The Great Commission | Brad Hoblit

-

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

A Living Word That Changes Us

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Okay. Well what a privilege it is, is it not, to have the word of God open before us and to be able to ingest it as the bread of life as we take in um as we take in God's word and as we turn our hearts um to what he wants to teach us and as we look into the face of Jesus, we are we are incredibly privileged people to have an opportunity week after week after week to come and do this. Um and not only to come and do it and go through the motions, but to come and do it in a way where we're fed and where it's it's true, um, where the word of God is handled with diligence. And I trust this morning that as we open God's word, that his spirit would be with us as we um as we speak and as we listen, so that his truth would would reign in us. I'm excited this morning to think about the way that the way that God has given us his word and he's given us his spirit, not as something to put on the shelf, but as something to bring into our hearts and be changed by. That the word we have is a living word, and that it's sharp and powerful, and it has the power to change heart, mind, body, and soul. I'm encouraged by that as I look at the world around me and I see problems that God's word could change. But more importantly, as I spend time looking into my own heart and I see things there that need to be changed, and it gives me hope that God's word has the promises and God's spirit has the will to change those things and make me more like Jesus. So my prayer this morning is that that is true for

Bible Quiz And Four Accounts

SPEAKER_00 2:16

all of us. We're gonna talk about the Great Commission. I thought it was fitting if we're spending part of the morning talking about um work on the mission field, that we spend a little time looking into what the scripture says about um this thing that we call the Great Commission. I want to start by doing a little Bible quiz. I know some of us are familiar with uh, especially the children um maybe in school have participated in Bible quizzes. And so I would like to have some help. Um who here can tell me, that it can quote to me the Great Commission, or maybe a part of it, maybe just elements of it. What does the Great Commission say? This is a term we know, but what does it say? I'm not passing out grades, so go into all the world, yeah. Okay? What else? All authority is given to me. Uh huh. What else? Go to all nations. That's right. It does say that. Teaching and baptizing, making disciples. Okay? Anything else? I am with you. Yes, that's so important. So most of what I heard comes out of Matthew 28, and that's the passage of scripture that we most readily associate with the Great Commission. Um, but in actual fact, there are four different places in Scripture that we can read about the Great Commission. To clarify, it it's something that Jesus said. It was instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples, and he only said it once, but there are three different writers who wrote in four different places and recounted to us what Jesus said. And there are some differences in how they tell the story. And that doesn't mean it's inaccurate, it just means that the three different writers had three different emphasis, different focus, different audiences. And so they recount their recounting of what Jesus said is a little different. And so we're gonna do two things this morning. We're gonna, first of all, just do a little study. We're gonna go through each of these four places and do a little compare and contrast so that we can see what it is that Jesus said. I think this is interesting to kind of analyze and pick it apart a little bit and pay attention to the words that are there and what does it mean for us? And then we're gonna look at the effect of that, the fulfillment of it through Acts, and then we're gonna finish up with some words from Paul, who spent his life working in this Great Commission and what he had to say at the very end of it. Um we're gonna this is gonna be pretty quick, so um please be ready to uh do some flipping. Um, we're gonna kind of be jumping a little bit. I hope we're not biting off too much.

Matthew And Authority Over Doubt

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Matthew 28 is the first place we um see the Great Commission, and I'll read it, verses 16 uh through 20. Now the eleven discipl 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. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority is in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. One thing that's significant, and this is not something I've paid a lot of attention to before, but I've been noticing recently, is that the lead up to the Great Commission, and we find this in slightly different ways in all four places that the Great Commission is told, that what happens before Jesus gives the Great Commission is he deals with some of the disciples did not believe. Some of them doubted. It says here in this passage, it says that they worshiped him, but some doubted. I think we need to take note of that, and we're gonna see that as a pattern as we go through the other passages. I want you to pay attention to what Jesus lists as I call it the target here. That's probably not the right word, but um the place that he tells us to go. Matthew says, Go to all the nations. All nations. And then he tells us, he tells his disciples, and by extension, he tells us to uh make disciples, to baptize, and to teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And then he gives us a promise. He says, I am with you, I'm with you to the end of the age. And then this last line is each one of these tellings has something that's a little unique, something that is only mentioned in that spot, or that is unique to that writer. And so in this one, I find it interesting that Matthew initiates Jesus' instructions by confirming his authority, his heavenly authority. So the it the uh instructions that we're given, the commission that we're given, is based on Jesus' authority. We see in is uh in Colossians, I believe, that it says that um that um he is before all things, and in him all things consist. So he's Lord of heaven and earth, and it's on the basis of that authority that we're given this commission. The word commission just means um an instruction to go, to go out. And so we're given this commission on the basis of Jesus' authority. We're gonna jump ahead to Mark.

Mark And The Gospel As Victory

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Mark chapter 16, again at the very end of the pat at the end of the book. And this one is a little bit longer, so I'm not gonna read the whole thing. Um, but again, the very first verse talks about that some of them didn't believe. And he's having to prove to them, in this case, Mark says that he rebukes them. He deals with their doubt by rebuking them for their for their unbelief. And then he gives the commission and he says, Go to where? He says, Go to all the world. Now, Mark has a little different twist here because Mark says, Go to all creation. So Matthew writes that this is for the nation, and Mark expands that to include all of creation. Romans 8 tells us that the entirety of creation is groaning in the travail, waiting for the redemption that is to come. And the message of the gospel is not just a message of salvation for humans, it's a message of redemption for everything that God has made, to restore his creation to its glory and its beauty. Mark also uses the word gospel. It's the only telling of the gospel, the Great Commission, I believe, that uses the word gospel. And many of us probably remember that the word gospel in the context of the Roman Empire was a word used to describe the proclamation or the announcement of a victory of some kind. So somebody great, somebody important had won a victory or had accomplished something noteworthy, and the word that they would use to describe the announcement of that victory was gospel. Of course, the the Greek version of that word that I don't I'm not going to try to pronounce because I'll mess it up. But we get that word gospel from that meaning. And so Mark is saying here, go to the entirety of creation and announce that there is a great victory. This is a proclamation of a victory. So we see a slightly different um emphasis, a slightly different uh perspective on what this is. Mark also spends a lot of time, this writing in Mark spends a lot of time talking about the result of this proclamation, the signs and wonders that would accompany the telling of the gospel. That there will be miracles and and and spiritual signs that will go along with this preaching as a way of validating the uh the message that was to be preached. Um Mark also here deals with this idea of belief and unbelief, that those who believe will be saved, and those who do not believe will be condemned. And so this idea of believing the message comes into play here in the book of Mark. Now we're

Luke And Acts Witnesses Wait

SPEAKER_00 10:39

gonna skip ahead to Luke, and we're gonna see the way that Luke tells this story. We find it in the 24th chapter of Luke, starting in verse 36. They were talking about this thing, and Jesus stood among them, and they were startled and afraid, and he said, Why are you troubled? Look, here's my hands, here's my feet, it's me, I'm real, I'm alive. And here again, Jesus is dealing with the fact that some of them did not believe. Some of them were still in doubt that Jesus was alive. And having dealt with that, then he begins to give them instructions. It's here where he says to go again. Luke uses the term nations. He says, Go to all nations, but he also specifies this idea of starting in Jerusalem and going out from there. Beginning in Jerusalem. He also emphasizes the fact that the disciples are witnesses, that they've seen something, they've experienced something that's worth telling. This is this is a message that starts with a specific group of group of people who could validate, who could say, We've seen with our eyes. John writes, we've seen it with our eyes, we've handed it with our hands. It's the word of life, and we share it with you. In the first, the first epistle of John. Luke also here gives tells that Jesus gave them instructions to wait. So he sent them out, but he said, But wait first, because there is a promise from the Father that is coming. There is power from on high. You will be clothed with power from on high. And so he gave them instructions to wait for that the coming of the Holy Spirit, which would empower the preaching of the message. We're gonna go ahead again. John does not tell the story of the great of Jesus' commission to his disciples. And so we're gonna go to the first chapter of Acts, where again we're with the same the same writer, Luke. And so there's a lot of similarities between Luke, the gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts. Um, in the book of Acts, it's a little bit shorter, but it's some of the same themes. And it says he gave them many proofs. So again, we see this picture of Jesus dealing with their doubt and proving to them that he was real and he was alive. And here again, we see this idea of starting in Jerusalem and it's expanded a little bit, uh, starting in Jerusalem and then to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth. And so we see this picture that Jesus intended for this message to start there where they were with his group of disciples and go out like wagon spooks. Again, in the book of Acts, Luke emphasizes the idea that the disciples are witnesses, that they're not just telling a story that they heard, but it's something that they saw and they felt and they handled, and they knew it was true. And again, he repeats the instruction to wait for the promise of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. Here in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke is writing, the purpose of his book is to explain what the disciples did. These are the men who walked with Jesus and the women who walked with Jesus and who experienced his ministry and who had personal encounters. And so the book of Acts is written as a historical record. How did these men live their lives? What is the evidence of their lives? What did they do? What did they say? What did they preach? And it gives credibility to the gospel of Jesus. So, the gospel that Jesus taught. So the emphasis here in this telling of the Great Commission is really a focus on the disciples themselves. What is the message they received and how did they respond to it? Okay, so that's kind of a quick summary. I would encourage you to do a little bit of the study on your own. Um, go home and dig into these four versions of the Great Commission because there's a lot of um springboards here, a lot of things you could jump off of and dive into deeper. And it's really interesting to

Acts Snapshot Pentecost To The Nations

SPEAKER_00 14:54

uh kind of compare each of these four tellings of the Great Commission, and there are some insights that we can learn about um what did Jesus mean by all of this. Now, of course, we all know the story of the book of Acts is the story of the church, is the story of the disciples fulfilling this Great Commission, keeping Jesus' commandments, um, and and and um taking the commission seriously, going out. And we um I love the study of the book of Acts because there's so much there that we can gain from an understanding of what the first generation church did and how they lived and how they preached the gospel and what ministry meant to them. And um, but that's that's a uh a multi-week series to go through the book of Acts, and we're only here for just a few minutes, so we're not gonna do that. We're gonna skip over the book of Acts. Um, but I just want to take just a moment to think about what all's there. Think about what happened, what unfolds in the book of Acts. We read of uh the day of Pentecost, when the disciples were gathered together in one place and the spirit came down, they saw tongues of fire, they began to speak in tongues, and Peter stands up and gives the first sermon of the church. When he stood up and he said, These men aren't drunk, listen to me. This is the fulfillment of prophecy. And he goes to the prophets from the Old Testament and he explains to them the message of the gospel, starting with what they already knew, the prophets and the promises of God, and he shows them, he convinces them that this Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. He is the Messiah. Then we see the church begins to spread, it goes to other places. Just like Jesus said, starting in Jerusalem, and then Samaria, Judea and Samaria. So the church begins to spread, that comes with persecution. Authorities don't like the threat to their status quo, and so they begin to try to stamp out this movement and get rid of the church, which is not successful. We read of a man named Saul who had a lot of ambition, a lot of energy to stamp this movement out and to maintain the control and position of his people. Obviously, we know the story there that Saul had a miraculous encounter with Jesus. Saul didn't go out looking for Jesus, he wasn't searching for for the gospel, but Jesus found him that day on the road to Damascus. And his heart was changed. He came face to face with his Lord and went away changed. That's in chapter 9. Then the rest of the book of Acts deals significantly with Paul's ministry. We see the ministry of Peter and of Barnabas and Silas and some others as well, but increasingly towards the end of the book of Acts, we see more and more of the work of Paul. Um in chapter 10, we start to see more of that spreading to the ends of the earth as the gospel comes to the Gentiles, and Peter receives a vision, and he goes to see the house of Cornelius, and Gentiles are brought in. And then there's this kerfuffle in the church because they say, How can these things be? This goes contrary to everything that we've been taught and everything we've held dear. And so we read the story of the Jerusalem Council in chapter 15, where the church comes together and they say, No, this actually is the gospel. This is the gospel that Gentiles can be brought into, and that we don't have to proselytize them. And then throughout the book of Acts, we see evidence of the gospel going into all of the ends of the earth. Um, there's a man from Ethiopia who receives the gospel from Philip. There's there's um the places where the gospel begins to go east into Asia. In chapter uh 16, we read that Paul goes to Philippi, and there the first convert that we read of who is of European descent in Philippi, um, or at least the first convert in Europe. Um, Philippi is in Macedonia, which is part of Europe, and so um the gospel is going into Europe. Um, there are many of us here who are of European descent, and so um that's not really that significant other than the personal interest of um we are descendants of someone who heard the gospel, and it started in Jerusalem and made its way to here. And then the rest of the book of Acts is predominantly Paul's travels and the people he traveled with and the story of the gospel going from place to place, and everywhere it went, uh, people's lives were changed and people were drawn to the Lord. So that's a very rapid summary, and I want to finish up in the book of Philippians.

Paul Counts Credentials As Rubbish

SPEAKER_00 19:53

So we've done these these two parts. First is to kind of look at the Great Commission and what it is, and um, it's of vital importance. This is these are the last words of Jesus before he left the earth. It's the instructions he gave to his disciples. I'm going away and I'm giving you a job. And the job you have is this to preach, to teach, to baptize, to proclaim the gospel, so that people can believe, so that there can be in one of these uh one of these passages, he specifically mentions um um repentance for the forgiveness of sins, which is an integral part of the gospel. And we read through the book of Acts of Paul and his miraculous transformation and the powerful ministry that he had, his the effect that he had on the early church, he was a man used by God in a powerful way in the building of the church, in the fulfilling of this great commission. And we get to nearly the end of his life. The book of Philippians was written towards the end of Paul's life. It is the last of his general epistles. So the last of the epistles written to a church. A little later he would write letters to individuals, but this was the last of the epistles written to a church that we have in Scripture. And I'm curious, I'm interested, to see Paul's state of mind at this point of his life. After all that he has seen and done and participated in, and after all that the Holy Spirit has done through him and around him, after all the fulfillment and the miracles that he's seen, what is he thinking of? What's important to him? I think this is instructive for us because we come into this Great Commission as recipients many generations later. I believe the gut the Great Commission is for us. It was spoken to the disciples, and I believe it extends to the church today. It's our commission to go and fulfill. But who are we to do it? Do we really have what it takes to go fulfill the Great Commission? Is it really for us? I think it's really interesting to note that every telling of the Great Commission, all four of them, is being given to a group of people who weren't quite sure. They had some doubts. They didn't really know for sure if they believed this. In all four places, we read this in different ways that Jesus is dealing with the fact that they don't believe. Well, I don't like to, but I do it. I run things around in my brain until they're worn out and smashed down and turned inside out and overused. And um it can be very easy for us to start looking at our own lives, and we kind of have this idealized version of what ministry looks like, what mission work might look like, what a good missionary might look like. And I I have many times done the analysis and concluded that I'm not a very good missionary. There's a lot wrong with me. There's a lot of unbelief in my heart, there's a lot of doubts, there's a lot of disobedience. And maybe you feel that way too. Maybe you look at your life and you say, Well, you know, I can do my job, whatever it is, I can do that, and I can get paid. But ministry is a little hard for me. I'm not sure I could do that. Uh there was somebody recently who told me, I hope I'd ever get called to do that, because I'm not sure I could. Um, it's okay to have those feelings. It is. And sometimes it's good to recognize there are some things we're gifted at and some things we're just not, and that's okay. But the disciples themselves, the ones who walked with Jesus, the ones who saw him and handled him, and the ones who were witnesses of his resurrection, and the ones to whom Jesus gave his great commission, they were not quite sure. They had some doubts. And we know from the stories that they weren't always obedient either. The Great Commission isn't given to perfect people. It's not the effectiveness of the Great Commission, the effectiveness of the ministry of the gospel doesn't rest on the goodness of the people doing the preaching. Because if it did, we would all be in a bad way. It rests on the efficacy of the work of the Spirit and the truth, the surety of the Word of God. That is our hope. That's our stability, that's our foundation. It is Jesus. It is Jesus Himself that gives us the gospel and makes it alive. Chapter 3 of Philippians. Paul is nearing the end of his life. He's in prison at this point and has been for some time. And in the book, in the third chapter, he begins to tell of, talk about people who are using their credentials for their own gain. People who are boasting in their um in their credentials and their reputations and their positions. And Paul says, I have credentials, I have a history, I have things to boast about. In verse 7, he says, Whatever gain I had, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss, because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him in the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained this, or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own,

Do You Know Christ And His Power

SPEAKER_00 26:20

because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Before Paul's conversion, he had credentials. After his conversion, he had credentials. He was a great man of faith. No one could deny the importance of Paul's work in the spreading of the church. And here he rightly recognizes that it's all rubbish, it's all trash. It doesn't matter. None of it counts. And one thing only. Paul says that I may know Christ, that I may share in the fellowship of his suffering, and that I may know the power of his resurrection. What is it to know Christ? And to share in the fellowship of his suffering, to be like him in his death, so that we can be like him in his life. In a place like this, we almost bristle at the idea that maybe there are some that don't know Christ. We want to think, well, we're in church. Everyone here knows Christ. But that's not to be taken for granted. There are people everywhere who don't know Christ. So my question to you this morning, I have several questions for you this morning. And I want you to just reflect a little bit in your own heart. First of all, the most important thing is do you know Christ? Do you really know Christ? And maybe you do, maybe you have for a long time. But what does that really mean? Do you know Christ more? Do you know him more now than you did a year ago, a month ago, a week ago? Are you growing in your knowledge of Christ, in your not just knowledge, head knowledge, but in your relationship? Do you know him? Paul writes, that's the one thing that matters. Do you know the power of his resurrection? Is your life filled with the resurrection power of Christ? And I don't mean participating in church stuff. I don't mean doing all the stuff that you do that is part of looking like a Christian, looking like a good Mennonite or whatever it is you aspire to be. Do you know that is your life filled with the power of the resurrection of Christ? Have you shared in the fellowship of his suffering? Are you like him in his death? Romans 8, 6, I think, teaches us that we become like Jesus in his death when we die to sin. Are you dying to sin? I don't mean were you baptized once. Are you dying to sin? Paul writes in another place, I died daily. He writes in another place, I'm crucified with Christ. Are we being crucified? Is our flesh being nailed to the cross so that the resurrection power of Jesus can shine through us? Is the life you live ordered to display the victory of Christ, that proclamation of victory, the message of the gospel? Is that the life that you live? Is that the evidence of your life? Paul says, I press on. I press on to make this my own, because he has made me his own. His banner over me is love. He brought me to his banqueting table, and he's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul. Is that your song? Are you knowing Christ? Are you growing in knowing him? Are you knowing him in his death and then knowing him in his resurrection life? Because this is the one thing that matters. And I encourage you this morning. We need workers in the kingdom of God. We need people who are willing to take up the mantle and minister here at home and abroad. But none of that matters until first we know Christ. And that is the one thing that's most important. So take that to heart this morning and look into your own heart and your own life and ask yourself those questions about whether each day is finding you closer to Christ and more like him in his death and more like him in his resurrection. Blessings to you.