and for it to be murky to us, because for probably the last hundred years or so, we substituted something else in the place of baptism and muddied the waters.
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Do you know what we've substituted in the place of baptism? A sinner's prayer.
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We call it the sinner's prayer, as if that is the first step of obedience to God.
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No, no, no. The first step is, the first step is believe and be baptized. Do that together.
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I don't see a sinner's prayer in this at all. Go therefore, make disciples, getting them to pray and repeat after you.
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Go therefore, among the nations, and as you're going, making disciples, get them to raise their hand and come forward at a conference.
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Is that the first step? It's baptism. The disciples on that day baptized hundreds, thousands of people.
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What I see is that if someone wants to be all in with Jesus, they should be baptized.
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So then making disciples in a baptizing way, kind of way, means in a way that advances toward conversion and change lives, that begins, initiates with baptism into the life of God.
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Thirdly, we make disciples in a teaching kind of way. This is where likely we begin to think of disciple as a verb.
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We disciple someone by teaching them, is the idea, and the verb, disciple someone by teaching them.
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But I would ask you, why don't we just stick with the word Jesus uses here? I don't think Jesus was struggling with word choice when he said, teaching them to obey all.
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But we invented a word, discipling them all. And I think that muddies the water on what it means to make disciples.
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Make disciples is evangelism. That's the call, talking to people about Jesus.
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The problem with using disciples as a verb for this entire process is that it muddies the main calling that we have, church.
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We are called to make disciples. Nobody can say in this, in this section of scripture, nobody can say, not me.
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I'm not called to make disciples. My primary calling is to, with a verb, disciple people within the church.
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That's my calling. That's my contribution. That's what I do. And leave the disciple making, which is evangelism, to those who are more involved outside of the church.
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But I'm an inside the church kind of guy. Discipling as a verb is never going to get you killed.
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Making disciples as a church might very well in our generation get us killed. How many of you see those two things as different?
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People don't get killed in the church for leading a Bible study. There's a significant calling that he is placing on us, in a going kind of way, in a baptizing kind of way, and in a teaching kind of way.
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We make disciples in a teaching kind of way. Once we have gone and told them about Jesus, they believe they've been baptized.
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We teach them the content of an obedience from the heart, and we teach them to make disciples.
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What is it we're going to teach them? The very words of Jesus. The commands of Jesus. What does Jesus command? Go make disciples.
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Do you see how that multiplies? Do you see how that's going to continue the process? We walk together in growing in faith, and we must not get this teaching ahead of the main mission of being sure that they are connected with Jesus.
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Again, the church has often been teaching and preaching before a person is a disciple of Jesus, and it's really enticing to make someone my disciple.
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You have to be careful of that. You have to be really careful of that, because if I make somebody my disciple and don't connect them to Jesus, that is no spiritual benefit to them whatsoever.
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But notice carefully what we are told to teach. We are to limit our instruction to what Jesus has taught us through his word.
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This is where we get the temptation to add on, you know, the don't dance and don't drink and don't fill in the blank.
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Now, there are don'ts, right? Are there don'ts in the Christian life? How do you know that? There are, but teaching the right things.
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The scope of our teaching must radically adhere to the commission we are given. Teaching the people of God to obey all that he has given to the apostles to share with us in the prophets.
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This is the scriptures and woe to me and woe to any teacher if they get up in front of the people and teach the laws of man as if they are the laws of God.
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We're all in trouble. If I begin to establish my own authority and to teach you my personal preferences, keep checking the word, keep making sure that what
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I'm saying is coming from the word. All authority is not given to Don. All authority is given to him.
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My authority is heavily, heavily, heavily qualified authority. Now, do I think that the elders in the church have some authority?
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Absolutely, but only in as much as the leadership of the church sticks to the authority of Jesus communicated down through his prophets and his apostles.
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Do we have any authority at all? It's an authority derived from the teachings of Jesus.
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So what does it mean to be a people of God? What is the church to be doing? We make disciples in a going kind of way.
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We make disciples in a baptizing kind of way, baptizing people into the into the
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Godhead and we make disciples by teaching the baptized to follow by teaching by teaching them to follow what
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Jesus has said in his word. Are you making disciples like this?
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How would that how does your life measure up to that? Like, how does that look in you? Are you going anywhere to make disciples?
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Are you involved in your community? I feel guilty when
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I look out and I don't know if it's like you're not tracking or if you're just convicted or if you're just kind of like, is this almost over?
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But you're all looking. You're all looking. I see I've got your attention and my fear is that you would feel guilt because I'm up here talking like this.
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How many of you know that God is gracious? Praise God that he has been merciful to us. But how many of you know that his desire for each and every person sitting here?
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Is that over the course of your Christian life? You make a disciple. Did you know that?
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And I don't believe that that is a standard too high.
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I don't think that's too much to say that over the course of your Christian life walking and following after your
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Savior who's commanding you to make disciples that you probably have a disciple. Yeah, I mean somebody you've connected to Jesus.
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Now that's up to him. Please, please, please raise your hand and identify that you know that you can't save anybody.
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Raise your hand, please. If you know that to be true. You're not going to save anybody. But how many of you know that there are things that you are called in this text to be doing proclaiming
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Christ. Now it's up to him whether your life produces any fruit, right? It's up to him.
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But are you being faithful to the calling that he's placing on your life? Church, I think our culture, our society is faltering on the point of the failure of the church to make disciples.
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I didn't say discipling people. I think we've actually done a lot of discipling.
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I think we've got lots of Bible study material. I think we've got tons of resources. I think we've got tons of Bible studies and all kinds of ways to get your finances in order and be a better father and be a
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Christian husband and be a Christian wife and parent your kids into godliness and all of that stuff.
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Do you get what I'm saying? Are we making disciples? Are we glutted?
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Glutted with content? Glutted with discipling? And some people will actually say, and I read a couple articles this week that would actually say the contrary.
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Oh, no, the problem is we don't have enough teaching in the church. I don't believe that. I don't believe that for a second.
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I think we don't have enough desire and love for the lost. I said it.
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I don't think we really are demonstrating our love for the lost around us.
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We're going to close with our fourth and final, and it ought to be an encouragement, an upbeat thing. Prepare our hearts to take communion together with great joy this morning.
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In this fourth point, Jesus closes with the comfort of the commission. The comfort of the commission.
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Matthew ends his book with Jesus giving two amazing statements of deep, deep encouragement to his followers.
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This is the encouragement church. He is with us. But first, he is with us.
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He's alive, active, always present, and he is even here in this gathering.
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Jesus promises to be present with his people. He is always, always, always present with his people.
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And the second encouragement is that this present age will end. Let that both be fuel for your motivation, but let it also be encouragement.
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I find increasing comfort in this amazing promise. The way the world is going right now is not the way it will always go.
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Amen. A day is coming when the sky will be rolled back and the trumpet will sound and the kingdom of God will become the kingdom of his beloved son, and he will return as king to restore all who are his disciples.
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Let's come to communion to celebrate the Lamb of God, the one who is crucified for us. And now the one who has been elevated to all power and authority in heaven and on earth.
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Let's consider his call to send us out into this world on his mission to seek disciples, to find more worshipers for his glorious name.
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If you belong to Jesus by faith, in his forgiveness offered through the cross, and if he is your
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Lord and Savior, and if you stand in a good relationship with his gathering, then I encourage you to take the cup, come to the table during the song, take a cup to remember his blood shed for us, and take that cracker to remember his body that was broken in our place.
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Matthew has written an account of the life of Jesus that culminates in this glorious. That's not great, like capital
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G. This common commission. It is to all of us a commission of all who follow him.
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He has all authority, so worship him and make disciples by going, by proclaiming, by connecting through baptism, and by teaching his people to obey him in joy.
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Let's pray. Father, I didn't see that coming.
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I didn't see it being as harsh as it may very well have come across. Father, I pray that you would take this and whatever you desire to accomplish in people's hearts and lives through it.
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We all, I believe in myself included, have plenty of room to grow on this front, and maybe there's some people here who are just nailing it.
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I pray that you would give them encouragement. I pray that you would give them a sense of just your pleasure over their lives.
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My hunch is that many of us have a room, have plenty of room to grow in terms of declaring you to others around us, of proclaiming the glories of that empty tomb, proclaiming the forgiveness of sins, and that all authority is in your hands, and that all of us have a judge.
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And your son will indeed sit on that throne judging the nations, all the way down to the level of each individual heart.
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And the judgment will be on the basis of whether or not they received your clemency, whether or not they received your mercy, your mercy offered to all, but only received by some.
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So Father, I pray that you would help us to be a people about your business, about your work, as we're going, maybe even just finding some things to do in our schedule that are an intentional going, an intentional movement.
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I pray that this would result in conversations between husbands and wives and families about what they could be doing more intentionally to get out in the community, to make friends, and get opportunities to share the good news with others.
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Thank you that it's good news. Thank you that we have a message of hope, not a message of sorrow and brokenness, but a message of hope in a dark world.
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So Father, I pray that you would move the light forward through this church and through the message that you've spoken through your word this morning.