Final Charge | Matthew 28:18 - 20 (May 29) Mike Armstrong

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Amen, Lord.

We do exist to praise your name, Lord, now and forevermore.

And so, God, as we have just sung and as we uh get into your word, and as we will sing some more, Lord, I pray that that would in fact be the case today, that our lives now and forevermore would exist to glorify you.

The name that is above all name, the name of Jesus Christ.

And so, Father, uh, we pray that you would help us in this, Lord, as our hearts stray, our hearts wander, we get off mission, off task, all of those things.

Uh, Lord, so I pray that today would be a great reminder of your goodness to us, Lord, a great reminder of the mission that we have in front of us as a church.

And so, God, I pray uh that in all things uh you would be honored, Lord.

We also thank you for the opportunity that we have today, and and really at any point to to give, Lord.

As we uh have an offering this morning, I pray, Lord, that um uh that it would be just an extension of what we've just done, Lord.

It's worship and praise to you, Lord, that everything that we have is ultimately yours, and thank you for your uh provision to our church and in our lives, Lord.

You are so, so good.

And so, God, as we go um into your word now, I pray that you would instruct us, you would teach us, and we pray all of these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Hey, well, good morning, and uh welcome, Redemption Church.

It is great to have you all here.

Uh, and those of you watching online at home, we're glad to have you uh with us as well.

And uh just a couple of things before we get into the scriptures here, as usual.

We've got these connection cards, and uh, they're not cards at all.

They're actually uh you see the little scanner thing on the back of the seat in front of you.

If you would take your phone and uh pull the camera out, take a picture of that, it pops you up to a menu, and uh there's a lot of things that you can do there.

Uh but one of the things is connect, and in that connect part there is a is a place for you to jot down a prayer request.

You can let us know who you are and give us your your information, your email, that kind of stuff.

But we would really love to have a prayer request from you so that we can be praying uh for you this week.

Please uh do that.

That would be so great.

Um I mentioned that uh in the prayer that we are having an offering today.

Well, that is just really at any point.

We do have a box at the back here that you can put a physical offering in.

If you like to give online, uh you can do all of that.

Uh, but also just a reminder or mention that we are gonna have offering in person coming uh very shortly in the next uh in the next in the coming weeks, anyways, and uh so just giving you a heads up about that.

And then of course we have this family overflow section, uh, which is out this room and immediately to the left.

And so uh if you have kids and they're rambuggious and they're active, we love our kids for sure.

Uh but if you sense it's becoming a bit much, you can always move them in there.

We've got a TV with the service, you can see everything, and uh, and have a great time uh in there and uh and and still be able to worship uh the Lord.

Alright, well let's get into uh the scriptures this morning, Matthew chapter uh 28.

And uh I'm not gonna lie, it was a little bit overwhelming uh to really think about man, what is the last passage that I am going to preach, get to preach, uh, as the pastor of redemption on my very last Sunday.

I mean, obviously I can go in a million different directions with that, it seems like, but uh thankfully it became clear fairly early that it would have to be Matthew chapter 28, right?

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

And the Great Commission, which is of course where we find Jesus' final charge to his disciples as he concluded his earthly ministry uh to them.

Now that is the you know the name of our series, uh our closing series.

Uh, and with all of that being said, I'm not trying to create any you know dramatic comparisons, you know, of me to Jesus here, right?

This is Jesus' final words, and these are my final words to you.

I'm not like ascending to anywhere or anybody after the service, like descending to my couch for a nap, maybe.

Uh, but that's about uh that's about it.

No, I've just been thinking about how uh there's there's maybe no better way uh to wrap up our time together than by re-emphasizing what God's overarching mission is for us as a church.

Okay, so that we're reminded uh once more, as we need that, right?

We need the reminder of the kind of church that we want to be, right?

The kind of people that we are to be, so that we're so that we're focused, right?

So that we are we are on task.

We're not you know kind of wandering off into other things.

There's a million things we could give our lives to.

Uh we want to be on task, though, and of course we want to be faithful.

We want to be a faithful church, we want to be faithful to what Christ has called us to.

And so I'm gonna read this now.

And I know we've lost we've looked at uh this passage uh numerous times in my time here, but interestingly enough, I've never actually just preached these three verses, and so uh allow me to read it.

Hopefully you're there now, but uh this is Matthew 28, uh, eighteen uh to twenty.

Here's what it says says and Jesus came and said to them, his disciples, he says, 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 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.

Well, I've already prayed, so let's just keep going here.

This is, of course, this passage that we're looking at.

It really is the main passage from which we get our church's uh mission statement.

So let's get this, yeah.

Okay, we're good.

We already got it thrown up on the screen.

Here's what it says, right?

We exist.

You have this memorized yet?

Right?

We should, right?

We exist to glorify God, how?

Right, through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the great commandment.

Okay, now the first part there, we exist to glorify God.

That's like our overarching reason.

We have been put on planet earth to bring glory to God.

That's what we've been trying to do.

You know, that's what we sang, that's what we were all about.

We're praying that.

That's that's why we exist.

Well, how do we want to do that?

We want to do that through the fulfillment of the great commission.

Okay, that's really where our passage is today.

And then the second part there is in the spirit of the great uh commandment.

That comes to us from, you know where it is?

Matthew 22.

Matthew 22 there, Jesus uh tells us that we are to love him and love people.

Right?

And so that's the spirit, that's the heart behind us fulfilling the Great Uh Commission.

Okay, now, this tells us a couple of things.

It tells us, first of all, what we're to do.

Okay, pretty clear we're to we're to fulfill the Great Commission.

Okay, and it even tells us, it even tells us how we're to do it.

We're to do that in the spirit of the Great Commandments.

But maybe what we don't see here explicitly, anyways, is the why.

Like, why, why do we do this?

Why, why you know should you and I commit ourselves to this mission?

Right?

What this is this charge.

You know, why should you and I put ourselves time and time again through the arduous work of surrendering self?

Our will, our personal agendas, our our flesh.

Why should we persevere through all the disappointments and the difficulties and the frustrations, the roadblocks that threaten our effectiveness and our faithfulness?

Why should we do all of this?

Well, the answer actually comes earlier in this very chapter in Matthew 28, and we looked at this actually kind of recently on Easter Sunday, and how it was the it was the supernatural resurrection of Jesus Christ that compelled his disciples to fulfill the Great Commission.

There's the resurrection.

The resurrection was driving it, it led them to leave their fears, their small-minded and self-serving plans behind.

It was Jesus' victory over sin and over death.

Okay, that captured their hearts, it captured their minds, that catapulted them towards this zealous, you know, stop at nothing determination to fulfill his command no matter what.

And we we talk about the gospel a lot around here because really it's the fuel, right?

It's the fuel that keeps the fire of the furnace hot as we carry out Christ's charge to us here.

If who Jesus is and what he's done for you isn't burning within you, right?

If you're not stoking that, then what tends to happen?

We've all dealt with this.

We we inevitably grow cold, don't we?

We grow cold to hand, we we find ourselves distracted into all other different avenues and things in life, and and honestly, if if we don't keep that fire stoked and burning, we end up we end up wasting the life that God's given us.

We really do.

And so specifically, you might be wondering, okay, I'm I'm kind of seeing some, you know, some kind of overarching ideas here, but how specifically or what specifically is Christ's charge to us?

Well, let's get to it here.

Let's put some meat on these bones.

I got four things for you today.

Uh, here's the first one.

Christ's charge to me uh is to recognize the authority behind it.

I think that's where we really start here.

Uh in verse 18, we really see that.

Look at this.

It says, And Jesus came and said to them, Um, a little bit of authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

No, he doesn't.

He doesn't at all.

Well, he says, All authority, right?

All authority uh in heaven and on earth, that's everywhere, has has been given to me.

Okay, now now keep in mind, we didn't read it this morning, but keep in mind that the the previous two verses, so that's verses 16 and 17, right before this verse here, his disciples had just gathered with Jesus.

He just gathered them together uh before he ascends to his father.

And uh you remember there that they had a kind of a mixed reaction to him, didn't they?

This mixed response.

You know, there were some, it says, worshiped him, but some doubted.

Okay, so some were were blown away.

You know, that the the murdered rabbi that they had just been following for the last three years was actually standing in front of them again.

Right?

He'd risen from the grave.

They were blown away by this, they were they were realizing to some degree, anyways, that this was God and they worshiped him.

Whereas others, again, in the same group of eleven, they were they were still kind of trying to comprehend what had just happened.

It hadn't really sunk in yet, and and they were doubting and they're kind of wondering, who is this guy?

Like, how am I supposed to understand what I'm seeing in front of me?

And I think their responses here, that the mixed responses, are they really just mirror our own.

Right?

Some hear the gospel and and are struck by who Christ is and and what he's done for them.

They get saved and they worship.

Right?

That's that's many of us here uh today.

We could you know committing our lives to following him, to glorifying him.

You know, others see or they hear, they they come to church, someone's ministered the gospel to them, all of that, and yet they still have doubts.

You know, the objections remain, yeah, but right now, in reality, though, I think it's also fair to say that all of us, even as believers, we have we have this this mix, this mixture of these responses surging through our souls kind of on any given day.

Certain moments where, again, even as Christians, it's it's worship.

Right?

Like to hear you sing just now was like it was hard to keep the tears inside, right, for me.

Like it was awesome to hear you worshiping and singing.

It was awe, it was passion, like that was awesome.

And then there are other moments, though, again, if we're honest, right?

That it's kind of doubt.

Like, ah, I don't know about this.

You know, there's fear, there's outright rebellion.

Okay, let's be honest about that.

You know, as people living in a fallen world, our experiences and or our response to Jesus, it can kind of be all over the place, can't it?

But notice again how he responds to these very mixed reactions.

He reassures them.

He reinforces for them that what he's about to charge them with, right?

It comes with a full weight of authority behind it.

Right?

It's been given to him by the Father.

What he's about to communicate to them, we're gonna get to it, don't worry.

It's by no means just kind of some casual conversation, like, hey, hey, we're all gathered here, like a bunch of throwaway statements or comments.

No, that's not it.

No, that what he's about to say is from the very mouth of God himself.

Right?

His charge to them, his final words is backed by the complete authority of the Godhead, of whom Jesus is very much a part, of course.

It's nothing short of critical that you and I recognize this before just moving on to what he says next about you know making disciples and all of that.

Again, we're gonna get to it.

But I think it's very easy to do that.

We kind of glaze over the, you know, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

We can kind of glaze over that very uh quickly.

Right?

Again, it comes packed with authority.

Meaning his words, his mission that he's doling out here, that he's given it, it's to be taken seriously by us.

Okay, so the question then is, for you, are you taking him seriously?

Do you read these words and are they having an impact and driving you?

Okay, it's easy for us to give an answer to that question with our lips, but but the true answer to that question is revealed in how you live your life.

Right?

So, so what then, if you could think, you know, about your life in general, what does your life reveal?

Does it reveal that you treat Christ's charge here merely as a suggestion?

You know, like thanks for the advice, Lord.

Appreciate the, you know, little tips here in Matthew 28.

I'll try and cram the Great Commission kind of somewhere in and among the different priorities that I have made my life uh all about.

Okay, is that kind of how you do that?

Perhaps your life reveals that you're ignoring the charge altogether.

And it's just it matters nothing to you, and you're not all about it.

Okay, or or does your life reflect someone who's I'm taking this seriously.

This matters.

You know that his words matter.

You you recognize it, you you feel like the weight of the authority behind this charge that Christ gives us.

And while you know, not perfectly, of course, you know, you're you're surrendered to him.

And you're like, I've I've got to get after this, and I'm gonna allow him to use me to propel this mission forward.

You you recognize and you know, and you're learning that that kind of everything else in life, whether it be our marriage or or our kids or our jobs or all the fun things we do, the dreams, the hopes, the desires, all of it, all of them are really you know spokes that kind of offshoot from the hub of you know this charge, right?

To fulfill the Great Commission.

My parenting, you know, who I'm married to, what I do, all of that should be informed by this charge to fulfill Christ's mission.

All right, let's keep going here.

Second thing.

Christ's charge to me is to embrace the urgency to get going.

Okay, that's number two for sure.

Take a look at verse 18.

Again, we're just gonna kind of read through this whole thing as we go again.

It says, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Then verse 19, go therefore.

Okay, go therefore is what it says.

Now, it may seem kind of obvious to state this, okay, but the Great Commission is undoubtedly an action to be undertaken.

Okay, now you're thinking, yeah, thanks for that.

That's again as obvious as it gets.

But think about this.

We're not supposed to just kind of sit around kind of twiddling our thumbs and really doing nothing and and not going anywhere.

Okay, and neither are we to simply wax eloquently about the various details about what Jesus said and how he said it and what the mission is.

You know, it's important to understand doctrine and theology and to talk about all of that for sure, but but it's it's not about just doing that only.

No, with the full authority of Christ behind us, we're told to get going.

Right?

Or get on with it already.

Okay, and kind of interesting here how, in the order of this sentence, we're told to go before even being told where we're going, right?

Or or what or what we're doing.

Now, that's not to suggest that Jesus is like kind of all willy-nilly saying, you know, just go, guys.

Like, well, I guess we'll kind of piece together the plan as we go and hopefully figure it out, as though this plan is somehow half vaked.

No, not at all.

Okay, he's simply communicating that there's uh there's an urgency to this.

And so the the charge to us is to embrace that urgency, right?

Sense that, feel that.

I mean, the the fields are white, right?

That they're they're ripe, it says, with you know, for harvest.

That's what Jesus tells us in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

Meaning there's there's much to be done in proclaiming, right?

Proclaiming the gospel to a world dead in their sin and absolutely desperate need of salvation found in Christ alone.

Right?

They're desperate for.

We're not to just be like sitting on our hands, right, or or making excuses or or or doing something else with our lives that we think is more important or whatever.

No.

No, we're to we're we're to get going.

And so the question again for you is is do you sense that urgency yourself?

Do you have that kind of that that burning in you?

And maybe you do, right?

And and you feel it kind of in this mixture of desire to honor the Lord and to do his will.

You you feel this conviction about it.

No, I have to go for this.

I have to say no to other things so that I can commit my life to the mission of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps for you, there's this dissatisfaction within you as well.

Right?

Uh with being inactive.

I don't want to waste my life.

Maybe for you, you've got all kinds of ideas.

You're an ideas person.

I got ideas of how I could do this.

You're creative and I want to do this for the Lord.

Listen, I'm I'm gonna level with you here a little bit.

You know, we've talked as elders and and staff, and you know, I've definitely sensed it.

Um, that the pandemic uh just about killed the church's uh sense of urgency.

Right?

I think it really did.

And uh I'm gonna try and not gronk spike this mic into the ground if you uh haven't already sensed that.

I don't know, this thing's going crazy on me, but but again, I think I've really seen that.

Like the urgency in the church to carry forth the mission.

It's the the pandemic took a hit at this.

I mean, for for like two plus years.

You know, it's just in this constant narrative, that this fear kind of position that we've been in of like, stay safe.

All right, health above all else.

Stay home, stay away from people.

You know, hit the pause button on your entire life.

The mission of the church, even.

Listen, I say it because we've all been hurt by it.

We all have, whether we realize it or not.

And here's what's kind of happening, I think, in our church as we recover and kind of come out of this a bit and get this sense of normalcy again in life.

I think we've seen people come back again, which has been so great, and and they're kind of dipping their toes in the waters of church life.

But but what we've noticed, especially kind of as it was all happening, is it was in the form of attending.

Right?

Where we're we're here, we're we're attending church, but but like the urgency to like grab a hammer and start swinging it and start building something and get the Great Commission going and all of that, that that's been a little bit slower to catch up, to be perfectly uh honest.

It's kind of like it's you know, we're that part of us is still a little bit stuck in pandemic mode, I think.

You know, and you might be like, really, man?

Like are you are you sure about that?

Well, I'll just say this we've never had a harder time uh finding people to serve, right?

Which is, you know, it's such a key way that we go there for, right?

As Jesus says, this is how we carry out the mission and go.

We we serve, right?

That's one part of it, a big part of it.

And I think there's still, and I don't think this is just the case for you know our church, and I think it's the case for Christians everywhere, it's kind of this spiritual sleepiness that's settled in set in.

Right?

That we need to be roused from a little bit.

We need like the paddle, just we need to be shocked a bit here.

Now, all of that being said, I don't want you to be too discouraged about all this.

I mean, I've had some just amazing conversations with some of you, I would say, like in the last month alone, you know, where it's it's like you're kind of waking up.

It's like it's like things are starting to rouse within you again, and you're like, man, I need to get going with all this.

Like we've been kind of sitting around, kind of detached a bit, you know, from life, from the church.

I need to be more committed.

Right?

People praying like when I get my priorities sorted out for myself or for my family.

There's a lot to be done here, and and there's nothing more important than Christ, right?

Than the mission, then fellowship in the church, than all of these things.

And I gotta be honest with you, it's exciting to see.

It's really Encouraging to see as well because that's God at work in you.

Don't pass that aside.

Don't feel the emotional excitement of that and just you know do nothing.

Okay, it's a great thing.

Embrace the urgency here.

There is that.

Our lives aren't forever.

In fact, they're not even long.

The scriptures describe our life as a mist, right, or a vapor.

So listen, let's go.

Let's go.

Feel the urgency here.

That's the second thing.

Third thing is this Christ's charge to me is to become a disciple-making machine.

Disciple-making machine, verse 18 again says, and Jesus came and said to them, All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and what?

Make disciples, right?

Make disciples of all nations.

Now, this is really the the heart, the engine, if you will, of these verses that we're looking at here today, the charge of Christ to you and I, that we make disciples.

Of who?

Well, everyone, right?

Everyone, all nations.

Meaning we're we're not to play, we're not to play favorites, we're not to kind of pick and choose in the various ways that we might do that.

Who we disciple?

Oh, well, not him or her because of whatever, or you know, that person I like, or that person I I don't quite connect with, so therefore I'm not going to.

No, I mean we're not gonna do that.

There's no there's no elitism, okay, and no, no racism, no discrimination.

Right?

We we we simply disciple.

We proclaim Jesus, we make disciples of whoever the Lord brings across our path.

Okay, whoever's open to hearing it.

Now, now the second part there of verse 19 and the first part of verse 20 identifies what's involved in the discipleship process.

Okay, take a look at verse 19.

It says, 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.

Okay, so for the for the language nerds, the kind of the grammar nerds, I don't know if we got anybody out there uh like that.

But those words there, baptize and in and teaching, they're they're participles, okay, that are dependent on the main verb, which is making disciples.

All right, it really just means that baptizing and teaching are two key components of discipleship.

Okay, that's what that's saying.

Now, let's start there for a second with that word baptizing.

Okay, it sometimes seemed to me over the years that oftentimes Christians think of baptism as kind of this optional or or like kind of marginally important part of what they do or what we do as a church.

You know, like how many people, you know, we've talked to you about baptism who've said, like, well, I'm not ready.

I'm just I'm just not quite ready for that yet.

Are you saved?

You're ready.

Right?

That's it.

And what do we mean by we're not ready?

We mean I'm scared to get in front of people.

That's all that means.

Like almost every time, that's what that means, right?

And so we but in that we're kind of like, mmm, it's a command, but I think I'm gonna maybe put that aside and I'm gonna do it on my terms and when I want to, which for some is like never.

Right?

You're you're an adult and you've never done this, and you need to do it.

I'm not trying to make you feel horrible about that, but I am trying to like get you going here.

Let's go, let's get baptized.

It's so, so key and it's so uh important in terms of what we do.

Right?

Baptism is one of the two ordinances that the church uh is given, right?

An ordinance is a decree or a legislation, right?

The other one being what?

I mean communion.

Okay, so so why then does Jesus command baptism?

Okay, well, I mean, you could probably a lot we could say about this, but but very generally speaking, uh it's an extremely powerful way that we proclaim the gospel, right?

When we baptize uh people, okay, very important.

When someone gets into the baptism tank, you guys have seen our tank before, it's that trough people walk up into and and all of that.

When they get into the tank, what do they do?

They share their testimony, don't they?

Which which is which is an opportunity to share the gospel.

This is what Christ has done in me.

He has rescued me from sin and death, he has forgiven me by his grace, he has transformed me, he has made me his own, he has adopted me as his son or as his daughter.

I am I am a new creation in Christ.

Okay, what a what an amazing thing.

They get to share this.

Right now, two things can happen as a result of that.

First of all, unsaved people who attend a service like that hear the gospel.

Right?

They get an opportunity to hear it and then respond themselves to getting saved.

Okay, the second thing that happens is that the church is edified, meaning that the church is instructed, the church is encouraged and taught and built up and all of that.

Okay, both of these things happen because the gospel is being brought forth into the limelight.

Right?

It's being brought center, front and center in these moments.

It's not hidden, it's not obscure, not pushed to the side.

That's the gospel, that's the church making disciples.

Baptism is a massive, massive part of that.

Now, the second word, like we said, was teaching.

Right?

Teaching them to observe or or obey all that I have commanded you.

Now that that word teaching, I think, is fairly straightforward to our minds when it comes to how that might impact our discipleship.

We need to be taught.

We need to learn, we need to understand, we need to be reminded, we need to learn to be more like Christ, to obey Him, right?

All that I have commanded you.

Again, not this picking and choosing, I'll do some and I won't do other things.

Okay, so all of this, all of this here is why at redemption, uh, one of our six key distinctives is purposeful disciple making.

Okay, purposeful disciple making.

We got this red pop-up display banner there that you walk by.

You've seen it so many times you don't even look at it anymore, right?

But right there on it, you will see that purposeful disciple making.

And the reason that that would be one of the top six things that makes up our very identity as a church is because of this passage.

Right?

The one that we're looking at.

Jesus clearly charges us to make disciples.

Okay, so if we're not all about that, then then we're definitely missing something critical.

Right?

So so here's here's a phrase then, or or a statement that I think kind of really gets at the you know the what we mean when we say that we're about purposeful disciple making.

Let's get this, let's get this thrown up on the screen.

I like this.

It says, uh, lost people saved, okay, saved people matured, matured people multiplied, all to the glory of God.

Okay, love that.

I love that phrase.

I think it's so simple, it's so clear, it's crisp, it's direct, it's all of the above.

So, question for you.

I love asking you a question, getting you to think.

Okay, where are you at?

Okay, where are you at on the spectrum of that statement?

Okay, kind of three options there.

Where are you at?

Are you, would you would you be kind of in the category of the first part there, lost?

Right?

Or are you lost?

Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior?

Or are you kind of wandering through life?

Are you trying different things to fulfill you, to bring your life meaning, to bring you hope?

Are you chasing after the world?

Do you know Christ as Savior?

Because Jesus wants to save you.

And what do we mean by that?

We mean rescue you from the punishment of your sin.

Right?

And so the gospel is God's God's statement that he loves you enough to take that punishment on himself.

And so he sent his son Jesus to come and live this perfect life that fulfilled the Old Testament law perfectly.

You and I couldn't do that.

Right?

He sent Jesus to fulfill the law perfectly for you and then die as a substitute in your place.

He took all of the wrath that was actually aimed at you and I because we've sinned against God.

We deserve punishment.

Jesus took all that, he bore all of that on the cross, punished.

He was killed, he was crucified, but then he rose again three days later, defeating sin, defeating death, satisfying the wrath of God forever.

So that if you would believe that you were in need of a savior and that his say and that that savior's name is Jesus Christ, if you would confess your sin and believe that he did what it took for you to get saved, then you would have your sins forgiven.

You would be brought into the family of God, you'd be one of God's very own children.

You'd be, again, forgiven.

You would be made new.

You'd be given purpose.

You have heaven, you have glory waiting for you for all of eternity.

You would be found, no longer lost.

Right?

Discipleship, our mission, is about lost people saved.

Is that where you're at in the spectrum?

And if that's the case for you, I would I would say this get saved today.

Put your faith in Jesus Christ, admit your sin before him.

Embrace the free gift of salvation that he offers you.

Is that where you're at?

Or are you kind of in the middle?

You're a saved person, but I still kind of need to mature.

Right?

Every hand should be up here.

I'm my hands up, right?

This is all of us.

We're definitely all in this place, right?

Where we get saved, but but I still need to grow.

Right?

I need to not be an infant in the faith.

I need to grow up into adulthood, into maturity.

And so that's kind of why we're here, right?

And that's why we're growing, and why we get into a small group and why we serve, and we were learning, we're growing, we're understanding.

Or are you in this third step here?

Matured people multiplied.

This is so, so key here.

We want to be, we don't just want to be disciples ourselves.

We want to be disciple-making disciples.

Right?

I really like that phrase.

Disciple-making disciples.

That's that's the urge, that's the call of the Great Commission.

That you and I wouldn't just be self-centered, like I gotta grow and I gotta become more wise, and I gotta become smart, and I gotta change, I gotta do all these things.

I, I, I, me, me, me.

It can be very easy to kind of be, you know, looking inward and just focused on ourselves.

But we're supposed to be discipling and ministering to other people as well.

Right?

You always see in the scriptures, you see like a Paul taking on a Timothy, right?

Somebody younger in his life who we can minister to and disciple, and you know, we're doing that in our families as well, with our with our spouses and with our kids.

Honestly, uh, we had we went to a church in New York when we used to live there, and and this church was like crushing it in this.

I and I've probably talked about it before, but it was like a small church, it was smaller than ours, and it was like all these like older guys in the church who just kind of like took this really seriously, and they all had like four or five young punks like me, right, in uh you know, under their wing that they would you know meet with once a week kind of thing and go through a book or go through a study and just ask them how life was and point them towards Jesus Christ.

Right?

It was awesome.

This is exactly what we're supposed to do as a church.

We're supposed to minister, we're supposed to be disciple-making disciples.

Are you there?

Do you need to get there?

Do you need to be on that track, on that train?

Now, another thing here for you this is how we know we as a church kind of frame this up and how we how we strive to get to all of this, okay?

And this is how we frame our discipleship pathway.

Kind of three things here.

You can throw these up on the screen now as well.

Abiding, connecting, and reaching.

Abiding, connecting, and reaching.

Abiding in Christ.

Okay, abiding in Christ is really the responsibility that you have to grow as a disciple.

Drawing close to him, cultivating a heart that longs for and loves Jesus, right?

Growing in him, you know, bringing a Bible when you come to church and recognizing the importance of diving into it and knowing it and understanding it on your own time, having those personal disciplines going.

You know, where you're worshiping and you're praying, you're studying, you're reading, all of those things.

Abiding in Christ.

It's really discipling yourself.

Right?

That's the abiding in Christ part.

The second thing is connecting, right?

Connecting in the church.

Connecting in the church is huge.

This is small groups, right?

Getting to know other people, ministering uh with and to other people.

Christ created life to be with others.

The introverts are like all like, ooh, like I don't like this.

Like I want to be on my own here.

Right?

But but but life is social, and we can't do it alone.

And so God has given us the church to sharpen each other, to encourage each other, to press each other, push each other, all of these things.

Abiding in Christ, connecting in the church, reaching the community.

Right?

Reaching the community.

This is developing a heart, a heart for reaching others.

We want to do that, you know, here and connecting with people, obviously, and meeting people and all of that kind of stuff and ministering, but but also out there beyond the walls.

Having a heart for the lost, evangelizing, all of those kinds of things.

Our discipleship pathway, abide, connect, reach.

Listen, when I use the language there of becoming a disciple-making machine, it's not to say that we're to be some kind of like cold and austere mechanical factory when it comes to making disciples.

Like, just get on the conveyor belt and it'll move and you'll be more mature at the end of it.

Like, no, that's that's not exactly what we're saying.

It's saying that we're we're supposed to embrace Christ's charge to get on it, right?

To get after it, and making disciples with purpose, right?

Intentionality and fervor and humility too.

We don't have it all together.

We don't know everything, that's for sure.

But we're looking to Christ to empower us to fulfill the Great Commission.

Here's the final thing Christ's charge to me is to know that he is with me to the end.

Know that he is with me to the end.

Now, maybe as you're sort of taking all of this in today and absorbing this, you're thinking, man, there's a lot here, right?

There's a lot that's on us.

Right?

And this is this is somewhat kind of daunting, right?

It's it's maybe even overwhelming to you, or you know, how are people like us ever supposed to accomplish this?

Because you kind of know it's lurking in the deep corners of your heart, right?

You know you're not perfect, in fact, you know you're far from it, right?

That's that's literally all of us here, and so you're kind of feeling like, man, this is a this is like I'm at the foot of a mountain and this is too much for me to handle.

And again, it's it's overwhelming.

Well, if that's you and you get to that point, or you're kind of tempted to give up before you even get started.

Here's what Jesus says to you.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And here it is, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

That word behold there is, I think, often overlooked, uh, but it's amazing, right?

It's great, a great word.

It's Jesus' way of kind of getting their attention again, like kind of eyes up here, right?

Like that's kind of what he's doing here.

Kind of getting them to zero in on and refocusing on something particularly important that he wants them to know.

Right?

He knew that his disciples didn't have really the half of this figured out yet.

Right?

They hadn't put all the pieces together or they didn't know what life was gonna look like.

They didn't know what this whole making disciples thing was gonna be about.

They we hadn't gotten to the book of Acts yet.

They hadn't started the church, they hadn't done any of those kind of things.

He also knew that a bunch of them still had their doubts, right?

We talked about that already.

Right?

He knew that still some were sad and they were kind of overcome by the sheer enormity of what they were being tasked with.

And so what does he tell them?

He tells them, listen, I'm with you.

Right?

I'm gonna be with you every step of the way, no matter what.

I'm gonna be with you to the end.

And listen, he he doesn't want you to just kind of hear his words, he wants you to know it.

Right?

He wants you to internalize this, to to believe it.

Okay, like you believe in gravity.

Right?

No one's doubting gravity.

Like you you you got that locked in, right?

And this is actually part of his charge to us, right?

To know he is with you always.

Not be able to regurgitate the verse someday if someone asks you the question, but to like know that profoundly.

That is impacting my emotions, that is impacting my fear, that is changing my faith, that's encouraging my faith and expanding and building my faith.

Look, Jesus hasn't brought you and I this far just to let us go and walk away.

Right?

That's the case.

You know, you know, whether you're thinking about all of these things in terms of you know our church, you know, as I you know move out and next week Miles moves in, okay, or you're considering maybe yourself, you know, and just the kind of personal role that you have in making disciples.

Okay, the bottom line is that Christ won't leave us.

Right?

He's never ever going to.

Now, sure, he he ascended bodily to his his father in the moments following his words here in Matthew 28.

Okay, but we also know that in Acts chapter 2, well, who did he send?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

He sent the Holy Spirit.

Right?

And the Holy Spirit accomplishes the work of Jesus, right, in and through us as we fulfill the Great Commission.

And we don't have to question it.

He's gonna do it.

He will do it, he is doing it.

And he's with us every step, right, to the end of the age.

Well, so I'm gonna have the worship team uh come on back up here, and I'm also uh we're gonna sing a song.

Okay, we're gonna sing a closing song, and then uh the elders are going to come up right after that and uh say uh a few words and kind of describe what the rest of our uh morning uh is going to look like, and uh I think uh I don't think I'm gonna get the chance later, so I'm gonna say it now and uh and then pray, but I want you to know this, okay?

You are loved, you're loved.

Let's pray.

Lord, we do uh recognize the epic reality of what you're calling us to here in these verses.

Lord, we recognize that these verses dictate what life is to look like.

These verses get really at our selfishness.

These verses get in there and stir all of that up, Lord.

And so, God, I pray that you would do that.

Lord, you have been doing that all through my time here with redemption.

Lord, it's been a pleasure and a and a joy to see that, to witness that, to be a part of that.

You're doing it in my life as well.

And Lord, I pray that uh you would do nothing more than continue to do that, Lord.

You would encourage our church.

Lord, I pray that any fruit that has grown, that has that has been born here in the last uh seven years that I've been here, Lord, I pray that it would multiply time and time and time again in the years to follow.

Lord, I just want to express to you and before this church the honor and the privilege that it has been to pastor, Lord, and I'm grateful uh for how you have used our family, Lord, and I pray that you would do a mighty, powerful, awesome work in our life going forward, Lord.

I pray that uh for Miles and Amber and the girls as they come and be a part of this, uh, starting this week.

Lord, I pray that as a new season, a new era begins, Lord, I pray that uh you would be glorified, Lord.

I pray that what we just talked about here uh this morning would continue to be the heartbeat of this church.

Lord, I pray that it would be all uh to Jesus Christ that we do these things.

Lord, I pray that as we sing now, again, we pray that you would be exalted.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.