Go Therefore - Part 1 — Erlo Stegen

The Great Commission and Christ’s Promise of Presence

I will read from Matthew 28, from verse 16 to the end of the chapter. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

The Mountain Appointed by Jesus

The first point I want to speak about is where it says, the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. Brethren, there is a place God has appointed for us where he wants us to be.

Jesus told the eleven disciples to go to that mountain in Galilee. The life of a Christian must not be down at the bottom, on a low level. In a spiritual sense, our lives must be on the mountaintop. God doesn't want you to be down in the dumps.

Spiritually, he wants you in a high place. So I wonder, you who are here today, spiritually, where do you stand? Are you in a high place on the mountaintop, or down in the dumps? The Lord Jesus doesn't want you to be down in a low place, where you are cold and isolated.

The Danger of Lukewarm Spirituality

He doesn't even want you to be halfway up, in a lukewarm place. He wants you in that place right on the mountaintop, where it's on fire. Examine yourself. Are you on fire spiritually? Are you on the mountaintop, where your heart is burning and where you are experiencing God's joy?

Or are you just lukewarm or cold? People that take part in sports or enjoy sports, they look on, when they see their team, their athlete or their team, even if it's rugby or whatever it is, or soccer, if you see your team winning, they rejoice, they are happy.

But if their team loses, they are disappointed. Now, in a spiritual sense, are you on that higher place, on the mountaintop? There's a hymn, a song that goes, Lord lift me up to the mountaintop. Lift me up, always, that I will be climbing upward.

Spiritual Depression and the Joy of the Lord

It said, when you... It said, when you find a Christian in a depressed state, when he's down in the dumps, he's got no joy, he doesn't experience the Lord's joy, or he doesn't experience what a calf experiences when it's let out to pasture.

I don't mean that you dance, but no, that you experience that joy of the Lord. So when Jesus left them, he said, I will go, but I will come back, but I want to find you, meet you there on the mountaintop in Galilee.

So when Jesus left them, he said, I will go, but I will come back, but I want to find you, meet you there on the mountaintop in Galilee. This is after he had died, he had been crucified, and then he had been raised from the dead, and that angel came down like lightning from heaven, saying to Mary and them to go and tell his disciples about it, and saying that they must now go as I had told them to be there at that mountain, and I will go ahead and meet them there.

Leaving Fear Behind to Reach the Appointed Place

They had locked themselves behind closed doors, they were afraid, they feared for their lives, but Jesus said to them, I don't need you here, I need you there on the mountaintop. If you read the Bible, you will see in the Lord explains to us the place that he wants us to be.

Are you in that place where God has taught you and told you where you should be? Woe to you if you are just in any other place, and you are not in that place where Jesus has pointed you to be. So the eleven went to that place which Jesus had pointed out to them.

Woe to you if you are found in just any other place and not the one Jesus has pointed to you. Woe to you if you are found in just any other place and not the one Jesus has pointed to you.