The Great Commission: Part 2 - How We Go
Matthew 28:18-20
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Well, yes, we are on week two of our Great Commission series, "The Hope for the Whole World." We want all the world to know about Jesus. I have been loving, I guess we only have one week, but I've got a preview of today. So I've been loving watching these videos of the missionaries that we are in contact with, and I'm excited for you to hear today from another one. But it's really about not only hearing their stories, but then taking that and asking, how can we apply it to our own context? How can we live out the Great Commission? How can we go and make disciples, as Jesus calls us to, in our own context, in our own everyday lives?
Last week, we heard from Tomás in the Czech Republic and the stories that he shared of what his family is doing and what their ministry is doing. It was so encouraging to get to hear from him and what God is doing in their area of the kingdom. And today, we're going to go to South Asia, and we're going to hear from some missionaries and what God is doing through them, their family, and their ministry there. So I'm really looking forward to hearing that. But what I want us to do is, as we are hearing their stories, not only become more aware of the global impact that we can have, but also ask how we can apply this to our own lives. How can we live out the Great Commission in our own lives? So we're going to take a minute, well, a few, and we're going to watch the video, and then we'll come back and talk about more for us in our context.
I love hearing from these missionaries around the globe. And if you want, this week you'll get an email with all of their information. You should have gotten one about Tomás last week, but you'll get that email. So if you want to commit with us to signing up for their newsletter and to praying for them, you can check that box on your program and drop that in the back today. But it's just the last year to a year and a half I've really felt just more aware of the global church and how significant and kind of just cool it is that we are all worshiping the same God together. Czech Republic, South Asia, Europe, Australia. It can feel so far away geographically, but we are all so connected because we are all part of the same kingdom. We serve the same God. We worship the same God and celebrate Christian holidays like Easter, Christmas, and Pentecost. And so to just be reminded, to put names with faces and stories with real people, makes it more tangible and reminds us that we are the body and we all have a role to play.
It's all going to look different for each of us. For some of us, like your pastors, it's full-time vocational ministry. But for most believers, it looks different. It's serving in your local church or in your community at parachurch organizations. So maybe it's more of a local focus. Or maybe it's more regional. Maybe you are helping with educating pastors or those who are training up to be ministry leaders. Maybe you're working with something across the state or North America. You're serving in a regional capacity. Maybe you're going on short-term missions, just like she did, to get started—a week here, a couple weeks there. Or maybe it is, for some of you, a more long-term missions situation. Maybe it is a summer, or half a year, or full-time. But it's going to look different for all of us, whether it's locally, regionally, or globally.
Last week, Pastor Andre talked about our passage in Matthew, and this is really our theme verse for this series, which is what we call the Great Commission. It's Matthew 28:18 through 20. I'm going to read it for us. It says, "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"
Two things I want to pull out of that passage today, real quick, in the time that we have left. Go and make disciples. We're going to go backwards though. We're going to start with the making disciples part, okay? We are all commanded to make disciples, every single one of us. If we are a follower of Jesus, if we have surrendered our life to him and made him the Lord of our life, we are all commanded to go and make disciples. How do I know this? Because in this passage, Jesus is talking to the 11 remaining disciples, right? He is speaking to the 11. So how do I know this is for all of us? Well, I know this because discipleship, making disciples, is not a one-time thing. Salvation is a one-time decision. You do it, you've done it. Discipleship is a process. It is an ongoing process. We call it sanctification. It is becoming more and more like Jesus. And so that was going to go beyond the disciples' lifetime. So the disciples went out and they started the church and they made disciples. And then those disciples made disciples. And then those disciples made disciples, all the way down through church history. So we too are part of this command. We too are called to make disciples.
I also know that this is true because it was not commanded to be done in the disciples' power. It says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," Jesus. Jesus is saying that. The authority has been given to him. So this was not done in the power of the disciples. This was not done by their authority and power. It was done by the power of Jesus. And last I checked, we all have the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead because we have the Holy Spirit living in us. So we too have that same power to go and to make disciples. So we are all commanded to go and make disciples.
Secondly, going back to that word "go," we are to make disciples as we are going. The Greek word here for "go" is to pursue the journey on which one has entered, to continue on one's journey. So as you are going, you have started this journey as a disciple of Jesus. So as you are becoming more like Jesus, as you are going in your life, being discipled, becoming more like him, you make disciples. You do it in the everyday stuff of life. This is a lot of what she was talking about. On the way to the market, to pay a bill, cooking food, eating around the dinner table, in their home. This is where we make disciples.
I know that we live in a very individualized culture. You have your house, I have mine. You have your family, I have mine. You do things your way, I have mine. But why can't it look different for believers? Shouldn't it? Shouldn't we be up in each other's business a little bit more? Shouldn't we maybe intrude just a little bit, or at the very least, invite them into our space? Invite them into our home. Live together. Because honestly, for some of us, if you went to some friends or some family or some coworkers and you invited them to church, it would be weird. It would be awkward. They'd be like, "You don't know my last name. Why are you inviting me to church?" So start with getting to know them. Invite them to coffee or grab lunch together when you're on your lunch break. Talk to them. Ask them about their family, their struggles, their hobbies outside of where you guys are together normally, what they love to do, who they are. And then eventually, hopefully that door can open that you can have spiritual conversations.
It is as you are going, as you live your life, as you become a disciple of Jesus. Because discipleship, it happens at church. It happens in kids ministry. It happens at youth group. It happens in the Bible studies and the more formal, traditional things that we have going on. But it also happens on trips to Costco, and coffee, and cooking dinner, and inviting people over to your home. And I would argue that that happens more naturally in those settings. Discipleship, you have so much influence when you're doing things shoulder to shoulder with people, when you are living life with them. So what if instead of putting a ton of pressure on ourselves to convince people to follow Jesus or to convert someone, we just do life with them? One really practical way that I would encourage you to take with you is to ask people a natural question you can ask is, "Do you have any sort of spiritual faith or practices?" People, especially in the West, I feel like are very open to just spirituality. Not everyone, but a lot of people are open to spiritual things. Whether it's the universe or some just general God, they're open to that. So it's not out of the blue or totally weird for you to ask them about what they believe. And then that can often open the door for you to share what you believe, what God is doing in your life, that you serve the one true God who loves you and wants a relationship with you.
You don't have to word vomit everything you know about the Bible or Jesus. We say we want to saturate the community. We don't mean drown them, okay? We're saturating the community because we are all going out at the same time, and we are all dripping Jesus as we go. That's how we saturate it. Not by dumping it all on one person. But as we are going, as we are living our life, as we are looking different than the world, because we are trying every day to look more and more like Jesus. That's how we saturate our communities. That's how we go and make disciples. We're going to go and we're going to have spiritual conversations. We're going to meet people with their tangible needs. And yes, we may even overtly ask someone if they want a relationship with Jesus Christ or if they want to come to church with us. That is good. But it's also doing life, meeting people where they are, having just general spiritual conversations that as you do that, as you are going, you can be making disciples. We don't have to overcomplicate it. Sometimes it literally is just having people in your home, cooking a meal together, opening up that door for conversation. But we are all commanded to make disciples, and we are gonna do that best as we are going.
Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for today. We thank you for the ministry they have. We pray over them again, Father, that you would just bless what they are doing, the work that you have them doing there. We thank you for this church building that is underway. God, we just pray favor over that, that it would just be a light in their community, that it would be used for your glory and for the furthering of your kingdom. God, I pray for our people here at Spring Valley. I pray that they would take this command seriously of going and making disciples, that is not just for pastors or ministry leaders or super Christians, but it is for them. God, help us to remember as we are going to make disciples, to be aware of the people around us. Open our eyes to see them. To not just keep our head down in our individualized culture, but to look up. Make us aware. Help us to be open and vulnerable. Open our eyes to see those that you want us to see. Give us boldness where we need boldness. Give us vulnerability where we need vulnerability. God, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you are using us to build your kingdom. God, may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name, amen.