The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: Matthew 28 16.

That's where you're gonna be.

So in our game, right?

In our game, we had to, we had to describe some things with just one word.

And I want you to think of right now, think.

If I was gonna describe a Christian with one word, how would

I describe someone who's saved?

How would I describe a Christian in one word?

What would you think?

What would you say?

What comes to mind when you say, oh, how would I describe a Christian in one word?

Well, I think that in to Knight's passage we're gonna see what, at least Matthew,

and, and probably Jesus would say, if he was gonna say one word to describe

a Christian, that word is disciple.

Disciple.

That's the word I think that, that Jesus would use.

And that's the word that Matthew for sure would use.

So if you don't know what it means to be a disciple, or if you have a

wrong idea about being a disciple, then you're probably doing the

whole Christian thing wrong.

If you don't know what, what it means to, to be a disciple of Jesus, if you

don't know what discipleship is or looks like, then you might be, you

might have a totally wrong idea of what it's like to be a Christian and

what being a Christian is all about.

So tonight that's what we're gonna learn.

We're gonna learn that discipleship.

Is living all in for King Jesus with his help.

The discipleship is living all in for king Jesus with his help.

That's what Matthew and Jesus are gonna tell us.

Tonight.

So look with me at your passage, Matthew chapter 16, or chapter 28, verse 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

So we're picking up right after the resurrection.

Jesus is alive and the angel announces it, and then the woman go tell the disciples.

And then, um, Jesus said, Hey, I'm gonna meet you guys in Galilee.

Meet me in Galilee.

So verse 16.

Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain,

which Jesus had directed them.

So this was the plan.

They're like, all right, let's do it.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him.

But some doubted.

So they see Jesus and they worship him, but some of them aren't sure.

Some of them are either not sure if they should worship him or not sure who he is.

We don't know exactly, but some of them doubted.

Then verse 18, Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven

and on earth has been given to me.

All sovereignty, all authority, all power, all the rights

to rule is belongs to Jesus.

It's been given to Jesus now as the resurrected king.

Therefore 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

or obey all that I have commanded you and behold, look, I'm with you always.

To the end of the age, right?

Nice short passage for us.

I forgot to put up on the screen for you, but that's our passage.

It all fits on one slide.

Isn't that crazy?

It all fits on one slide.

So Jesus, he meets the disciples, some of them worship, and then

he gives them this announcement.

He says, look, all I have all authority everywhere because of that, I want you to

go make disciples of everyone everywhere.

I want you to baptize them, and I want you to teach them what I've commanded you.

By the way, I'm always gonna be with you for the rest of history.

Now, the main, the main message that Jesus is saying right is, is this section

here, it starts with all authority, ends with to the end of the age.

He starts in a really interesting place.

Right?

If you were gonna send out a group of people, right?

If you were gonna say, you know what, I want you guys to go and tell people

about Jesus, what would you start with?

If you were gonna say, you know what?

We're gonna start with 11 people and we're gonna go and try to change the world

and tell everyone about Jesus, what's the first thing you would tell them?

Well, Jesus says, this is what I'm gonna start with.

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

Therefore go and make disciples.

So whenever you see it, therefore in the Bible, you know

what you're supposed to ask.

What's therefore, what's the, therefore, therefore, right?

Whenever you see it, therefore, in the Bible, you gotta look backward.

So it, what it does is it relates this to this.

So all authority therefore go, right.

That's what Jesus is saying.

You see that all authority.

It has been given to Jesus.

Therefore, I want you to do this thing.

This is a command that he's giving.

So discipleship actually comes from Jesus' authority.

Discipleship comes from the fact that Jesus is in charge.

That's where discipleship starts, and that's our first point.

Tonight, discipleship is a response to Jesus' authority.

Discipleship is based on the authority of Jesus.

It comes from the fact that Jesus is the king of kings.

The first thing I want you to know about being a disciple of

Jesus, someone who follows Jesus.

Jesus has all authority, and maybe you've heard that before.

You've heard that growing up from your parents.

You've heard that in kids, men.

Maybe you've heard that Jesus has all authority, but I want you to just think

about what that means about Jesus, right?

It means that Jesus has all authority over every country.

So if Jesus, all authority of every country, think about that.

Jesus could tell every country what to do.

Jesus could tell Russia what to do.

Jesus could tell he ran what to do.

Jesus could tell the US what to do.

Jesus could tell every single world country, Hey, do that.

And he has the right to say that and enforce that Jesus' authority

over every cell on earth, every molecule, every disease, Jesus

can tell, every sickness, stop.

Jesus can do that.

Jesus has the authority to do that.

Jesus has authority over every animal, right?

People talk about training their dogs.

Jesus authority over every animal.

He can tell every animal, here's what I want you to do.

Go do it.

Jesus authority, over, over everything.

Right?

He's authority over every person.

Right?

Not just maybe.

Oh yeah.

And Jesus has authority over every person.

Cool.

No.

Jesus has authority over, over every person.

Oh, Jesus has authority over you, over what you do, what you think, what you

say, how you live, the decisions you make, where you go to school, who you

date Jesus authority over Everything.

How you spend your time, what you watch.

Who you're friends with Jesus authority over all of these things.

That's what it means when Jesus says, all authority and discipleship

following Jesus is someone who recognizes that and goes along with it.

They say, you know what?

That's right.

I agree with that and I'm gonna follow what Jesus says.

Now, maybe you're someone who doesn't think Jesus is all authority.

Does that change how much authority Jesus has?

Does you thinking how much Jesus authority has change anything about Jesus?

No.

Right.

Whether you like it or not, Jesus is in charge.

One day, Jesus is gonna come and set up his kingdom fully.

And at that point, you won't have the freedom that you have now to say, uh,

I don't want anything to do with Jesus.

Or, uh, I kind of like Jesus, but I'm gonna do whatever I want.

One day you're gonna run into Jesus authority and Jesus will show

you I'm in charge of everything.

Jesus has all authority, but he has all authority over everything

that you interact with, right?

Everything you think about all the people that you see, all

the situations you're in, right?

Maybe you're, you're scared of, of something happening.

Well, Jesus is in control of that, right?

And that's such a comfort that you are following someone

who has all authority, right?

You're not just following a, a nice teacher, right?

You're following someone who has authority over every situation you're ever gonna

face, anything you're worried about.

You can say, you know what, Jesus is in control of that.

Jesus can can work this exactly the way he wants to.

If you're not sure how, how this thing with your family is gonna play

out, or you're not sure how, how this situation and your social life with your

friends is gonna work out or you don't know how your health is, is gonna be.

Jesus has authority over that and he's in control and you can trust him.

And that's such a freeing thing for you to know.

Jesus has all authority, but also what I want you to see is that because use is

all authority, he's actually giving this.

As a command, right?

He says, I have all authority.

Therefore, because of that, do this make disciples.

The, the main command in this passage is, is make disciples.

Um, that's the way Matthew wrote it in his language.

This is a, a command, and this is a less strong verb in Matthew's language.

If you want, you can learn Greek with me and talk about that later.

But this is the main, this is the main command of this passage.

Make disciples so it, it's a command.

It's not just a suggestion, right?

It's not just, oh, Jesus, you know, was like, if, if you have time.

Make some disciples for me, or, oh, you know, well, only the super important

Christians, I want you to make disciples.

Making disciples is a command given to, to every, every person

who calls themself a Christian.

It's actually the reason the church exists.

This is kind of like Jesus' mission statement.

You ever seen like a mission statement from a company like this company exists

to, or like a college you're applying to?

This college exists for this purpose.

I looked up some online just that were fun.

So like Disney's, I don't even know if this is true, this is what someone

said online, but imagine that is true.

Disney's mission statement is to create happiness for

people of all ages everywhere.

So they're saying that's why Disney exists, right?

That's what, that's what Disney wants you to know.

This is their main job is creating happiness.

That's what they're all about.

So if something doesn't create happiness, guess what Disney's not gonna do?

They're not gonna do that.

Right?

They're all about creating happiness, and they want you to

know that they're, they're creating happiness for everyone, everywhere.

All types of people, right?

That's what Disney wants you to know about happiness or like apple.

This one was fun.

Apple to challenge the status quo to think differently.

Notice how like vague these are, they have nothing to do with

like the industry they're in.

Disney didn't say anything about movies or about amusement parks.

Apple didn't say anything about like iPhones or whatever.

They didn't say like, to make the best technology ever, right.

They said, we just want to be different.

So like that's Apple's mission statement.

I like the McDonald's mission statement, just for fun to be the world's best

quick service restaurant experience without an ice cream machine, I guess.

Um, but yeah, that was McDonald's mission statement.

It's interesting, right, to see, like, it tells you a lot about the company.

To know what, what do they think is the most important thing that we're gonna do?

This is what we're all about.

Starbucks.

Inspire and nurture the human spirit.

This doesn't just sound like Starbucks, to inspire and nurture the human

spirit, one person in one cup at a time, so you can really tell a lot

about a company and what they value.

Or one more Coca-Cola to refresh the world and inspire moments of optimism.

Is this, is this how you feel when you drink a Coke?

Totally right.

But yeah, these are, these are these company's mission statements.

These are these company's mission statements, and what I want you

to see is that this is, this is Jesus' mission statement.

This is the church's mission statement.

This, if you call yourself a Christian or if, if your parents go

to church, this, this is the example.

Everything that Jesus wants from his church as a, as a group, and

also everything that he wants individually from you as a disciple,

your job is to make disciples.

That's your mission.

That's why you're here.

You're not here to have fun.

You're not here to, to do this.

You're not here to, to make a bunch of money.

You're not here to, to make friends.

You're here to make disciples.

That's your, that's your main mission statement.

And so just like these companies, right, they wanna filter everything

through their mission statement, right?

If it doesn't do that.

We're not about it.

If it doesn't accomplish our mission, we're not, we're not gonna do that.

So what Jesus is giving you is he's giving you a filter to say, okay,

well, does this help me make disciples?

Well, if it doesn't, that's not my job.

That's not part of the mission, right?

Everything we do as a, as Christians, as a disciples is about making more disciples.

It's like a filter that filters out the stuff you don't need

and the stuff that you do need.

So Jesus is giving you and the church your a, a mission.

So use the individual and the church as a group, right?

That's why that a group of people moved from California to Texas and

just out of the blue, seemingly, right?

Just because they, they wanted to, because they wanted to do what

Jesus commissions or, or sends the church to do to make more disciples.

So if you're a Christian, if you call yourself a Christian in this

room, I want you to ask yourself, is that what my life is really about?

Is my life really about making disciples?

Do I really think about, okay, why am I on my sports team to make disciples?

Why am I at this school to make disciples?

Why am I with these friends?

Why am I with these family members to make disciples?

Why am I gonna pick the college I'm gonna go to?

Why am I gonna pick the the schedule that I want?

Well, it's to make disciples.

That's what you need to filter everything through, because it's a

command from the authoritative king.

This isn't the great suggestion, right?

This is the great commission.

This is a mission that, that Jesus himself has given you.

If you call yourself a Christian, that's what it means to follow.

Jesus.

It's not an optional suggestion.

It's not an age dependent suggestion either.

You notice that Jesus didn't say, oh, when you're older, make disciples.

Once you learn this much about the Bible, make disciples once you graduate

from high school, make disciples.

Once you feel good about your relationship with God, make disciples.

He didn't say any of that.

He just said, if you're, if you're a Christian, make disciples.

What he said.

It's not a, it looks different maybe in different seasons of your life.

You know, making disciples as a parent or as a mom, or as a dad, or as a grandparent

or as a student, looks different.

But that's always gonna be your mission, is to make disciples.

It's not conditional on anything.

Well, I don't feel like making disciples, oh, I don't love those people very much.

Or, oh, whatever.

My life isn't going the way I wanted it to.

I'm really stressed out right now.

Your job is still in those moments to make disciples.

And yes, it'll look different, but that's still your mission.

That's still why you are here.

So because Jesus has all authority, discipleship making other

disciples is a response to Jesus.

Following Jesus is what discipleship is all about.

And because Jesus is all authority, you can trust him, right?

You can say, well, you know what?

Jesus is in control of everything.

So if he sends me to do something.

He probably is gonna help me do it.

It's probably gonna work out pretty well.

If the king of the universe says, I want you to do this.

I'm asking you to do this.

I'm commanding you to do this.

The, the person with all authority has sent you to do this.

You ever like run an errand for someone really important?

Like at my middle school, there were these office aides, you know, and they

come in with their pass and they can like walk through and pull people outta class

and do this stuff because they're coming with the authority of the principal.

You know what I mean?

Like they've got the authority of the, the most important person on the campus.

They can just walk around.

They, they can go, you know, became a supervisor, says, Hey,

what are you doing outta class?

They can just hold up their badge.

You know, like, look at me.

I'm an office aid.

I'm so cool.

I don't have to do anything and just walk around.

Or they can do that, right?

Because they, they have the authority of the person sending them.

If you're, if you're a disciple of Jesus, Jesus is sending you out of his authority.

So if someone is telling you don't make disciples, they're, you

can say, talk to my boss, right?

This is what he told me to do.

Talk to the principal.

He set me on this mission.

That's what I'm gonna do.

So you can also trust Jesus with that and say, you know what?

This is what Jesus asked me to do, so I'm gonna do it regardless of any

opposition that might come my way.

But because Jesus is all authority, following him means

he lays claim to your entire.

Life.

Right?

Being a disciple is not just a, what we talked about.

It's not just a, a seasonal job.

It's not just an optional suggestion.

It's, it's an authoritative and wholehearted pursuit.

Look with me at verses 19 and 20.

So main command make disciples.

How do we do that?

Jesus.

Well, here's what it looks like.

It looks like going, it looks like baptizing, and it looks like teaching.

That's what Jesus is saying.

Make disciples.

How do you wanna do that?

Well, this is what we're gonna do.

Right coach.

Jesus says, here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna go, we're gonna baptize and we're gonna teach.

That's how we make disciples.

Now, if you notice all of these things, they, what they do is they, they take

hold of every aspect of your life.

These, these three activities involved in disciple making, they creep into

every single part of your life.

You're not just making disciples.

Sometimes you're making disciples all the time, and these things

are gonna reorient your life.

If you're really a disciple, if you're really a follower of Jesus,

your life is gonna change thoroughly.

It's not just gonna change on Sundays.

It's not just gonna change on Wednesdays.

It's gonna change all the time.

So 0.2,

discipleship is a comprehensive and committed process.

Comprehensive that means full, right?

All the way, like a comprehensive final, right?

It's on.

It's like the two worst words.

In school.

Comprehensive exam, right?

That means it's a test on everything you've learned that semester or that year.

Discipleship is comprehensive and it's committed, right?

It's, it's something that that takes time and it's something that

takes effort and it's something that takes resolve and it's a process.

It's gradual, right?

It's not just something like, boom, I've been discipled as much as I need to.

I made it.

It's a process.

It doesn't happen all in an instant, but it also.

Takes, takes time.

And so is make, so making disciples and being discipled are both a process.

They don't just, there's not just one conversation, boom,

I discipled that person.

I'm done.

Or, oh, I talked to my leader once and now I'm discipled.

That's not how it works.

Right.

Discipleship is a, is a process, but it's very thorough and it

takes everything you've got.

Right.

And our main point, discipleship is living all in for king Jesus.

So making disciples, as we saw, involves going, baptizing and teaching.

Those are the three things that Jesus wants you to know

about how to make disciples.

So this first one, here's what we can learn about discipleship.

When we talk about going discipleship interrupts and

alters the direction of your life.

Jesus saying, to make disciples, you're gonna have to go, you're

gonna have to have a direction.

It's gonna look.

You're, you're on the move.

It's gonna look like you're moving a certain way.

There's a, there's a path I want you to go on.

Discipleship means going, so it's gonna interrupt your life.

Remember when Jesus calls his disciples, they're fishing in the boat.

Uh, Simon and Andrew are fishing in the boat, or James and John are fishing in the

boat and Jesus says, Hey, come follow me.

So what do they do?

They leave their stuff and they come follow him.

There's a, there's an altered direction.

There's something that changed in their life.

They were interrupted by Jesus and then they started following Jesus.

The best way I could describe this is one of my favorite games.

You ever seen this one?

You ever seen this one from Game Pigeon?

It's the knockout game with the penguins.

So right when this, when this penguin is coming and this penguin is coming,

what's gonna happen when they intersect?

They're gonna go out different directions, right?

Their trajectory, the way they were going is gonna look different, right?

This penguin is probably gonna end up over here and this penguin is gonna

end over here and this guy's gonna win.

Right?

That's how it's gonna work.

So when this penguin gets bumped, he's gonna go a different direction.

He thought he was gonna go this way and he's gonna go this way.

That's kind of like what happens when you become a Christian.

Your life changes the direction of your life change.

That's why repentance is turning.

That's the, that's what the word means.

It means to turn.

The direction of your life for changes.

Second Corinthians five 15 says that Christians stop living for

themselves and start living for God.

There's a direction change.

There's a trajectory that's changed.

You were going this way, and then Jesus came and bumped

into you and changed your life.

He took you from death to life.

He took you from not his people to his people.

He took you from not saved to saved.

And he changed the direction of your life.

He gave you new desires.

He gave you a new heart, he gave you new habits.

He, he gave you all these things.

He gave you the Holy Spirit, and it changes your life.

It sends you off a different way.

You, you start maybe, maybe you do some of the same activities.

Maybe you still play the same sport.

Maybe you still live in the same place.

Maybe you still have the same friends, but the direction of your life is

totally different now if you're really a disciple, because now you're

not doing those things for you, you're doing those things for God.

So the direction of your life Jesus bumped into you and, and sense

you go on a different direction.

So discipleship alters the, the trajectory, it alters

the path of your life, right?

My life is totally different than what I thought it was gonna

be before I became a Christian.

And I'm sure all of your leaders can say really similar things 'cause

their core fundamental desire change.

They, they who they are changed what they wanted changed, their

priorities changed, and that sent them in a different direction than

what they thought they were gonna do.

And so if you call yourself a disciple, look for that in your life.

If you, if you wanna become a Christian, expect that to happen when you get saved.

If you say you are a Christian or you're not sure if you're

a Christian, look for that.

Look for, look for a a time period, maybe not an exact day, but look for a

time period where Jesus bumped into you and sent you flying in a different way.

And maybe it's gradual, it's a process.

But look for the different direction, right?

Look for a change in direction.

I was living for myself, now I'm living.

For God.

That's what being a disciple is.

And also when you think about go, being a disciple means you're sent, right?

You have a new mission.

Your mission before was live for myself.

Now your mission is make disciples.

So now you're, you're sent out to go out of your way to do that, right?

If you never talk to anyone in your life, you're never gonna make any disciples.

Christians are inherently outgoing people, maybe not in personality, but in posture.

We, we go to where the people are.

We need to make people disciples.

So your mission has changed.

You are sent out by God with a new purpose to do something for him.

That's what being a disciple is.

The second part we saw going.

The second part is being baptized.

Baptizing, baptism symbolizes.

You think about what is baptism symbolize, right?

You're going down under the water and you're coming up out of the water, right?

Um, baptism.

Yes.

This, Jesus is talking about physically being dunked in the

water and coming back up, right?

Jesus is saying, you should baptize your disciples that you make.

Right?

They should be baptized if you're, if you call yourself a Christian,

you've never been baptized to obey Jesus, you need to be baptized.

That's, that's one thing that Jesus's saying, but the physical act of baptism

is supposed to be a symbol of something.

Just like the Lord's Supper is a symbol of something.

Baptism is a symbol of something and what it symbolizes.

You're different now.

Your identity has changed.

You were dead and now you're alive.

You were someone else and now you're connected to Jesus.

And so you're different.

You have new life.

You're a new person.

That's what, um, Paul talks about in, in Romans chapter

six, and he talks about baptism.

He's not talking about physical baptism.

He's talking about what happens to you when you become a Christian.

You're different now, so who you are is different.

Right.

The the closest thing I could think of to like an identity change is.

Specifically, uh, when ladies get married, right?

This kind of thing happens, right?

You become a different person, right?

You, you go from Thomas Elli to Azuma in my lovely wife's case, right?

You become a, a different person, your identity changes, and then you have to

do all this paperwork, and it's a mess, and it's terrible, but it's awesome

because your identity changed, right?

So now, right?

We're not just, we're not just two separate people in according to Jesus.

If you get married, you're one flesh, right?

God brought you together.

God changed you, so now you're fundamentally a different

person because you got married.

That's what happens when you become a Christian, right?

When you become a Christian, your identity changes.

Who you are changes.

Not just outwardly, not just your habits, not just how you spend your time, not

just what you maybe do or how you look, but who you are on the inside changes.

Everything that's core to who you are is different when you become a Christian.

That's what baptism symbolizes is, is an identity change.

It also means a new relationship with God, right?

You, you're no longer apart from Christ.

You're in Christ baptizing the name of the Father of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Now you have a new relationship with God before you didn't

have access to God, right?

You're a, you're a sinner.

You're separated from God, but then when you're baptized,

you're baptized into Christ.

Which means you're, you're placed into Christ.

You're connected to Christ.

And so now when God sees you, he doesn't say you deserve judgment.

He says, Jesus paid for your sin.

So now I've adopted you and I've welcomed you to my family.

So you have a new relationship with God because of you're connected to

Jesus, you're baptized in Christ.

That's what that means.

You now have a new identity, but also you have a new relationship with God.

You, you can call him Father, you can talk to him like your father.

You have access to him through Jesus.

You have your sins taken away.

You have a new relationship with God because of being a disciple.

So baptism symbolizes your new identity, and that's part of being a disciple.

Being a disciple means your identity is changed.

So if that's not you, then you're not a disciple, right?

But if you are, you should see that.

You should see that in your life.

I'm not the person I used to be.

So making disciples involves going, it involves baptizing

and it also involves teaching.

So discipleship means living Jesus way.

So baptism talks about identity.

So even though baptism or discipleship, discipleship is more than a way

of life, it's more than just external rule following and doing

different things than I used to do.

It's, it's discipleship is much more comprehensive than that.

It changes everything about you, not just your habits or your actions, but

it's not less than that either, right?

Being a disciple means, remember what Jesus said, teaching them to

obey everything that I've commanded.

There's a, there's physical evidence because you, you, your identity changes.

Jesus interrupted your life, your identity changes, and now you start doing

the things that Jesus wants you to do.

The word disciple actually means learner.

So the, the word just means a student, like a learner.

And so if you're a disciple, you're who you are.

Is is a learner.

And, and what that means is your posture as a disciple is always to grow.

It's always, oh, Jesus is the, the teacher.

Jesus is, is the one I'm learning from.

That's what being a disciple is.

Your, your mission as a disciple.

Part of it is to, to do everything that Jesus said.

So you're always gonna be growing, you're always gonna be learning.

That's why we said in our second point, it's a process.

Discipleship is a pro.

It's a lifelong process of living Jesus' way.

You're never going to be done, oh, I'm, I'm done being discipled.

So it's a, it's a process and there's ups and downs that process, right?

Sometimes it takes a while for you to learn things.

Just like in school.

It takes you for a while.

Sometimes there's certain things you get right away.

There's some things that take you a while to get, you have to practice them.

You have to think about them.

Your teacher has to explain it in a cool way, and then you start getting it.

That happens with, with disciples, with God.

You know, so maybe you're a Christian, you're like, well, I see some changes.

I don't see another big change that I, I really wanna grow in.

So that might take time.

You know, God works through slow process sometimes, and so sometimes your, your

growth is gonna be slow learning, but you always should be as a disciple, learning

to obey everything that Jesus said, and that's also part of being a disciple.

He said, just teach them to obey everything that I've commanded you.

Not just your favorite commands, not just the ones you're good at, not just the

ones that the world applauds and says, oh yeah, that's good, but everything.

So think about, am I someone who just picks and chooses what Jesus says?

Like, well, I'll obey that and I won't do that, or, I like it when I get to do these

things for Jesus, but I don't like it when I get to do those things for Jesus.

I wanna serve at church this way.

I don't wanna serve at church that way.

Well, are you picking and choosing what Jesus asked you to do?

Are you saying, Jesus, here I am.

Send me.

You get to decide how I follow you.

You don't get to decide how you follow Jesus.

You're following Jesus on his terms, not your terms.

You don't get to say, oh, well, Jesus, I'll follow you this far,

but if I'm single for the rest of my life, not gonna do it, I'm out.

You don't get to say, oh, Jesus, uh, I'll follow you this way, but if all my friends

leave me, I'm out, or if I have to share the gospel with people, then I'm out.

Or, oh, if, if you really want me to believe that about

homosexuality, then I'm out.

Jesus wants you to obey everything he's commanding.

This isn't Buffet Christianity.

You can't just pick, oh, well, I like what the Bible says about that.

Don't like what it says about that.

It's comprehensive.

Everything that you see in God's word is for you and it matters, and you can't

just pick and choose the parts you like.

Also, it's living Jesus' way, right?

Not just learning information about Jesus.

Discipleship isn't just gaining information and facts like,

oh, I, I learned this and I learned this and I learned this.

Right?

It's learning.

That translates into living.

It's living.

There's, there's action, there's feelings.

There's not just information that you learned about Jesus.

And then lastly, throughout teaching, Jesus is telling the disciples to teach.

Right?

So disciples are learners.

Yes, but they're also teachers.

Disciples are supposed to make more disciples.

So if you are a Christian, you should be thinking about how am

I going to disciple other people?

Maybe you are a new Christian, so there's not much that you've learned that you

can pass on, but at some point you should be thinking, oh, I need to pass

on my learning, my knowledge, my wisdom, my love for Jesus to other people.

I had one guy, um.

One of the coolest guys I've ever met.

He was in a men's bible study group that I was in, and he had a brain tumor.

Um, one of the coolest dude, just the way he trusted God, the way he followed

Jesus through that was, was really cool.

But he gave me this illustration that I've, I've never forgot since then.

He talked about the difference between, um, he used roads, but I'm

using water 'cause it's more fun.

The difference between a cul-de-sac.

A thoroughfare, like right.

A road that just goes all the way through.

Or a road that's like a circle.

So water makes more sense.

'cause you guys don't even know what thoroughfare is.

So you ever seen one of these things, you ever seen one of

these standing water, right?

Where all the mosquitoes come from?

And for some reason they named a city in Oklahoma after this.

But this is, this is still water, right Standing.

Water standing.

Water's gross.

There's, there's nothing coming in to, there's nothing, sorry.

There's nothing going out.

There might be water coming in.

There's rain that comes in.

Maybe they, there's water that comes in, but it doesn't, it doesn't leave.

And it just sits there and it gets real gross, right?

It, it, it ends up looking like this.

And then these people probably have a million mosquito bites

and they can't use their pool.

It can really clean.

It's terrible, right?

But this kind of water, running water is beautiful, right?

It flows, it's clean, it's great.

You can swim in it.

You could drink it.

If you're adventurous, you could do all sorts of things with flowing water.

See, being a disciple, you want to be this, you wanna be like this.

So when, when God shows you things, when you learn things,

starting with the gospel, right, the gospel's the best example.

You don't just keep the gospel to yourself.

You're like, oh, I, I heard the gospel.

I responded great.

No, God wants you to take it to other people.

He wants you to, to let it flow through you to people around you.

He doesn't want you to just be like, all right, cool, I got it.

Sweet.

He doesn't want you to do that.

He wants you to pass it on.

So if you're a Christian, you at least know the gospel, right?

You've at least been saved.

You've heard the good news about Jesus, you've responded to him.

You love Jesus.

You can at least pass that on.

Maybe you don't know very much, and that's okay, right?

We all start somewhere.

Maybe you don't know very much about the Bible.

Maybe you don't know very much about Jesus.

Maybe you haven't been a Christian very long, but there's still things that you

can pass on to other people, and if you're a disciple, God expects you to do that.

He expects you to, to let what he teaches you and what you've learned

flow through you to other people, right?

You don't wanna be gross standing water.

You wanna be nice, pretty flowing water.

So discipleship, there's three parts going baptizing and teaching right now.

It might sound like so far that Jesus asking a lot.

From his disciples, right?

He's telling, he's like, I've all authority.

You gotta do these things for me.

You gotta go.

I'm gonna interrupt your life and you're gonna do what I say.

You're gonna live for me.

I'm gonna change who you are.

You might think, well, Jesus is just, you know, putting all these, these burdens

on me, asking me to do all this stuff.

Well, that's partly true, right?

Jesus has every right to tell you what to do, and we don't like that sometimes.

But Jesus has every right to tell you what you're supposed to do with your life.

Jesus has every right to tell you what college you go to, what friends

you should have, who you should date.

Jesus has every right to tell you all of those things.

What you do with your free time, what videos you watch.

Jesus has every right to tell you all of those things.

But he also is personally involved in helping his disciples follow him.

Look with me at the beginning and the end of our passage.

So verse 17, when the disciples saw him, they saw Jesus, which

that would've been crazy, right?

Imagine like you, you saw this guy die.

Then now you're like, oh, there he is.

That's crazy, right?

So they saw him and they worshiped him.

Which by the way, I said this last week, but if someone ever tells

you, Jesus never claimed to be God.

If Jesus wasn't God, you know what He would've said right after this?

Stop.

Don't worship me.

Right?

But guess what?

He doesn't say anything about that.

So they worship Jesus, but some of them doubt it, and we don't

know what they're doubting.

We don't know if they're doubting, is this really Jesus?

Maybe they're far away.

They didn't recognize him.

Maybe they doubted that he was really alive.

Maybe they really, they, maybe they doubted that he was, God, we

don't know what they're doubting.

Um, but the word doubt comes from like the word to be divided.

So like they're, they're not sure.

There, there's some hesitancy, there's some, um, I don't

know, maybe some unbelief.

They're doubting.

And then Jesus came and said to them, Jesus didn't say, oh, you're

doubting, you're a loser disciple.

I'm not using you.

Right.

She just didn't do that.

She didn't say, oh, well, you're not good enough to follow me.

Jesus didn't say, oh, well, you're doubting.

Well, I'm gonna ask other people to do my work for me.

Jesus didn't say any of those things.

Jesus comes to them, right?

He came to them and said to them what He said, right?

All authority has been given to me, and then I'll be with you

always and give them mission.

Right?

So Jesus doesn't say, well, once you stop doubting, come

follow me and make disciples.

He doesn't say that.

He goes to them and says, here's what I want you to do.

He enters into their, their real imperfect Christian life and

says, I have a mission for you.

But he doesn't just give them a mission.

He gives them everything they need to do the mission, right?

We talk about all authority.

Jesus has all authority.

So if the disciples are ever scared or not sure if they can say, well,

the, the guy who's in charge of the world sent me, so if you mess

with me, you're messing with him.

Right?

So he gives them courage and he also gives them comfort.

So I want you to see that discipleship is a real relationship with a

real Jesus, who's really with you.

If you're following Jesus, he's really with you.

He's not just watching you like, oh, well, when that person starts sitting

less, then I'll, then I'll use them.

Or, oh, when that person gets their act together or learns their learns more

of their Bible, then I'll be with them, and then I'll ask them to serve me.

Jesus comes to these disciples who, who trust him, and he says.

I'm gonna help you.

I'm gonna help you do exactly what I just asked you to do.

So 0.3,

discipleship is a relationship with a real person.

Discipleship isn't just doing things for Jesus.

It's not just hearing things.

Jesus says, it's not just working really hard to make Jesus happy.

Jesus is a real person and he really helps his disciples follow him.

And maybe it's hard for you to wrap your mind around that Jesus is a

real person and I get it right.

Maybe you're like, man, I wish I could have been one of those

disciples and actually seen Jesus and talked with him and touched him.

But if Jesus wanted you to have that experience, if he thought that experience

was good for you, he would still be here.

If, if you're saying, oh, I really wish I could have seen Jesus.

Why did Jesus leave?

Jesus, the smartest guy who ever lived thought it was a good idea to give you

the Holy Spirit instead of staying here.

Right?

Imagine that.

Imagine if Jesus was the pastor of some church in Austin.

That would be really cool, right?

If Jesus was the pastor of a church, everyone could go to that church.

Like you could meet Jesus.

You could hear Jesus preach.

You could shake his hand after service and tell him, great sermon, Jesus.

And then he'd be like, we'll see.

No, I'm just kidding.

He wouldn't say that.

Um, no, but Jesus.

What if he was the pastor of a church?

You know, what if he was like your, I don't know.

What if Jesus was your worship leader?

Right?

What if Jesus was your SM group leader?

What if Jesus was one of your parents?

Right?

Like that would, you'd think that would be awesome, right?

What if Jesus was alive and he was here?

But Jesus, in all of his wisdom said, you know, it's actually better than that.

I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit, my presence with you, with every

Christian, everywhere for all time.

Jesus said, that's better.

I heard one pastor.

Put it this way.

The Holy Spirit in you is better than Jesus with you in the sense of

like physically with you next to you.

The Holy Spirit inside you is better than Jesus beside you.

That's the way he put it.

That sounds a lot better.

The Holy Spirit inside you is better than Jesus beside you, because if

Jesus wanted you to have him here sticking around with him, he would.

And if he thought that was better for you, he would do that.

But instead he says.

I'm gonna be with you through the Holy Spirit.

So Jesus is a real person, but he's really with you.

And the reason he is is because he wants to help you follow him.

He's not just sitting there waiting for you to get your act together so he,

you can follow him better next week.

He's with you helping you do all the things that that you want to do for him.

Has anyone here ever been in like a flipped classroom class?

Those things where what they do is like the, you do the homework in class

and then the teacher, like you watch the videos like outside of class.

It's like the opposites.

Normally you do the homework at home, it's a place called the homework,

and then you do the lectures in class when you're sitting here.

So, and one of my college classes was a flipped classroom.

So what we did is we'd watch these videos like Monday during the

day at home or whatever, and then Tuesday we would come to class.

We would do the work together.

So we had this, it was Greek, so we, we'd do these like translations

and all this stuff together.

We'd work through all the problems and, and ask questions.

And, and our teacher, what he would do is he, he we, he taught us through

the video and then he taught us more by working with us on things.

He worked through all the, the challenges and he was there

so we could ask questions.

'cause what usually happens in these type of classes, like think about it,

think about this with math, right?

Imagine your math class, okay?

Imagine, I'm sure you've been in this situation.

You get your math lecture, right?

You, you do the textbook, whatever, and the teacher does like the super

easy, like obvious problems in class and you go home and you're doing the

math homework and you're like, this is nothing like what the teacher said.

This is nothing like what happened on the board.

What is going on?

Why is this the way it is?

Right?

That that's what usually happens in math class.

So my brother had one of these math classes.

It was a flip classroom.

They would watch like the videos of the lecture and the textbook on

their own and read the textbook on their own and then come to class.

And then the teacher would do like the hard problems with them

and they would work together.

So they did the work, but the teacher would be there to help.

He'd there to ask.

They could ask him questions, he'd show 'em how to do things.

When they ran into trouble, they could, they could say, Hey, you know, Mr.

So and So, please help me.

This doesn't make sense to me.

'cause you explain that to me.

Christianity is kinda like a flipped classroom when you think about it.

Being a disciple is kinda like a flipped classroom because.

Jesus didn't just be like, okay, here's the easy stuff.

Figure out the rest.

Right?

Here's, here's the easy example problem on the board in the Bible, and then you

go figure it out the rest on your own.

Jesus, I'm with you always.

Every day.

That's what that word means.

It means all the days always.

He's there to help you follow him.

He's there to help you work through all the problems, all the difficulties

that come with being a disciple.

He's not like, oh, well, sorry, you're on your own, right?

Oh, you're scared to share the gospel with that person.

Sucks to be you.

Jesus doesn't say that like, oh man, your situation at home is really hard.

Well come back next week for the lecture on how to do stuff at home.

Like, no, Jesus is with you in that situation.

He's with you in your difficulties, in your trials, in your doubt.

Jesus is there.

He's there to help you follow him.

He's not distant, far off waiting for you to be better before he helps you.

He's with you to help you.

Jesus is involved in your discipleship and.

Something you may not have ever thought about, but Jesus cares more about your

relationship with him than you do.

Have you ever thought about that before?

Jesus cares more about you than you care about you.

Jesus loves you more than you love you.

Isn't that crazy?

Jesus loves you.

Jesus wants what's best for you more than you want.

What's best for you?

See, we sin and we do things that aren't good for us because

we think we want them right?

And then Jesus in his love and in his wisdom says, you know what?

That's not gonna be good for you.

I don't want you to do that.

So Jesus cares more about you than you care about you.

And so that frees you to trust him.

Say, you know what?

I don't just trust that Jesus, you have all authority.

I trust that you love me and you want my best for me, and you care about me.

So if you're having trouble following Jesus, you can always say, you know what?

I can trust Jesus.

'cause he loves me.

He's with me.

He promised to be with me.

He promised to help me.

He didn't just gimme a bunch of things to do and say, all right,

come back when you're done.

He said, no, I'll go with you.

I'll go help you do the things that I'm calling you to do so you can

always trust him that his way is best.

You can always trust him to equip you and empower you with whatever

situation you're in, right?

Whatever difficulty you're faced, whatever trial you're faced, whatever

emotions you're working through, whatever circumstances that aren't going your way,

you can trust that Jesus is with you.

As you follow him, he gives you everything you need to follow him

in that situation, because he gives you himself, he says, I'm with you.

So discipleship is living all in for king Jesus with his help.

It's a, it's a lot of work.

It's a whole life commitment.

It's a lifelong pursuit of closeness with Jesus and making more disciples for Jesus.

But he's the king with all authority.

He's in control of everything.

So he has every right to ask you to do things, but also, you know,

he has all the power to help you, and he promises to be with you.

He promises to help you follow him.

So let's pray and we'll talk about that more in small groups.

God, thank you that you don't want us to be on our own, that

you promise to be with us.

I know it's hard to believe that sometimes we can't see you, we can't touch you.

I pray that right now you help us to be comforted by the fact that you are with

us, that you never don't do anything.

You say.

You always keep your promises, you, you're reliable, and I pray that you comfort

us by the fact that you're with us.

And I pray for students here who aren't disciples who haven't followed you, that

they would do that even tonight, but they would say, I'm, I'm done living

for myself and chasing things that are bad for me, and I want to trust you.

So I pray that you help 'em to do that.

Um, I pray that they would trust you to take away their sin and trust you, um,

to take them, um, on a, a, a journey to endless joy with you forever.

Help us to be focused in small groups.

Help us to be respectful and kind to each other.

Help us to be honest and help us to leave here loving you more than when we came.

We pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.