Commissioned by Christ (5/3/26)

Hello and welcome to the Church Newtown Square podcast.

If we can serve you in any way or if you'd like to learn more

about our church family or the Acts 29 network, please visit us

at church nsq.org. That's CHVRCHNS q.org, and now

let's listen in to today's teaching.

I do have a couple of questions for you as we begin this

morning. I wonder how many of you are

clear on your assignment from God.

Take a moment and just think, is it crystal clear?

Is it murky or do you have no clue what you're supposed to do?

And I guess the second question is how many of you are living

with some doubt? It's an incredibly confusing

time. I look out across this sanctuary

and there's some young people and there's some younger people

and there's some youngest people.

And depending where you are on that young stage, I imagine this

has been an incredibly confusing time for some.

And maybe you're sitting here today in church and you've got

lots of doubts and you have lots of questions.

Maybe as you grow in that youngest to young stage, you

also have doubts as the thought of heaven draws near.

And so my prayer is that you would find Jesus today welcoming

you with his love in the midst of your doubts.

As Pastor Tom shared, My name is Ben Thomas, I am married to

Susie and we have 4 kids. I am the son of the King of

Kings and Lord of Lords. Now I'm going to share something

with you that I hope doesn't disqualify everything else I'm

going to say. I was born in Brooklyn, grew up

on Long Island. I was cheering for the Sixers

last night because I'm so excited for the Sixers and

Knicks to be able to play over these next few weeks.

I've been knowingly walking with the Lord since I was 17.

That was a little over 30 years ago, and I'm grateful though

that He's been walking with me for my entire life.

Susie and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary this

year. And in those 25 years, we've

lived in India, we've lived in Rwanda, we've seen God bless us

with children. We've seen God walk us through a

brain tumor while Susie was pregnant.

We've seen God heal Susie of that brain tumor.

And we walk by faith in God's manna and quail every day.

So those 25 years have been a gift.

From 2014 to 2024, we lived in Kigali, Rwanda, where we were

part of the Kigali International Community School, a school not

that dissimilar from Delaware County Christian School.

And we've now made Philadelphia our home over the last two

years. I like to say we live in a

forest near Skippack, PA. I had the joy of having

breakfast with Pastor Tom and we discovered many mutual

connections and he was gracious enough to invite me to worship

with you all today. And my prayer is that the Lord

would use us to mutually encourage and bless each other

as we seek to live for Christ and His Kingdom here on earth.

I'm an educator, I'm a minister, a missionary.

I love God's Word, and it's a joy to open up Matthew 28 as you

continue in your study on Matthew.

May God's power, spirit, and understanding be ours as we open

His Word together. If you would stand with me as we

read Matthew chapter 28. Now after the Sabbath, so

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

meaning Sunday morning, as it began to dawn toward the first

day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look

at the grave, and behold, the severe earthquake had occurred.

For an Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came

and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as

white as snow. The guard shook for fear of him,

and became like dead men. The Angel said to the women, do

not be afraid, for I know that you're looking for Jesus, who

has been crucified. He is not here, for he has risen

just as he said. Come see the place where he was

living lying. Go quickly and tell his

disciples that he is risen from the dead.

And behold, he is going ahead of you into Galilee.

There you'll see him. Behold, I have told you.

And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran

to report it to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and

greeted them, and they came up and took hold of his feet and

worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not

be afraid. Go and take word to my brethren

to leave for Galilee, and there they will see me.

Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into

the city and reported to the chief priest all that had

happened. And when they had assembled with

the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum

of money to the soldiers, and said, You were to say, his

disciples came by night and stole him away while we were

asleep. And if this should come to the

governor's ear, we will win him over and keep you out of

trouble. And they took the money and did

as they had been instructed. And this story was widely spread

among the Jews, and is to this day.

But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain

which Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they

worshipped him, but some were doubtful.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has

been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing

them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

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

Let's pray, Jesus, we come before you, we come before your

word. Holy Spirit, would you lead and

guide us? Would each of us indeed decrease

and would you increase in these moments?

Speak to us. We pray through the power of

your spirit in Christ's name, Amen.

Just I'm going to share a little bit of my contact information

for you. I just kind of find that

preaching is one of the most unique forms of communication

that we've come up with where I don't know about you, but

there's no other setting where somebody talks for 35 minutes

and you don't ask questions, right?

That I don't know if that works for your kids, but that

certainly doesn't work for mine, for the teachers in the room,

that certainly doesn't work in a classroom.

And so I don't know if you're the type of church that you

could just raise your hand and ask me a question while I'm

preaching. So if you have any questions,

feel free. I would love to be able to

dialogue with you if you have any questions along the way.

And yeah, just know that there's no question that's off limit,

but my desire not only during this time, but that God's word

would continue to transform my heart and your heart as we go

through together. You have to understand that

Matthew 28 is probably the most profound passage that God has

used to shape my life. God began His call on my life

when I was 18 years old at a student missions conference

called Urbana. He used Acts 1 verses 7 to 8,

Acts 1:7–8

which is another version of this Commission.

And since then, God has ordered my steps in such a way that I

have been pointed towards what does it mean to go and make

disciples of all the nations? So when Pastor Tom said, hey,

we're concluding Matthew, and you could preach anything out of

Matthew, I thought, wow, that's great.

And one thing I've been wrestling with since Easter

Sunday has been what happened in those days between the initial

appearance of Jesus before he ascended.

And so I've had the joy of reading through each of the

gospel accounts to see what took place in that time.

And so it's a joy for me today to be able to say that there

wasn't necessarily a clear line up and to the right, which is

how I like lines to work for me. In terms of how the disciples

took on this resurrection of Jesus, they had some serious

doubt every time that Jesus appeared.

Even if they finished one time with rejoicing and worship, the

next time Jesus appears they're doubtful.

So I want to as we look at this message called Commissioned by

Christ, I want to spend some time with this thin line between

belief and doubt. What does it mean to live

between belief and doubt? And living believe between

belief and doubt does not disqualify us from Christ's

love. So if you're here this morning

and you have some doubts, I want you to know that there's even a

disciple named Doubting Thomas. You're in an OK space.

Jesus can handle your doubts. I want you to know that if you

have questions, Jesus can handle your questions.

Your doubts do not disqualify you from Christ's love.

Matthew first invites us to see the exchange between Mary and

Mary in verses one through 6 on Easter morning.

Each account of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

have a viewpoint of this exchange between Mary and Mary

and an Angel. We can go to the next slide if

that's helpful. Let me just read again verses

one through 6. Now after the Sabbath, as it

began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene

and the other Mary came to look at the grave and behold, the

severe earthquake had occurred. For an Angel of the Lord

descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and

sat upon it. And his appearance was like

lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.

The guards, and keep this in mind for a little bit later,

shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.

The Angel says to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that

you are looking for Jesus, who has been crucified.

He is not here, for he has risen just as he said.

Come see the place where he was lying.

So we see Mary and Mary approaching the grave.

We see an earthquake that takes place and an Angel descend from

heaven and roll away the tomb. In Mark's account, he lets us

know as Mary and Mary were approaching, they wonder a very

practical question. How are we going to move the

stone? I don't know how big this stone

was, but I think that's a very practical question as they're

walking to this grave. Returning to Matthew's account,

we see the guards are trembling and look like dead men as they

see the Angel. The Angel now speaks to Mary and

Mary and says in verse 5, do not be afraid for I know that you're

looking for Jesus who's been crucified.

The Angel sees this wrestle in their heart of fear and assures

them do not be afraid. Then comes the line that we

celebrate and sometimes greet each other with on Easter

morning. He is not here, He has risen.

We see the Angel instruct them to go and tell the disciples.

In Mark's account, we see the Angel say go, tell the disciples

and Peter. We'll come back to that a little

bit later. Peter, of course, had denied

Jesus three times. The Angel wants to make sure

that Peter is included. They do this and they do it.

In verse 9 of Matthew's account, we see Jesus meet these ladies.

They take hold of His feet and they worship.

Their belief leads to worship Mary and Mary are a great

example of turning our doubt to worship.

They asked them hard questions, they took every step along the

way, and when they are encountered with Jesus, their

response is worship. They fall at his feet and they

worship him, Mary and Mary. The good example you could say

of doubt to worship. Well, what happens when our

belief turns to doubt? You can go to the next slide if

you like. Let's focus quickly on the

disciple Thomas, who for me and millions of other Indian

believers, we derive our name as he came to India in the year 52,

we believe is a direct result of this Commission.

He traveled further than any other disciple, even though he

was called Doubting Thomas. In John 20, we see a similar

account of the resurrection, and we see in greater detail

interactions between Jesus and his disciples.

Starting in verse 19, we see Jesus showing them his hands and

his feet. We see the disciples rejoice,

and we see Him give them instructions.

But John also notes that Thomas was not with them when Jesus

appeared in this instance. And Thomas responds to his

disciple friends full of doubt and saying in verse 25, Unless I

see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into

the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will

not believe. Have you ever had a friend or

maybe parents in the room who are so excited to tell their kid

about an idea, and the kid responds with, yeah, So what?

Yeah, that's fine for you, but not for me.

I'm not going to believe it. That was Thomas's response here.

Let's pause for a moment. Does doubt seem to be a normal

reaction we have in life? Does Thomas's request seem

outrageous or justified? I think sometimes in the Easter

retelling of the story, we miss this line between belief and

doubt. My prayer and my encouragement

for us is that living between belief and doubt does not

disqualify us from Christ's love.

Jesus can handle your biggest doubts and your biggest

questions. You don't have to have it all

figured out before you come to Him.

He doesn't need you all cleaned up and neat.

He loves your mess. He loves you and he loves me.

Let's see how Jesus responds to Thomas's doubts.

Verse 26 of John 8:20 days his disciples were again inside, and

John 8:20

Thomas with them. Jesus comes, the doors having

been shut, and stands in their midst, and says, Peace be with

you. Then he says to Thomas, Reach

here with your finger, and see my hands, and reach here your

hand, and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but

believing. Thomas answers and says to him,

My Lord and my God, Jesus says to him, Because you have seen

me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see

and yet believe. Pause for a moment.

Did you catch that small detail? Jesus didn't show up right away

to answer Thomas's doubts 8 days later.

What those eight days signify is that Thomas was in Jerusalem for

the full amount of time of the Passover and the Feast of

Unleavened Bread. This was the second Sunday.

Jesus doesn't step into Thomas's doubt right away.

Thomas had to sit with his questions.

Why did Jesus appear to the others and not to me?

Could he not have waited? Are they really telling the

truth? Why didn't he appear to me?

Is he going to come back? We haven't seen him since.

Just maybe a few questions that this doubting Thomas thinks

might have been going through Thomas's mind.

But when Jesus appears to him as the doors are shut, and every

time the gospels talk about Jesus appearing, it's referenced

as a manifestation. So did Jesus just like arrive?

Did he find his way through the door?

We don't know. But we know the door was shut

and it doesn't say the door was open.

And then Jesus appeared and he says peace be with you.

He does not greet Thomas with condemnation.

He greets him with the message of peace.

And he says, reach here with your finger, see my hands.

Jesus answers everyone of Thomas's doubts specifically.

He does not ridicule him. He literally answers and has him

touch him. He makes it so concrete that

Thomas's doubts are not met with anger, but with peace, with

grace, with the physical answer, and also with the command.

He says to him, don't be unbelieving, but believe you've

believed Thomas because you've seen.

Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.

Friends, here at church today, we have an opportunity to

believe in a way that the disciples didn't.

We don't get to feel with our own hands, and yet God invites

us to believe. I don't know what you're

wrestling with and the thin line that you're living between

belief and doubt. Maybe it's a doubt about Jesus

and his love for you. Maybe it's a health concern that

you have. Maybe it's a financial issue.

Maybe you're wondering what's happening in our world and in

our country. Maybe you're thinking, can I get

a ticket to the PGA Championship, right?

I don't know what the doubt is. Could be small, could be big,

could be practical, could be existential.

But I want you to know that Jesus wants to meet you in your

doubt. My prayer is that your doubt,

that you would know that your doubt does not disqualify you.

If anything, your doubt puts you in good company, or at least in

the company of one of his disciples named Thomas.

Now, friends, there's lots of stories that I could share about

our life, but let me just share quickly and briefly.

When a doctor comes and tells you your wife has two to three

years to live and she's pregnant with your youngest, it's a great

opportunity to work through doubt and faith.

And we held on to this idea of manna and quail that God was

going to provide what we needed in that moment for that day.

And it was a great discipline that we didn't do great at, but

God's grace covered our deficiencies to say, what do we

need today? And so I talked to you as one

who is a doubting Thomas. I can break down every aspect of

my life and tell you where and how I doubt Jesus.

But I could also testify that God has met every single one of

my doubts. I love working with young

people, and so if you're a young person, I'm going to put that in

the category of 35 and below because the way you grew up is

different than people who grew up who are older than 40.

There are some serious doubts that you have, and I want you to

know Jesus wants to meet you in your doubts.

Those doubts don't disqualify you and you don't have to figure

it out. The next thing is, and I'll do

this really quickly, the cover up following Christ is not a

pursuit of increasing our power. This next part of Matthew 28 is

super interesting. We see the belief of Mary, but

then in verses 11 to 15, we see a parallel story of the guards.

The guards come to the city, the same guards who are frightened

and appear like dead men. I imagine that they were just

like. And let's not forget the

centurions who guarded Jesus. They were the first ones

accounted in the Bible to say after the crucifixion, this was

truly the Son of God. So these guards who were put

there by the chief priests and the Pharisees, and you can read

about that in Matthew 27, you see the same guard saying, hey,

the bodies no longer here, no longer here.

They go to the chief priests and the Pharisees and in true

fashion they say, hey, let's cover this up.

Here's here's a bag of cash. Here's what the Pharisees and

the chief priests wanted to do with their doubt.

They wanted to cover it up. They wanted to make sure that

their doubt was so buried behind a couple of bags of cash that

that's how they wanted to answer their doubt because their doubt

would have led to a very different life for them.

And so I think my encouragement to you is, it's OK to have

doubts. I believe that Jesus looks

kindly and gently on our doubts, but I do believe that he does

not invite us to follow him for any personal, institutional, or

national power. Much as the Pharisees and chief

priests are examples of what not to do, I think it's wise for us

to consider how white, how might we be conflating or mixing Jesus

and power? It's a tricky world we're living

in, and our young people are looking to us for examples of

Christ and his love. Jesus says the greatest of you

shall be a servant the least. The first shall be the last.

If you want to follow me, wash each other's feet.

It's not an example of accumulating more for us.

And this example, I think the gospel writers put in there of

people who wanted to accumulate more.

And so, friends, let's make every effort not to substitute

pursuing Jesus as a means to increase our standing in the

world in any way, personally, financially, institutionally, or

even nationally and geographically.

There's obviously more we could say about that and unpack that

as well. But let's move to the

commissioning, which comes up on our next slide.

Our doubts do not determine our assignment.

The final part of this passage is called the Great Commission.

This passage is in all the versions, including Acts in some

way, and as I've shared, have had a profound impact on my

life. Let's read verses 16 to 20 from

Matthew 28. But the 11 disciples proceeded

to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.

When they saw him. They worshipped, but some were

doubtful. And Jesus comes and speaks to

them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and

on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples

of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all

that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,

even to the end of the age. Now one thing that's really

important to see, even though we're reading 1 chapter, this

chapter takes place over a period of time.

The journey from Jerusalem is not a one day journey.

It's about 70 to 90 miles. The fast way is about 3 to 5

days. The slow way is about 7 to 9

days. And to get up to the mountain,

you've got to have some good hiking skills.

So even though I could read like this happened all in one time,

this was overtime that this is happening and I love this.

We see in verse 17 as the disciples get to Galilee, they

see Jesus and they worship and go ahead.

If you're OK with writing in your Bible circle the phrase,

but some were doubtful. And what do we see Jesus do?

Do we say, OK, the doubters, you guys are on the right.

I just want to talk to those who were fully convinced He

commissions all of them, even the ones with their doubt.

Was it not enough that he had already appeared to them?

Apparently no, they still doubt it.

But Jesus commissions all of them.

Friends, our doubts do not determine our assignment.

The assignment God gives is not dependent on our strength, our

smarts, our belief. It's solely based on who Christ

is. The Great Commission is a

perfect example of this, and I'll go quickly through the

Great Commission. Whose authority?

It's Jesus's authority. His authority supersedes any

other authority, the authority of the chief priest and the

Pharisees, the authority of the Romans, the authorities of any

nation on earth. Go or in the translation, it

should be as you are going, make disciples of all the nations.

So it's not necessarily a destination, but it's on the

journey. Be making disciples.

Parents. This is a word to us as we're

parenting in these years. Make disciples of our kids.

That's our first and primary responsibility.

As you're living in your community, make disciples.

This is not necessarily just a passage for missionaries to be

sent overseas, although I believe in that so much.

This is a as you're living, as you're rooting for the Sixers

this week, make disciples. As you're at school, make

disciples. As you're at work, make

disciples. And the term disciples Jesus

used over and over again, those are ones who followed him, who

doubted, who denied him, who were shut in in Jerusalem.

And the Gospel, the book of Acts shares the stories of how the

disciples went about living out this Commission.

And then he says, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son

and Holy Spirit, the Trinity. And then he says, teach them to

observe everything I've commanded you.

And when the disciples asked him or the question was asked of

Jesus, what's the greatest commandment?

What did he say? Love God with all your heart,

soul, mind and strength. And the second is like it, love

your neighbor as yourself. I'm not discounting a seminary

degree. I have one and I enjoyed it.

But you do not need to be seminary trained to go and make

disciples. It is not for a professional

Christian only to do. We all have this assignment from

God to go and make disciples. And then he says I am with you

always. Teach them to observe everything

I've commanded you and I am with you always, even to the end of

the age. No one is excluded.

This is not a Jewish only call. It's not a male only call.

This is all people, every man, every woman, every child.

National boundaries are not reasons for exclusion.

Religious beliefs are not reasons for exclusion.

And as they do this, Jesus is with them in every moment.

Now I'll, if you want to look at the story of Peter in John 21,

we're not going to jump through that now because I want to be

sensitive to our time. But you see Jesus not only

restoring Peter, but in John chapter 21, you see him say

John 21 · chapter mention

follow me in verse 19. And what does Peter do?

The great denier? He doesn't say yes, what does he

do? He looks around and says, what

about that guy? What are you doing for him?

Hey, what about her assignment? What about his assignment?

What why is this my assignment? And Jesus says, what is it to

you what I do with him? You, Peter, you follow me.

So I do not know the specific assignment that God has for you,

but I do know He has an assignment for you.

May you not falter. May you not give up on the

specific assignment that God has for you.

If you have questions about your assignment, if you have

questions about God's call over your life, I see some high

school students here. I see some young people here.

If you're wondering what does this mean for me, please let's

have a conversation. I believe God can use those that

are young, younger, and youngest for His purposes and His

Kingdom. No matter where you are on that

stage, if you're in your 70s, eighties or above or a little

younger than that, God wants to use you.

He wants you to have every day on purpose for Him.

Now, friends, I'd love just to share a little bit about our

ministry of Beat of the World. You've seen a brief video and we

can go to the next slide if we want.

But did you know that there are more people living, more

children living in countries impacted by war?

Then there are people living in America.

America has something just north of 300 million people.

Today there are 520 million children who are impacted by

war. We currently serve in five

countries. You guys could skip ahead to the

map and we develop schools in these countries.

You might ask why school? I believe school is a great

place. I believe a school led by a

believer is an incredible tool to be used in God's Kingdom.

My assignment from God is to help share the gospel with the

520 million children who are impacted by war by building

great schools. So we have schools in South

Sudan. You saw a little glimpse of

Cameroon, Rwanda, where we served Pakistan, where we serve

children of persecuted Christians.

And we're getting the we're getting started in Iraq as well.

Just a few weeks ago, we got our registration to operate in

northern Iraq and are in the process with Iraq itself.

I believe every parent wants a great education for their child,

and so when we go in with a school, it's open to people from

all backgrounds and all faiths. Also, most studies show that the

years of ages 4 to 14 are when people are the most receptive to

the message of Christ. Friends, we'd love to have you

join us as a church or individually.

There's a sign up sheet in the back if you'd like to leave your

information. If serving children in countries

recovering from war, if reaching kids who are living in unreached

countries, if serving some marginalized Christian is a

place where you'd like some of your Great Commission focus to

be, we would love to talk to you.

Please text me or give me your number.

Would love to set up a conversation.

And of course, we'd love to have you join our global partners

today by signing up for a monthly or one time gift at our

website, beatoftheworld.org. As we conclude, I just want to

say thank you so much for your time.

If you have questions or want to talk to someone about your

doubts, please know that I'd be honored to talk with you.

God has a call over each one of our lives.

The Commission is so clear. Because of the authority of

Jesus, we can go and make disciples of all the nations and

that doesn't involve us having to get on an airplane to do it.

We can do it in our daily life. May we walk in great faith

knowing that Jesus is with us, and may we be OK with the mix of

doubts and belief as we live for Him.

I'm grateful that we've each been commissioned by Christ and

our doubts do not exclude us. The sermon you've just listened

to is a presentation of Church Newtown Square.

To find out more about our church, check out Church

nsq.org. That's CHVRCHNS q.org.

You are welcome to copy and distribute this sermon to others

as long as you do not do it for commercial purposes or alter,

transform, or build upon this talk in any way.