A Closer Look at the Great Commission

Good morning. It is good to be here with you, uh today. It is always good to be back here in southern California. I now reside and bring you greetings from the Republic of Texas, and we are being overrun with California, and so y'all just stay here all right. I'm here with with uh my daughter today, Safia. I Safia. We flew out here together and Safia turned four yesterday and Daddy tries not to miss birthdays if it's at all possible. So we spent the last few days here in southern California together and it's been a tremendous blessing. I am grateful to God for my friendship now over the last several years with with Bobby Scott. I we we met at the Master's College several years ago, and God has sort of knit our hearts together in a number of ways, and so was really excited about having the opportunity to stay over after the conference this weekend up there. I'm also very encouraged and excited about your missions emphasis this month, and I feel I feel a little bit like like Jude today, you know when Jude says, you know, brothers, I desired to write to you concerning our common salvation, but felt the need to write to you, urging you to contend earnestly for the faith. And I really, you know, understanding that the women would be on their at their at their retreat this weekend. I really desired to come and speak to you about manhood today, and even talked about that earlier. But as the service went on and hearing about Amy Carmichael and the songs that we sang this morning, I felt the necessity to preach to you this morning about missions. So if you'll bear with me and join me in a familiar passage of scripture, Matthew, chapter twenty eight. It's one of those passages as familiar to us. But one of the things I love about this passage as it relates to missions, is it doesn't matter how familiar we are with it. Every time we go here, we are reminded of something new. And so I want us to look here in Matthew twenty eight, and I want us to back up a little bit, and I want us to look first at the context of this great commission. So for that we go back to verse eleven, and I think this is important, and we find there while they were going, Some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, tell people, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed, and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. We're familiar with the paragraph that comes next, and we're familiar with the go ye. Therefore, however, we often neglect this paragraph that comes before it, because this is the context of the mission. The context of our mission is that we are going forth in a culture, in a world that will do anything not to believe the gospel. We are going forth in a culture where people and understand what's happening here. There are soldiers who are supposed to guard the tomb. And if you are a Roman soldier, a member of this Roman legion, and you are supposed to guard someone or something, if that someone or something is gone, you die and so when they went and reported that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, they fully expected to be put to death because they were derelict in their duties. However, instead of being put to death, they were given money and told tell people that you were derelict in your duties. Now, this makes no sense because anyone who understands the Roman soldier understands that if they had been derelict in their duty, and if someone had come in and stolen the body, that part of the evidence that this had happened would be that these men would be dead and would not be telling people that the body was stolen. However, opposition to the gospel is never rational, and so being irrational, they decided to give these men money because if you put them to death, then here's what you said. If you put them to death, then you have acknowledged the fact that Christ rose from the grave, and these soldiers weren't able to keep him there. So you don't want to kill them, because that would be to acknowledge the fact that Christ has risen. So instead, knowing now that you can't you see the catch twenty two that they have here there between a rock or a stone and a hard place. If we put you to death, we acknowledge the resurrection, and we cannot, We must not, We will not acknowledge the resurrection. Why because to acknowledge the resurrection is to acknowledge that Christ is who he says he is, and that he did what he said he did, and that he has the right to rule over your life, that everything you believe about the world was wrong, that everything you believe about yourself was wrong. And rather than acknowledge this, they broke protocol and they gave these men hush money. And then they said, listen, if this comes to the governor's ears, we got your back, because they knew these soldiers would have been thinking, wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute. We were in charge of the tomb. The man's gone from the tomb, and you're now gonna give us money, and you're telling us to tell people that we didn't do our job. There are people who outrank you, Amen, somebody, I mean, I appreciate the fact that you're not gonna kill us, Trust me, I really do appreciate that. Can I tell you how much I appreciate that? But there are people who outrank you. If this comes to the Governor, we got you back. So as we look at the Great Commission, as we look at this call that we have to go and proclaim the Gospel, we must understand that the context of that is a world that will do anything not to believe the gospel that we proclaim. It's like the call do Isaiah. I love the call to Isaiah. Isaiah, go preach here, my Lord, send me, yes, go preach to these stiff neck people who won't listen. That's his call. I'm calling you to go preach to these stiff necked people who will not listen. And for years and years and years there was no apparent fruit to his ministry. And so as we do missions, we cannot we cannot have this idea that says that when we go and do missions, we're going to go and do it in a world without opposition. In fact, most missionaries have this experience when they decide to go and serve God on the mission field. They are on cloud nine, and people pat them on the back and put their pictures up and pray for them and send them and we celebrate them and all of these sorts of things, and you're on cloud And in fact, when you fly to the mission field. They use less fuel in the plane to get you there, because just the high that you're on will help keep the plane suspended in the air while you get to the mission field. And then you get to the mission field, and you are still all a flutter and excited about this new place and all of the people who have pat you on the back, and then you wake up the next morning and walk out to people who hate you and don't want to hear what you have to say. That's the reality of missions. That's the real world of missions. Not the pats on the back, but spiritual warfare, people who are under the influence of the Prince of the power of the air, who does not go quietly into that good night. This is missions, and we have to understand this context. But as we understand this context, look at the next paragraph. This is the familiar paragraph, and watch the formil because one one was the well why why why? Why go? Why? Why? Why why do it? Then if that's the case, look at the next paragraph. Now, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted, don't miss that. Don't miss that, because this is also part of that context and that difficulty. So on the one hand, you have the world that will do and say anything not to affirm and not to believe the gospel that we preach. And on the other hand, you have the disciples who were with Jesus for three and a half years, who saw him crucified, dead and buried, and then witnessed his resurrected body, and they fell down and worshiped him, and still some doubted, still some doubted. So not only do we have this sort of spiritual warfare out there with a world that doesn't know and that doesn't believe, but there's also that spiritual warfare in here because you and I are part of both sides of these eleven Disciples, because you and I in our life as Christians, wade down deep when we're honest at that place you don't talk about in Sunday School. There are some days when you see the Lord and you worship, and there's other days when you doubt, if you can't say men you ought to say out There are those days when a loved one dies and you say, God, where are you? There are those days when you get laid off of your job and you don't know how you're gonna pay your rent next month, and you say, God, have you forgotten me? There are those days when people talk bad about you and all you're trying to do is work and serve them, and you say, Lord, what is this? There are those days when you bow down before God and you say, I'm serving you, and I'm giving you all that I am and all that I have. But it seems as though I've been forsaken. That's any other war in missions. That's the war on the inside of us in missions. That war that says I preach, and I preach, and it seems and no one hears. That war that says we work and we invest, and yet it seems that the fruit is not coming. This is a war we fight in missions. That war that says, I love How Paul calls to Timothy in two Timothy chapter four and tells him to preach the word be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. Why because Tom's coming when they will not endure sound teaching and instead they will gather for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn aside from the truth, and they will go after myths. It's discouraging. We preach the word faithfully. And then some half baked heretic puts out a shingle, finds a nice band and a nice building, and all folks go like chasing after a pie piper. He smiles at him and tells them that they are victorious, and tells them that they're the head and not the tail, and tells them that all they have to do is believe it and receive it and name it and claim it. And all of a sudden, this hard road seems unnecessary, and they run off, sort of like in the cartoons. You remember the cartoons. Sometimes there would be, you know, a lady who would wan, and then there will be the aroma of her perfume, and the one cartoon character would just be lifted off his feet and the next thing you know, he's just up in the air, following the smell of that sweet perfume. This is what happens. This is the hard work that we do. And again it may seem okay, Why it gets good now? And Jesus came and said to them, all authority and heaven and on earth has been given to me. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. This is why we do what we do. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. This is what guarantees the success of the mission. We have to understand this, that our God is soft, sovereign over the end as well as the means. We have to understand this that there will be success in the mission. Why because all power in heaven and on earth, all authority in heaven and on earth, has been granted to Christ. Here's what's not happening in missions. God is not in heaven with his fingers crossed, hoping against hope that you can do a good enough job to bring in his sheep. The God we serve is in heaven with all authority in heaven and on earth in his hands, the Son seated at the right hand of the Father, who bequeathed to him a bride before the foundation of the earth, a bride for whom he came and died and actually redeemed, and a bride who is right now being collected for him, so that at the end of the age he can descend the same way he has snded come again to judge the living and the dead, and take his bride, all of his bride, to be with him where he is. This is the mission, and it will be successful because Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth. It's interesting you might ask the question, I'll wait a minute now, why would if okay, if Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, Amen belongs right there, y'all. Amen, Okay, all right, okay, all right. If Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, and he has always existed as God the Son, and God is not running for God. Amen, It's gonna be elections next month. God ain't on the ballot, y'all. God is not running for God. So if Jesus is the second person of the triune, Jesus is God, wouldn't he have already had all authority? What is your statement about? Turned with me to the right and look at the book of Colossians, Colossian chapter two, and let's start at verse nine. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him, also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead, And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, Having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Guess what didn't exist in the Godhead before the incarnation. Before the incarnation, there was not a man in the Godhead. Christ took on a second nature. So God, the Son, who has always existed as God the Son, takes on himself the nature of humanity. And in that human nature he keeps the law fully in his active obedience, and then in its passive obedience, he accepts in himself the penalty that was due to our sin. And so in his active obedience he can impute righteousness to us, and in his passive obedience, our sinfulness can be imputed to him. Christ then goes to the cross, dies on the cross, and wins victory over death, Hell, and the grains. He raises again on the third day. And now there is a member of the Godhead who has not only taken on flesh, but who had died and won victory over death itself. So Christ brings more glory to heaven than he had when he left heaven. So now there is more authority in heaven than there was before because of Christ's victory over death, Hell, and the grave. And it is them that he says, now all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. This is our God. And this is the only way that we can persist in mission. This is the only way that we can continue to work in the context of a culture that will do anything not to believe our gospel. This is the only way that we can continue to work in the context of this Christian life that at times makes it difficult even for us. It is because of the authority that belongs to Christ. This is why we do mission. By the way, there's another side of this is John Piper I believe who said it best. Missions exist because worship does not. As Christians, we understand that Christ is worthy not only of our worship, but of the worship of every man, woman, boy and girl. As Christians, we understand that God is working redemption and working toward the consummation of all things, where around his throne will be people from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, because that's what God's glory demands and deserves. Thank you. And so when we go and do missions, we are saying and acknowledging the fact that everyone else out there deserves to worship Christ, because Christ's majesty and glory is not sufficiently recognized unless and until all humanity worships Him. And this leads us to the next part of this Listen, he says, go therefore, and make disciples of Panta ta ethne all nations. So our calling is global in its nature. We're called to make disciples of all nations. You notice that word there, Panta ta ethne ethne ethnos ethnic ethnic groups. By the way, and this is extra There is only one race of people. Amen, There's only one race of people. There are many ethnicities, but there is only one race of people. Now, if you want to get theological and technical about it, you can say that there's two. There's the race of the first atom and the race of the last atom. But you can't divide humanity anymore than that. That's it. We don't have multiple races of people. We have multiple ethnicities of people. In fact, not only are we all the same race, but we're all the same color some of us. Sitting there, I don't know if I'm saying man on that one, brother, because I'm like, I don't. I mean, I'm looking around here and there, you know, there's some you know, I listen. The pigmentation in human beings is from a chemical called melanin. The only difference between people is how much melanin they have in their skin. But all of us are colored by the same chemical. It's just a matter of how much or how little of it we have. And for those who don't have as much melanin as others, God still loves you, Okay, Amen, don't you look down on yourself because you don't have as much melanin as other people. Amen. And so we take this to pantatizethme to every ethnic group There are several things that are implied here. One of the things that's implied here is that missions is about the translation of the Bible. In fact, in early missions, this was the main thing that we understood about missions. Now we say I'm going on a mission trip and we go, you know, build a building. But it used to be we understood faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. And when you reach different people groups, one of the things that you have to do is translate the Bible into the languages of these people groups, so that faith can come by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. The second thing that is implied here is that missions involves at least some who will go. We had the passage read for us earlier, Acts one. Eight. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth. And when he said Jerusalem, what he was actually talking about was Jerusalem. And then when he said Judea, here's the interesting part. When he said Judea, what he really meant was Judea and Samaria. The Samaria part is where it really gets deep, because when he said Samaria, what he really meant was Samaria. And then when he said the remotest parts of the Earth, what he meant was in part America. Understand that when Acts one eight was written, we were the remote parts of the earth. We often think that America is the epicenter of the mission movement, when the fact of the matter is we are the byproduct of the mission movement. We are here because people left the epicenter of the mission movement and brought the Gospel. That is why we are here. There is also this sense in which God calls us to people who are not like us, and this is something that you find in the Gospel alone. The natural tendency of man is to huddle together with people just like you. That's the natural tendency of man, to huddle together with people like you. The natural tendency of man is that we worship together with people who look just like us. The natural tendency of man is we get married to people who look just like us. The natural tendency of man is we socialize with people who look just like us. But there's this amazing thing that happens in the gospel that you just don't find elsewhere, this amazing thing that destroys those barriers and those boundaries, and we read about it, even if in Ephesians chapter two it broke down the barrier between Jews and Greeks. It's the Gospel that does this. It's the gospel. It's the gospel that turns us outward toward people who are not like us. It's the gospel. And if you've ever been in another part of the world, it's an amazing thing that happens. I'll ever get the first time I went to Japan, and that just stuck with me because that was the first time I was somewhere that was just truly foreign. I'd been to, you know, parts of Europe before and other things before I had gone to Japan, but in parts of Europe, you know, if you speak English and you look at French or you look at the Talian or you look at it, you know, you can kind of it. Just it's not completely foreign. You know what the the alphabet is. You can recognize that there's some words that sound familiar. You know, you're out of the country, but it's not just completely foreign. I went to Japan, stuff didn't even look right. I had no idea what anybody was saying. I looked different than the people. And everywhere I was going, you know, people were looking at the point, Hey, how you doing, They would snicker. Got tired of that. After a while, I felt completely out of place. And then I went to church. It was still in Japanese, but every now and then I could pick out the word for Jesus Amen, and I was among brothers and sisters in Christ. This is what the Gospel does, the content. We get what he says, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is an evangelistic mission. Our mission is not to just improve people's lives. Our mission is to preach the Gospel. That's our mission. Our mission is not to help people do better and be better. Our mission is to preach the Gospel that they might become new creatures in Christ, and then teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. It's comprehensive. It's comprehensive. One of the things that I've learned, I've had the privilege of preaching in about twenty different countries. And one of the things that I've learned that I did not understand before. You can read it in books, but it's hard to wrap your mind around it. When you go to parts of the world where the Gospel has penetrated and then visit parts of the world where the Gospel has not penetrated. There is a difference. There's a difference in the way people shape their government. There's a difference in the way people treat their homes. There's a difference in the way people construct and take care of their cities. There is a difference. What happened in Europe did not happen. I love to talk about this one. I'm on the African continent because there are people on the African continent who believe that Europe is beautiful and has these beautiful cathedrals and sand glass windows and this history of great music and art and culture because the people there were white and white people are better than black people. Here's a newsflash. Before the Gospel came to Europe, they were painting themselves blue and eating one another. It is the Gospel that transformed Europe and the West. The difference is not the ethnicity of people. The difference is that when the Gospel takes root, it doesn't just save you for eternity, but it transforms the very way you live your life. It transforms the way we understand marriage and family and art and culture. The Gospel does this, and so it's comprehensive. What we do is comprehensive. I will also say this by way of warning. As you move away from the Gospel, you become barbarians again. And this is what's happening in Europe and in America. We are slaughtering unborn children at a rate of three thousand and seven hundred per day. With barbarians. We are now legalizing self murder. We're barbarians. We want to legalize killing our old when they're inconvenient. We're barbarians. We're slaughtering one another in the streets. We're barbarians because we are moving away from the comprehensive influence of the Gospel. And it is the Gospel that makes us who we are. That's the answer. And as we move further and further away from the Gospel, we will become more and more barbarians. And then there is a final piece. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, and so it sort of forms bookends. The first part of it, we see we're going into hostile territory, and it's a bit frightening. And on the last part of it we hear by the way, the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth is with you always, even to the end of the age. He will bring this to pass. Which is why Revelation could be written. This is why we can have Revelation five to nine and Revelation seventy nine. Whether there's this great multitude that no one can number, from every tribe and kindred and tongue and language around the throne worshiping the lamb who is worthy, why could that be written in the first century. Because the one who is overseeing the process to the end of the age is the one who has all authority and heaven and on earth in his hands, and he will bring it to pass. This is our task. This is why we are who and what we are, and this is why we do what we do, so that Christ might have the fullness of the reward for which he died. That is what burns inside of us, that is what motivates us hear me, saints. There's something that happens when we get this. You see, Before we get this, we can come to church and we can sit and soak, and we can come to church and we can complain about this, and that we can come to church and we can be consumers. But once we get this, that changes things. All of a sudden, how long the sermon is, that's just not as important to me anymore. Amen, nobody, whether we sing this song or that song, all of a sudden, something happens when we realize there are one point eight billion people on the planet who've never heard the name of Jesus once, and millions upon millions upon millions who are falling off into eternity every day. That changes things. It changes things when we realize that there are people in third world countries today who are pastoring churches with less biblical knowledge than the average Sunday school member in the church. Like this, somebody says say it again. I'm gonna say it again. Something happens when we realize that there are people in third world countries who are pastoring churches faithfully and defectively, and they have less biblical knowledge and training than the average Sunday school member. In a church like this, something happens when you realize that, all of a sudden, sitting on your hands and not being involved just doesn't cut it anymore. When you realize this, when you understand what God can do with those hands, and when you understand that this is for everyone. Now, let me just say this in our clothes. There are those who say, yeah, brother, I hear you, and I understand, But you know, I also understand that what happened here was that was that was just for the apostles. That wasn't for everybody. That was for the apostles because you noticed there. You know, I learned a little bit about hermeneutics and how to interpret the Bible. See, and when you interpret the Bible, you have to look at this text in context. And when you look at the context here it says that there were those eleven. See, those are the apostles. So actually this commission was given and it was just given to the apostles. Okay, I'm not even gonna go into the hermoneutics with you. I'm just gonna say this. If you don't go ye, therefore you don't get low. I'm with you. So if that's not for the church today, then this assurance is not for the church today. If what you're saying is, who don't just get up and go without being sent? I agree with you wholeheartedly. But if what you're saying is that somehow our mission as the body of Christ has changed, then I couldn't disagree with you more. This is who we are, this is what we do, and we do it because our great desires that Christ might indeed have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Perhaps there are some here even today and you into this place not having known Christ in the pardon of your sins, and perhaps in the providence of God, you've come and listened to a message about going, and you actually came so that we didn't have to go praise the Lord. Perhaps you've come and you've heard about this Christ who died for sin and one victory over death, hell and the grave, and you've been wondering what's going to happen when you die, and whether or not there's someone who has an answer, and today you met the one who does have an answer. Perhaps you've come here today and you thought that maybe all that was required was for every once in a while for you to show up in a place like this, But now you see that there is far more to it than that. Perhaps you've come here and you've been trusting in yourself and your own ability to one day stand before God, and today you've come to realize that you cannot do that because you are a sinner in need of a savior. And if that's you here today, then I encourage you to flee to Christ. Run to him. Do not continue trusting in yourself. Do not continue trusting in what you can do, but trust in what Christ has done, what he has accomplished on the Cross to the Father's glory, in order that He might redeem all of those who are found in Him. Be found in Christ. Turn from your sin, turn from self reliance, Run to the Cross, cling to the Cross, that He might forgive you there, For this is indeed your only hope. For the rest of us. Remember that this is our mission, this is who we are, and this is why we remain. Let us pursue this until he comes. Let's pray our Father, We thank you. We rejoice in your goodness, we rejoice in your mercy. We rejoice in the fact that we are here today because people believe this and acted accordingly. We are here today because people were faithful and continued to preach the gospel, and we heard the gospel. We're here today because the Bible was translated into our language and we were able to hear your word in our native tongue. We're here today because somebody left all in order to bring the Gospel to the place where we heard it. Grant by your grace that we would not be so selfish as to fail to at least pray for those who were continuing to do the same. Today, Grant by your grace that your Gospel would be heard to the ends of the earth, and that Christ might indeed have the fullness of the reward for which he died. This we pray in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.