Go Into All The World - [Matthew 28:16-20]

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Well, this morning I get the privilege of introducing our speaker, Sammy Williams. Sammy has been our missionary in India for about three years.
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I went there and met Sammy and thought, God has knit our hearts together in the proclamation of the truth, expository preaching, local church ministry, discipling other men.
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And ever since then, I've counted Sammy a friend and a comrade in ministry.
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And I like it that I don't have to hide Sammy and say, well, he's our missionary, but these are all the things that you have to watch out for him.
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And so Sammy would fit right in here at the church, and that's why it's been so tragic for the news with us with Jeremy and Andrea is because I think of our missionaries as part of our church family.
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They're not the people that just come here once in a while. Our hearts are knit together, and when one of the members of the body hurts, we all hurt.
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And so we have the same feelings for Sammy and Nicole and the children as we do for Jeremy. And so before Sammy preaches, some of you weren't in Sunday school, some of you don't even maybe know.
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And so Sammy, maybe just a few -minute update from start to finish on what we know about Jeremy and just an overview on that.
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But I should be in PTI with Sammy ministering for the conference in January or so.
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And I just love Sammy and Nicole. They are just kindred spirits. Their church that they named is called
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Kerusso Bible Church. And does anybody know what Kerusso means? It comes right from 2
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Timothy 4, verse 2, Kerusso the word. It means to declare.
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It means to herald like a trumpet. We have news from the king, and this news isn't bad news. This news is good news.
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There's good news that you can have all your sins forgiven in Christ Jesus. And that news is to be trumpeted with no mute thing.
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What do they call the mute deal in the trumpet? The mute. I learned how to play the trumpet too.
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It is to be proclaimed and shouted and heralded. Men and Adam are born sinful.
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All of us need a savior, and there's only one. And his name is Christ Jesus, the risen king.
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And we are to proclaim boldly without apology to everyone, including all nations and America or India.
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And that's why God has knit our hearts together, the Williams and the Avendroths and Kerusso Bible Church and Bethlehem Bible Church.
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So, Sammy, please come. Well, greetings.
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It is an encouragement for Nicole and our family and myself to be here with you in so many ways that we cannot recount, especially during this heavy time.
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And I was just thinking, you know, the ways in which being here has been so encouraging, first of all, has been just to know that we are praying together with you, with all of you.
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And that is one of the most useful things that we can be doing right now for the
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Smiths. And the other thing was just in a few conversations that I've had with you personally, and even yesterday with the men, we've been able to think rightly about this, being together and thinking through the word and protecting our thoughts and just even praising
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God for his greatness and his goodness and all this time. And so just a personal thank you to you as a church family from us.
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We feel knit together to you during this time. And we're glad that we are here with you as we face what has happened.
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Just again, to update some of you all, Jeremy and Andrea Smith and the three children, when they were, they just got back to India this last
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Tuesday, I believe. And when they were coming out of Pune city and getting off the highway into Pune, they had a tremendous tragic accident.
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Their vehicle, which was an SUV, hit the back of a truck. We're not sure exactly how and what the circumstances were, but it was either stationary or it was backing up.
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And so the whole front end of the SUV crumpled and the dash came down all the way up to the front seat where Jeremy was sitting and the driver was sitting.
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Both Jeremy and Andrea have serious head injuries, Jeremy more than Andrea. Again, in all of this, you can see the power and the sovereignty of God.
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Jeremy is the most seriously hurt after that Andrea and then the kids in descending order.
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And I just think and I keep saying this, that's the sovereignty of God. And Jeremy Jr.
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has some external injuries on his face, but no internal injuries. And Abigail has a hairline fracture.
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She's out of the hospital. NATO has nothing at all, not a scratch on him. And he was out of hospital right away, staying with some people at the church that are housing him and Abigail at this point and looking after them, just like they with their own children.
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The church there has just really come around in a marvelous way. Jeremy and Andrea and Jeremy Jr.
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were just taken by good Samaritans to different hospitals that were closest to the highway.
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And then a day or really two days ago, they were transferred from that hospital to a major hospital in Puna City, where we are, and they're being taken care of right now.
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Jeremy just went through surgery a day ago, and it was about five hours on his leg.
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His femur was crushed and they repaired that. And the doctor was really saying that it was a medical success and beyond what he could expect for his femur.
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With the skull, they fully repaired his skull. He had bad fractures on the front of his skull and some of the bone fragments had gotten embedded in his frontal lobe.
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And they were able to remove all of that and reconstruct the skull.
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So he's just healing right now. He's going to be there for 48 hours under observation. And one of the things that the doctors are saying, you know, they're trying to be just cautious.
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They were saying that the frontal lobe controls motor action. And so he could lose possibly some motor skills.
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They're not sure what. He could even lose some emotional stability because that's the part of the brain that controls that.
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And when they were being transferred via ambulance, my dad was sitting in the ambulance with them.
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And Jeremy, what has been amazing is he's been more awake through this whole thing and not fully remembering everything, but able to converse and talk.
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And so he was thanking my father just for all his service to them and to the family and just saying,
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I appreciate so much the way in which you're serving our family. And then he saw Andrea, who was on the bed on the other side of the ambulance, and he reached over and he just began comforting her.
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And she wasn't conscious, but he was just comforting her and stroking her arm. And like I said this morning,
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I just think, you know, the doctors can can say all kinds of things, but God is in charge and the fruit of the spirit is manifest in Jeremy even before he went through surgery.
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So do pray that the Lord would really heal him and even bring him back to his full faculties as he recovers there in the
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ICU at this point. I think of no better way to commemorate
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Jeremy than to draw you to what I think has driven him and Andrea all these years in their lives in terms of serving the
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Lord in India, and that is Matthew 28 and verses 18 through 20, the
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Magna Carta of the Christian life. The Great Commission, the reason we all exist here on this earth.
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And when I think about why we work and why we exist on this earth, even
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Jeremy and Andrea, as they were headed back, they said, we're so glad to be going back to India after such a long time here and doing what
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God has called us to do. We can think of nothing better than to do that and to be back with the PTI students. And I think they were really driven by what
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Jesus has said in these words that we need to go back and reflect upon often as Christians. You know, there need to be more warriors like Jeremy and Andrea and others serving the
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Lord all over the world. But you know where they start? They start right here in Massachusetts.
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When Jesus was speaking to his disciples, he even said in terms of priority, you need to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and then in Judea and then in Samaria and then to the outermost parts of the world.
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And I want to let you in on a little secret. You know, the word missionary doesn't even exist in the
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Bible. And now that I've just discredited myself, let me let me add the caveat that what
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I think we can see in the Bible is God trains people who are passionate for his name in their
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Jerusalem, in their Judea and in their Samaria. And as they prove themselves there, then they become those same kinds of people over across in the outermost parts of the world.
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You don't just become a missionary instantaneously and get zapped into becoming a missionary. And I look at that in my life.
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I look at that in Jeremy and Andrea's life. I was I was privileged to really work with them in a Bible study, pastoring and ministering with them.
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And the Lord has made us just what we were doing in L .A., doing the same thing in India.
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Faithful elders in L .A. and now faithful elders in India, faithful evangelists in L .A.
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and now faithful evangelists in India. And so that's what I want to challenge you with.
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This is not just some esoteric passage that Jesus brings to Christians that is just meant for some crazy people that would spend all their lives in Africa somewhere.
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This is meant for all of us. And as we are faithful to be fulfilling these words that Jesus spoke to all of us one day, maybe as we prove ourselves,
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God would even take us out of here and put us in places that Christ's name has never been named before.
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And so it's with that desire, as I look across this room, I see young boys and girls and maybe some old boys and girls, too, that God may one day pick up and make the future generations of his witnesses in India and maybe anywhere in the world for his name's sake.
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And so I don't want to say any more. Let's go and look at what Jesus said to us in this passage,
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Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying,
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All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
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You know, these words are words of energy, words of war, words of really the activity that is the only reason why we're left here on earth.
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You think about it. I mean, when Jesus saved each one of us, why did he leave us here?
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Why aren't we just up there in heaven, enjoying his presence forever and ever? Because isn't that what the
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Christian life is all about, to know Christ and to enjoy him? What is the reason that he has left us down here?
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He's given it to us in these verses. He wants us to be manifesting and bringing more into the fold, bringing more into the fellowship, bringing more into the joy.
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Of his knowledge and of his presence and of his redemption, that's the only reason he's left us here.
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I like how C .D. Studds said it, you know, he said, some people, they want to live within the sound of chapel bells.
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That's Christianity for them. But me, I want to run a mission, a yard from the gates of hell, a rescue mission.
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And that's what Christ is telling us to do. And there's really three compelling means.
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I love this about the word of God. I love this about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just giving us something that isn't practical.
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He's giving us something that is motivating, something that is practical, something that is specific, something that has feet to it.
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There's just so much in these verses. And what I want to share with you is three compelling means that I hope the spirit would take and impress upon your heart and make you witnesses here in this town where I was talking to Mike yesterday.
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There's 80 % Catholic, right? That don't even know the name of Christ. And I know there's there's many Indians and there's many
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Buddhists and there's many Muslims. And you need to start being faithful here. So that God may maybe make you faithful somewhere in the remotest parts of the earth one day.
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Three compelling means to be an effective witness. For the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And the first is this, we're just going to take one verse at a time, the first is this consecrate yourself, consecrate yourself to magnifying
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Christ, consecrate yourself to magnifying Christ. And that's how
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Jesus starts. He starts by just talking about his greatness and his authority and his power as being the motivation for missions.
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And as he comes up and speaks to his disciples, by the way, I believe it was not just the 11, because when you back up to Matthew 28 and verse seven, he's telling the women to bring all the disciples.
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And I think it's very likely that the 500, the biggest group, they were all there, even though Matthew just mentions the 11 and verse 16,
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I think as sort of the core group that had come up to the mountain to meet with Jesus. And I think
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Jesus is giving this commission not just as an apostolic commission, but a commission to all disciples who we are right followers of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And so it applies to us. And he starts off by giving them sort of this grand view of himself and saying that this is going to be the first way in which you will fight the fight and not lose heart by knowing who
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I am and knowing me in all my grandeur and all my greatness, especially after my finished work on the cross.
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Do you know now that there is no other higher authority in this universe but me? And if you do, then you are my disciple, because that's what it means to be a disciple, to know that there is no one greater than the
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Lord Jesus Christ and to have a heart that is gripped with love and fervency for his name and for his greatness.
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And so he comes to them and he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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You know, there's this amazing dichotomy that that exists till the new heavens and the new earth that we live sort of in two worlds.
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We live definitely as citizens of heaven and we know that we belong there and we long for it and we experience some of the first fruits of that.
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But we also live here on the earth that does not reflect all of heaven and is still under the bondage of the ruler of this earth.
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But you know what? The ruler of this earth, Satan, is just a puppet. And Jesus wanted to remind us of that.
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And he said, I want you to know that you live in both these worlds and I am king of both these worlds, heaven and earth.
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I have received the promise that the father gave to me in Psalm two, verse eight, ask of me and I shall give the nations as your inheritance.
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I have received the right hand of the father, Hebrews chapter one, verse three says, after he had offered purification for sins, he sat at the right hand of the father.
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I have received headship of the church, Colossians chapter one, verse 18 says, he's the head of the church so that he may have preeminence in all things.
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And, and, and, you know, we can see that in the church, right? We, we live to see Jesus magnified in our songs, in our lives, in our holiness, in all things.
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But that's the church. We want to see that in the whole world. You know, what is amazing to me is
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Jesus can just and he could have done this right then. He could have just said, I'm going to gain my preeminence by just coming down in the
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Philippines to 10 sort of way and just saying every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess right now. And I'm just going to rule over men's hearts, whether they like it or not.
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And sometimes I think when you when you work and when you move in this world, you think those thoughts, right,
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Lord Jesus, why don't you come right now and just establish your rule? Lord, why is it taking so long?
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You know what he says to us? He says the words of second Peter, chapter three and verse nine,
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I'm not slow in fulfilling my promise. There's only one reason why
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I'm waiting, and that is because I am patient towards all men, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to the repentance that comes from faith.
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And so he chooses to exercise his greatness, although he has every right to exercise his greatness and just squashing his enemies right now.
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And he has that power. He chooses to exercise his greatness in the ministry of reconciliation.
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And this authority is to be manifested, and you can see even as we proceed to through these verses and go, therefore, and make disciples, not go, therefore, and just crush my enemies, but go, therefore, and win my enemies.
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To become my friends. And that's what missions is motivated by,
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Jesus's vision for his authority to be manifested in making friends of those that the very ones that crucified him, those were the 3000 that became the first members of the church, the very ones that had cried out, crucify him.
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And that was how Jesus chose to manifest his authority. Isn't that amazing authority that he would bend the hearts of even the
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Roman century as he was crucifying Christ? That's greater authority than just blowing him to dust by his sovereign power.
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And that's the ministry that Jesus has given to us. And that's what he wants us to be gripped by, not a authority that is a mandate to judge, but authority that is a mandate to to love and to minister and to seek and to save the lost.
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We make his name great. We make his authority great by making people bow the knee.
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Not through our own work, by just presenting his word and his spirit. That can bring people into submission to his authority.
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You know, that's the first thing that that I want to ask you as you think about being a witness. I like how
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John Piper expresses it, he says, missions exist because worship doesn't.
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And that's what motivates us to to look out at this world, we in our own hearts are gripped with the fact that, you know,
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Jesus is not just one part of this universe. He is the whole of this universe. He's the king in this universe.
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And we we exist to make sure that worship is made more common.
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And is is made more prevalent in the hearts and minds of men. And that's what motivates missions, not building empires, not building the church even or or our ministries, but building the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. That's what motivates missions. Are you gripped sometimes even as you walk out?
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In the streets of your town, I am sometimes when I walk out just in the city of Pune and say, you know, there's four million people here that don't know the greatness of Jesus Christ, that don't worship the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, help me to to weep over this, like William Carey wept over the globe.
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And just said there are more places that need to know the authority and the greatness and the worship of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm ninety six three says it this way, tell of his glory among the nations, that's isn't that a great summary of missions?
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Tell of his glory. Among the nations that will transform the way you present the gospel, it's not just facts.
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It's exciting truth about the reality of the greatness of the
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God of this universe that would die for his own sinful creation that rebelled against him.
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Tell of his glory among the nations. His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.
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And so that's the first thing that can help us and compel us to be effective witnesses for the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Consecrate yourself to magnifying Christ. What do you live for? Do you live for making money?
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Do you live for getting an education? Do you live for having friendships, having a good marriage?
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You know, all of these things are great, but if they start consuming our lives, they will take us away from what we really are here on this earth for.
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And all of those things need to come under the sense and the consecration of the fact that I live in everything that I do and in everything that I am for one thing and one thing alone, and that is to make
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Jesus great. Now, because of that, we can move into the second compelling motivation.
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And that's why verse 19 says, Go therefore. I mean, if you're pumped up with that, then everything else is going to flow.
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And the reason we don't go sometimes is we don't have really a high view of Christ. And therefore, we're not motivated.
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I mean, missions is just another thing we do. It's not the only thing that we're all about in this life.
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And therefore, Jesus moves us into this second compelling motivation as we consecrate ourselves to magnifying
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Christ. We can then commit ourselves to reproducing Christ, commit ourselves to reproducing
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Christ. Now, you may know this, but I just reaffirmed this again. Many people get confused versus 19 and 20 and think there's all these commands here.
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You know, how am I going to do all of this? Go make disciples, baptize, teach. I mean,
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I'm just one person. But but really, what is amazing as you look at the text and consider this, there's just one command, there's just one idea, there's just one main activity that Jesus wants us to do as a fulfillment of knowing his greatness.
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And that is this make disciples. And everything else in this verse in verses 19, really, and verse 20 is a way to make disciples.
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We make disciples by going, we make disciples by baptizing and we make disciples by teaching. And so the main command is this.
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And that's what I want to to leave you with. Make disciples. What is a disciple, a follower, someone who imitates?
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And that's why I said the idea here is to reproduce Christ. And that's what if we think
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Christ is great, we don't want to make men like us. We want to make men like Jesus. Spurgeon said it this way, he said, when people were complimenting on how big his church was and how many converts he had, he said,
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I pray to God that I don't have even one single convert here in this church that is a convert of Charles Spurgeon.
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I pray to God that they would all be converts of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what the idea is here.
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I want to draw people to become like my savior and to make disciples of all nations.
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Now, I don't have time to get into the debates that have existed in modern times about what all nations means.
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And is it people groups and how many people groups there are? And should we divide them by language or color of skin?
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And are there 30 ,000 or 40 ,000? And there's a lot of talk about that nowadays. And I would say, you know, the best way to understand this is to look at how the people in that day would have understood it rather than trying to understand it in the ways in which we would understand it today with all our knowledge and all our science and all our way of classifying people that goes way beyond what they would have had.
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And simply put, first of all, and catch this, I think all nations would have been a prick to the conscience of the
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Jews that Jesus was speaking to because it referred to the idea of a Gentile. Someone who's not a
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Jew. Someone who is not like them. You know, isn't it isn't it natural to us, even in Christianity, that we tend to relate, even in gospel sharing to people that look like us, talk like us, work where we work, maybe like the football team that we like.
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And that's about it. You know, we don't want to go beyond those circles. We're cliquish and that's not
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Christian. That's sinful. That's disobedient to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Who, even though he existed in the form of God, did not form a clique, but chose to empty himself and come down in probably the most amazing contrast for you can't even imagine for God, the very
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God, to change his culture and become a man. And so I think that's the first idea that Jesus is telling them, go to people that are not like you.
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Go to people that you're not necessarily even comfortable with and with the strength of Christ, give them the name and the gospel of Christ.
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Of all the nations. Of all the ethnic groups, isn't it amazing what God is doing in modern times where I think he's bringing all the nations to the states.
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Right here. And that's why I think it's going to be a real training ground, God can raise you up to even learn how to share the gospel with Hindus, with Muslims right here, even before you get to India.
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Or wherever else, I'm pumping India up, I want some of you to get to India. But wherever else,
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God can train you right here. As you stop becoming non -Christian and cliquish, which is worldly behavior, and start extending the love of Christ to people that are not necessarily like you.
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You know, I look around this room and there's already a little bit of diversity in this room, right? And just think about this.
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We would have never really loved each other or been friends with one another if we were still in the world. The only reason we're all in this room is not because we like the same football team or because we come from even the same place.
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But it's because the Lord Jesus Christ intervened in our lives and brought us here through instruments that were faithful to make disciples of all the nations.
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And that's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It stands as a contrast to clubs and movements that the world has in its diversity.
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You know, it's amazing when this command of make disciples is given. It's sort of a summary command.
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It's a snapshot command. Some commands that you have in the Bible are like commands that talk about habitual actions that you just need to be doing all the time.
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Well, this command is just if someone were to come to you at any point in your life and see you at work maybe or see you maybe in your family or in the way in which you interact with your children and just take a picture of you and then they just look at that picture.
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What they would say, what would strike them as characteristic is he's a disciple maker. He's someone that is seeking to reproduce
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Christ. That's the idea that if they could summarize your life, if they could encapsulate your life, if people were to ask you, what is your mission here on earth?
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What has Jesus left you here on earth for? It is this that you would make people like him make disciples.
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You know, I think passing on tracks is great and God has used that to save many people.
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Having a rally sometimes is useful, but we need to think of evangelism as a lot more than that.
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It's like raising kids. Reproducing Jesus Christ doesn't happen just through a tract.
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It happens through really a lifetime process. That's why Paul was able to call Timothy his son even because it was like raising a kid.
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And if you have kids, you know how that can be. It's a 24 hour job.
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Sometimes you wish you have more than 24 hours in the day just to raise your kids because there's so much that you want to disciple them in and change their thinking and make them understand the gospel.
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Missions is a lifestyle. Missions is not an event. It's a lifestyle and it takes time.
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That's why I praise God that at PTI, he's given us eight men, you know, so we can go slow so that we can't just pump guys out like cookie cutter approach.
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Just say you've got your degree. Go out there now. You're a pastor, but we can go slow because that's what it pleases
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Christ. I mean, what pleases men is to see numbers. What pleases Christ is to see people being transformed quality, not quantity.
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Now, there's three ways we can commit ourselves to reproducing Christ. And like I told you, isn't isn't the word of God so practical?
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Three ways in which we can make our lives characteristic of this truth of of obedience to this command that we would be disciple makers.
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And the first is this. By going, what could be more obvious than that, and even the way in which this verb is stated, remember, these three ideas now are subordinate to the main command of making disciples.
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But even the way in which this verb is stated, it's married to making disciples. And it's like Jesus is knocking us on the head and saying, realize this.
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You will not be able to make disciples unless you get out of your bed and get out of your seat and get out of your home and go somewhere else and meet people and interact with people.
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I think it was Keith Green, I think you said Jesus rose from the dead, but you some of you can't even get out of your bed in the morning to serve the
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Lord Jesus Christ. You know, one of the things that I think about and the reason why sometimes, you know, we're so cliquish and we just sit in our own homes, drive our car into our garage, shut the garage, get into our room and just watch
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TV. And we don't even know who our neighbors are is sometimes because we're uncomfortable, right?
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We're uncomfortable getting out of our comfort zone of spending our our time and it's going to cost us something.
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And all of those things cause us to draw back from from getting out of our homes and going maybe even to your neighbor and sharing the gospel with them.
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And the Lord is asking us to. Leave our comforts by looking at.
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The discomfort of the fact that the person may be in the house next to you doesn't know him and is dying.
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In the ultimate way possible and going to hell. Can that make you uncomfortable enough for you to get out of your home, get out of your comfort zone and go to them and speak to them and talk to them about the
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Lord Jesus Christ? You know, the church in Acts was the same way. Jesus told them, go to Judea, Samaria and the outermost parts of the world after you've done
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Jerusalem. They didn't do that. Do you know they didn't do that? They're just like us.
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You know what it took to get them out of their homes? Acts chapter eight, a great persecution arose under Saul and the church got scattered and literally the text is even tongue in cheek to Judea, Samaria and the outermost parts of the world.
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God had to light a fire under their tails and then they got out. Do you want that to happen to you?
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You've got to go. Or God will make you go. Because he loves you enough to even chasten you sometimes when you don't obey him.
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And the second way we can make disciples is by baptizing. Baptizing.
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You know, baptism is just such a great. Consecration and symbol of of the reality of what the
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Christian life is, and I think it's not. You know, done soon enough, sometimes in our discipleship processes, sometimes you see people wait years and years before they get baptized.
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And what does baptism signify? And why does Jesus say the first way in which you you disciple people is is is to baptize them?
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Well, it's to teach them obedience to him. It's to teach them to become like him.
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What was one of the first things even that Jesus did, even in his ministry, he got baptized. And one of the ultimate ways in which you can become like Jesus Christ in every way is to get baptized and signify the fact that Christ is all to me.
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My identity is not myself anymore. My identity is not my family anymore, even my identity is not my ethnicity anymore, even my identity is
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Jesus Christ. I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ that lives in me and I die to myself and I now live through Christ.
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You know, it was interesting when I was looking at the roots of baptism that there was a form of baptism that had nothing to do with Christian baptism, even that the
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Jews used to practice in the intertestamental period where when somebody who was a non -Jew, a goyim, a
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Gentile wanted to become a Jew, they would baptize them. And what was interesting was sometimes they would baptize them literally in mud, and this was why they wanted to give them the sense of the fact that they were being buried alive.
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And they would baptize them, thankfully, just up to their necks. And then say, you are now dead to who you were and you shall now rise up as a
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Jew. And I think that that cultural sense was still there, it was still strong, and that's why the
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Lord Jesus sanctified that and put that into the Christian life to signify this reality.
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And if we don't have this reality in our discipleship, then we're making less than disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I remember talking even to one of my students, this was amazing, who hadn't been baptized yet. And he said, I can't get baptized.
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I said, why? He said, because my dad told me he's going to kill himself if I get baptized. And I can't get baptized and he's threatening me, he's going to throw me out of the house.
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And I said, you know, I know that's difficult, but who do you love more? Who do you love more?
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And he said, you're right. It took him a long time, but, you know, he did it eventually. You know what?
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His dad didn't kill himself. His dad came to the baptism, even though he was very upset, he came to the baptism.
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And I think it was a real testimony. It was a real testimony of what it means to be a disciple of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, even for this guy's dad. And we're praying that he gets saved. That's what baptism is.
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And that's why the Lord wants us to make disciples in this very symbolic way. I think it was very significant for the early
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Christians that I am no longer part of the world culture anymore, but I am part of the culture of the
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Lord Jesus Christ and to be like him and to please him and to live under his authority.
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So we go, we baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the
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Holy Spirit, speaking about their pleasure and speaking about their authority. And that's why I think it's appropriate to have baptisms within the church that represents the authority of the triune
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God here on Earth. And then finally, we make disciples by teaching.
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We make disciples by teaching. You know, this is just so. Succinct and yet so practical, verse 20, teaching them, and it doesn't stop there.
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It tells us two ways in which we need to teach people. To observe all that I have commanded you.
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You know, this is not the form of teaching that even I'm doing right now before you. This is something that takes a little more work than that.
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And that's why it's called discipleship. You notice what Jesus says? He says, teaching them, first of all, by example.
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Not just by word, but teaching them by example. What does he say? Teaching them to observe.
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And one of the reasons why sometimes I think we have such powerless gospel presentations, because all it is, is it's words.
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And our examples are discrediting, unfortunately, sometimes the things even that we are calling people to follow the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And, you know, we've seen this in an amazing way. Even yesterday,
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I think somebody was asking me, how do you share the gospel with Hindus? Well, we have some Hindu neighbors across.
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Not the road, but across the apartment. You know, they just, you open our door and their door is right there and that's where they live.
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So we see them all the time and they see us all the time. We go into their house, they come into our house. And it is hard to share the gospel with them.
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But you know what? One day, the wife of this Hindu family, this couple, came over to Nicole and said,
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I've noticed something. I've noticed that your kids actually obey you when you tell them to do things.
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And I don't know why that is. And I wanted to just talk with you because I'm having a tough time with my son.
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And can I talk with you about that? And so Nicole said, sure, you can talk with me and we can even go through the parenting course that I've gone through, which is done by TED Trip.
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And so they've sat together and gone through that course. But you know what helped
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Nicole then to even share the gospel with her was observation. It's amazing, isn't it?
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It's frightening sometimes when people ask you about the gospel even before you've shared with them. But that's the power of the applied gospel presentation.
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That's what Jesus can do if you're observing. So first of all, if you want to present the gospel, are you someone who has been transformed by the gospel yourself?
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Don't dare to say a word on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the order in which he gives it to us, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And then I would say and I wouldn't stop there to observe all that I have commanded you. He talks about exhortation.
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It's not just example, but it's exhortation. The Bible is not just suggestions.
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The Bible is not just good moral ideas. The Bible is commands.
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See, again, you see the sense of the authority of Jesus Christ. I remember one time
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I was sharing the gospel with this gentleman. We were on a train and he was like a Hindu priest or something.
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So he knew a lot about the Vedas and all kinds of things. And it was it was interesting talking to him.
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And and basically when he would shove an idea my way about morality or sin or anything, I would say, you know, the
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Bible says in Romans chapter six, such and such. And he would throw another idea my way.
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And I would say, you know what God says in the Bible, such and such. And after a while, he just got red faced and mad.
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And he said, will you stop taking that book and opening it up and giving to me? I don't want to know what that book says.
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I want to know what you say and you think, because I want to exchange ideas with you. And I said, sir, you know,
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I'm sorry, but I have ideas, but they're not worth anything. The only thing that is worth something is what
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God says, because I just have ideas and you have ideas and we can go on for hours talking about our ideas.
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But what God says is authoritative because he made us and he created us and he knows us.
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And so that's all I have to give to you. Well, we had a very interesting conversation after that, and he listened, teaching them to observe.
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And to observe all that I have commanded you, that's how we make disciples by going by baptizing and by teaching.
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You know, I started off with what C .T. Studd said. He said, some people want to live within the sound of chapel bells, but I want to run a rescue mission, a yard from the gates of hell.
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And we've seen that it's going to take a lot. It's going to take your whole life. You're going to lose a lot.
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Of course, what you gain is infinitely more, the knowledge and the presence of Christ in your life.
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But evangelism is war and evangelism bring you face to face with the stink of hell. I was talking with a policeman just a few weeks ago, and he was working in the
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L .A. area and lots of difficult things. And he said, you know, sometimes I just come home and I feel so filthy because of all the sin that I see every day.
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And I just feel like I can wash it off and it's in my mind and it's in my thoughts. And I and I have a hard time even then relating to my wife and to my kids because all that I've gone through.
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But he said, you know, it's also a wonderful opportunity to see how true the gospel is and how many times
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God is able to give me his gospel as a comfort. And as a weapon that I can use even against the greatest of sins that comes my way.
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And I think that's what Jesus leaves us with, even in in this last section of the Magna Carta of the
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Christian life. He says, as you consecrate yourself to my greatness and as you commit yourself to reproducing me,
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I have one last thing to give you, and that is comfort because you need it. Comfort yourself with the presence of Christ.
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Isn't that amazing that as we go into this war, we are not alone.
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And as we go into this greatest work that we can do in this life, he stands with us every step of the way.
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And that's what he says, lo, he says, even behold, surprise, I know you wouldn't expect it.
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But even from the right hand of the Father, my presence is with you, especially as you fulfill this commission to be my witnesses in your neighborhood, in your workplace.
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My presence is with you, especially in that work. There will be trials and difficulties in our life that come out of our commitment to proclaiming
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Christ. I look at the Smiths, I think about even before this, many conversations we've had just about it's not easy being a witness for the
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Lord Jesus Christ in a foreign land. But Jesus says, take notice and calm your hearts because I myself, and he's very emphatic about it,
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I myself with all my presence and with all my person and with all my sufficiency,
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I'm with you through my word. You know, the presence of Jesus Christ is not some esoteric thing.
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I think Colossians 3 .16 summarizes it for us so well. It's the words of Christ that bring the presence of Christ in his people.
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And that's how he demonstrates his reality in our lives. And that's how he demonstrates his comfort in our lives.
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And that's how he demonstrates his greatness in our life. Even over this last few days, the word has been my comfort.
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Now what does he say about his presence and what is so encouraging about his presence? He says two realities of his presence and the promise of his presence that can become a great undergirding to your soul.
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It is a constant presence. It is a constant presence. Look at this.
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I am with you always. And literally, that's hard to translate because he's saying all the day, 24 hours,
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I am with you. Every minute, every second, as you live for me in this world, I am with you.
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There's not a second when Christ's favor is not with those who love his name and his glory.
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It's a constant presence. Isn't that amazing? He's the
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God who never sleeps and who never slumbers. Sometimes we may be sleeping, but he isn't.
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And that's why his work is successful. I mean, we are but like Paul, who's worthy of these things to be an aroma of life and to be an aroma of death?
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We're just spectators of God and Christ working through us. Not only is it a constant presence, but it's a consistent presence.
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It's the same in its fervency, in its love, in its intensity as it was when he first promised.
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And this is what he says, even to the end of the age. And the end of the age is talking about those last days, those difficult times that started when
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Christ was ascended till today, till he comes back again. Have been difficult times where men have been getting worse and worse, where sin has been abounding more and more.
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And yet the gospel is propagated and the gospel is penetrating and the gospel is conquering hearts.
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Why? Because he is still alive and well, even to the end of the age.
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And the point here is that even when evil men and opposition gets worse, we can be more assured that Christ will be more real and more present with his people.
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I have a friend who is one of my heroes, Rabba Pansari. He's a missionary that's supported by Disciples Community Church for many years.
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And he works in a very remote rural area in India and he experiences a lot of persecution. And he's the only
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Christian in his family. His wife is a Hindu. His parents are Hindus and they live together in a joint family.
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And Rabba has just felt the call in his life to become a preacher of the gospel. And he does that. He walks on foot sometimes 14, 15 hours just preaching the gospel in about 3 or 4 villages.
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And some Hindu militant groups have beat him up about 3 times now. They'll just beat him up more just to threaten him and frighten him and just leave him out in the street with his injuries.
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And Rabba said it's amazing, you know, Jesus just gives him strength and grace. And he gets back and he goes back and he preaches in some of these villages in the very places where these men have opposed him.
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And he says after those 3 times now, they're frightened of him. Because they say, no matter what we do, you keep coming back.
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And now they're responsive to him and there's been some churches that have been started in those areas. And Rabba, as he was sitting with me and telling me about these things, he was just saying it's the power of Jesus.
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It's not my power. And I think that is true for those that decide to take up the call, which is really the call of every
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Christian. Whether it be here or whether it be far, to be someone that is filled with his glory and his authority, that is committed to making men like him and that is encouraged by the fact that he is with us every step of the way.
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Henry Martin, he came to India in the late 1830s and he said, Lord, let me burn out for you.
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You got to be careful when you pray those kinds of prayers. 8 years later, he was dead, 31 years of age.
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So he was 23 when he prayed that prayer. But in that time, he translated the
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Bible into Hindustani. He translated the Gospels into Persian. He was established and teaching at several seminaries in India, planted a church.
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And when he was dying, he was in the courts of the Shah of Iran in Persia, ministering the
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Gospel to him. And he's buried there. What Jesus said is true.
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And it's powerful. And we can live it. That's my challenge to you. Let's pray.
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Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for leaving us here on this earth to do such a great task as representing you.
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Father, thank you for giving us everything that we need in your presence and in your word. And now,
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Lord, help us to have the strength and the determination and the discipline and the joy to stand for you in the place that you have us, even here in this community, to magnify your name so that the
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Church of Jesus Christ will grow in this part and in the uttermost parts of the world.