Our Mission | Matthew 28:16-20 | Blake Jenkins

It's almost time, y'all.

It was July of nineteen sixty one.

And the legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi marches to the very front of the players' room.

You see, just a few months before that, the previous December, the Green Bay Packers were facing off against their rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles.

And they were meeting in the NFL Championship.

It was the pre-Super Bowl days, after all.

NFL Championship.

And they lost in the final minutes, and it was absolutely excruciating for the Packers.

And so now, in July, the following season, Vince Lombardi marches up to the very front, and he looks at 38 Green Bay Packers, men at the peak of their physical prime, men who have given their lives to working and playing this game at the highest level.

He looks at them, holds this out, and says, gentlemen, this is a football.

Everybody's like, has Coach lost his mind?

Like, what is going on?

And what Vince Lombardi would go on to say is we are returning to the fundamentals.

We are getting back to the basics.

We are not going to assume anything.

Gentlemen, this is a football.

The Packers would go on that season to the NFL championship again, where they would defeat the New York Giants.

And then for the rest of his career, Vince Lombardi would never lose a playoff game again.

All because of that one day when he got in front of his team and returned to the fundamentals.

Back to the basics, not assuming anything.

For us here in the life of our church at Spring Valley Baptist, today's message is a this is a football kind of message.

You're not going to hear anything you probably haven't heard before.

You're going to hear some things that other churches, gospel preaching churches, could and should do together.

But for us, we will be charting a course for where God is calling us to go in the next season of the life of Spring Valley.

We are going to be returning to the fundamentals.

We're going to be getting back to the basics.

We're not going to be assuming anything, but rather, we're going to come to God's word, allow it to shape us and our direction so that we can move forward together.

And so this morning, as Sharon read for us, we're going to be in Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

We're going to be bouncing around different places all over God's Word.

And if you're a guest with us today, we're so glad you're here.

I would want you to know our regular preaching diet, like what I normally serve up on the table for us, is preaching through books of the Bible.

And we have the occasional kind of topical series that's mixed in.

This is one of those topical series that's mixed in.

And what we are looking at today and over the course of the next two Sundays after are the newly articulated mission of Spring Valley Baptist Church.

Bedrock, foundational, trajectory shaping kind of sermons.

Now, this is different than vision.

Vision is more timely, it's more focused.

It's something that we can take this hill, we can do this initiative, we can pursue this effort.

But this, this mission, this is going to be undergirding all that.

Vision will come later.

But we have to get back to the basics about what our mission is.

And I've been trying to think and pray through why does our church exist?

Why do we exist?

Why are we here?

Why did God plant us 45 some odd years ago at 91 Polo Road?

Why do we exist?

And this is a significant question.

We have to get this question right.

I've been mulling over this question, praying over this question for multiple years.

So I've been here for three and a half years now.

We are squarely in year four.

Right?

This is not something that we brought up and instituted and put in the lights during year one.

Or not even in year two.

Not even in year three.

We're in the middle of year four as we are starting to roll this out.

This takes a lot of time, a lot of prayer, a lot of, I gotta know this church.

I gotta know the people, the stores, the connections, the history, who's related to who, right?

And different things in the life of our church.

Before, we're not trying to make Spring Valley something it's not.

We're trying, with the Lord's help, to make Spring Valley even more of who God has made it to be.

To bring out more of its redemptive potential so that we can reach one more for the sake of Christ.

And so we've been thinking and wrestling and praying over this question.

And this is a question that's caused me to look to others, right?

Of other gospel preaching churches.

What do we hold in common?

Not what makes us different, but what do we hold in common with other sister churches in Christ?

Because guess what?

Spring Valley Baptist Church is not God's hope for the world.

We do not stand alone on an island.

No.

The gospel message, as it is promulgated throughout his church, spread out across the city, state, nation, and world, that is the hope for the world.

We are a part of that larger connection, a part of that larger family.

And so what do we hold in common?

And yes, we're gonna contextualize it.

We're gonna say it in a way that makes sense and can be translated into our immediate culture around us, but we look to others, and ultimately we must go to God's word.

We must ask God, what do you want for Spring Valley Baptist Church?

What do you want us to do, to be about?

Why have you planted us here?

And so I'm here to share with you this morning and over the next two Sundays our mission.

It's not flashy, it's not complex, it's not trendy, but rather it's back to the basics, it's a return to the fundamentals, and it's not assuming anything.

And so here it is.

Spring Valley Baptist Church exists to make disciples for the glory of God.

We exist to make disciples for the glory of God.

Simple, concise, and most importantly, biblical.

So you're gonna hear this again and again, and then hear it some more.

You're gonna get sick of hearing it.

And maybe at that point where you get sick of hearing it, you will start to own it.

And we together will start living into this and moving in this direction.

And we're going to do this, and we're going to do this together ultimately, because Jesus told us to.

We'll look at Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

And as you make your way there and your copy of God's word, would you join me as we pray?

So, Heavenly Father, as we come to your word this morning, I pray that you give us eyes to see.

God, we pray that you would speak.

For we, your servants, are listening.

It's through Christ we pray.

Amen.

If we were to do a quick flyby of the gospel of Matthew, we see there the story of Jesus.

Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, Son of God, second person of the Trinity, truly God, truly man.

That he was born of the Virgin Mary, that he lived an incredible life, that he amazed people with his teaching, he astounded people with his miracles.

That as he was walking in this world, wisdom personified, he was bringing in the outcast, and he was humbling the proud.

Ultimately, he was convicted of crimes that he did not commit, and he was crucified for sins he did not commit.

But Jesus Christ stood in our place as a substitute, in the place of sinners, bearing our sin and our guilt and our shame and our condemnation, and Jesus died for us on the cross.

His body was taken down and it was placed in a tomb, and it lay there for three days.

But Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.

He did not stay dead.

He came back, not as a ghost, not as a hallucination, not as an illusion, but as the living, breathing word of God resurrected, never to die again.

That Jesus, in the days immediately after his resurrection, appeared to many, many people.

He taught them, he restored some.

He healed.

And then he brings his disciples together at the very end of Matthew in chapter 28.

And we have some of Jesus' last words.

Like, right, you know, some of you have heard last words from those that you love.

Like there's great importance for those last words.

And what are the last words that we have from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew?

They are these words, verse 18.

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, Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

So as if Jesus, dying on the cross and not staying dead, but rising again and appearing before his disciples, if that wasn't enough, Jesus comes and before his disciples says, Yeah, all that authority in heaven and on earth, it's been given to me.

All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.

And with that authority, what is he telling his disciples to do?

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You've heard this before.

This is the Great Commission, right?

Those famous verses at the end of the Gospel of Matthew.

And for us, if we were to look at this, there is one verb in this famous section of the Great Commission, and it is the verb make disciples.

And all the other things that we look at in our English Bibles that we think are verbs are actually in the Greek participles, right?

Ending in ing.

They are modifying the verb.

In essence, without getting into a grammar nerd history, what we're looking at is the main thrust of what Jesus is telling his disciples is make disciples.

Well, how do you do that?

By going, baptizing, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

They all emphasize, circling it right there, make disciples.

And so it begs the question: well, what is a disciple, right?

We've heard the disciples.

The 12 disciples, the disciples make disciples.

What it is a disciple?

A disciple, very simply, is a learner, a follower.

So in that day and age, disciples would follow rabbis, they would follow teachers.

And Jesus had his disciples, those who followed him, who learned from him, who observed his ways and walking here in this world, and would fall in line behind him.

And so to make a disciple is to be used by God to shape and form someone to follow Jesus, to learn from Jesus, to live like Jesus.

We cannot save anybody.

You will not be persuasive enough.

You will not be powerful enough.

You will not be kind or winsome enough.

We cannot save anybody.

Only God can do that.

But we can be obedient, we can share the gospel, and we can disciple those that God has saved.

And Jesus is giving this to the disciples, and they were meant to do this together.

I've said it before, y'all.

I absolutely love the ESV, pick a translation, but right, this is the one that I use.

It's the one I've used the most.

It's on the pew backs in front of you.

If you don't have a Bible, take that one with you.

That's our gift to you.

But it's as much as I love this one, I'm getting very close to writing a letter to the translation committee of the ESV, the English Standard Version.

Why?

Because the word y'all is the South's gift to the English language.

Precision.

Because when Jesus is talking right here, we don't really capture it in the English sense.

We can infer it through context clues that he is talking to the disciples.

He's talking to a group of people.

But all of them are referred.

If we wanted to make it literal, y'all go and make disciples.

Y'all baptize them.

Y'all teach them to observe everything that I have commanded you to do.

And I am with y'all until the end of the age.

Sometimes we can think it's all individual.

It's just me and Jesus, right?

But a solo Christian is foreign to the Bible.

When he calls us to himself, he calls us together into his body, and his body, the church.

That yes, there are individual and collective components for this to be lived out and for us to obey.

But this is what the disciples were meant to do together.

And the churches that they were starting were to do together.

This is what they were supposed to do.

Y'all make disciples.

Hudson Taylor, he was born in 1832 in England.

And he is considered to be one of the most important, influential missionaries of all time.

And this Baptist brother, he started the China Inland Mission and is famously quoted as saying, the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, is not an option to be considered.

It is a command that is to be obeyed.

In other words, this is the great commission, not the great suggestion.

That we don't have this.

This is not extracurricular to the life of the church.

It is core curriculum.

These are our marching orders.

Make disciples.

And we do this for the glory of God.

We make disciples for the glory of God.

Glory.

That's one of those churchy words that we like to use all the time.

But again, if you have kids in the house and you are asked all the time, what does that word mean?

And you're kind of like, uh how do I define this?

I can use it in a sentence, right?

But I can't, I'm not Webster or anything like that.

What is glory?

Well, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for glory is a word kovod.

And that word means heaviness.

Weight.

There is gravity to a person.

If a person or something is glorious, like there is great magnitude, there is weight to that situation, to that individual, to what is happening right there in front of you.

In that sense, it has connotations of like being honored or dignified, exalted or respected, right?

And just think about somebody that you respect, somebody that you think a lot of.

Like if they were to come in here through those back doors and just kind of walk and go over here and sit down.

For me, it would be Nick Saban, right?

Former coach at Alabama where I graduated from, right?

If Nick Saban, I was like, there is some weight to that man.

He has not got a lot of pounds on the scale, but there is a weight to him in his person.

But it doesn't have to be somebody famous or somebody you respect, but it's somebody that is occupying a particular role in the gathering, right?

Just imagine, again, somebody coming in those back doors, and it's not Nick Saban, but we're here for a wedding ceremony.

And everybody is lined up, everybody's dressed to the nines, and we see those doors open and the bride come forward.

Everybody's standing, everybody orients their posture, following the bride, right?

Why?

Because there is a weight and a magnitude, a glory to that moment.

And so we see this glory that it is ascribed to the Lord, the most glorious one in all existence.

That's the Old Testament word, kvod, heaviness.

Then we have the New Testament Greek word, it's doxa, and it means praise or fame, right?

So when we sing the doxology, right, that's a hearkening back to the Greek, a glory statement ascribing praise to the Lord.

It's all for his glory.

So when we see these definitions and we see these words in the Bible, we could summarize the glory of God like I heard it in college.

God's glory is the going public of his holiness all throughout the world.

Where do we take that from?

We take it from Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

If you've read the Bible a lot, you know Isaiah 6.

It's a mountain peak in the Old Testament.

Hugely important chapter.

And there, Isaiah, the prophet, is getting a glimpse, a vision of the throne room of God.

And what does he see?

He sees, verse 3, these angels calling out to one another and saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The whole earth is full of his.

I would expect it to say holiness.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The whole earth is full of his holiness.

That's what I would expect.

But no, there are angels, the divine angels, surrounding the throne, shouting to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

Why?

Because God's glory is the going public of his holiness.

It is the radiance of his character.

It is the manifestation of his holiness in our lives and reflected and refracted all throughout this world.

His glory, his name, his reputation, his renown, his weightiness, giving him glory.

We've already sung it this morning.

Holy is the Lord, God Almighty.

The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Holy is the Lord, God Almighty, the earth is filled with his glory.

God's glory is the ultimate why of the Bible.

If you have a question about why something happened in the Bible, you're reading it, you can dig and claw and excavate and drill down deep.

Eventually, you're gonna hit some bedrock, and that bedrock is the glory of God.

It is the ultimate why of the Bible.

The Bible is not a disconnected collection of books and letters, but no, rather, yo, the Bible, it is a cohesive, divine revelation from God to humanity.

There are 66 books here written by about 40 different authors over a time period of 1,500 years, spanning three continents and three languages, all inspired by the Holy Spirit and telling the one story of God's glory.

The whole message of the Bible could be summarized in four words: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

God created everything, and it was good.

Humanity fell into sin where we sought to replace God in his glory.

But God did not abandon us but initiated a rescue plan, a plan of redemption that would culminate in him sending his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sin and our rebellion and to open up the way of eternal life.

And he is one day going to come back.

And Revelation says he will make all things new.

We will see sin no more.

Suffering, pain, sickness, cancer, none of that anymore.

Completely restored.

And all of this creation, fall, redemption, new creation, the restoration, all for God's glory.

He created, let's look at each of these.

In creation, he created the world for his glory.

The world, look at Psalm 19:1.

Psalms 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

This is very appropriate and fitting to plaster on every picture of every sunset that I've ever seen.

Right?

You know, there are some times when you see the sunset, you could be in a Walmart parking lot, right?

And you see the sunset, and what do you do?

You pull out your phone and you try to take a picture of it, but the iPhone photo never seems to do it justice.

But we put, we pick, we take the picture and we post it, and what is happening?

The heavens are declaring the glory of God.

But it's not just when we look up, it's when we look down.

He created humanity for his glory.

Look at Isaiah 43, 7.

Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created.

Why?

For my glory, whom I formed and made.

You know this.

Looking down and holding your baby in your arms, you're taken in by the wonder and the glory of new life.

We see this in the skies above and in the things that we hold.

He created the world.

And then humanity fell.

We sought to replace him.

But God, in his sovereignty, is even able to use this to maximize his glory.

God did not cause Adam to sin, but in the wake of sin, God was able to show his glorious mercy and grace.

Look at Romans 5.20.

But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

That God is able even to take the darkness here in this world and to use it as a contrast to show how much more glorious he is because he is merciful and gracious.

He can redeem and bring us back.

And then we see in redemption that Jesus redeems for glory.

Look at 2 Corinthians 4, 6.

For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, that creation, right?

For his glory, that same God, he has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That he has shown on us.

He has showered his grace upon us.

And then in restoration, the new creation, what he will do, this is even for his glory.

He will restore creation for his glory.

Look at Revelation 5, 13.

There it says, and I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea.

That's everything, y'all.

Every creature and all that is in them, saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.

God is passionate about his glory.

And this is good.

He is the most glorious one of all.

And for him to be most glorious, for him to be passionate about his glory, I think we should want to be passionate about the same things that God's passionate about, right?

I'm thinking we should be passionate about his glory, and this affects our everyday, your everyday.

I'm not just talking theoretical, I'm not just doing preacher speak.

This affects you in your everyday, wherever it is that you're right now, whether you're in a peak or a valley or somewhere in between.

Because you, I, we together need purpose.

Meaning.

You need to serve something bigger than yourself.

You need to serve someone greater than yourself.

You hear it a lot.

I know it's Presbyterian, and I'm a good Baptist, but hey, we take truth wherever we find it, right?

The Westminster shorter catechism.

Question one.

Question and answer.

What is the chief end of man?

What is the ultimate purpose of humanity?

To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Before you had a career, before you had a family, before you had a name, you were made for this, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

And when we tap into that purpose, when we recover that meaning, that is where life and blessing and flourishing can occur.

One of the greatest musicians to ever live was Johann Sebastian Bach.

Right?

There we go, Sharon.

I knew I was gonna get that.

Johann Sebastian Bach.

He wrote most of his masterpieces in the 1700s, and we're still playing them today.

And Johann Sebastian Bach, he would write some things on his manuscripts, on the musical notes that he would compose.

Up at the very top, he would write two letters, J.

This was an acronym for two Latin words.

Yesu Juva.

Translated means Jesus help.

And at the very bottom, at the end of his masterpiece, he would write these three letters.

S D G.

Another Latin acronym.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Alone to God be the glory.

Or to smooth it out in our English, to glore the glory to God alone.

And I love that.

At the top, beginning with prayer, Jesus help.

And at the end, a song of praise.

To God be the glory.

For us, I think that's a good way to begin and end every day.

For us, at the very start, Jesus help.

And when he helps, after our composing and our working and our arranging and our writing and our playing, and then at the end, not glory to me, glory to God alone.

And for us as a church, we're going to be doing a lot of work.

We're going to be doing a lot, but it has to begin with prayer.

And it can just be those two words.

Jesus, help.

And then we're going to work and write and compose and arrange and play and sweat and work.

But unless the Lord builds the house, all who build it labor in vain.

We look to him and we ask for him to do what we cannot.

And when he comes through, because we have the promise from his word that he will.

At the end, to God alone be the glory.

Solely Deo Glory.

Why?

For his glory.

For his glory.

Your life was meant to give God glory.

You can look at what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 31.

He's writing to the church at Corinth there and he says, so whether y'all eat or drink or whatever y'all do, do all to the glory of God.

That's a big whatever.

That seems to encompass everything.

Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Solely Deo Gloria for His glory.

Your life was meant to give God glory.

And our life, our church life, is meant to give God glory.

And we will do that by being obedient and making disciples.

This is what we are to do to be faithful and obedient.

But how can we know that we're hitting the mark?

How can we know that we're being successful?

How can we know that we are effective?

What do disciples do?

And how can we bring Him glory?

I'm so glad you asked.

That's what we're going to be looking at the next two weeks, but I'm going to give you a little appetizer right here, all right?

We exist to make disciples for the glory of God.

Disciples who worship, grow, serve, and go.

Worship.

Grow.

Serve and go.

There are a lot of things that we could do as a church, but we all know.

Just because you could do something doesn't mean you should do something.

There are a lot of things that we could make and multiply around here.

And we could just add and add and add and add.

And this is how churches grow to become complex and distracted and ineffective.

We end up doing a lot, but some of the things that we end up doing are not ultimately important, right?

I remember this quote from when I was in high school.

I was reading a book, Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

And in this book, he said this quote that stuck with me all those years ago, even up until today.

He said this our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.

But of succeeding at things here in this world and at this time that don't really matter.

We need to step out in wisdom and step out in faith.

And we need to be obedient to what God has called us to.

And what we don't need to do is get really good at stuff that doesn't really matter.

And so what are we going to do?

We are going to laser focus in on worshiping, growing, serving, and going across all of our ministries.

How does blank help worship, grow, serve, go?

How do we help preschoolers, kids, students, adults, senior adults worship, grow, serve, and go?

And if we have ministries, events, or partners that don't align and don't help us to worship, grow, serve, and go, then we're going to have to refocus.

And that's not a bad thing.

You see, I've used this picture sometimes with our staff.

I'm going to throw this picture up here on the screen.

That what you have right here are the Raptor engines for SpaceX, right?

Elon Musk's handiwork right here.

And you can see right there on the left hand side, that is the Raptor 1 engine when SpaceX was getting started and trying to get rockets up off the ground.

And then there in the middle, you have Raptor 2.

And then finally, there on the right, you have Raptor 3.

And with each iteration, what they were doing was trying to see what does not belong.

What, okay, our goal is to get this hunk of metal up off the ground and into space.

What on this engine is not helping us do that?

Or what could we merge to become lighter, more efficient, gain more thrust?

Again, all for the end that we get it up into space.

And that forced innovation over time that parts could be merged.

That they weren't having to outsource, but they were bringing it in, that they were able to design certain things to be more effective.

And it was lighter and it was going harder and faster.

And so that by the end, they could have just kept Raptor One.

Hey, we're getting up off the ground.

This is great.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

But really, it could be another way that is more efficient, that is more effective, that can be used again and again and again so that we can get into space.

And so for us, I look at this picture sometimes and I'm like, where's our church?

Where are we right now?

Raptor one, raptor two, or raptor three?

What are things that don't belong anymore?

What are things that we could bring in our things that we would need to realign, things that we could design to be more efficient, more effective, lighter, more powerful.

All to the end, for us, we're not going to space.

But what are we doing?

Make disciples for his glory.

These disciples who worship, grow, serve, and go.

So in the next two weeks, we're going to look at each of these two at a time.

Next week, we're going to look at what does it look like at Spring Valley Baptist Church for us to worship and grow.

And then the next Sunday, what does it look like for us at Spring Valley to serve and go?

What does it look like for us together at Spring Valley and in our daily lives to worship?

Together in our daily lives to grow.

Together and in our daily lives to serve.

Together and in our daily lives to go.

So, church, we exist to make disciples for the glory of God.

Disciples who worship, who grow, who serve, and who go.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a football.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is our mission.

Let's pursue it.

Let's pursue the Lord.

Let's make disciples for his glory.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the clarity and the power of your word.

That we're not left to figure out what it is that we are supposed to do here in this world.

But you have given us purpose and meaning in the Great Commission.

And before that, you have given us life and light and love through the gospel, the good news of what Jesus has accomplished for us.

What we could never accomplish for ourselves.

Help us as we seek to fulfill this mission.

God, would we do so in your strength, with your gifts, by the power of your spirit?

Would we see disciples made, as many as possible, as mature as possible?

Not so that this church, not so that a particular ministry, not so that a staff or an individual or a pastor could receive the glory.

But God, so that you alone get the glory.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.