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Sermons
Matt 28:16-20 (NIV) 16 Then the eleven disciples
went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
Introduction: The Mission Christ gives his disciples is to make disciples through a process of spiritual growth. As his church we should have purpose and mission in our walk and service to God. How does a Christian and a church fulfill this mission? Isaiah’s
Vision For those of us who were here last week, we heard Rev. Hans Wilhelm share a message with us titled “Our Vision.” He shared about a man in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah. If you remember, Isaiah, in chapter 6, saw a vision of God. For Isaiah, seeing God was initially a scary experience. His first response was to cower in God’s presence, knowing God is Holy and Perfect, and that He was not. He saw Himself as unholy and unrighteous before God. And the angel touched his lips with a coal to cleanse him of his unrighteousness. But then God gave Him another picture to look at. And that was of the people of Israel who had gone astray, away from God. God asked, “Who will go for us?” Who would represent the HOLY LORD? And Isaiah said, “Here I am Lord, Send ME!” Isaiah’s caught a picture of God’s call on his life. He would dedicate himself to the God’s commission to speak prophetically for the LORD the rest of his days. What
is God’s call for us today as a church and as individuals? Just
as Isaiah was given a mission from God to call people back to Him, so are
we. We can begin to
understand what that mission is from today’s passage. A Post Resurrection Church The passage we read today is often referred to as the Great Commission. I wanted to examine this passage as a conclusion to our study in Jesus’ suffering, resurrection, and final instructions before ascended back to Heaven. Also, I would like to kick off a four sermon series on the PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND DISCIPLE MAKING. Jesus’ passion and suffering helps us picture the great love and sacrifice Jesus displayed for each one of us. Easter is a great day of celebration because we remember that our Lord is Risen from the dead. His new life guarantees our new life in Him. But the story does not end with Easter or the Resurrection. After His Resurrection our Lord Jesus Christ gave his disciples a mission. Just as the original eleven disciples were given this mission, it is passed on to us for our generation. It
is this: To Make Disciples of Christ. If
we look at the whole paragraph, there is only one command.
It looks like GO may be a command, but it actually a tag along word
to describe how to Make Disciples. Again,
there is only one command in this passage: TO MAKE DISCIPLES.
Every church, whether it is ours or the one down the street or
on the other side of the world is to be a disciple making church. EVANGELISM
AND Great Commission Often when we look at this passage, we think EVANGELISM. We think GREAT COMMISSION equals EVANGELISM and Converting New Believers. As I looked more deeply into this passage, though, the Great Commission is more. It is Evangelism and New Converts. It is sharing the Gospel to our neighbors and our friends and family. But Disciple Making is much more. If
it’s not only Evangelism, then what is the Great Commission? In the Great Commission Jesus presents to his disciples a PROCESS for Making Disciples. This process has three steps that roughly translate into how a person can be taken through a spiritual growth journey. We’ll examine those three steps today with these questions in mind: 1. How am I participating in the church’s ministry to make disciples? 2. How am I myself becoming a mature disciple of Christ?
I. Go (Spiritual Consciousness and Conversion) The Disciples' Expanding Mission Jesus had told his Eleven Disciples to meet Him at a specified mountain in Galilee. Jesus has just Risen from the dead. The disciples had not seen Jesus yet. It took a certain measure of faith to believe that it was indeed Jesus who had given instruction to meet them. But they went anyway.When they finally did meet Him, some worshipped Him, others doubted whether this was truly Jesus or not. Surely He relieved all their fears and doubts concerning his Resurrection during the time He was with them. Now Jesus is about to speak to them.
He tells them that all Authority on HEAVEN and on EARTH has been
given to Him. It is by His
authority given by the Father that He gives the charge to the disciples to
GO and MAKE DISCIPLES. Where did you say to
GO? Think of the person or the
place you would least like to persuade people to become followers of
Christ. Who are those people
and where are those places? When I was in college I spent a summer on a cross-cultural evangelism project in San Francisco. During those 8 weeks we had to break up into three groups, with each group going to a different campus. Unfortunately, the campus I was sent to was UC Berkeley. Everyday we went drove to campus to pray and randomly talk to people about Jesus. UCB isn’t the most receptive or welcoming place to share the Gospel. More than once people angrily argued with me or just plain got upset. The disciples were asked to GO! They weren’t asked to go to UCB, but to “ALL THE NATIONS” The word for Nations is Ethne, where we get the word Ethnic. Their mission was to expand beyond their own people, the people they would feel most comfortable with. For the Jews, the nation of Israel always tried to keep themselves separate. But now God was commanded them as Disciple Makers to go beyond their comfort areas and zones. The
mission was to GO and Make Disciples of people who they would not usually
go to, to the places they would not usually frequent. The command to GO is to go out of our way. Bust
like Israel, we can lose our sense of mission and focus.
We can find ourselves wanting to protect ourselves from the world
instead of being an influence on it for Christ.
We can travel in the same circles week after week and eventually
find ourselves wondering why we are doing what we are doing.
We do need purpose and we do need mission. The
first step is to GO. Beginning of a Process Today we had a testimony from our brother Alex. Just a few weeks ago he was baptized in our sanctuary downstairs. When he shared his testimony he told us a story of how he had been introduced to who Jesus is as a child and how he came to know Jesus as his personal Savior and Lord. Someone had to go to Him and reach out to Him to share this Good News. Then over time people had to continue to teach Him and show Him how Christ’s story could make a difference in His story. Think about this: Why does Jesus use his disciples to make other disciples? Going and Making Disciples is this process of sharing how our life story and testimony intersects with Jesus’ life story. When we go, we tell people about how they can have eternal life--as we have experienced it. Are we Disciple Makers? How
can we say our life has brought people closer to following Christ? The second step of Disciple Making is to Baptize.
II. Baptize (Spiritual Identification and Relationship) NT Baptism Baptism in the NT is a public proclamation that a person is identified with something. Take John’s Baptism in the Jordan River. People there were identifying with his message of Repentance in Preparation for the coming Kingdom of God. A person who would repent would show everyone that he needed to live a life in God’s ways instead of his own ways. The Baptism was a symbol to show that He would life in God’s Ways. Jesus did not need to Repent of any sin. So why was He baptized? The purpose of His Baptism was to show that Jesus is identified as God’s Son. God the Father said at the baptism of Jesus, “ Matt
3:17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love;
with him I am well pleased." (NIV)
All those in attendance at Jesus’ baptism and all of us who hear
of Jesus’ baptism would know that Jesus is God’s Son. Identification What about this baptism that Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 28? What is it all about? Jesus says that we are to baptize unto the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Baptism is essential in disciple making and important in the growth of an individual because it identifies a believer with God—with the Trinity. His primary identity is a believer who has a new relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What do we identify with? What do we identify with? A lot times people, men in particular, identify themselves with sports or sports teams. The last couple of weeks I have been following the San Jose Sharks in the hockey playoffs. For those of you who don’t know, I have been a SJ Sharks follower since they entered the NHL. I have two friends who I talk hockey with. A lot of times when we talk about the Sharks we say “WE” as if we were on the team. We’ll say “WE just missed that goal!” or “WE should’ve won that game.” Others of us may identify with the company we work with or our job title. WE at IBM are doing this, or I’m an engineer. Or
we may identify with the school we go to: “WE won the football game.”
Or “Our Senior Ball is next week.” Baptism in Romans Paul tells us that as Followers of Christ that baptism tells us we are identified with HIM. Rom
6:3-5 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of
the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him
like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his
resurrection. From this passage we are identified with Christ. When he DIED, We DIED. When He RESURRECTED, we RESURRECTED. Our identity and history are intimately tied to His. MAKING DISCIPLES THROUGH BAPTISM Making disciples is more than just sharing a few verses with someone and have them make a decision about accepting or rejecting Christ. It is a process of spiritual growth. It is first going where the nations are—actively seeking out those who have not heard about Jesus. And it is also helping the new believer be grounded in their new identity in Christ. As
Disciples of Christ—do we identify ourselves with Christ?
Are we helping ground and establish others in their identity in
Christ? That brings us to the final step in in Making Disciples. Teaching them to Obey Everything that Christ has Commanded.
III. Teach (Spiritual Growth and Maturity) Process
of Education There is a great challenge here. After someone is baptized, a Disciple Making Church has a lifetime task ahead of herself. The education process is more than just learning facts. It is more than the business of going to Sunday school classes and reading lots of books. Each week we come to church. We hear a sermon, a Sunday school class, and perhaps have a fellowship Bible study. Then hopefully we are studying on our own in our personal study and quiet times. We as a church and as
Christians sometimes are good at taking in information.
But disciples don’t just have information in their heads.
They are living in OBEDIENCE to the COMMANDS of Christ. OBEDIENCE:
Word Study The Word for Obey or Observe is an interesting word. It talks not so much about blind adherence to a rule. It is more about GUARDING or KEEPING something. I have a fire-proof file box where I keep all of our important documents like birth and marriage certificates. I guard those documents with a lock and in a special box for safe-keeping. When we Observe or OBEY the commands of Christ, we are GUARDING them in our hearts because they have become very important to us like those documents in a safe or file box. They represent TRUTH to us, and they teach us how to live RIGHTEOUSLY. We keep them and GUARD them at all costs. This is something that Jesus tells us must be taught. We need to be taught to Guard or KEEP the Commands of Christ as the most valuable in our Hearts. What
are the Commands of Christ? GREATEST
COMMANDMENT Jesus was being tested by the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law. They asked him what the Greatest Commandment was. He told them: Mt 22:37 And He said to him,
"'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL
YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' Mt 22:38 "This is the great and
foremost commandment. Mt 22:39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' Mt 22:40 "On these two commandments
depend the whole Law and the Prophets." Jesus
Himself summarizes His teaching in this: to LOVE GOD with all our being
and to LOVE others as we love ourselves.
We don’t have time to get into these commandments today, but they
tell us something. That OBEDIENCE to these commands takes a CHANGED LIFE where
LOVING GOD and OTHERS becomes the most important values in our lives. Are
we a Church or individuals that just teach and learn facts? Or, are we doing the hard work of MAKING DISCIPLES by showing people how to GUARD the TRUTH in our hearts and in the way we live?
Conclusion Billy
Graham Crusade Do any of you remember the Billy Graham Crusades from 1997? I was the youth coordinator for the South Valley sister church for the Crusade. It so happened that the Crusade Director was the brother of a missionary who was helping us at our sister church in South San Jose at the time. For all of the Youth Focused Crusades our South Valley group always had floor passes for the concerts and the talks. We went through all the training sessions and helped counsel people who made decisions to follow Jesus. Something that I was very much impressed about Billy Graham’s ministry was that they stressed personal relationship. It was not just read a short tract and then let them go. We were supposed to call those people we counseled and help them find a church. We were to make a follower of Christ, not just a convert for a day. One of the youth I counseled in
the San Jose Arena happened to be from our SV youth group.
When I go back to the church to preach or visit, I still see him.
He is growing as a disciple of Christ there.
I am not there anymore, but I see how the church and the youth
advisors have brought him from his first faith to Baptism and now to
teaching him to GUARD and KEEP Christ’s commands. Making Disciples is a PROCESS. It takes dedication and service from the whole BODY OF CHRIST to build up people into disciples. It takes us looking in the mirror and asking: Are we Disciples of Christ ourselves? As we endeavor to be a DISCIPLE MAKING church, May we take great comfort in how Matthew ends his Gospel: “ Matt 28:20… And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (NIV) Let
us Pray
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