Matthew 28:16-20 – Mission

Hey everybody, and uh welcome back online.

Uh welcome back to uh I guess hookie cookie church.

Uh we're we're in and we're out, we're in and we're out, and uh we are back online for uh for the next uh three weeks, and though we are still able to uh to gather around the word, we're still able to encourage one another, though we are at a distance, and uh so there is still much to uh to give thanks to God for.

Um if you have a uh a Bible uh handy uh or on your phone, you could turn with me to the end of Matthew's gospel.

Uh we're going to uh to read the uh the final uh verses there uh to close out our little mini-series uh on uh on mission um uh or gospel DNA looking at mission.

Somebody just whatsapped me there.

So I'm actually just gonna shut that down um before you all start to spam me because I know that you like to do that.

Um we're actually gonna be in Matthew's gospel really up until Christmas, uh, looking at the Sermon on the Mount from next week.

It's really important, I think, for us uh to be considering some of Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount because he deals with things like uh like fear, like anxiety.

We're gonna do a deep dive two weeks in a row, just thinking about anxiety and how we deal with that.

We'll be looking at things like uh anger and bitterness and lust and uh uh pridefulness and how we uh are salt and light in the world.

So I'm excited uh to uh be uh be studying that for you and then teaching that over the next little while.

Uh let me read uh from uh Matthew 28, uh reading from verse 16 through uh to 20.

Familiar verses, I'm sure, to uh to some of you at least.

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

And when they saw him, they worshipped 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.

Let's pray together.

Uh our Father, we do thank you that uh that Jesus is the one with all authority and that he sends out his followers uh to make disciples.

Father, give us great confidence in Jesus this morning, give us great confidence in the scriptures and help us uh to be a people that are on mission uh for uh the good of others and for the glory of Jesus, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

And that's our final value, right?

Uh we'll be looking at our our DNA as a church, and uh so two weeks ago we looked at gospel, last week we looked at community, and today's mission.

We're not about a very many things, but we're about those three things always, and with great conviction.

And as I mentioned, uh the other two flow out of the gospel.

When we looked last week, the gospel creates a gospel community that City Church is a uh is a church because the gospel was planted uh in people's lives, and what that grew is a community of gospel-shaped people, and we want to continue to uh to form ourselves into that gospel-shaped community, but the gospel also sends us out.

Our gospel also puts us on mission, and our church is on mission.

We have a uh a mission statement.

So we pointed a few weeks ago to our three loves uh that if we're in the building, you would see on the rule banner uh love of God, love of people, love Dublin.

Uh, and but we also have a mission as a church uh that is a way of kind of conceptualizing that great mission that we're going to be looking at here.

Uh our mission as a church, what is it?

It's to connect people to Jesus, to grow them to spiritual maturity, that they might serve the community and go to the nations.

You see how it takes in that whole sweep of uh of a Christian's life of being connected with Jesus, coming to faith in the first time.

The mission doesn't end there.

We grow and to serve and to then go, because that's Jesus' command here, is it not?

We invite at City Church people to participate in that mission.

Why?

Because God invites us to participate on his global, universal, all times, all places mission.

It is what it means to be a follower of Jesus, is to be on mission, to be a participant in that great unfolding drama that God is about, to be a part a participant rather than a spectator.

And tell me what you would rather.

Would you rather watch a uh a rom-com or read a romance novel?

Or would you rather fall in love?

Would you rather hear about people in autobiographies or interviews who are doing great things to change the world?

Or would you rather participate in making that a reality?

I think most of us would rather not be spectators in those two instances.

We'd want to participate in that thing, we'd want to fall in love.

Well, God calls us to something even richer than that, even more beautiful and more compelling than that.

He invites us not to spectate upon his mission, but to participate in it.

It's possible to come and uh to to log on or to come to church and uh to read the Bible and listen to a sermon and hear about the gospel story, but you have misunderstood it if you do not see uh the invitation that there is to follow, to participate, to become part of the mission, to join God in the renewal of all things, to join God on his mission of building the kingdom of the Son whom he loves.

And so we invite you to participate in that because Jesus does.

CD Church is a makeup of people from all over the world, different ages, different stages.

It's a it's a merging of individual stories, but all around the big story of God's work in the world.

It's a it's the convergence of all of those stories wrapping around the steel thread of the gospel, and that gospel then together sends us out on mission.

And so, on this in this passage, we're going to uh to ask some questions of it, as is our normal practice.

We're going to ask, well, who is it that invites us on mission?

What is this mission?

How are disciples made?

And then what encouragement does Jesus leave us with?

And really it's formed around the uh four times all is mentioned in this passage, and we're going to draw those out.

But the first question that we're asking is who invites us on mission?

Who is the one who is sending us out?

Well, uh, we read from verse 16 now the 11 disciples.

Why is there 11?

Uh well, because at this point uh we're just post the resurrection of Jesus, and uh Judas, who betrayed him, has ended his own life.

And so the eleven disciples go to Galilee to the mountain, 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.

That is the first all.

Who invites us on mission?

The one who has all authority.

You see, the path uh to the cross was also the road to Jesus' enthronement.

The way of the cross, the way to Good Friday and the crucifixion was the way that that Jesus would be would be lifted up and he would be enthroned as God's appointed king.

That he would be that one who was given all authority.

His resurrection is the confirmation of that.

His resurrection, the fact that he is alive now, it's the confirmation, the yes and the amen, that he is the promised king of Sam II.

Read Sam II with Jesus in mind, where God says, Behold, I have set my king on Zion, my holy kill.

And that king is the son whom he loves.

Or the resurrection is the confirmation, the yes and the amen, that Jesus is the promised one of Daniel's vision in Daniel chapter seven.

Again, read Daniel chapter seven with Jesus in mind.

He is the one who comes to God, he's described in that passage as the ancient of days, and he receives an eternal kingdom, a kingdom that will have no end.

That is our risen Jesus.

He died for sin and has triumphed in his resurrection over sin and death and guilt and condemnation.

He has all authority.

Why do we need to hear that right now?

Well, because he has all authority over all circumstances.

As has already been mentioned, this is not caught God by surprise.

Jesus has all authority over the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

He has all authority over COVID-19, over this lockdown, over the timescales of when vaccines will be ready, and when lockdowns will lift, and whatever the normal of normal life will look like.

He has authority over us, over our needs.

He knows them over our anxieties and our fears.

And that is such a good thing.

Because you see, the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth, that is everywhere, right?

The one who has all authority is the one who gave himself for you because he loves you.

That's the kind of authority that you can lean into and rest in.

It's the kind of authority that you can trust.

It's the kind of authority that isn't going to abuse its power.

It's kind of the it's the kind of authority that's going to operate with your best interest at heart.

It's the kind of authority that can give you confidence to go out on mission.

Because one of the things that Jesus having all authority means is that your mission to the world, your mission to share Jesus with others, it will succeed.

It will succeed.

That's what it means for Jesus to have all authority.

That as we go out on mission, our mission won't be a failure.

People will actually become Christians according to God's pleasure and His and His mercy.

Because He is the one who has all authority.

That's such good news.

It's such good news that people's eternal destinies aren't based on us and on our uh faltering words and our stumbling, fumbling answers.

You know, we get we just get uh you're ripped up and down in debates and discussions, and we feel like utter failures.

What's such good news that Jesus is the one who has all authority?

That Jesus will will see people come to know him, and we join him in that, but it's not based on our efforts, it's based on him who has all authority.

That's the story that you join.

That's the story that God invites you to be a participant in, not just a spectator.

See, when we talk about connecting people to Jesus, this is the Jesus that we're pointing people to, the one who has all authority.

This is the person that that you, as you go out on mission, are invited to stand alongside.

You are invited to participate with the risen, victorious, authoritative Lord Jesus Christ.

And what's the response of the disciples?

Well, it's a very interesting response there in verse 17.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.

Worship is the is the appropriate response, isn't it?

Our going out on mission is a uh a worship response to the call of Jesus, to be confronted with the risen Lord Jesus.

Worship is the only appropriate response to bow down and to recognize our creaturliness, our need of him, to recognize that that he is God and we are not.

Isn't that such a comfort and encouragement?

All that the disciples had witnessed, all that the disciples had experienced and had taught all of the miracles that they have seen, to say nothing of the fact that they'd seen their friend crucified not so long ago, and now he's standing alive before them.

All that they had had been through with Jesus, and yet still some had questions, still some wrestled and had doubts.

What patience and compassion that Jesus doesn't dismiss those ones, right?

You, you, and you, you're out because of your doubts.

You don't get to join me on mission.

He doesn't divide out the cry between the worshippers and the and the ones who have questions and doubts.

He talks to them all and says, with your questions and your doubts, take what you are confident in, take what you do know about me, and go and share that.

And we'll work out the doubts and questions as you go.

That's such an encouragement, that's such a good thing.

You who doubt, you who have questions, who are watching this now, we invite you to participate in the life of City Church, to participate in the community of City Church and to ask your questions, to join us on mission, because one of the things about our mission statement is that there's the connect to Jesus and then grow to spiritual maturity.

People who are connected to Jesus still need to learn stuff, they're not yet grown, they're not yet spiritually mature.

And so, of course, there's going to be questions, of course, there's going to be wrestles and doubts and things that that you struggle with and things that just don't sit right with you right now.

The the thing to do with those is not to is not to wallow in them, is not to make take them as a label to yourself, but to, as Tim Keller says, to doubt your doubts and to seek answers and have the humility to have your answers answered or your questions answered by the scriptures and to sit onto them, even if they aren't the answers that you would prefer.

That's what it means to grow.

But the invitation from the authority of Jesus to you who doubt is to participate in the life of the local church and to participate on mission for his glory.

That is who invites you on mission, the one who will see it done, the one who has all authority on heaven and earth.

And what is this mission?

Well, we read on verse 19 go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

That's our second law.

What is the mission?

It's to go.

Don't keep the good news to yourself, don't huddle together in your uh in your in your hook in your holy cloisters, your holy huddles.

The church is not a museum to preserve the gospel, it is an outpost of heaven on the borders of hell.

And we are called to go and to be that.

Why can we go?

Because Jesus has all authority.

Where do we go?

Well, that's our second law.

We go to all nations, the one who has all authority tells us to go to all nations.

Now, mercifully, it's a hard thing to do when you're locked down and you can't travel, and the green list gets shorter and shorter uh with every passing day.

But in our world and in Dublin, with the technology that we have, the nations have come to us.

Scores of nations have passed through the doors of City Church.

And what are we to do?

We are to make disciples.

This is the essence of what it means to participate in the great story, the great mission that Jesus invites you into.

To make disciples, to point others to the Jesus who loved them and gave himself for them.

That they may have.

That is what it is to make disciples.

All Christians are disciple makers.

All Christians are on mission, on this mission.

You know, it kind of kind of gets unhelpfully uh kind of parceled out in our brain that you've got the Christians who uh the Christians who are sitting there on a Sunday morning, and then you've got the uh the pastor who's the uh who's the paid professional and the other church staff, and uh then you have uh the missionaries, so the people who uh kind of pop up in the in the prayer slot of the church, and we pray for our missionaries, uh you know such and such a person in their family, and uh you know, Mr.

and Mrs.

Jones or whoever it is.

You may not have even uh ever met them, you've no idea what it is that they're doing day after day, what it is that you're uh that your giving money goes to when you give it to uh to the local church.

But those are the missionaries, those are the people who are doing mission.

That's wrong.

Yes, they are doing mission, but they're doing mission because everybody, every Christian who is a follower of Jesus, trusting in him, is on mission.

Every Christian is charged with the imperative to make disciples, to go therefore.

And just to geek out for a moment, that go therefore, uh, the the verb is in the is in the continuous one.

So it's basically as you are going, as you're going therefore, make disciples of all nations.

And why I mention that is because mission isn't an extra thing to your life.

It's not an event that some churches you know do once a year.

You know, we're gonna have our we're gonna have our mission week.

Or you can think, oh well, you know, I've got to do my my my mission, I've got to make sure that I'm ticking the box of sharing the gospel with my my non-Christian friends.

No, the the go, therefore, the as you are going, what it points us to is as you're going through the day-to-day rhythms of your life, you do so with a missionary mindset, with a different way of thinking.

It's as you go, how can I how can I point people to Jesus?

How can I commend the gospel to people?

How can people see the love of God in my life?

How can they see the the integrity of being a follower of Jesus?

The hope in the midst of trial and suffering that that gives me as a follower of Jesus.

How can I speak to him uh of him to the regular people that I meet?

I don't need to go door knocking, not against door knocking, but I don't need to go.

Sorry, I got struck down uh by uh by speaking against door knocking.

Um, but I don't need to do that.

It's who are the who are the non-Christians that I'm regularly in contact with?

Who's the guy who serves me coffee every morning?

Who's the guy who uh or girl who cuts my hair?

Uh can I have the same person?

Can I go to the same breast at the same time?

Can I get to know that person?

Who are the people who are living next door to me?

It's about doing mission with a missionary mindset in the regular rhythms of life.

That is our mission.

We are called by the one who has all authority to go, to go to all nations, all types of people.

We don't hold the gospel back from anybody.

So often I'm guilty of thinking um something like, and I'm sure you've thought it too, they would never become a Christian.

There's no point sharing it without like they like they just wouldn't be interested, like they'd never become a Christian.

I feel like I need to uh repent of that thinking because the one who has all authority will well, he has all authority to soften even the hardest heart, doesn't he?

You hear those testimonies all the time.

People so far from God, and who are softened and redeemed by the glorious love of God.

How are disciples made?

That's our third question.

So it's who sends us on mission?

What is this mission?

And how does Jesus say disciples are are made?

Well, this is our third all uh verse 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

What this requires of us in terms of our own convictions is a subtle conviction in our own life that we have something more saying and something more sharing.

You think of all that is going on at the minute with the lockdowns and the uncertainty and the fear that there is and the unknowns?

We have the words of eternal life.

People might not die of COVID-19, but everybody will face death.

And we have the words of eternal life.

Do you believe that?

Do you believe that we have the only hope for our hopeless world?

Put it another way.

Christians, as missionaries, as disciple makers of Jesus, are in our world essential workers always.

That's what the first sermon was.

We want to know the gospel, we want to live gospel-shaped lives.

That was the second sermon in the sermon series.

But we want to be able to tell the gospel, to share it in ways that are insightful.

It means getting to know our non-Christian friends, to know what it is that they they value, and so speak uh with uh with wisdom as well as grace into their lives.

How do we how do we teach one?

How do we teach one another?

How do we teach people at City Church?

Well, we do it here on Sundays, we do it midweek.

We're going to be doing it now on uh on Fridays through our devotional material that we're uh that we're putting out.

We do it in the songs that we sing, we do it informally as we as we gossip the gospel together, as we meet in community groups or as little prayer times uh uh spring up.

We are we are teaching one another in our prayers.

Have you ever thought about that?

That's such an important thing that your prayers teach others how to pray.

Your prayers teach others about God, how it is that you are to approach him, the kind of priorities that he has.

It's not to freak you all out about your prayers, but it just means that everything is uh is teaching and communicating uh what we believe about God.

So, can I encourage you then to consider those non-Christians and whose lives you are on a regular basis to pray for them over a course of months, maybe even years.

And as you go through your life to consider how it is that you can live in a way that is distinctive, that sultan-like thing that we're going to be looking at.

Uh Tim Keller talks about this idea of being reassuringly similar but intriguingly different.

How can you be reassuringly similar as a Christian, but also intriguingly different?

Different outlook, a different perspective, a different hope.

So we are to go sent by this one who has all authority to teach all of the things that Jesus has commanded.

And that means it means confidence in this, means knowing it, resting on it, being able to communicate it however falteringly.

Or even just sitting down with somebody and saying, Look, I'm not really, I'm not really any further on than you are.

Let's read it together and let the word do the work.

Get get your noses in the Bibles with what with other with non-Christians.

And then finally, Jesus leaves us with a word of comfort.

What comfort does he give us?

Jesus says to his disciples, and by extension to us, at the end of verse 20, and behold, I am with you always.

To the end of the age.

Uh that doesn't quite fit, but that's our fourth law.

He's with us always.

It would be a mistake to think that the one uh who has authority is somehow that that's just simply command, that it's somehow cold and removed.

No, the one who has supreme authority is with us always.

Supreme authority, but what awesome comfort with it he was with us always.

Is Jesus with you in your best day?

Yes, he is.

When you need him most, and you cannot bear to turn to him.

Yes, he is.

Is Jesus with you in those days when you have forgotten all about him?

Yes, he is.

Yes, he is.

He says that I am bound.

I, Paul, I'm here in prison, but the word of God is not bound.

City church, your mission hasn't stopped.

It's just moved to a different part of the battlefield.

Your mission hasn't stopped because the gospel is still free.

What's that Jesus says to Nicodemus?

The wind blows where it wishes.

You might see its effects, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going.

And so it is with the Spirit of God.

Our mission continues.

We just do it with greater creativity.

We just think more about how we do it.

We utilize technology to do it.

Yes, it might mean you know, spending more time uh in front of a screen like this, it might mean making more time to jump on a Zoom call with a non-Christian friend after a day of Zoom calls.

But when the one who has all loving authority sends you out to do that and says, I'm gonna be with you, and you know what?

Because of that, some people are gonna become Christians.

Won't you do that?

Wouldn't you schedule that call if Jesus like set up that call and I'm going to call that dead person back to life?

Wouldn't you schedule it?

Or would you look at Jesus and go, man, another Zoom call?

Really?

Can't he become a Christian next week?

Can't she become a Christian next month when we're out of lockdown?

Of course, you wouldn't do that.

Your mission hasn't stopped, City Church.

It's just taking a new form, just needs to be executed with a little bit more thought, that's all.

The gospel isn't bound.

So do not lose heart.

So as you consider your mission in lockdown, it starts with prayer.

I know I've talked about it already, but it really doesn't.

Who are you going to pray for regularly?

Get out the notes app on your phone, or get a pen and piece of paper, and write down who am I going to pray for regularly who doesn't yet know Jesus?

Or who am I going to get to know?

Do you know the names of your neighbors?

Is there a way that you can find them out?

And can you pray for them?

Who are you going to check in with on a regular basis?

Send a WhatsApp text to both non-Christian and in terms of you know, this is where the lines kind of bleed from our sermon uh last week.

But in our community, as we grow together, who are you going to check in with this week?

Who are you going to set up a uh uh you know WhatsApp call with this week?

I've loved hearing how in this last week after the community sermon, there have been little uh little flurries of people kind of popping out and saying, Okay, well, why don't we get together for 20 minutes uh a week or half an hour a week and we're gonna pray together?

Why don't you do that?

Why don't you pray with your brothers and sisters in city church and pray specifically for one non-Christian friend, each of you say, would you pray for Jane, James, who anybody beginning with Jay or others and see what God does, see what God does in their lives and see what God does in your heart, your heart permission.

That is what we're invited to.

That is what we're invited to participate in.

Couple of final practical ways.

I had five right here at the end, but I've already just mentioned a couple of them.

Let me do the all five so that I don't forget and I'll just not expand on the ones that I've already mentioned.

So five ways to do mission and lockdown.

Okay, here's the here's the the top five.

Reach out to a non-Christian friend.

How are you doing?

How can I pray for you?

Meet your neighbors, that's two.

You at the start of at the start of lockdown, there was uh there was those little there's those little cards that you could put through people's letter boxes, particularly if you live near somebody who was uh who was elderly and you knew that they were shielding.

Uh, you can probably find them online or we can we can post them in the WhatsApp group or online.

Those little cards of do you my name is and my number is do you need anything from you know Tesco's or anything like that?

And can I deliver that over to you?

That sort of thing.

Can you meet your neighbors?

What about starting a group online?

A group online uh of you uh going through something like Mark's Gospel together or Christianity explored together or the gospel of John together.

There could be a couple of Christians from from church, and you can actually invite your non-Christian friends and say, Look, what we're gonna do this, we're gonna look at the claims of uh of Jesus.

We could use Uncover John if you're if you're a student, we could grab those resources.

Like we will help you get those resources if you need them.

We will help you uh lead those times, we will give you training in that if that's something that you want to do.

So don't think, oh, this is something I could never do.

Come and ask for help.

What about hosting a watch party on Sundays?

Next Sunday when we jump on brand new sermon series in the Sermon on the Mount, looking at Jesus' words, one of the most eloquent utterances ever uttered in all of humanity.

Would you host a watch party on your Facebook feed?

Who knows who might tune in?

Or fifth and finally, why don't you record your testimony?

What's your testimony?

Your testimony is the story of what Jesus has done in your life.

Why don't you record it?

Get a trusted friend to hold it, hold the phone or whatever if you want, or record it yourself.

It only has to be a couple of minutes long and upload it and see what God does with it.

Those are some ways that perhaps we can think creatively about our mission, but it doesn't end, and it will continue whether or not we are locked down or set free or or whatever happens.

But this is what we are called to do.

We're called to do it for the good of Dublin, for the good of those who we love, and for the glory of the Jesus who has all authority and who will see his kingdom build.

Let's pray.

Impress upon us those in our lives who we ought to go to.

May it start with prayer.

Help us to bow the knee in worship before the Jesus who has all authority and ask that he would have mercy on those whom we love.

May our speech and our actions be pleasing and commending of the gospel that has redeemed us.

Father, by your good pleasure, save those who do not yet know you, whom we love, whom we work with, whom we study with.

Help us to be a people who are on mission, even in these strange times, though it's hard, and give us grace to persevere.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen, everyone.

See you soon.