Worship Evangelism - [Matthew 28:16-20]

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I have a little scheme in my life, and here's the scheme. When I get convicted, I like to have you get convicted as well.
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When the Lord's working on my heart, I want to share the proverbial love with you.
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I've been convicted about evangelism. There's lots written about evangelism and less done about evangelism.
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How can we calculate going overseas where there's the least amount of risk for life and limb versus, as David Sinton would talk about, an abandonment, a reckless abandonment to preach the gospel.
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People are sinful, and they need to know about the Savior, and we are supposed to tell them.
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I read these convicting words this week. Thomas Chalmers, every man is a missionary now and forever, whether he intends or designs it or not.
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Spurgeon, every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. Yes, but what about the heathen who have not heard the gospel?
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Will they be saved? Spurgeon, it is more a question with me whether we who have the gospel and fail to give it to those who have not can be saved.
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Leonard Ravenhill, could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his parents die?
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Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you at ease in Zion sit with the world around you be damned?
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Walter Chantry, there are no easy steps to witnessing, no painless, unembarrassing methods.
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You must bring men to see that they are filthy sinners under the wrath of God who must flee to Christ for mercy.
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That is offensive, and there is no way to coat it with sugar. My question to myself and now to you is, well, who is then adequate for these things?
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Who can do these things? Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 28 and look at one of the great passages in scripture that talks about evangelism.
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Some ask the question, yes, but who am I to say? What shall
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I tell them? I'm afraid I can't do it on my own. And this passage answers those three issues, that we have authority from Christ to preach, we have the message from Christ to preach, and that he's with us while we preach.
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What's known as the Great Commission, even though I'm going to today call it the Good Commission, why?
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Well it is a Great Commission, but the greatest commission, I believe, is when the Father, the Son, and the
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Spirit in eternity passed. Before Genesis 1 -1, as a triune
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God got together and said, we will send the Son on a mission to rescue sinners.
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That's really the Great Commission, and so this could be a Great Commission on earth or it could be the
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Good Commission, but it is a passage that helps us in our evangelism. God uses his word to make us better evangelists.
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You say, well this doesn't sound like Romans 14. Well it's not Romans 14, here's the thing, I leave this week and Romans 14 and 15 basically go together, so I don't want to preach 14 today and come back and preach 15 then.
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So I want to talk a little bit about the privilege that you are not exempt from, preaching the gospel.
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And before I get into the passage, let me say ahead of time, it's only going to get harder and harder and harder.
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Why? Because in our society we're not even going to be able to say homosexuality is a sin without getting taxed, fined, ostracized, and eventually jailed.
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The courageous ones now aren't those who used to sit in the back of the bus and say equality for all.
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The courageous ones are soon going to be the ones that will stand up and say, there's a great Savior, the only
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Savior, and he saves from all kinds of sins, from envy to sexual sins. When was the last time you looked at an unbeliever and said, this is what the
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Bible says about your sin, this is where you're going to go when you die without Christ, and this is why you need the gospel, this is why you need to believe in this
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Jesus. When was the last time you did that? Say, yes, but if I talk that way then I'm going to lose friends.
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That's exactly right. If I am a Christian, there's going to be trouble, and I'm not so sure
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I like the trouble that comes along with it. Well, let's take a look at Matthew chapter 28. I think it's going to bolster you in your evangelistic endeavors.
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You're going to see that Jesus has authority to give to you, you speak on behalf of another, you have the
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King's message, and you have the King with you. Can you imagine
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Jesus gets together with this group of disciples? They have no money, no resources, no homes, no armies, and he basically says this, take over the
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Roman world. Take over the world. How do you get a band of 11 men plus maybe some others and say, you know what,
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I want you to dominate the world with this message? The King's final instructions, everything about Matthew shows
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Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. The King. He's lived this life that's a perfect life.
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He's died on the cross. He's been raised from the dead. And you'd think Matthew would almost end with Jesus is ascending up into heaven, but he doesn't end with that.
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He ends with the final instructions to preach the gospel.
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Now what does the text say in Matthew 28, 16? I'm sure you're familiar with it, but as I studied this week, even though I know the passage, memorized most of it, it still prodded me.
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It still encouraged me. Matthew 28, 16. I'm reading from the ESV now.
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He's given us a different time frame. There's a little bit of reporting about the guard, and let's just tell him that the disciples stole him.
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So we're changing the scene here. Now the 11 disciples, of course,
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Judas is gone, went to Galilee, quiet place, to the holy mountain to which
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Jesus had directed them. Some people call Matthew the gospel of the mountain. Why?
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Sermon on the mount, revelation given from God. Mount of transfiguration,
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God reveals himself. Olivet discourse, from the
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Olivet mountain, he gives a discourse. And now we have the Galilean mountain. Jesus is going to show them through his words who he is and what he wants them to do.
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Probably a quiet, serene place away from the business of the cities. It says in verse 17, and when they saw him, what do you do when you see the resurrected
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Jesus? Well, the text tells us they worshiped him. Literally, they prostrated themselves in homage.
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Down on their faces they go, but some doubted.
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This is just the same reaction that the women had. Look back at verse 9 of chapter 28. When you see the resurrected
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Jesus, this regularly happens. And behold, Jesus met them and said, greetings.
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And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. How do you grab someone's feet if they're not on your face?
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To bow reverentially and worship. It's a natural response to see
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Jesus, the glorified, resurrected king. Now, the text says what?
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But some doubted. Maybe they thought it was a vision. Thomas had doubted before.
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It shouldn't surprise us that much that there might be some doubt. Those on the Emmaus road, they didn't really know what was going on.
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Could Jesus really have been raised from the dead? And some think that now we have the 500 of whom
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Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians here with them. So if I read verse 17 again, and when they saw him, they, the 11, worshipped him, but some of the 500 doubted.
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There was some hesitation by some. Now, before I read verses 18 through 20,
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I want to highlight the word all in your text. All or always. The all -inclusive, all -authority, all nations, all things, always.
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Let me read the text for you so you can hear it. Matthew 28, 18.
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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 the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, or lo, I am with you always, all the time, to the end of the age.
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Let's take a look at three exhortations from this text. Three exhortations to help you keep evangelism in the forefront of your mind and accomplish the goal that God gives you, to tell others the good news.
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Three truths that ambassadors need to remember about serving the sovereign Christ. Number one, the sovereign king's authority should motivate you.
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Number one, the sovereign king's authority should motivate you. Remember, Jesus is portrayed in Matthew as the sovereign king of Israel, the king of the universe.
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And here's what's going to happen in this passage. Listen, the more you know about the sovereignty of God, the better you should be in evangelism.
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The more you know about the sovereignty of God, the more you should evangelize. Now, the world of evangelicalism says it's the opposite.
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Oh, all you people that talk about the sovereignty of God all the time, God's sovereign over what color your skin is, fine, over when you were born, fine, who your mother is, fine, does it rain today, fine.
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But you people that talk about God is sovereign over who goes to heaven and who doesn't, if God's sovereign over who goes to heaven, then why do anything?
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Why pray? Why evangelize? If He's just going to make it happen and He's sovereign, then you people that believe all that are probably just lazily going into the kingdom.
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But here it's so different. The more you know about the sovereignty of God, and Jesus is going to say,
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I'm sovereign over everything, it's going to motivate and stimulate evangelism.
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Now, if someone is here and they say, I believe God gets to heaven, everybody He wants to get to heaven, regardless of how
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I don't evangelize, I don't pray, this is a good passage for you to look at.
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Those that believe in the sovereignty of God believe they've been sent out on a mission to do what
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God says, tell people the good news. Look at the authority He gives to these people, and we have a derived authority as well.
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Matthew 28, 18. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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He must have been a little far away, and He comes up to them, and then He says something that no one in their right mind says.
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Crazy people talk this way. Stalin would have wanted to talk this way.
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Napoleon would have wanted to talk this way. Hitler maybe said this, but none of it was true for them because all authority, the only person who can say this is a person who's fully
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God. In fact, Christ Jesus is very sane, yet He says in His right mind,
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I have all this authority. This is reminiscent of Daniel 7.
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Behold, the clouds of heaven, there came one like the Son of Man. To Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve
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Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away. The Son of Man has this kind of dominion, and look at the breadth of this authority.
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Verse 28, all authority has been given to me. All authority has been given to me.
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A little bit different than Jesus in His incarnation. No money, penniless, denarii -less.
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No home, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the
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Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. The limitations that Jesus had in authority on earth no longer exist.
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All authority has been given to me. No more incarnational restrictions.
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Absolute jurisdiction. Lordship over all. Jesus was obedient unto death.
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God exalted Him highly and gave Him the name above every name, Philippians 2. Ephesians 1 says
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He's far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. And every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.
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The Son gladly went on that Great Commission, fulfilled it perfectly, and then God honored
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Him, and now He has all authority. R .B. Kuyper said,
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It is a glorious declaration of His sovereignty. It is an unqualified demand for universal recognition of His sovereignty.
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The Great Commission is a command of the sovereign God. Obviously, the more seriously one takes divine sovereignty, so much the more will one feel oneself in holy duty, bound to carry out that command.
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And He gets the authority from the Father. See, the text, Has been given to me, conferred upon Him by the
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Father. Revelation 2, I will give Him authority over the nations. This is our only hope of success.
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The sovereign work of Christ, the
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God -Man. Thankfully, He rejects Satan's offer when He was on the earth, remained loyal to the
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Father, and now there's no borders for His sovereignty. The end of verse 18, it says, Has been given me in heaven and on earth.
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It's like the Father said, Here's heaven, here's earth. Whatever you want to do with it, just do with it.
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No longer sovereign on earth, but heaven as well. He was sovereign on earth, healing diseases.
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He was sovereign on earth, healing people. He was sovereign on earth, casting out demons. He was sovereign on earth, charging the twelve.
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He was sovereign on earth, charging the seventy. He was sovereign on earth, teaching. He was sovereign on earth, forgiving sins.
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But now sovereign on earth and in heaven. All authority. No army, no money, no state, but all authority.
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And so I want you to know, as a Christian, friends, when you go evangelize and you say to yourself,
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Yes, but who am I to tell this person? I'll freely admit, I am no one to tell this other person.
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I'm a beggar telling other beggars where they can find bread. I have no authority, no rights, no power, no degrees, no doctrine, no anything.
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I'm a nobody sent out by the sovereign king to tell people. The sovereign king's authority should motivate you.
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When the king of the universe says, I've got authority and I'm giving it to you.
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It's our only hope. Number two, what else should we remember?
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The sovereign king's authority should motivate you, number one. Number two, the sovereign king's command should dominate you.
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The sovereign king's command or marching orders should dominate you. These two things are tied together.
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Since God has authority, then there's an implication to that truth. Ideas have consequences.
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Theology flows into methodology. God has authority and now we go out and do something with that authority and this is what we do.
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It says in verse 19 and 20, Go therefore and make disciples. Key verb in the sentence is make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. When Jesus is raised from the dead, do you know in scripture, 80 % of the time at least, he tells people to go say good news.
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Go say some good news about him. It's just what happens when there's a resurrection appearance,
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Jesus tells those who are in his presence, go tell people the good news. To Mary Magdalene he said,
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Go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to my father. When the women who returned from the tomb, they were told by the angel,
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Go quickly and tell his disciples he's risen from the dead. Jesus appears to the women shortly after that,
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Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers. There they will see me. In light of the gospel's authority given to us, therefore the text says,
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Go make disciples. Now I have to tell you, this is fascinating to me because, what does the passage say?
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Go make disciples of all nations. This is strange. I thought
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Matthew was the Jewish gospel. Well it is a Jewish gospel. I thought
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Jesus said in Matthew 10, Go nowhere among the Gentiles, Jesus said, and enter no town of the
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Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Well he did say that, but now it's expanding, because as his authority expands, so too does the message.
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Go make disciples. That's the command. What's a disciple? A learner, a follower. I want you with the authority
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I have given to you, to go out and make followers of Christ. Not people that just go, I believe it in my mind, intellectually
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I understand, I might even assent to it on a good day, maybe Christmas and on Easter.
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But wholehearted commitment. A follower. It's one thing to be a believer intellectually, it's another thing to believe enough that you actually follow.
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Knowledge, assent and trust. Jesus said in Matthew 12,
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Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven. So go preach the gospel to people, so that they go follow
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Christ Jesus. That is the privilege and that is the command that we all are under. Well how do you do it?
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There's some modifiers here, and the first one is in verse 19, Go. Literally it's going, because it's helping or explaining how we make disciples.
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You make disciples by going. It has an imperative sense, so that's why it's translated go.
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But it's really how do you make disciples? By going. All right. Is it ever appropriate to bring someone to church?
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Well I guess that's a good question. If I was going to be blunt, here's what I would say.
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In light of this passage, don't go out and say to people who are unbelievers, please come to church with me.
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What you should do instead is, you should go out to people who are unbelievers, and tell them the good news of the gospel.
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And then if you want to say, and by the way, come with me to church on Sunday, where the saints gather, and we hear more about who this
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Jesus is. We sing to the Father. That'd be fine. It's not bring people to church.
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If you bring people to church, that'll be fine. I'm not going to correct you or anything, but that's not the passage here.
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It's to go. That's why the sign right there above the door, when you walk out is, welcome to your mission field. Go out and tell people.
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Fascinatingly, Old Testament Jews, when they wanted to bring some
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Gentile polytheist, to worship the God of Israel, they would bring him to Jerusalem.
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Come with us to Jerusalem, so you can worship this God at Jerusalem, at the temple. That's one of the reasons, not the only reason, but one of the reasons why
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Jonah was so befuddled, that he had to go to Nineveh. Why?
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Because you don't go to Nineveh to evangelize. You bring the Ninevites to Jerusalem to hear the truth.
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The focus isn't for us to bring people to church. That's why it's such a big old lie, to try to say to yourself as an elder board, how do we get more unbelievers into church?
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What do they want? Let's take a survey of the community. You're an unbeliever, what do you want in church? No, I need to go tell them, this is who
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Jesus is. Unbelievers don't worship, they blaspheme, and so I want them to be worshippers of the
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Lord. This is an attitude of just going.
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Well, what else do you do after you go? Well, when they believe, what's the next step?
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What's the passage say? Baptizing them. The word there means to dip.
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It means to immerse. It means to take something and plunge it in a bowl.
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If you look at a sunken ship, remember once I was scuba diving, they said swim over here, and go down 40 feet, and let's take a look at this submerged ship.
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They could have said to use second century Greek. Let's go see the baptized ship, the immersed ship.
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Go make disciples, tell them about who Jesus, that is, they respond positively, and then they say,
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I want to get baptized. I want to show symbolically in water what's already been done in my heart.
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Death, burial, and resurrection. By the way, this implies that if you are a
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Christian, before you go tell other people to believe, and then be baptized, it implies that you should be baptized first.
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And then here, you've heard me preach on this lots of times, so I don't want to take too much time. How do you baptize someone?
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In the name singular, not the names, we don't believe in three gods. In the singular name, singularity and plurality together.
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Singularity, the name, there's one God, His name is Yahweh. Three persons, the
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Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It doesn't say baptize in the names of.
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The Trinity here, one God, the name, subsisting in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.
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And then after that, it doesn't end. What do you then do? You go. You baptize.
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How else do you make a disciple? You teach. You educate. You indoctrinate. Teaching them to observe all.
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Teach them about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, parables, predictions, everything that Jesus taught, everything that His apostles taught.
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Teach them everything. All that I've commanded you. Not just select some of the stuff.
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For instance, I love Jesus when He preaches in John 6. Read it today. Jesus never got the memo, don't talk about sovereign election to unbelievers.
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Jesus says to these unbelievers, you know, you can't come to Me unless the
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Father draws you. God's sovereign in salvation and you're not. Talking about election, sovereign, distinguishing grace to unbelievers.
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No wonder at the end of John 6, many of His disciples followed Him no more. They just couldn't take it.
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Someone says to me, an unbeliever, you don't believe in that election stuff, do you? Well, I'm to teach them everything, and I'll say to them, yes.
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I'll say to unbelievers, to ease it in, I might say something like, are you married?
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Yes. Did you pick your wife or did somebody pick her for you? Do you have a job? Yes. Did you pick your job or did somebody pick your job for you?
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And the list will go on. And what we love in ourselves we don't like in God? We're little image bearers, we're sovereigns.
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But God is the sovereign. Teach everything. This is a good side note for churches to teach the full counsel of God.
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You've got to teach everything. Not just a short list. I hear continually, what are the minimum amount of things that a
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Christian needs to believe? That's the wrong question. Of course we start with the historical event that Jesus died on the cross, the theological event that Jesus died as a substitutory atoning sacrifice, assuaging the wrath of God.
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He literally was raised from the dead. Of course we talk about sin.
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Friends, you're going to have to tell your friends and your family members that they're sinful. D .L.
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Moody said, you've got to get people lost before you can get them saved. And this is only going to get harder, isn't it?
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We live in a society where soon and very soon we will not even be able to say, your behavior sexually is sinful.
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And first they'll tax us, and then they'll fine us, and then they'll throw us in jail.
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Sins are forgivable, but you've got to know your need of a Savior before you run to the cross.
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The scope of the evangelism, I want to show you one more time, is of all nations. See right there in the middle of verse 19.
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Since Jesus is the universal Lord, there's a universal mission. John says he's the
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Savior of the world, John 4. But Matthew doesn't talk like this until here, because he's been writing the
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Jewish gospel, son of David, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies. I could never do this on my own though.
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Good. Point three. Exhortation three. The sovereign king's presence should encourage you.
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The sovereign king's presence should comfort you. His authority should motivate you.
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His command should dominate you. And three, his presence should assure you. Look at the text, verse 20.
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And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. How about that?
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Now, when I was in seminary, we had to go preach the gospel in the area of Panorama City by Grace Community Church.
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So they were giving us a team mate. His name was Mike. I was so happy to have somebody go with me.
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So we were given a list of these names and addresses, and so we would go to their houses.
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We had a deal worked out. I think I was the deal maker. I'll knock. Then you talk.
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But the next house, you knock and then I'll talk. Because I knew in my heart of hearts, if I didn't have somebody there with me, if I had to knock and talk, here's what
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I would do. Okay, nobody's home. Next house. Just to have
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Mike there. And this was only Mike. To be with me. Even for accountability.
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So if I knocked and they opened the door, I just didn't say, you know, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life or something. To have him there.
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I was so thankful that Mike Canham was there with me. Well, then how much better?
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What does the check say? And lo, I, Jesus says, am with you always even to the end of the age.
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Friends, this is really neat. Matthew 1 .23. God with us.
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Emmanuel. Matthew 28. God with us. Emmanuel. Emmanuel at the front.
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Emmanuel at the back. When I'm faithless, He's still with me being faithful.
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I am with you. The emphasis in the original Greek is, I am fatic. Not I will be with you, but I am with you.
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Not just until you mess up, but till the end of time. I'm thankful for this, because I know
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Jesus elsewhere has said, apart from me, you can do what? All things. If I ever need help, it's evangelizing.
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Telling people, I'm no better than you. You might even be more moral than I am.
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But compared to a thrice holy God, you're undone.
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And behold our low, pay attention, take a quick look, don't be on the speed reading course.
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I am, present tense, I always am with you. The risen Lord, no less companion than Him.
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And all the days, whether you're weak or strong, whether you fail or have success, old or young, day in and day out.
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No wonder Whitfield could say, I gave myself up to be a martyr for Him, who hung upon the cross for me.
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Never going to end, to the very end of the age, till He comes and sets up His earthly kingdom. Emmanuel, the sovereign
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King's authority should motivate you. The sovereign King's command should dominate you. The sovereign King's presence should comfort you.
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Now in the time left, let me give you some practical comments. Some things that you can just take away that maybe will help you in your evangelistic endeavors.
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Do I think we need better evangelism at this church? Yes. It starts with the elders, starts with me.
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But this is one of those passages where I say to myself, I can't do it. I'll just admit it.
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I don't really like preaching that's like, I'm weak, let me tell you about all my weaknesses and therefore you can identify with me and then
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I have a leg to stand on to talk to you. I don't really think that's the best preaching. If you know me well, you already know
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I'm weak. You already know my struggles. You already know I'm human. My responsibility is to proclaim the truth.
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But I will say this. I want people to like me.
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I want people when I tell them, listen, let me tell you about sin and the Savior.
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I don't want them to go, yeah, you're one of those freaks that pickets people in military funerals.
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No, no, no, I'm not like that. When I preach the Gospel to people, I want them to go, you know what, you seem fine, you seem respectable, you seem like you're kind of a cool guy.
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But when I open my mouth and start talking about the offense of the Gospel, they are going to say, you know what, you're one of those televangelists, aren't you?
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You're one of those Jesus freaks. But as much as I want people to like me, there's an overriding desire for me to say,
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God, you've saved me from my sins. I want to be faithful to you. I want to tell people the truth.
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And if my name is mud, well, there's a pretty long line these days of the mud line for Mike.
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When I hear another church won't allow some of our people to be there because of me, the truth, then
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I just go, okay. This is an incentive for me to preach because I know
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I want to be a people pleaser and I want to get people to like me. But you know what? I'd rather have the favor of God, wouldn't you?
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I'd rather have the favor of God. I mean, I do have the favor of God, but in a practical way.
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So let me give you a few. Number one, toss out every evangelistic gimmick and technique you've ever learned.
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Toss them all out. There's no gimmicks, there's no techniques, there's no four easy steps, there's no four spiritual laws, three easy ways.
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Friends, you have the authority of God Almighty, you have the message about Jesus Christ, the risen
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Savior, and those who look to Him will not be disappointed. There's a Savior of sinners and you have
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Jesus there with you besides the Holy Spirit in you. I mean, who is really the greatest evangelist?
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Some people say Billy Graham, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards.
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How about you have the greatest evangelist with you, Jesus? How about you have the greatest evangelist, the
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Spirit of God in you? So why do I... You know, when people resort to gimmicks and duck and jive and, oh,
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I've got to do the missional thing and I've got to do the bait and switch thing, they forget that God is with me and if God is with me, why do
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I need gimmicks? When I first became a sales rep in 1983, they took us to IBM selling school,
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Duracell Batteries did, and I went to Bethel, Connecticut. I thought, this is weird, there's a bunch of weird people in Bethel, Connecticut.
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Even weirder in Danbury, Connecticut. These people in New England are the weirdest people. I mean, I had no idea
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I'd be out here then later. They taught us selling skills.
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I think I still remember the five points of IBM selling in the early 80s. I should have wrote them down, but I'll do my best.
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It's maybe a four -part. I'm a four -pointer IBMer. Summarize a situation, state the idea, explain how it works, reinforce key benefits, close.
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And by the way, when I sell people something, or am I being sold something, it's exactly the way they do it, plus or minus this, that, or the other.
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Summarize a situation, state the idea, explain how it works, reinforce key benefits, and close. Here's the good news.
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I have the authority of God. I have the message of God. I have God with me, and now I just need, with my mouth dry, and with perspiration running off the top of my forehead, to just open my mouth.
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Nothing new, nothing novel, no high -pressure techniques, no ridiculous missional kind of church philosophies.
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I just open my mouth, and talk to them about the Lord. You don't need a gimmick.
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It doesn't take a mature Christian to even read the New Testament and say, there's just not one way to do it.
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There's all kinds of different ways to say the same thing.
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Number two. If you insist on putting tick marks in your Bibles, make sure they're not for conversions.
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If you insist on putting tick marks in your Bibles, make sure they're not for conversions. When I grew up in evangelicalism, if you led somebody to the
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Lord, you put a little tick mark in the front of your Bible, a little tally sheet. I said to the first congregation,
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I couldn't remember, tally. You know, one, two, three, four, and then that. Somebody says, chicken scratch. And then it reminded me of the story of the only time
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I think I've gotten kicked out of school in elementary school for, I think it was only an hour or two until my parents had to go back there.
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But my grandmother gave me some chicken feet as kind of show and tell.
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And I quickly found out that if you take a chicken's foot, and you pull on a tendon down here, right, they're cut off, pull on a tendon, it goes like this.
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And then you can grab girls with that on their shoulders. And then they tell the principal, and then you get in trouble.
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So if you insist on putting chicken scratches on the front of your Bible, I really want you to avoid that.
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But if you say, I led this person to the Lord, therefore let me mark that on there. Put something else up there.
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The Lord gave me the power to actually talk to somebody about Jesus today. And I didn't cut corners,
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I didn't minimize sin, I didn't minimize exclusivity of Christ. And Lord, thank you for letting me be faithful.
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We're not counting numbers. We don't save people anyway. You don't preach for salvation primarily anyway.
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Do you? You like to see people saved, of course.
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But John Stott was right when he said, to evangelize does not mean to win converts. But simply to announce the good news, irrespective of results.
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Now see, I could do that. I can tell people about sin and the Savior, about guilt and about grace.
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I can tell people that, but I just don't need to reinforce key benefits and go for the close and kind of sign them up, sign sealed and delivered.
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How could I do that? I don't have to. I preach for the glory of God, and if He's happy, I go to the common, come back.
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We have a little debrief. How was the Lord glorified today? Well, I led 15 people to the
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Lord. No, I got to tell 3 people about Jesus today. Do I want people to get saved when we tell them about Jesus?
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Yes, and it regularly happens. John Payton, when he went to the cannibals in New Hebrides, had a communion service.
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The Lord had converted some of those men and women. He said when he put the bread and wine into the hands of the cannibals that were once stained with the blood of murder, now reaching forth to receive the body and blood of Christ, the bread and the cup.
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He said, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that will nigh break my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus Himself.
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Of course you want to have your friends saved, but there's a higher priority to be faithful to the gospel.
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Friends, by the way, when you think that way, then you won't cut corners to try to get the conversion, to try to get the results, to try to get the deal closed.
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You see, if I talk about hell and wrath and sin and judgment and the omniscience of God, the immutability of God, they're going to buckle under that and I'm not going to get what
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I want. No, what you want is the approval of God. Number three.
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I don't know, number three. Is this two or three? I change things around. Is this three?
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Number three. This is kind of said more bluntly, but for a point.
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If you're waiting to be led, if you're waiting for a leading, you might need a footing.
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I didn't say footy, I said footing. If you're waiting for a leading, you might need a footing.
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Here's what I mean. You have the authority of God Almighty to preach the gospel to people.
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You have the message of the gospel to preach to people. You have Jesus with you to preach the gospel to people.
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And now you say, well, I didn't really do that to my friends because I wasn't led. Well, you know,
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I really wasn't led. That's kind of the way we talk, right? That's kind of pious Christianity. When you sit on the plane next to someone for six hours, what'd they say when you preached the gospel?
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Well, I wasn't led. Now, when you ask your children to pick up their room, two hours later you return and you say, well, little
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Johnny, why didn't you pick up your room? Well, I really wasn't led.
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You don't accept that. You don't have to be led. You're told to preach the gospel.
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Feelings oriented? I love feelings. But I don't feel like witnessing today. Number four.
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Learn from Christ's example. Turning conversations to the spiritual.
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Jesus regularly preached the good news to people. But sometimes he took regular conversations and turned them into spiritual conversations.
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By the way, I try to do this. Some people I know in my life, especially when I was younger, had a knack of any conversation that was ever brought up in the group, they could turn it to some innuendo, sleazy, foul -mouthed discussion.
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They could just turn every conversation into that. Some people I know, every time that something comes up, a statement's made,
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I have friends that could give me a quote from a song, turning this into songs.
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Well, how about taking what people say and turning it into a launching pad for the gospel?
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A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
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The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?
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For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that's saying to you,
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Give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. That's such a great way to do it.
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There's a story I read about this week. A generation ago, somebody came to the door to sell her stain remover.
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She listened to his comments. Then she said, I know something which will remove stains too.
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That's exactly the way Jesus did it in John chapter 4. The guy said, What's that? She said, The blood of Jesus will remove the stain of human sin.
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I like it. Art gallery, photography, a photograph of a boat lying inside a wharf, safely anchored there.
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A youth looked at the boat and volunteered the statement, I suppose that boat's as safe as hell. Another student turned to them and said,
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Do you think hell is safe? I have a friend that if somebody says
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Jesus' words in a derogatory fashion, Jesus Christ, and they don't mean to talk about the
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Lord, they mean to just use it as a curse word. I have a friend that likes to say to them, Do you know
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Jesus personally? And off they go. When things didn't cost as much,
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S. Lewis Johnson went to a store and went to the nine items or less section of the grocery store and the person behind the counter totaled everything up and said to S.
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Lewis Johnson, That'll be $3 .16. S. Lewis said,
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You know, that reminds me of a text in the Bible, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. When I see people,
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I'm seeing them as an evangelistic opportunity and my goal is to turn this thing as fast as possible. I think maybe lastly,
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No, two more. What number am I on? Four or five?
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Okay, write down four or five. Evangelize with one foot in the anthropology classroom.
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Evangelize with one foot in the anthropology classroom. Anthro, man, pology, a word about.
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What about man? Here's what you need to remember. Remember that men and women without Christ are totally depraved and spiritually unable to respond to the
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Gospel. The only thing they do respond to is as the Spirit of God begins to convict them of sin, the
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Father begins to draw them through the preached Word. So if you evangelize and say,
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You know what? I know what I'm up against. And I know people are dead in trespasses and sins and the only thing that makes them alive again is the
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Word of God, I'll be centered more on the Bible says. Billy Graham, when he evangelizes and says,
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The Bible says, that's exactly right. Titus 3 says, Unbelievers are foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts, hateful, hating one another.
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How do I evangelize someone like that? What does the Bible say? We just give them the
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Bible. And then lastly, this is either number five or six. Lastly, in terms of evangelism, help, and I'm not kidding when
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I say this, because I think it's helpful, regularly make a fire.
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People love fire pits, and some are here in New England, and so regularly make a fire. I tell you,
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I cannot make a fire or look at a fire without thinking hell is real.
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Hell is hot. Hell is forever. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living
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God. The Son of God, love incarnate, talked about hell more than anyone else.
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And when you read descriptions of hell in the Bible, it's supposed to make you horrified.
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Punishment, torment, fire, that's the most frequent, eternal fire, unquenchable fire, lake of fire.
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Why is it not a river of fire? Because rivers have endings. Lakes, no way out. Destruction, second death, outer darkness, weeping, gnashing of teeth, the pit, the worm, the worm that dies not.
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If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. Friends, every person who's ever been born short of Christ Jesus has
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Adam's sin credited to their account, and then consequently they're sinful. And whether it's your husband, your wife, your children, your grandmas, doesn't matter who it is, if they're not born again, they're going to die, and they're going to be judged, and then eventually thrown into the lake of fire forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
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Spurgeon said, it is labor in the fire, no ease, no peace, no sleep, no calm, no quiet, everlasting storm, eternal hurricane, unceasing tempests.
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In the worst diseases, there are some respites. There is no peace in hell's torment. You cannot compare the pains of this life with the agonies to be endured hereafter.
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Could all the misery that ever startled the keepers of our hospitals be conceived? It could not convey the least idea of the pains of the spirits that are doomed to dwell in eternal fire and everlasting burning.
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The memory aghast, hope and fear, thoughts and imaginations, conscience and judgment, all will be wracked.
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Everyone will be stretched on a bed of fire. Every nerve strained to its utmost, every vein made a road for the hot feet of pain to travel on.
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Now see, that makes me want to reject my own sinful pride and repent of my desire to look good in somebody's eyes.
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Preacher Greenwood said, think of a million to the tenth power number of years and then think that's a second of time in hell.
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Who is adequate for these things? Now there was a famous missionary.
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His name was Hudson Taylor. He talked to a man who was a young Buddhist leader, preached the gospel of Christ Jesus from John 3, 14 and 15 and the man said,
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I've traveled far and near but I've never searched it out. In Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism I've found no rest but I do find rest in what we've heard tonight.
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Hence forward, I am a believer in Jesus. Mr. Taylor, how long have you had these glad tidings in England?
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Several hundred years. Several hundred years? Is it possible that you have known about Jesus so long and only now have come to us?
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My father sought the truth for more than 20 years and died without finding it. Why didn't you come sooner? Convicting words indeed.
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Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are thankful that you have saved us. We're thankful that you've given us a message of good news and the world of bad news.
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Thank you for the good news message. Thank you that perdition is not our lot and even our worst enemies.
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We don't want them to go to hell so give us lips that are quick to open to talk about the glories of Christ Jesus.
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Father, in our day and age where persecution is going to come, help us to speak freely knowing that your
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Son builds the church and nothing is going to stop it. Father, I pray for those that are here today that might not be born again.
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I pray that you'd frighten them with the doctrine of hell and that you would impress on their hearts that that's exactly where they're going so that they might flee from the wrath to come and flee to you by faith in your
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Son. Father, we are especially thankful today that all our failings when it comes to evangelism have been forgiven.
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We're especially thankful that you see us not as men and women who are quiet for the gospel and afraid of the gospel and afraid to preach the gospel, but because Jesus Christ was the faithful evangelist, the wonderful evangelist who always told people the truth, who was not a man -pleaser at all, that you take his perfect righteousness and cloak us in that.
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Father, thank you for seeing us not as people who let you down, but as people who are in Christ Jesus, the risen
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Savior. And because of that, we want to be better evangelists. May that be so today in Jesus' name.