Discipling the Nations: Matthew 28:16-20

This morning we're looking at a promise.

If you're new here, we're looking at one promise of God a month.

And today we get to do that.

And we're going to look at a very famous passage in the Word of God, the Great Commission, Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 to 20.

Matthew 28:16–20

And hear this Word of God, the Great Commission.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him.

But some doubted.

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.

This is the reading of God's powerful Holy Word.

This asked for His divine help.

Father, thank you for the commissioning of your Son.

We thank you for the commissioning Spirit.

Holy Spirit, we ask, would you please make these words come alive to us?

Lord, may we sense the urgency of your son's words, and may we be obedient to your son's words.

Holy Spirit, we ask you to do this in us this day.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

As I said, this is the promise of the month, and we're going to dig into this promise.

Praying in the promises and living out the promises of God.

That's what we're doing this current year at APC.

And there are some rich promises in this text that we are looking at this morning.

We see with our eyes this morning this being lived out through these new members, through these new conversions, these baptisms.

This is known, the passage that we're looking at this morning is known as the Great Commission.

And it is a great commission.

If we look at all four Gospels, what we find about the post-resurrection Jesus, the New Testament lists ten different appearances of our risen Lord.

Ten times it's said about his talking to his disciples after his resurrection.

In eight of these times, Jesus gives a specific command.

In five of these, he commands his followers to go into the world and preach this gospel.

Making disciples is our mission.

Making disciples is the mission of Alexandria Presbyterian Church.

It has been for a long time and it continues to be.

Discipleship, however, begins with the new birth.

You can't be a disciple until you've been born again.

You can't be a disciple until you've been born again.

But if you've been born again, you will be a disciple.

If you do not grow in Christ, you weren't born again.

Did you hear that?

If you don't grow in Christ, you're born into the kingdom of God to grow.

To grow as a child of God.

Are you growing?

Are you growing as a disciple?

We don't buy into a lot of stuff today in other churches or organizations.

This is not about just getting new members.

This is not just about getting people to make a decision for Jesus.

No.

Jesus never said that anywhere.

He said, I want you to go and I want you to make disciples.

I want to see people born again, born by the Spirit of God, covered by the blood of God, and I want you to grow.

That's what we're talking about this morning.

We're talking about the promise he gives.

We're going to talk about the problem that gets in the way, and then we're going to also talk about the power.

Let's talk about the problem for a few minutes.

What you're witnessing this morning is very rare in the Christian church in America.

The vast majority of churches do not see people coming to Jesus Christ for salvation.

The vast majority of churches do not see what you saw this morning.

There's a lot of problems.

Let's just talk very briefly about some of the problems that get in the way of this.

John Kelvin put it like this nothing could be more inconsistent with the nature of faith than deadness, which would lead people today in the church to disregard lost people and to keep the light of knowledge of Christ choked up within their own breast.

Calvin said that.

And it's still a problem today.

Many followers of Jesus are keeping this good news choked up within their breast.

Why?

What's going on?

How come this good news is not getting out?

We have to ask ourselves, Kelvin was right.

Jack Miller said that evangelism is God's first priority.

Unfortunately, it has become a peripheral activity in the lives of many local churches today.

Indeed, sadly, it has.

Congregations today are perilously close to losing the elementary principles of faith that motivate qualitative and quantitative growth.

Jack goes on to say, I'm thinking of regular and serious meditation on the promises of God.

Ongoing repentance in us.

Personal and corporate prayer.

Daring gospel proclamation.

I fully believe that so much of what this revival we're experiencing in this church that we are over the last year, I believe something has to do with 30 people getting together last fall for 10 weeks and praying in the gospel in that evangelism class.

I believe that.

Week after week, a number of us were just praying earnestly that God would do a new work and God would do a deeper work in this church, in this church, through this church, through this community.

And God has heard and God is answering the prayers of many.

God responds to the prayers of his people.

But why are so many Christians in the church of Jesus Christ today asleep?

Why is the gospel not going deeper and grabbing our hearts and leading us to repentance for the coldness too often of our hearts?

That's a fair question.

And so Jack Miller taught me this.

What matters most in evangelism is what the gospel is doing in your own heart.

Did you hear that?

What is most important is what the gospel is doing in your heart when it comes to evangelism.

It must be changing you by the power of the Holy Spirit in your own life if it's going to mean anything to anybody else when you're trying to train or equip other people.

And so we go to the text.

Jesus meets his disciples on the mountain.

He's got a message for them.

He came and he said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.

Oh, how I love this church and all the nations that are in this church.

Oh, I love to see God bringing the nations to Washington, D.C.

It's not just come to us, we go to them as well.

We're going to talk about that.

When they saw Jesus, they worshiped him.

Hear this: worship comes before mission.

Mission, worship drives us to mission.

I think it's John Piper who said famously, missions exist because worship does not in certain places.

Where worship does not exist, we must go and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

We must take this message of life to people who are spiritually dead.

If we don't do it, who will?

This is the gospel.

The local church is to be a power center of praise, prayer, and mission.

Jesus said, My house is a house of prayer for what?

All nations.

I can help but see and be encouraged at how many people who have come from other nations have helped this church grow as a praying church.

So many of you have come from really hard situations where you didn't pray because it was a habit or it was a ritual.

You prayed because you needed to pray.

You needed prayer to survive.

Thank you.

Thank you for helping us to grow in prayer.

Look at the little word all in this text.

It occurs four times.

First of all, Jesus says, all authority has been.

Did you hear that?

He said, has been given to me.

And it's a little odd, right?

Well, didn't Jesus already have it?

Well, in a certain sense, in a new way, the Father gave Jesus all authority after his death and resurrection.

It's a gift that the Father gave to his son.

Don't take this for granted.

We could call it his executive power.

All executive power has been given to me, Jesus says.

The Father exalted Jesus to a new enthroned position in heaven with all rule and authority given to him.

We need to think about these things.

Sometimes we just think, well, that's just the way it all worked out, right?

Come on, pay attention.

We looked at last week what Jesus, what happened because Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath.

Everything changed.

Because he drank the cup of God's wrath.

We are saved.

Because there is no wrath for us.

There is no wrath.

There is only grace and mercy.

Praise God.

Because he drank the cup, the Father exalted him to his right hand in heaven.

What I want you to hear me saying is this stuff didn't just happen, okay?

It wasn't just because there was a manual that they were following.

Because of what Jesus did at Gethsemane, because of what Jesus did in the garden, and he was crucified for our sins, and he was raised from the dead on the third day.

The Father exalted him.

And the Father raised him up to the right hand.

And the Father said to his son, I now give you all authority and all power in my name.

Now what?

Go.

The background, it's clear the background what Jesus is referring to from the Old Testament is Daniel.

The book of Daniel, chapter 7, one of the great texts prophetically of what we're talking about this morning right now, in verse 9, Daniel's vision.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

As I looked, thrones were placed.

Thrones were placed in the ancient of days.

That's God the Father, took his seat.

His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool.

His throne was fiery flames.

Its wheels were burning.

A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, and the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.

Then he says in verse 13, then I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.

Well, you know who that is.

That's prophesying of Jesus Christ coming.

One like the Son of Man, and he came to the ancient of days, and then was presented before him.

Did you hear that?

Jesus was presented before his Father in heaven after his victory.

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.

And his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

What does this mean?

It means when you tell people about Jesus Christ, it's not just you.

It's not just your words.

It's not just your ideas and your strategies and your thoughts.

When you open your mouth and you tell people about the good news of eternal life that Jesus Christ alone can give, Jesus is speaking to and through you by his Holy Spirit.

This just means everything to me.

This one receives from the ancient of days unlimited authority, glory, and sovereign power.

The Church of Jesus Christ is a sent church by a commissioned Savior and dwelt by a commissioning spirit, which means that the power for doing this missionary work is Christ dwelling in us by his Holy Spirit.

That means it makes a difference in your understanding of the Holy Spirit.

And that's where so much of the church gets lost today.

In the PCA as well.

We hardly know the Holy Spirit.

We hardly know the person and the work of the Holy Spirit.

But it's the Holy Spirit that takes the authority of Christ, the power of this Son of Man, and takes that power and unleashes it in sinners like us, new creations, and that power flows in, and that power flows through, but you can't do that if you're not walking in the Spirit.

Did you hear that?

You can't do that if you're quenching the Spirit.

You can't do that if you're resisting the Spirit.

Only the Holy Spirit working in us does that power flow like that.

We see here the connection between the legal enthronement of Jesus' ascension, commissioning from the Father, and his dynamic empowering.

So go.

When you receive Christ, when you walk in the Spirit, go move out.

You can't stay where you are, you can't stay quiet.

You just can't.

Because the Spirit is at work in you.

So go, make disciples.

This is a command.

It's not a suggestion.

Make disciples is the main verb in this text.

And then it's followed by three participles.

How do we make disciples?

By going, by baptizing, and by teaching.

Literally in the Greek, it says having gone.

God is expecting you to get up and go.

Go where?

Having God.

When I last preached this sermon text three and a half years ago, one of our dear families, and I'm speaking to them because they watch us online from a far, far, far away place.

Hey guys.

Three and a half years ago, they were getting ready to go to Malawi because they were sent.

They thought God might be sending them to Malawi.

It wasn't Malawi.

It was a fruitful time in Malawi.

But God ended up sending them somewhere where the gospel is even less known, where people are even more needy and hungry for this good news.

And that's where they are.

That's where they are today, having gone.

I preached on this text 15 years ago.

When I preached this text the following day, 13 of us went to Central Asia.

And it was a great missions trip to support the family that we sent out from as a church, our doctor.

It was interesting.

Does this stuff happen only in DC?

I don't know.

We had a deacon who was sent by the State Department to the same Central Asia country.

Our deacon was sent there and started preparing, doing this groundwork in this hostile nation to Christianity.

And then our elder and his family went.

Only God can do this.

But having gone.

So sometimes you cross an ocean to go.

Sometimes you cross the country to go.

Sometimes you cross the city.

Sometimes you cross the street.

But there's got to be a crossing.

I want you to hear that.

There has to be a crossing.

There has to be movement.

This doesn't happen when you're static.

This doesn't happen when you just keep it to yourself.

And I love the demographic of this congregation because most of us are not called to do this in professional Christian ministry.

Most of us aren't called to be missionaries and preachers in that sense.

But I know you.

And those of you that work for the government, and those that are you in the military, and those of you that are in business, you move around.

You move around.

And when you go, you go with this mission.

But probably for all of us.

I think he does want us to cross the street.

I think he does.

And speak of the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul put it in Philemon so well.

I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you may have a full understanding of every good thing that you have in Christ Jesus.

That's a precious verse.

I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you may have what?

A full understanding of every good thing that you have in Christ.

See what happens when you keep all this good news to yourself and you just kind of it gets stale.

You get stale.

And it doesn't seem like it's such a good news.

Just take it for granted.

We may you be active in sharing your faith.

And what really helps us do that is to remember that we were the lost.

Don't forget that.

You were lost.

And Jesus found you.

And Jesus saved you.

Whether you grew up in a Christian home, that's true.

Or you grew up unchurched, it's true.

And when you think about it, it's going to move you into action.

And you're going to go.

Going, baptizing, baptizing.

To my friends.

You have taken the sign of Jesus Christ upon yourself.

You have declared yourselves publicly as followers of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus is honored to have you as his followers.

And you are honored to follow Jesus alone.

I was talking last night at the missions dinner with Dan Iverson, a missionary we've supported for many years to Japan.

And Dan told me last night that about 40 years ago, when he was in seminary getting ready to get out, they had a missions conference, and he was given a piece of paper as a prayer request to pray over.

It was assigned to him.

And in your country, there were 14 known Christians in the entire country.

In your country.

Teaching them.

That's the third participle.

Going, baptizing, teaching to obey all that I have commanded you.

Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 31 if you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples.

John 8:31

Did you hear that?

The church today in America is sick.

The church in America today is weak.

A Gallup poll not that many years ago found out that only 10% of professing Christians say that their faith is affecting their life.

Can you believe that?

10% of all professing Christians say that my faith is actually affecting the way I live.

This nation is in spiritual crisis.

How many churches, how many Christians are taking this seriously?

I want you to obey everything I've commanded you.

We live in churches today, and the spirit of the culture is just, well, you know, it's up to you whether you want to take this seriously or not.

It's up to you.

Whether you're going to get serious in your obedience to Jesus.

That's not Christianity.

That is not Christianity.

Jesus said this.

You teach them to observe, to obey all that I have commanded you.

How do you know what those commands are if you're not studying the Word of God?

You wouldn't know.

How do you know what those commands are if you're not in the Word of God?

You wouldn't know.

This is the mission that we're on.

This is a mission that we can win because all authority has been given to Christ.

All authority.

The Father says, I'm giving it to you.

And the Son gave it to us with the Spirit and giving us His Holy Spirit.

Now go and baptize and teach and take teaching seriously.

All that I have commanded.

Well, I've got a lot of, I've got age on most of you.

But there are still commands I'm trying to understand and obey.

You don't exhaust this.

You don't exhaust this because you go to seminary.

You don't exhaust this because you've been in church most of your life.

May God give us all, every one of us, a hunger for the word of God, empowered by the Spirit of God.

That's why we're going to have 250 people show up tonight.

Teach me.

Teach me.

What are you doing on Sunday nights?

Think about it.

Could you come and say, Teach me?

Teach me the Word of God.

There's so much more I have to learn.

There's so much more I have to obey.

That's what Jesus wants.

All nations.

That third all.

John Wesley said, the world is my parish.

I like that.

The world is my parish.

We go to the nations, and the nations are coming here.

And lastly, as we close, all the days.

All always, Jesus said, and behold, I am with you always.

And that's beautiful.

That's a beautiful promise.

I am with you always.

You.

That's his promise to you.

Can you believe that?

Whatever street, whatever city, whatever country, whatever world you're in the cross, he says, I'm going to go with you.

I'm going to go with you.

And I'm going to work in you and I'm going to work through you.

I promise.

All the days.

Matthew's gospel, chapter one, you shall call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.

Matthew chapter 28, the end.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

I am with you always.

Always.

All the days.

This is not one more command.

No.

This is one more promise.

In the Greek language is emphatic, I myself will be with you.

I, Jesus says, I will be with you.

Do we believe that?

Not just on your good days, but every day.

Wherever you go.

One scholar put it like this: all through the gospel of Matthew, the first person pronoun assures and enables the second person pronoun commands.

The first person pronoun, I, I, I, with you, you, you.

Jack Miller shared a story one time of a man he spoke with, a man during World War II in Italy, fighting, and the general came to rally the troops before the battle.

And this man told Jack, I've never been so disillusioned in my life when the general came and gave this stirring speech.

And then he got in his Jeep and drove away the other direction.

Jesus doesn't do that.

Jesus doesn't give you all the directions.

Jesus doesn't give you all the instructions.

Jesus doesn't give you the mission and get in his celestial Jeep and drive away.

That's what gives me hope.

That gives me boldness.

That gives me comfort and assurance.

He's going to go with us.

All the days.

Years ago, I saw a Mercedes Benz commercial on TV.

And they drove it right into a concrete wall.

Why'd they do that?

Because some things in life are too important not to share.

They shared their patent on this shock absorbing energy, energy absorbing feature of their car.

We're not going to keep it to ourselves because some things are in life are too important not to share.

So they made that available to other car makers.

So we go.

Some things are too important not to share.

If that's too important to not share.

What about this?

What about this?

Let's pray.

Oh Father.

We need you.

We need your promises again today.

So speak through your word, by your spirit.

Speak.

We need your voice.

We need your empowering.

We need boldness and courage.

We need humility to admit that sometimes we're too quiet.

We need to repent.

Yes, we need to repent.

Hear our repentances this morning.

Hear our cry for faith this morning.

We rejoice in what you're doing in our midst.

We thank you that we can be part of it.

But Lord, we long to see the churches full.

We long to see this world come to Jesus Christ.

Would you work in us and through us for your glory?

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.