Go Forth!

anymore. Okay, let’s let’s pray. Holy
Father, we thank you for the opportunity for us to join together
on this Lord’s Day, unified in Christ, to worship you, praise
you, and learn from your Word. I pray that the Spirit can make
use of my words to speak to the hearts and minds of your people
and those who are not yet of your people. We praise and honor
you, our most holy and merciful God. We thank you for all that
you have done for your people and will continue to do for them
through all time and through eternity. We humbly thank you
for the gift of your son. Through his sinless life, he
became our sacrifice and payment for our sin, allowing his people
to be reconciled to you, Father. We graciously accept the work
you have put before us on our pilgrimage here on earth to witness,
to proclaim, and to disciple your people and those who are
not yet your people. Help us to maintain our focus
on you as we hear, learn, and apply your word to all of our
lives. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
We ask this in Christ’s name, amen. Well, first, Ron, thank
you for the opportunity. What a privilege and an honor.
God’s providence, God’s sovereignty, and the circle that brings us
back around. I do want to call out that this
message is on the Great Commission, and you hear a lot of challenges
and problems that we face in the Christian world today with
respect to the Great Commission, especially in America. But I
think everybody here knows what a diamond we have in providence.
And I can say that sincerely and honestly over 30 years. Providence
is one of only two or three churches where we’ve seen God’s pursuit
of the commission and a full church, a full life cycle church
with everybody in it, not just a niche of foodies or hipsters
or what have you. So you have something amazing
here that is so precious. And so even though it’s a great
church and we have all these amazing things happening, there
are lessons we can learn and things we can improve on. So
that’s the notion of this message. So we’re going to take a look
here at a number of passages about the commission and as well
to understand the issues that work to frustrate our efforts
in fulfilling it. Of course, that is not to say that these
issues frustrate God’s plan. After learning what the scriptures
have to say, we’ll then review the issues and concerns and apply
the lessons we learned. Our primary verse today will
be in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. we’re going to be covering a
number of passages. So I just make sure you don’t prefer to And the whole intent and purpose
of what we’re doing here is these additional scriptures is to add
context for you in hearing the word so that it may help you
focus in worship and in application. So I’d start off, if you can
turn, or in the outline, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. I just want
to read it initially before I do a short introduction. And Jesus
came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you always
to the end of the age.” So through history, the commission had one
primary meaning to the church for roughly the first 1,700 years
of its existence. It was to reach the lost with
the gospel of Christ through the proclamation, witness, and
discipleship driven by the people in the church. Of course, there
were varying views on the commission during this time, but they were
tightly controlled within that Catholic church. The changing
view of the commission can be traced primarily back several
hundred years to the time after the Reformation, primarily, and
the growing rejection of church authority. This time saw the
rise of revivalism, denominationalism, and liberalism moving away from
the Word of God as our sole trusted source of authority. This is
key to the apostasy that we are experiencing today with respect
to God’s word in the commission. Those seeds were planted hundreds
of years ago as the pursuit of independence, extreme equality,
and anti-authoritarianism raged in light of the attacks on the
authority of scripture by higher criticism among the unbelieving
academy. As a result, we saw the authority
shifting from the church to outside organizations that held very
different views and beliefs as opposed to the Orthodox Protestant
Church. Today we now see churches and
missionary groups that do not use scripture as a part of their
so-called missionary works. They are little more than social
movements that hide behind the Christian name in order to not
confuse their ignorant benefactors. Their master is equity, socialism,
communism, egalitarianism, feminism, race, and social justice. It
is not about the gospel. We also see the church abdicating
its role in the commission. The inward focus of the church
in America today has allowed these parachurch organizations
and others, including many seminaries, to usurp their scriptural God-given
responsibility. The churches have allowed delegation
of responsibility and professionalism to overrun the primary Christ-given
mission of the church. It is now the norm, and rarely
noticed, that we see a never-ending scheme of secular business practices
and methods being implied to the incorporated church. The
reality is for many in the church today, man has decided that he
knows best on how to reach the lost and only gives a cursory
nod to what God has revealed in his word. This man-centric
approach proclaims a false gospel which leaves out repentance and
sin in order to not offend the sensibilities of modern enlightened
man. If you don’t have to repent from
sin, as God defines it, why do you need a savior? Then you only
need a wise teacher, a social justice warrior that accepts
everyone as they are without the need to repent of anything.
The commission, led by the works of the spirit of the living God,
with us as his ambassadors, is viewed as outdated and unable
to reach the hearts of the modern post-Christian man. The word
of the living God, his son, and the testimony of his Holy Spirit
say otherwise, as do his faithful servants. And in order to ensure
we go forth as commanded in God’s words, we must understand the
context and the directive of the Great Commission. So now
we’re going to review a number of scriptures in view regarding
the commission given by Christ to his church. As you’ll see
in the outline, we’re going to have one primary scripture in
Matthew 28, 18 through 20 that provides our center point. We
also have a number of additional passages to add texture, depth,
and clarity to ensure we have a full perspective of the commission
given to us by our Lord. This is known as the analogy
of faith. This key Reformation principle simply means that a
key interpretive principle is that we let scripture interpret
scripture. We bring all relevant passages to bear in order to
ensure we do not misuse the word. I want to set a bit of context
here before we read the passage again. Remember that Jesus spoke
of the commission a number of times with the disciples before
his resurrection. He sent them out and spent much
time teaching them, discipling them. The passage below is after
the resurrection and Jesus had already appeared a number of
times. This is not the last time that Jesus appeared to the disciples,
but when this verse is viewed in light of the rest of the applicable
passages, we see a more full picture of the commission and
all that entails and what comes as a result of it. So we’re gonna
look at Matthew 28, 18 through 20 once again. And Jesus came
and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you to
the end of the age.” I make a number of points there. The key on this
passage is I like to call out the fact that it says, make disciples.
And I’ve written some notes down for each of the verses, but I’m
just going to dialogue a little bit about the passage itself.
In this passage, we are given our charge that we’re to make
disciples of all the nations to the very end of the age. Jesus
tells us that he has been given all authority by the Father.
This is because he is reigning even now and is seated at the
right hand of God. You see in Mark 16.19 or Acts
7.55 for additional clarity. It is for this reason that he
says, go therefore. So we have the justification
and the command. This is certainly the fundamental
charge given to the disciples and by extension applied to the
church as we see indicated through the end of the age. We will see
in our supporting passages that the commission speaks to the
entire process of making disciples, including the proclamation of
the gospel, as well as witnessing. Once saved, the believer is to
be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A clear reference to the Trinity.
The other part of making disciples is the teaching of all the commands
of Jesus. This speaks to all of scripture, not just the new
command of loving our neighbor as ourselves, as if you can sin
all you want as long as you love others. And there are many people
who push this today. That is not biblical. This is
false teaching. This is key to the false gospel
in vogue today. We are not only to teach, but
to observe the commandments. This means to obey, but we obey
out of love. The Holy Spirit works in us through
the process of sanctification, which is just becoming more Christ-like
through our entire life, and he enables us to obey these commands
out of love. While never achieving perfection
in this life, we strive out of gratitude, thankfulness, and
love for what Christ has done for us. Now let’s look at a number
of supporting scriptural references in addition to the Matthew 28
passage. If you turn to me with Matthew
24, 14. And this gospel of the kingdom
will be proclaimed through the whole world as a testimony to
all nations and then the end will come. Again, this is one passage that
was quoted before the resurrection. It adds texture by making disciples
by showing that the proclamation of the gospel defines what the
disciples will be initiated to. A disciple is a follower of something.
In this case, it is the gospel of Christ that has been proclaimed.
And the testimony is mentioned in this passage. A testimony
is a statement of facts, typically orally, like you would do in
a court case or what have you. So as part of that proclamation,
we’re giving a testimony of what we know and understand of Christ. Once the gospel is proclaimed
as a testimony to all nations, then the end will come with the
glorious return of Christ on his white horse with the armies
of heaven. Second, Mark 13, 9 through 13. Mark 13, 9 through 13. This here is another passage
that has occurred before the resurrection. And as I study
this, I just want to reiterate this point that you see that
Jesus didn’t just, he pushed a lot of doctrine and knowledge
on the apostles the night before his crucifixion, but he did this
throughout his ministry. So it didn’t just happen one
time or after the resurrection, this happened throughout his
discipling of the apostles. Mark 13, 9 through 13. But be
on your guard, for they will deliver you over to councils,
and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors
and kings for my sake. To bear witness before them.
And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And
when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not
be anxious beforehand what you would say, but say whatever is
given to you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but
the Holy Spirit. and brother will deliver brother over to
death, and the father his child, and children will rise against
parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated
by all for my name’s sake, but the one who endures to the end
will be saved.” I expanded this passage a bit beyond the obvious
verse of verse 10, to show the situation that it will exist
for some as the gospel is proclaimed. Some will bear witness to many
people and or bring you to trials and deliver you over. Whatever
God has ordained for us as we fulfill this commission, we must
humbly embrace it and know that he is with us. The proclamation,
witness, and discipling should be expected to bring persecution.
By God’s grace, we have not had to experience much of that here
in America up to this point. But clearly, that situation is
changing. We are to be sober, prepared for whatever we have
been called to do or to endure. We are not to shrink back. We
are His. We know Christ felt the weight
of all of our sin in the garden before His crucifixion. He did
not shrink back when faced with carrying the weight of our transgressions.
How can we who love him ever do so? If we fall, we must and
need to repent and stand back up and get back into the fight.
Our merciful God will forgive all of our transgressions. The
Spirit is with us now and will be with us when these times come. Trust, he is faithful. Now I’d like to look at Luke
chapter 24, verse 44 through 49. Luke 24, 44 through 49, and this
is a passage that’s recorded after the resurrection for context.
Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you
while I was still with you, that everything written about me in
the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and
he said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer
and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance
for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things,
and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.
But stay in the city until you are clothed with the power from
on high. There’s another verse I expanded beyond the passage
of verse 47 to again see the key elements that are provided
around that proclamation. Jesus reminds his disciples that
the Old Testament was written about him and that all must be
fulfilled. He opened their minds to see
the truth. As a result, they were no longer spiritually dead
as those who were not yet saved. And I just want to really stress
that. Scriptures they had in the first century were the Old
Testament. We did not have the New Testament,
and we tend to forget that. We see the Bible, we see the
New Testament. Remember that in the first century,
and that witness of the apostles was done with that Old Testament.
The Old Testament was written about Christ. To those who set
it aside today, they do so against what Christ and the apostles
did. And we do see this in many churches with well-known pastors
today who say, unhitch the Old Testament. We don’t need it.
The New Testament is a commentary of the Old Testament, so we must
have that original source to understand things properly in
the New Testament. They were told that after his death and
resurrection that they, as his witnesses, would proclaim the
repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all nations. Jesus
then told them he was sending the Holy Spirit as promised by
the Father. They were to wait until they were clothed with
this power. A very clear reminder to us that to be effective in
all of our lives and all that we do, we must abide in Christ
through the Holy Spirit. Fourth, I’d like to look at Mark
chapter 16, 15 and 16. Mark 16, 15 and 16. This is another
passage, from post after the resurrection. And he said to them, go into
all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does
not believe will be condemned. This is the last time that Jesus
came to the disciples before his ascension. We continue to
see the first step is to proclaim the gospel of repentance and
forgiveness of sin through Christ’s redeeming work. We see that those
who believe in Christ that are saved are to then be baptized,
providing a public confession of their faith. Do not be mistaken.
Salvation comes from believing, not from being baptized. Here
the Greek is very helpful to prove that this is the case.
Jesus also clearly teaches that those who do not believe will
be condemned. And at one point I like to make
in verse 15 is I love the use of the word the whole creation.
Like as you study through this and you look at those words and
the whole creation, it’s like, God, this is going everywhere.
Not just here, everywhere. Proclaim it from the rooftops
to the universe, even beyond where we are. I just love that
notion. The discipleship fits here as well since proclaiming
the gospel is so interwoven with teaching, the profession of faith,
and baptizing. Proclamation is ideally the first
step to be sure there are a situation where teaching may precede a
clear proclamation of the gospel for many unto salvation. We see
this with unbelievers who are part of the teaching and then
come to faith through hearing the gospel after the fact. In
the fifth verse, Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 8. Acts 1,
6 through 8. This is after the resurrection
to begin the book of Acts. So when they had come together,
they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom
of Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the times
or seasons that the father is fixed by his own authority, but
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea
and Samaria and to the end of the earth. We want to be sure
to catch Jesus’ rebuke here of the question that the disciples
posed about the restoration of the kingdom. I love how human
the disciples are, whether they’re looking to set themselves up
in a position of hierarchy and supremacy according to the others,
or they want to know these questions about when the kingdom is going
to be restored. And what does Jesus do? He turns them. We need
to be focused. We need a reminder to focus on
the task at hand, which is to go and be his witnesses unto
the end of the earth. I love studying eschatology.
As I told Brother Ron, one day we’re all gonna know who was
right, and at that point, we’re just not gonna care. So let’s
focus on the mission we have in front of us. Again, the commission
is shown with the Holy Spirit providing power for their witness
to the end of the earth. Witness and proclamation are
tightly interrelated in the gospel. Proclamation is the heralding
of the gospel, which includes witnessed facts about Jesus,
his life and his ministry, as well as teaching from God’s word.
Witnessing is telling the facts of the gospel of Christ and is
done in the pulpit, but also in our daily lives to the lost
and in teaching. We must remember that effectiveness
in witnessing will be greatly enhanced when we abide in the
Holy Spirit in Christ. We can sit up here and I can
preach and teach all day long, but if I don’t have the Spirit
working in me and through me and in all that we do in witnessing
to others, we’re not gonna have the results we would like to
have. So what can we say about what we’ve learned here? I’m
not going to read through all of these bullet points here.
I just wanted to make the point there’s a lot of. teaching, propositions,
doctrine that are contained just in these few passages. And I’m
sure we can go much farther than this. But my hope is to provide
you with a perspective that leads you in awe and wonder of the
depth and the detail and the interrelatedness of God’s word.
If you dedicate yourself to the study of God’s revelation to
us in his word, you will never finish exploring the depths of
his wisdom in this lifetime. So put away the drivel that clouds
our minds in zealous pursuit of God’s word. So in summary,
what I’d like to say in terms of what we’ve learned from this
is that we are to obey as Christ has commanded in proclaiming
the gospel to the very ends of the earth. We are to proclaim
the repentance of the forgiveness of sins in Christ as the gospel. We are to witness in our pulpits,
churches, lives, and in our teaching. We are to baptize those who believe.
We’re to disciple believers into all aspects of the Christian
life. We are to ensure believers are taught all the commands of
Christ in his revealed world. Making disciples is key to the
commission. Without it, people would wither.
You only have to think of a small child with milk and growing up
to true food, et cetera. We need that. And a lot of Christians,
myself included, for many years, Infant, child in the faith, and
had nowhere to go from that point forward to get the discipleship
and the teaching and the instruction. We need to be there for each
other. We need to provide this discipleship. Jesus certainly
exemplified that in his time on earth with the disciples,
and I’m sure it was quite frustrating to him many times with what he
had to say over and over and over again. because no Christian is an island. We are to assemble together,
including for worship and fellowship, for prayer, and in Hebrews 10,
it tells us this fact. We’re to be engaged in the life
of the church, fulfilling the works prepared for us by God
beforehand, before we were saved. Christians are to use their gifts
for the edification of the church, as well as to fulfill their respective
charges and callings in their families, the church and the
world. This includes their work in fulfilling
the commission. I do just want one quick item I want to point
out is Matthew 10 is an outstanding chapter that talks about Jesus
giving instructions to the disciples when he first sent them out,
even before John was taken prisoner. But it’s just amazing to think
how At the beginning of his ministry, he was doing this in detail,
and there’s so much there that we tend to overlook because we
focus on that one primary passage. So I really encourage you to
look at that and study that and glean from that what you may
from God’s Holy Spirit. Now, I’d like to pivot from looking
at the scriptures to talking about why this is important and
what are the challenges. Why is the commission important?
I kind of felt like I’d known these answers, but I hadn’t really
sat down and tried to write it down. It is the heart of our
faith. The heart of the Christian faith
is telling unbelievers what God has done for us through his son.
I stand here before you as a person who did not take advantage of
that as a father for my 10 children. spend a lot of time traveling,
and a lot of times pushing a lot of other stuff. But we need to
be telling others what Christ has done for us, starting in
our families, friends, family members, church, and to the whole
world. A Christianity that does not
command repentance for sin, acceptance of salvation, and a broken heart
that turns to God in Christ, and then living for Him for the
rest of our days, is no faith at all. It’s a false gospel.
Additionally, why is it important? It provides purpose for believers.
There’s no shortage of books out there finding your purpose
in your Christian life and all these false teachers that are
out there. This provides our purpose. This is what we are
to do. I don’t need a mission statement. I don’t need the CEO
pastor to come up with all of those methods and techniques.
We have our charge. We have our direction from our
Master, from our Lord. In providing this purpose for
believers, It provides the commission for his people to think about
this. This is another thing that blows
me away. God has provided the commission for his people to
participate in the salvific drama. How amazing is this? God has
included us to participate in the salvation of his people. Talk about having a front row
seat. The commission gives all of us
direction for our pilgrimage while on earth as we prepare
for eternity. And one that really struck me
that I didn’t have down initially, but it provides hope for the
unbeliever. The unbeliever, as we all once
were, they need us to fulfill our commission, to fulfill the
commission that God has given us in Christ so that we can reach
them. The daily life and witness shows
and tells the unbeliever the gospel and to graciously share
why we are different in word, faith, and deed. What are some
of the challenges to fulfillment of the commission? First one
is ignorance of God’s word and a lack of teaching. Thankfully,
in this church, you have a lot of that going on, but in a lot
of places, this doesn’t go on. Most Christians don’t study or
meditate on God’s word as a daily or even a weekly discipline,
not nearly as much as we can or we should. Many churches are
failing to teach and preach the revelation of God and his word,
and the culture and the church have been infected with this
emotionalism and the inability to reason. Another key point
is cold indifference and a lack of faith. We know that in the
last days, the love of many would grow cold, and I strongly believe
that we are in the last days. And that reality leads to the
fact that we have little focus on a disciplined life of prayer
and discipleship, little interest in the purity in light of cultural
degeneration, comfort, and entertainment. Indifference feeds a lack of
faith, as faith is a gift of God to those who ask. Lack of
passion for the lost. This can be driven by a variety
of factors. And we see that all the time
and every day. Intellectualism, pseudo-intellectualism, narcissism,
diversions like technology, may ring a bell. Worldly pursuits,
money, material, and comfort. We’re all guilty of the comfort
bug. This can also be the result of doctrinal perversion. It’s
not as much the case today, because not as many people seem to be
interested in doctrine. But back in the day in post-Calvin, you
had hyper-Calvinism, people who didn’t believe you needed a witness
to people, or that, hey, let God sort it out. God’s going
to bring them to the cross, so we don’t have to do that. But
that’s not as much of a problem, in my opinion, today. Those who
are not truly saved have no passion for the lost. It’s a point I’m
going to bring up again. I think it’s a very bad assumption to
assume that everybody in our churches are saved. We often,
my experience has been, we’re always preaching to the choir
as if everybody’s saved. Everybody’s got this base level
of fundamental gospel knowledge, and so we plow on sort of above
and beyond. And these people just sit there
and glazed over. So I think that’s another key point is, if you’re
not truly saved, how can you have a passion for the lost?
Delegation of the commission. Reliance on professionals. In
America, we’ve gotten really used to, post-World War II, I
think, passing on our responsibility, our duty. We like to be able
to put money in the offering plate and have somebody else
go out and do it, whether it’s a para-church organization or
somebody else’s missions or otherwise. We like to have that done, and
we think we’ve done our part. But we don’t see that we’re called
to do this ourselves. It’s our responsibility. Nothing
against certain para-church organizations. We need them and we want them.
But that doesn’t give us the right to abdicate that responsibility
upon ourselves. And there are, as a result, there
are unbelievers amongst us in the church. Actually, I skipped
one there, so let me go back. These worldly message… The delegation of the commission
rely on some professionals we were talking about. The world’s
methods have overtaken the church, as we mentioned. I saw this in
many churches when I served in the context of the church. I
saw little difference from what we were doing in the church than
when I went through my MBA and what I do in my secular job. Very little difference between
what was happening in the church and out in the business world.
And I really believe strongly the church now views itself as
an organizational business unit and applies these principles
to its functions. It doesn’t mean we don’t need some of those
elements to conduct our daily life in the church, but when
you’re given over to spiritual gifts being pursued based on
a marketing plan that somebody wrote a book about and you bring
them in to counsel and guide you to do it, I humbly submit
you’re off track. The church outsources much of
its work to para-church professionals. Again, like I said, there’s nothing
wrong with supporting and using para-church professionals, especially
in missionary groups, et cetera. But we need to be aware that
a lot of these groups are not pursuing the commission the way
God’s word says that we are to pursue the commission. And we
need to be aware and on top of that. False Christians and posers. There are unbelievers amongst
us in the church. This is both good and bad. It’s not a problem
to have unbelievers in the church as long as you’re aware who they
are and what they need and you’re meeting those needs. You wanna
bring them to Christ. The problem is when you become so stale and
flat that you don’t really even recognize who is a believer and
who isn’t because you’re not in their lives, you’re not teaching
to them, you’re not calling them to account. I’ve seen this too.
And maybe they’ve never been given a true gospel proclamation. all the years they’ve been sitting
in a church. And we have been parts of churches where that
was most definitely the case. So we need to know the people
in our church. There are teachers and preachers
that proclaim a false gospel. That should not be a surprise
for anyone. There are churches that are sold out to that false
gospel that is focused on the issues of the day. Liberalism
and the denial of the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture
provides for all manner of false doctrines. The key element that
drives all of these challenges is that lukewarm faith, for those
who are really believers, that exists for many professing Christians.
The proclamation, witness, and disciple of the true gospel is
not happening in many churches. The churches in the book of Revelation
serve as a warning for what will happen to those churches that
turn away from God and the gospel. This certainly may happen to
them and it certainly has happened to churches. Just because something
is called a church, Church of God, does not mean it is a Church
of Christ. And we need to be much more discerning
about what we’re doing and be focused on ensuring that we’re
protecting the sheep, protecting the church, and the Orthodox
faith. So now let’s pivot to Who is
charged to fulfill the commission? And this kind of goes back to
lack of passion, cold indifference, delegation. We like to say that
those who are charged to fulfill, well, we’re going to have those
people go off and be missionaries to some other country, give them
some money, and we feel like we’ve done our two bits. And
I remember growing up and thinking that that was just the norm,
that was the way things are. I want to look at a number of
passages to help give clarity to us around this question. Who is charged to fulfill the
commission? The first passage we’re going to look at is Ephesians
4, 4 through 7. Ephesians 4, 4-7, and my contention
is that all are charged to fulfill the commission, everybody. In
Ephesians 4, 4-7, there is one body and one spirit, just as
you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who
is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to
each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. I love
this one because it continually turns the same thing over and
over and over to get it through our thick heads. Hear that unity
of that one hope in our work according to your gift or gifts.
It’s given to each one of us by the Holy Spirit. And also
then we notice that there are different gifts, different roles.
And we’re gonna look at a few passages here, two passages here,
starting with Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. And
he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds,
and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry,
for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity
of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature
manhood, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. God
gave us specific roles and functions as gifts to the church for those
who would equip and build up the body. People, we’re not talking
about supremacy here. One of my biggest pet peeves
is seeing who’s the leadership of the church. We’re all servant
leaders, and Ron and I have talked about this. Show me you’ve washed
the feet of your smelliest fellow congregants, and then talk to
me about hierarchy. And we have a real problem today,
especially coming out of seminary, people view themselves as scholars,
intellectuals, sitting in a library and writing their sermons and
what have you. Now, we need to be serving. We need to be on
our hands and knees serving the brothers, be the hands and feet
of Christ, as my wife always says, that we’re to be that for
these people. He gave those gifts to us. Why?
For the purpose of delivering that knowledge unto unity and
to faith as we mature to the fullness of Christ. So as they
educate us, as they teach us, as they evangelize us, they are
equipping us for the work of ministry that we are to go out
and do. And as they do that, they build
up the body. We get stronger together. 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 11.
1 Corinthians 12, 4-11. Now there are a variety of gifts,
but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service,
but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities,
but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each
is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Again, looking at the Trinity, he says, the same Spirit, the
same Lord, the same God. So please catch that, it’s very
important. God has distributed these gifts through the Holy
Spirit, these gifts and services and activities as the Holy Spirit
determines for the common good of our body, for the edification,
for the reaching the lost through the Great Commission. Each one
is given by the Holy Spirit for the good of all. There is one body in Romans 12,
4-6a. Romans 12, 4-6. We look at the
one body. We all have been given our own
gifts and we all have our purpose. Whereas in one body, we have
many members, and the members do not all have the same function.
So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members
one of another. Having gifts that differ according
to the grace given to us, let us use them. Each has gifts according to the
grace given to us by the Holy Spirit, in order to knit the
individual members together in one body. We need to use these
gifts. To not serve as we’re commanded
and by the gifts you’ve been given is a sin. We must serve
in our works and in our gifts. And we must allow others to serve
us in using their gifts. And I want to stress this point
because it’s been an experience we have had that you may be gifted
in something, but so is the person sitting next to you. Let them
use their gifts in serving you. We often are in a position of
pride. We don’t want help from someone. We don’t want instruction
from someone. How can they use their gifts
if we block the use of those gifts by pride or whatever other
reason? We need to humbly submit to one another and allow us to
serve one another. That’s not weakness, that’s strength. Do the works prepared beforehand
for you. As we look at Ephesians 2, 8
through 10, Ephesians 2, 8-10, For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing,
it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may
boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them. God’s people are given the charge
generally and specifically. Some are led to work in all areas
depending on the gifts provided and or to offices or specific
functions as determined by the Holy Spirit. All are to fulfill
the commission by the edification of the church, by witnessing
to believers and unbelievers with their lives and words and
discipleship in the sphere and phase of life in which they exist. And I really wanna stress that. We are in different phases in
our lives and we’re given gifts. A young mother with children
to take care of may not be the person that should be expected
to be running a Titus II ministry or what have you. I’ve been in
many churches where they put the same load on a person regardless
of where they are in their life. And in a full life church, like
we see here, young families, little ones, young families,
older families, and us old people, we have value in every phase
of our life. And we are called to use those
gifts in every phase of our life. Oh my goodness, if we would put
the stress on the older people, assuming they have more time
for the ministry of prayer. We devote so little time and
effort to prayer, it’s not very surprising that we are ineffective
in many ways in our ministry and our work. So now we want to take a look
at what is needed to fulfill the commission. We’ve looked
at a lot of different things. We want to pivot to the application
of those truths, propositions that we’ve confirmed. I’d like
to stress with an illustration, I put this in the notes because
I’m a simple-minded guy and I like images. It helps me to get a
hold of things. This illustration is going to
cover a number of different points that we’re talking about. But
we don’t want to view them in isolation. We want to pursue all of them.
We do not want to focus on one or even just a few. We want all
to be present. To be true, they will be different
in different measures for different people. A quick example might
help. If we picture a rope, a rope
of many strands interwoven is stronger than a single-stranded
rope. I think everybody knows this. Even if the strands are
thin, they are stronger together. Some strands may be weak while
others are strong. The point I’m making is that
we can consider the elements below that we’re going to talk about
as strands in a rope that represents our ability to fulfill the commission
as God has ordained it. The stronger the individual strands,
the stronger the rope and our ability to fulfill the commission
in anything else we do for Christ. So the first strand I want to
talk about is right biblical doctrinal understanding. We’ve
talked about this with respect to teaching and discipleship.
It’s critical that we keep putting ourselves humbly before the teaching
of the church to make sure all of these heretical notions that
are out there in society, that we have a chance to speak against
them and you can be corrected by them. We must have a knowledge
of God’s revelation. There’s no cherry picking to
be involved. We don’t want to find verses that suit our specific
presuppositions or desires. I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me on the back of my gym gear, right, as I go
lift weights. Perhaps an inappropriate use
of the verse. Embrace and defend the inspiration of scripture.
You have to defend that. Our entire faith is dependent
upon God’s Word and the trustworthiness of God’s Word and its inspiration
all the way through to the jot and till. Scripture is univocal. There’s one proper interpretation
and possibly, potentially, many applications. And we’re not to
have our own interpretation, as 1 Peter 1.20 says. We are
to be accountable to the Word. and to the saints of the last
2,000 years, all the amazing teaching and instruction we have,
even in our seminaries today, as well as to the elders and
members of our church. Don’t go beyond God’s word. We do not
need man’s methods to accomplish God’s commission. We must remember
our place in true humility. If we understand who we are before
the righteous God and that He has given us all we need in His
Word, we don’t need to seek man’s inputs or methods to take the
commission to the lost. So we want to understand the
truth as revealed in God’s Word, acceptance of God’s revelation
in His Word, and act on what you understand and accept from
His Word. Personal holiness is another
strand. We must apply that knowledge we gain. We get all this amazing
teaching, but we need to apply it. We need to make it part of
who we are. We need to digest it and make it part of our lives.
To not apply and engage is to be a disobedient servant. We
must be a doer of the word, not just a hearer, as we see in James
1.23. The process of becoming more Christ-like each and every
day, sanctification, is a lifelong process in preparation for eternity. Remember, unbelievers can see
the truth. Just as our children expose us in our hypocrisy all
the time, unbelievers can see that same truth. And remember
that the path in sanctification and more Christ-likeness is not
just this beautiful upward stepping towards heaven and eternity. It’s often like this. And you
need your brothers and your sisters in Christ and the teaching of
a godly man to help us get back up on our feet and get back in
the fight. So what do we do? We abide in and obey Christ. Practice true humility. This
is not something you just get up and say, I’m going to be humble
today. But when you view yourself properly before God and you’re
truly grateful, you will start to see who you really are. And
that’ll start to generate true humility. View sin as God views
sin. And as John always says, John
1 said, kill it. Identify it. Don’t sanction it. Don’t overlook
it. Don’t use the old, I’m not convicted yet that I shouldn’t
be doing that sin. Kill it. Get rid of it. Don’t
compromise with it. Have contentment in our gifts
and functions. Just because you’re a big toe
doesn’t mean you’re not just as vital to that body as the
beautiful face that sits out in front of everybody. Every
part of that body is needed for it to function properly. And
commit to your duty before God. If you’re content, then the next
thing you need to do is commit. Be people of the word and people
of your own word. Be sure to follow up on what
you say you’re going to do. And as you learn more and more
from God and his word what that is, be steadfast people. Sacrificial giving of our time.
We always like to throw money in the plate and think that’s
enough. No, we need our service and our works. I know there’s
lots to be done around this church, even when you think of just the
little things. But how many people need to be taught? How many people
need to be visited? How many people need fellowship? How many
people need prayer? And we need to be far more spontaneous
with all of those other aspects of our sacrificial giving. And
understand the season in life. I’ve talked about this before.
As a father of 10, but as my wife as a mother of 10, she had
it much harder than I did for, I think she was pregnant for
like 17, 20 years of our marriage. Understand that. Understand where
you are in your seasons. Be there to serve and help people
who are in those seasons where they need it. And those of you
in those seasons, be thankful and take that assistance and
that help. We’re all here together. We all make mistakes, every one
of us, and we need each other to get over those issues and
concerns. Another strand, personal engagement.
Once we’ve done what we’ve just been talking about, getting that
right knowledge and doctrinal understanding and personal holiness,
not that we’re done, but that we’re moving along the path of
gaining greater understanding and greater holiness, we can
then engage far more effectively. Makes sense. Use your gifts for
the edification of the church. Do the works created for you
in Christ. Do your duty, serve the church.
Witness peaceably to all in word and deed. And our preachers,
our teachers, and our officers, you need to hold them up in prayer.
And you need to obey them in the authority in which they were
put as overseers for us, for our good. And a reminder to the congregation,
because I’ve seen a lot of this too where people have moved away
from this. The congregation is to be much like the Bereans in
testing and all things that they’re being taught and told against
scripture. I make mistakes. I don’t know
if Ron makes mistakes, but some people do. And you need to be
able to come and talk and ask him about this and for us to
make corrections if we say something wrong. You have that right. It’s
your faith too. You absolutely have the right
to do those things. Church commitment is another
strand. The church is composed of imperfect
believers who have covenanted together in membership to form
the one body of the church. This strand only grows in strength
if each believer is working to strengthen the other strands
we’ve already talked about. As we get stronger in our knowledge,
as we get stronger in our personal holiness, as we get stronger
in our personal engagement, this church becomes something amazing. Bringing those strength and strands
together in the body of the church drives the church to be more
than the sum of its separate parts. This church is a church
that can fulfill the commission because they are focused on holy
humility, growing in Christ, shining their light for all to
see, proclaiming, witnessing, and discipling. This is an outwardly
focused church that will fulfill the commission and will draw
unbelievers by the Holy Spirit because of their faithful witness.
This church is one body composed of many parts. It’s comprised
of people from all walks of life and all seasons of life. Stay
away from these churches as we’ve talked. The entire body is needed
to do the work of the Lord and support the commission. The activities
and the functions of the church are manifested by obedient individuals
coming in unity to fulfill the commission. A church filled with
holy individuals makes a holy church. I list a number of elements
here below that become sort of a natural organic part, even
though they’re called out specifically in scripture, that will be seen
by all and will draw people to her, believers and unbelievers.
The difference will be a people who obey the commands of Christ
out of love, not legalism. prayer, worship, service and
works, fellowship, evangelism, preaching, discipline, and teaching. I call it discipline because
it’s the one thing I hear so often in churches we’ve been
in that they don’t practice discipline because that’s too hard to do,
and then you have to talk about sin, you have to talk about repentance,
and all that kind of thing. Discipline is an amazing tool. And my children
can probably attest, I don’t know if they’d say that, but
it can be an amazing tool. It’s not just negative. We are
to become disciples. This is a derivative of discipline,
right? We need to be disciples and be
taught, and that requires correction, rebuke. And oftentimes, when
I rebuke or discipline my children, my son Ben will always talk about
the fact that I trained him in the Marine Corps way of how to
clean a toilet. And there’s a very specific way you do that. very
specific way. And he always talks about now,
he actually enjoys that. He did not enjoy it when I taught
him, and I correct him or rebuke him on those things. But now,
it’s hilarious. I think five or 10 times in the
last several years, he’s come to me and said, thank you for
teaching me to do it that way. So there’s positive aspects to discipline
here. It’s not just negative. So I
want to call that out, because it is something that the church
needs to do and apply. And I know that Ron has basically
done so. So I just want to make sure people understand, it’s
not just necessarily a negative in all situations. Notice how
critical it is to have a holy church filled with holy people
in order to fulfill the commission. And in conclusion, I want to
say a few things. This will be fairly brief. We’re
all to fulfill the commission. It’s the very essence of being
a Christian, telling anyone and everyone about what God has done
for us in our salvation through the substitutionary sacrifice
of Jesus in which he took our sins so that we might be reconciled
to God. If this is truly real to us,
and if we truly understand it, there should be nothing of a
higher priority than to share this with other believers for
edification, other believers for edification, and unbelievers
in the hope that they will be saved. We see that in the work
of discipleship throughout the world, we are to proclaim the
gospel, witness of the gospel. Once a believer, being baptized,
teaching obedience to the revelation of God and Christ to all that
he has commanded. All are charged to engage as
the Holy Spirit directs and provides grace. Fulfill the commission
by using your gifts the Holy Spirit has given to each one
of you. And now I just offer a call to believers. Humble yourselves
before God. Return to your first love in
Christ. Pursue holiness out of gratitude and love to God for
what he has done for you. It’s a glorious work to protect
his word, to repair the body, edify the body, sanctify the
body, proclaim it to unbelievers, witness in your lives to unbelievers,
make disciples of all and recognize that there are likely some in
this church who are not believers. Reach out to them, be the hands
and feet of Christ. and a call to unbelievers. To
those who have not accepted the gift that God provides through
a sinless son, I plead with you to consider the offer before
you this day. If it’s confusing or you have questions, please
talk to us. This is not an altar call. I
call on you to consider the cost. Weigh what it means to become
a Christian. Consider your sinful state. There is no way out but
for the one way provided by God through his son. The world and
the evil one will continue to tell you to ignore God. They
will insist there is another way or it’s not needed. If you
are a sinner separated from God, only through the changing of
your heart from stone into flesh by the act of God and a godly
grief in turning from your sin and acceptance of Christ can
you avoid being eternally separated from God and his love. You must
choose whom you will serve. I would ask that you speak to
us after the service or even later. We would rejoice in the
chance to share with you about the salvation of Christ. I would
only ask that you remember that we are not perfect, but only
forgiven by God’s grace. Believers are no better than
unbelievers, but for the blood of Christ. In Isaiah 55 6, we
hear, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while
you still can. And finally, consider this, the
creator of the universe has granted the right to participate in the
consummation of his eternal plan through the commission he has
given us. We have the honor of fulfilling this charge with our
hope and the promise of Christ’s return for his people at the
end of the age. And I just quote Revelation 19 here as a reminder
of the hope that we have and when this will occur. Then I
saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting
on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he
judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of
fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written
that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped
in blood, And the name by which he is called is the Word of God.
And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure,
were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp
sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule
them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of
the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and
on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This is our hope. This is why we labor in love
in fulfilling the commission. When the Savior returns riding
that white horse, will we be found working to fulfill his
commission? Will we hear the Lord say, well done, my good
and faithful servant? Proclaiming and witnessing of
him and all that he has done for us, loving us before we left
him, being obedient unto death as he did for us, continually
turning in repentance from our sin to remain in and abide in
him through the Holy Spirit. Remember that we’re tools. to
be used by God and his ambassadors. We’re not here to reflect our
views and perspectives or our thoughts. We’re simply here to
convey what God has revealed to us. We work for the king,
not for ourselves. The glory is the king’s, not
ours. Let us expect persecution, not
glory. Treat your brothers and sisters
with tender intimacy and grace. Be gracious to those who are
not yet believers. Let us draw near to him, defend the flames
of our zeal, commitment, and gratitude. that those who are
not yet part of the family, Father’s family in Christ, see our love
for one another and our obedience to the Lord out of love, not
legalism. Let us be true to God’s word,
obey God’s word, apply God’s word, apply and act on God’s
word. Let us remember that he is with us to the end of age
through all trials and tribulations. Finally, I just ask, Church,
will you join me in committing and recommitting to our Savior’s
command to go into the whole earth and all nations, proclaiming
Him, witnessing of Him, and making disciples of all who believe
and will believe in Him? Let us pray. Heavenly Father,