SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll be reading from Matthew chapter twenty-eight, from sixteen through to twenty.
SPEAKER_01: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
SPEAKER_01: And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven, and on earth has been given unto me.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to you.
SPEAKER_02: If you've uh joined us since we begun, my name is Mark.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the uh leaders here at the church.
SPEAKER_02: You're very welcome if you are uh new or visiting, if you are new or visiting with us, uh today is a great Sunday to be here because today we begin a new series.
SPEAKER_02: We've been doing uh Psalms all the way through the summer.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but now as summer draws to a conclusion and the kids go back to school.
SPEAKER_02: Can I get an amen from the parents?
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, and they go back to school, or perhaps I even are back for a couple of days.
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh we go into September.
SPEAKER_02: September uh I describe as the new year because it's kind of how I operate by academic years.
SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's actually a time of kind of almost kind of rejuvenation and rebirth for the city, perhaps this year even more so than the last couple.
SPEAKER_02: Feels like we're kind of really coming out of uh the uh the COVID restrictions and lockdowns, and uh and usually September is a really exciting time for for city center churches, of which we are one uh as we get to welcome uh new folks coming through.
SPEAKER_02: So if you've just moved to the city, if you've just joined us, uh you're really welcome here.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that we like to do uh right at the start of the year, uh as uh as I like to think of it, is we want to uh to step back each year and just remind ourselves of what our uh what our fundamentals are, what our foundations are as a church, what are some of our uh our core commitments?
SPEAKER_02: And so if you're new and you're looking for a church, uh this is uh a good series to be a part of as you think, okay, well, what what does City Church value?
SPEAKER_02: What are they about?
SPEAKER_02: What are the kinds of things that they prioritize?
SPEAKER_02: Or if you've been uh with us uh for some time, as we come out of the uh the season of uh of lockdown, as we prepare for a new year, it's by way of refreshing to think, okay, this is why I joined City to begin with.
SPEAKER_02: This is what we're about as a church.
SPEAKER_02: This is the the mission that I am joining and participating with them on.
SPEAKER_02: Um we're going to be doing five weeks uh from now through to the end of uh of September, looking at five core commitments, values uh that we that we have.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just give them to you now by way of uh trailer, since we're in a in a cinema.
SPEAKER_02: Um uh this autumn.
SPEAKER_02: Uh no, okay.
SPEAKER_02: They are.
SPEAKER_02: Um uh today we're going to be looking at the uh the mission of the church.
SPEAKER_02: And as G Day read, that that call to go.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, what what do we value?
SPEAKER_02: Well, we value the the making of disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's that you Lord, like uh it's just gotten suddenly brighter.
SPEAKER_02: Um uh value the mission of the church, that call to go and to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: We are disciples, but we are sent out by the risen Lord Jesus to be disciple makers.
SPEAKER_02: That's today.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna look at what that is.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, then we uh next week are gonna be describing how it is that we are quite unapologetically Bible people.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we believe that when the Bible is read, God's voice is heard.
SPEAKER_02: And so the Bible is absolutely central to our life.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you have questions about the Bible, about its inspiration, what that means, its authority, uh, and why it is that we form our life around the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: We are people of uh of the book.
SPEAKER_02: Uh the kinds of sermons that we preach are not those where we where we kind of read uh read a verse, kind of usually kind of out of context, and then springboard into a life story that makes me look great.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have very many of them, so I got to stick with the book.
SPEAKER_02: So that's gonna be uh next week.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, third thing that we are committed to and value is uh servant, transparent, accountable leadership.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be thinking about what it means to uh to lead and to be led in a way that is healthy uh and accountable.
SPEAKER_02: And so we'll be thinking a little about that in two weeks' time.
SPEAKER_02: Then we will turn to the idea of community.
SPEAKER_02: Uh many of you perhaps have uh have come to Dublin.
SPEAKER_02: Home is elsewhere, you're trying to make home here, and so you're looking for connection, community, family to know and be known.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible offers us a family.
SPEAKER_02: The church is not an organization, it's a home where family lives, and it's a hospital for those in need of healing, and we do that in the context of community.
SPEAKER_02: And then finally, we'll be looking at uh what it means to be uh sacrificial in our uh in our generosity, both in how we uh use the things that God has given us and in how we use our our gifts and our talents as well.
SPEAKER_02: And that will close out our series.
SPEAKER_02: That's a more topical series.
SPEAKER_02: We'll be looking at different parts of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: That's not our usual practice.
SPEAKER_02: Our usual practice is to pick uh books of the Bible and to go through them.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so we will be doing that for the for the rest of uh the autumn term, but that's where we're going over the next five weeks.
SPEAKER_02: We're thinking this morning, though, about mission.
SPEAKER_02: And our mission as a church uh can be summarized in uh in four verbs.
SPEAKER_02: They are connect, grow, serve, go.
SPEAKER_02: City church exists to connect people to Jesus, that they might grow to spiritual maturity, that they might serve the community, and go to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: That's city church in a nutshell, if you're wondering what we're about.
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
SPEAKER_02: We exist to do four things to connect, to grow, to serve, and to go.
SPEAKER_02: And we invite people who make city church their home to participate with us in that mission.
SPEAKER_02: We do so because we believe that that is the mission that God is on.
SPEAKER_02: God is on a mission to make much of his son, the Lord Jesus, that people might come to know him, and that in knowing him they might be transformed, as Paul says, from one degree of glory to another, that they might grow up into spiritual maturity, but that that is also done for a purpose, is for the purpose of serving one another, the community, and going with the good news of Jesus to others, so that that kingdom that begins as a mustard seed might expand and expand so that it becomes one of the largest trees in in all of the fields, and that the birds of the air, that is, uh the nations, come to rest in its branches.
SPEAKER_02: That is what we exist to be about, and that's what we invite you to.
SPEAKER_02: You maybe uh have been to a church before, which is a little bit like uh, well, like coming to a cinema.
SPEAKER_02: You pay your ticket and you come in and you watch the show.
SPEAKER_02: Or you go to, or it's like going to a uh a sporting match, a rugby match at the Aviva Stadium.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know me, I'm terrible at sports analogies, so just forgive me for a second.
SPEAKER_02: But it's a little bit like going to the Aviva, you pay your ticket, you sit in the stands, and you watch the professionals doing the doing the game, doing the sportsing, whatever it is that they're doing on the on the uh field pitch, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not the way the church is.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that the believers in Jesus are sitting in the stands, spectating and watching me, the professional Christian, the guy who gets paid for doing this, doing the work of evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we're all on the pitch.
SPEAKER_02: And the world is watching.
SPEAKER_02: The world is watching how we conduct ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Does what we say and what we do match up?
SPEAKER_02: Do we live with love and integrity, generosity, compassion, joy, and faithfulness and all of the fruits of the spirit?
SPEAKER_02: Is it better to be a spectator or a participant?
SPEAKER_02: Is it better to read a romance novel or is it better to be in love?
SPEAKER_02: Is it better to be in love?
SPEAKER_02: It is better to participate than to spectate.
SPEAKER_02: And we invite you, as a church, to participate in the mission of God with us because it is the greatest thing that you can give your life to.
SPEAKER_02: It is the greatest cause in all of the universe, it is the only cause that will last on into eternity.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying that you all must give up your jobs uh and uh and all come and uh and follow my life path.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, that's that's not it at all.
SPEAKER_02: As we'll see in a minute.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus says uh go and make disciples, it's it's actually it's a continuous verb.
SPEAKER_02: It's basically Jesus is saying, as you are going, make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see?
SPEAKER_02: So whatever sphere of life your God is leading you into, you that you're going into, Jesus is saying, make disciples as you're going along that path.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that everybody needs to kind of, once you're a Christian, you need to divert off and join a join a monastery.
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, as you're going in your college, in your career, in your family, as you're going, make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Here at City Church, but what is the church?
SPEAKER_02: Well, the church, the church is the it is the merging of lots of individual stories.
SPEAKER_02: You all have your own individual story.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know uh some of you here this morning, I don't know what brought you through those doors where you are emotionally, even where you are with faith.
SPEAKER_02: We all come with individual stories, but they the church is when people gather and their individual stories all mingle together and wrap around the silk and steel of the gospel towards one singular end, the making much of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We work together to be on that mission.
SPEAKER_02: To be a Christian is to be on mission.
SPEAKER_02: It is not that there are the normal Christians who sit in the seats, and then there are the missionaries, there's the evangelists, there's the disciple makers, and they're the ones who do it at full time, or they're the ones who are particularly gifted.
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
SPEAKER_02: Uh to be a Christian is to be a disciple maker, it is to be on mission.
SPEAKER_02: To follow Jesus is to follow his command to go.
SPEAKER_02: Let us uh look more closely at these verses from Matthew 28.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you uh have a Bible, I would encourage you to look that up or bring it up on your phone, Matthew 28, verses 16 to 20.
SPEAKER_02: If you need a Bible, um good luck.
SPEAKER_02: There's normally a box down there, but it doesn't seem to be there.
SPEAKER_02: So uh listen closely.
SPEAKER_02: Um the the passage actually structures around uh for all statements.
SPEAKER_02: Um if you're wanting to know kind of where we're going, uh the passage structures around for all statements.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says that all authority has been given to him, and then he says to uh to go and make disciples of all nations, and then he says to teach them all that I have uh commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: And then finally he says, Behold, I am with you always.
SPEAKER_02: You want to know the structure of these verses?
SPEAKER_02: It's structured really around those kind of four all statements, and so that's uh kind of where we're going to be going.
SPEAKER_02: But let's just uh perhaps ask a slightly foolish question, maybe, and say, Well, who is it that's inviting us on mission?
SPEAKER_02: Sunday school answer is Jesus, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Who is inviting us on mission was Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: But who is this Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Who is this Jesus at the end of Matthew?
SPEAKER_02: What have we come through?
SPEAKER_02: Well, we're not in his earthly uh ministry, we're not uh we're not up in Galilee.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, that is all past now.
SPEAKER_02: We've gone through the cross, Jesus' sin-bearing death, and we have come through his victorious resurrection, that great yes and amen from God the Father, that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was effective for taking away your sin.
SPEAKER_02: And now he is risen, and he is about to ascend to his father.
SPEAKER_02: He's about to ascend to his father, who I now sound like.
SPEAKER_02: Who knew that he was northern Irish.
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully that there we are, there we go.
SPEAKER_02: And the ascension of the Lord Jesus is Jesus' coronation.
SPEAKER_02: He's ascending to the right hand of his father, he's receiving that eternal throne that we read about in Daniel 7.
SPEAKER_02: The Son of Man is about to be presented to the ancient of days and giving that and given that kingdom that will have no end.
SPEAKER_02: And before he goes, he says to his disciples that he is the one, first of all, who has all authority.
SPEAKER_02: Now the eleven disciples, because Judas has taken his life, the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had directed.
SPEAKER_02: And when we when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_02: In heaven and on earth, is there any sphere or realm or square inch of this present age that Jesus does not have authority?
SPEAKER_02: No, all authority in heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_02: He is risen and his and he is victorious.
SPEAKER_02: His resurrection is the confirmation that he is the promised king of Psalm II, the Son of Man of Daniel 7.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one who has died for sin and triumphed over it, removing guilt and shame and condemnation.
SPEAKER_02: He has triumphed over all suffering and death, and one day he will put it all to an end.
SPEAKER_02: He is the one who has all authority.
SPEAKER_02: All authority over all times, all circumstances, all peoples.
SPEAKER_02: That includes everyone in this room this morning.
SPEAKER_02: He has all authority over your past, over your present, and over your future.
SPEAKER_02: He has all authority over where you have been and where you have gone where you are going.
SPEAKER_02: The one who gave himself for you, because he loves you, now exercises his loving authority over you in this world and says, I have died for you, I am risen victorious for you, and now I send you out.
SPEAKER_02: And that's great news, actually.
SPEAKER_02: Because when Jesus says that he is the one with all authority, what does that mean for our mission?
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean for our sending out?
SPEAKER_02: Is its ultimate success in doubt?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: The one with all authority is the same one who said, I'll build my kingdom and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_02: And so we go out with great confidence, not with arrogance, because we know that we are ones who uh who are both unworthy and yet shown our great worth.
SPEAKER_02: So we do not go with with arrogance, but we do go with confidence because the one who has all authority means that his mission will succeed.
SPEAKER_02: This is the story that you join.
SPEAKER_02: This is what you are invited as a believer in the Lord Jesus to participate in.
SPEAKER_02: When we talk about connecting people to Jesus, that is telling them about him, we do so with confidence, actually, that the Lord Jesus will have mercy on those people.
SPEAKER_02: And that's wonderful news, especially when you find yourself with cotton wool mouth and you find yourself tripping over your words because you know what?
SPEAKER_02: Their eternal destiny is not determined by your winsomeness or by your ability to speak, but on the one who has all authority.
SPEAKER_02: You can be in a debate in a pub or in a workplace with somebody who is asking you question after question after question.
SPEAKER_02: You feel like you're on the back foot.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been in those sorts of circumstances in the people are like, well, well, what about what about evolution and what about suffering?
SPEAKER_02: And what about this and what about that?
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, oh, I didn't know.
SPEAKER_02: And you come away there feeling totally black and blue.
SPEAKER_02: You think I you go home and think I lost that debate.
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
SPEAKER_02: Their eternal destiny is not on your hands, it rests with the one who has all authority.
SPEAKER_02: And if the one who has all authority can make a donkey speak, he can use me.
SPEAKER_02: That's what you're invited to participate in.
SPEAKER_02: And how do the disciples respond?
SPEAKER_02: Well, we see that in verse 17 uh they respond to the risen Lord Jesus on that mountain with worship.
SPEAKER_02: That is the only appropriate response to the call of the risen Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: All of the Christian life is a is an outworking of that, of that bowing down, of that worship to him.
SPEAKER_02: Mission is an act of worship.
SPEAKER_02: It is an act of because in in going with the gospel and and and telling people of the gospel, you would only do that if you if you believe that Jesus is worth it, if he is worthy of being communicated about to others.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell we do this all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Because I like, I like my I like my coffee water at 85 degrees.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want it to go, I don't want it to go hotter than that.
SPEAKER_02: So I like it being temperature controlled.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm an evangelist for the temperature controlled kettle.
SPEAKER_02: You have to get this because I know the worth of it and I feel the worth and experience the worth of it three times a day.
SPEAKER_02: And because I know that worth, I tell other people.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm so slow to do that about the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'll tell people about the kettle that I bought, but not about the one who bought me.
SPEAKER_02: They worshiped, but also there is some tremendous comfort here in verse 17, and I I love this.
SPEAKER_02: I'm perplexed and bewildered by it, but I take such heart from it.
SPEAKER_02: Look what verse 17 says, and when they saw when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
SPEAKER_02: That's the eleven.
SPEAKER_02: That's the guys who have been with Jesus for three years, who have walked with him closely, they have come, they have come through the cross, and then they have witnessed the empty tomb, and they get on the mountain and they buy that in worship, but still some still some had questions.
SPEAKER_02: Still some thought, can this really be can this really be true?
SPEAKER_02: Can this really is he really alive?
SPEAKER_02: Has he really taken away my sin?
SPEAKER_02: And some doubted.
SPEAKER_02: After all that they had witnessed, all that they had experienced.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, with all of his majesty and all of his authority, his patience and compassion for those disciples who bow down and worship and yet are worshiping, still have questions, are still growing, are still figuring things out.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you, but I take great heart in that.
SPEAKER_02: That you can still be somebody who is wrestling through questions and somebody who's bowing down in worship.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus doesn't go to this right, okay.
SPEAKER_02: So now that I uh know all of your thoughts, uh eight of you are fine.
SPEAKER_02: You're worshiping through pure hearts and uh Three of you, some doubts there.
SPEAKER_02: You need to do the refresher course.
SPEAKER_02: No, he doesn't do that, does he?
SPEAKER_02: He sends all 11 out.
SPEAKER_02: He sends them all out.
SPEAKER_02: You got doubts?
SPEAKER_02: You got questions?
SPEAKER_02: You're worshiping me?
SPEAKER_02: You're following me?
SPEAKER_02: Go.
SPEAKER_02: Go and make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Because what's better than coming alongside somebody and going, Do you know what I don't have all I don't have all of the answers?
SPEAKER_02: But I'm going to tell you what I know.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to tell you what I've experienced and maybe we can figure out the rest together.
SPEAKER_02: There's still things that I'm wrestling through, but would you come and would you learn with me?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe people might actually respond better to that than uh than perhaps what can be the disposition, which is which is come follow me and I will lead you into all of the truth.
SPEAKER_02: People don't want to know that.
SPEAKER_02: They want people to come alongside them and say, hey, come and see this guy who told me everything that I'd ever did ever done.
SPEAKER_02: And who loves me anyway.
SPEAKER_02: I haven't got it all figured out.
SPEAKER_02: But there's something about him.
SPEAKER_02: Some doubted, and they were still sent out.
SPEAKER_02: You who doubt, we still invite you to come and participate in the greatest mission in all of the universe.
SPEAKER_02: Come with your questions, come and ask them.
SPEAKER_02: Look at our values on the website.
SPEAKER_02: One of the things of our nine values, this you're welcome.
SPEAKER_02: This is not a nine-week series, is that we embrace the skeptic.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you here have legitimate questions that need to be wrestled through.
SPEAKER_02: They won't ultimately say if you becoming a Christian is not ultimately in the final analysis an intellectual exercise, but it does have intellectual rigor to it.
SPEAKER_02: Come with your doubts and come and join the mission.
SPEAKER_02: What is the mission?
SPEAKER_02: Well, the mission is to go.
SPEAKER_02: As you are going.
SPEAKER_02: That is, that we are not to be those who keep the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That's what gospel means.
SPEAKER_02: It means good news, the good announcement of sin forgiven, of life renewed and eternal with the God who made us and who loves us.
SPEAKER_02: We're not to keep that for ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: We're not to be a holy huddle.
SPEAKER_02: We are to go.
SPEAKER_02: He used to say that um uh that pastors, ministers, people who did my job, but I think it's true of Christians, uh are like are like manure.
SPEAKER_02: When they're all kind of huddled together, they begin to stink, but you spread them out over the land and they do a bit of good.
SPEAKER_02: We're not supposed to clump together.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, the the disciples in in Luke's gospel are uh are looking up at heaven after Jesus has ascended and they're they're kind of peering and peering and peering.
SPEAKER_02: And actually, two angels have to come down and tap them on the shoulder and go.
SPEAKER_02: Go.
SPEAKER_02: Stop looking there.
SPEAKER_02: You gotta go.
SPEAKER_02: We gotta be those who are going.
SPEAKER_02: Don't keep the good news to yourself, don't huddle together.
SPEAKER_02: Why can they go?
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus has all authority.
SPEAKER_02: Where do they go to?
SPEAKER_02: And this is the second of all, they go to all nations.
SPEAKER_02: The one who has all authority sends us out to all nations.
SPEAKER_02: Every uh nation and tribe and tongue and people group and ethnicity and ethnicity and subculture and socioeconomic class and grouping were sent to them all.
SPEAKER_02: It is a great joy that we get to express that in part in microcosm, but we are perfectly desirous of more.
SPEAKER_02: We want to see more.
SPEAKER_02: From every corner of the world, people coming to know him.
SPEAKER_02: And what are we to do as we go to all nations?
SPEAKER_02: We are to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: This is the essence, excuse me, of participation with Jesus in this great story.
SPEAKER_02: To see Jesus for who he is, for who he truly is, the risen King, the one with all authority, and having been transformed by that, through his sin obliterating death, that you might see him as the one who is supremely worthy, and that being captivated by him in worship, you might willingly go and invite others to come and see him.
SPEAKER_02: All believers are sent out to be disciple makers.
SPEAKER_02: The only question are where and how.
SPEAKER_02: Like I've said before, the go is a going, and as you are going, make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Mission, therefore, is not an event, it is not an extra thing to add to your diary, as is so often the case in the in the church.
SPEAKER_02: So, well, we do we'll do a mission week where we'll have a set of talks every evening, and we'll re-convert every Christian that's sitting there.
SPEAKER_02: Because we'll we'll we'll command because we encourage people to raise their hand or come to the front.
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord has used those things in great and mighty ways.
SPEAKER_02: But the call to mission, it is not an extra thing for your diary, it is a mindset for how you carry out your life.
SPEAKER_02: You go to the you go to a regular barber or hairdresser, you're to go as a disciple maker.
SPEAKER_02: If you go to the same coffee shop, you're to go as a disciple maker.
SPEAKER_02: If you go to the same office, you're to go as a disciple maker.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that we just do this extra thing.
SPEAKER_02: We're busy enough, but it's about a paradigm shift that starts tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_02: I imagine that every person in this room has regular rhythms.
SPEAKER_02: Regular non-Christian folks who you encounter.
SPEAKER_02: Word sent to them in the regular rhythms of life.
SPEAKER_02: And how does Jesus say that disciples are made?
SPEAKER_02: The third all?
SPEAKER_02: By teaching them all, Jesus says, that I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_02: Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: We friends have the words of eternal life, as Peter said to Jesus in John 6.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know that we have the only lasting and enduring hope for a hopeless world?
SPEAKER_02: Because everybody in the world is placing their hope in a circumstance, in a person, in a career, in family, in fortune, in stuff that is intrinsically earthbound and therefore temporary, and can and will and and is taken away.
SPEAKER_02: It matters very much what you attach it to.
SPEAKER_02: What Christian says, you can attach the hope of your life to something that transcends circumstance so that when the most precious things in your life are lost, you can still put one foot in front of the other and still have hope.
SPEAKER_02: Because it is not based in the things of this world, but in the eternally enthroned Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We have hope for a hopeless world.
SPEAKER_02: Mission, evangelism, therefore, are both essential and eternally significant.
SPEAKER_02: At City Church, we want all to know the gospel, what the good news of Jesus is, and in knowing the gospel, to have your lives ever more transformed by it, and then to have your affections so stirred for Jesus that you are willing to go out into the world and invite others to come and see, to tell them what he has done for you, to tell them of his great worth and the hope that we can have in him.
SPEAKER_02: All of our life is formed around that, whether it's on Sundays, midweek community groups, whether it's informally as we meet together for prayer times or over coffee or at parties, we exist to encourage one another in that mission, to build one another, to grow one another so that they might go, we might go to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: We encourage one another with the gospel, we gossip the gospel to one another.
SPEAKER_02: We together pray and should pray for those who we know who don't know the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We should actively seek to be in their lives, consistently, investing time in them.
SPEAKER_02: You really want to be the kind of person that your non-Christian friend calls at 2 a.m.
SPEAKER_02: when they need someone.
SPEAKER_02: You want to be that person so that you're the one who can offer them hope when all hope is fading.
SPEAKER_02: And that is what we go with.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus, as we go, gives us a comfort and an encouragement, and this is the fourth all.
SPEAKER_02: The reminder that he is with us always.
SPEAKER_02: And behold, at the very end of verse 20, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_02: We are still in that age that Jesus talks about.
SPEAKER_02: The age that we are in began with Jesus' resurrection and will conclude with his returning again, and he will usher in a new age, and that will be an age where there is no more sin, no more death, where there is no more opportunity to turn to him.
SPEAKER_02: He delays his return in patience and mercy, and says to the Christian, Go, and I'm with you as you go, always, until I return, and bring history to an end, and bring the fullness of my glorious reign.
SPEAKER_02: Why do we evangelize people?
SPEAKER_02: We do so out of obedience to the Christ who has all authority and out of gratitude for the Christ who loves us and who is with us always.
SPEAKER_02: We go because of obedience and gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: Supreme authority and wonderful comfort go hand in hand here in the call to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll see you when you're done.
SPEAKER_02: Go.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the one who has all authority, all authority over you and over your life and how your your life is unfolding and being directed.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm telling you, go.
SPEAKER_02: Go in obedience to my call.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I'm going with you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm walking alongside you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm there.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to with you always.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to be with you when you leave that conversation with that non-Christian and you just feel beat up.
SPEAKER_02: Be with you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to be encouraging you then.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to be with you in that conversation when you don't really know what to say.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to give you words.
SPEAKER_02: And do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: My Holy Spirit is going to be at work in their hearts.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to take those words and I'm going to do what I did with the loaves and the fish.
SPEAKER_02: You thought that that meal was insufficient?
SPEAKER_02: Do you see what?
SPEAKER_02: Do you remember what I did with that?
SPEAKER_02: I fed 5,000 people.
SPEAKER_02: Do you think I could take your uh your uh your two fish, five loaf words and multiply them in somebody's heart?
SPEAKER_02: Do you think that I could do that?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm with you always.
SPEAKER_02: I go, I'm with you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm walking by your side.
SPEAKER_02: Don't lose heart.
SPEAKER_02: Don't shrink back.
SPEAKER_02: I'm with you always.
SPEAKER_02: We need this in every season of our life.
SPEAKER_02: That assurance that Jesus is with us always.
SPEAKER_02: We need it especially in evangelism because here's a stark reality if you're a Christian in Dublin, you are probably the only Christian that your friends know.
SPEAKER_02: You're probably the only Christian that your colleagues know.
SPEAKER_02: It's not like parts of Northern Ireland.
SPEAKER_02: It's not like parts of North America where there are Christians on every street corner.
SPEAKER_02: You're probably it.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Please know.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a pain line to cross, isn't there?
SPEAKER_02: In those conversations.
SPEAKER_02: I find myself, I find myself, it happened a couple of weeks ago.
SPEAKER_02: I was talking to another dad, who's a neighbor of ours, and I felt like we were kind of we were talking about things of meaning and significance.
SPEAKER_02: And we were kind of getting closer to that line where I might say, like, would you like to look into those things?
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to read the Bible together?
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't.
SPEAKER_02: I chickened out.
SPEAKER_02: I went on to another kind of tangential thing.
SPEAKER_02: Because there's a pain line, there's a pain line that needs to be crossed.
SPEAKER_02: There's a pain line, and why it's painful is because you've got to say, that person's opinion of me, that person's potential rejection of me, matters less than God's opinion of me.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a line right there in the sand of your relationship that you've got to be willing to cross in order to go, hey, do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been to church?
SPEAKER_02: Like, have you ever sat down?
SPEAKER_02: Like, if you've ever read Mark's gospel for for yourself, I'd be willing to do that with you.
SPEAKER_02: We we could do that.
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to look in on those things?
SPEAKER_02: Or there's a this I go to this group on a Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_02: You you could come, you'd be welcome.
SPEAKER_02: We we we look at the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: That's the pain line, right?
SPEAKER_02: How do you cross that pain line?
SPEAKER_02: You pain, you cross that pain line when we know and when we repeatedly tell ourselves that our value and our worth and our identity does not come from the response of that person that we're talking to, but comes rather from the God who loves us and send his son to die for us, who is with us always, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_02: And so we can look like a fool for Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We can suffer a little bit of social awkwardness and go home and pray and say, Lord, you know, I just I pray actually that they continued to want to kind of talk to me and that we were able to smooth out, and maybe there's another opportunity on down the on down the line.
SPEAKER_02: There is a pain line to be, there's no doubt about it.
SPEAKER_02: And so it's an encouragement that Jesus is with us always.
SPEAKER_02: We should expect that people will say no.
SPEAKER_02: I think most people will politely decline.
SPEAKER_02: If you've gotten to know them and if you're friendly, that if there's going to be a refusal, it will probably normally be a polite one.
SPEAKER_02: And we should expect that.
SPEAKER_02: We should expect spiritual blindness.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Paul tells us.
SPEAKER_02: The God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the glory of the Lord in the face of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We are to expect that.
SPEAKER_02: We're to expect to be rejected because our loving master, the one who has all authority, was rejected.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I think after doing this for 10 years in this city, I think that there is an increasing openness in some sections of our society and of our world.
SPEAKER_02: I think that there are people who genuinely have no clue what Christianity is about and are intrigued.
SPEAKER_02: And they're they become intrigued when they see your life.
SPEAKER_02: And so I think that some people will say, Yeah, alright.
SPEAKER_02: And you know that some people will say, Yeah, I'll come.
SPEAKER_02: They might kind of text you on a Sunday morning and go, ah, you know what, I can't do it.
SPEAKER_02: You say, reschedule.
SPEAKER_02: How amazing would that be?
SPEAKER_02: You cross that pain line and that person said yes.
SPEAKER_02: And over a course of time, God had mercy on them.
SPEAKER_02: Wouldn't that give you courage?
SPEAKER_02: And going.
SPEAKER_02: So I invite you then, as we conclude, with the invitation of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Well, no, rephrase.
SPEAKER_02: I invite you to participate in the command of Jesus to go to go with us.
SPEAKER_02: We're not sending out lone wolves.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus didn't do that.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus sent them out in twos to encourage one another.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, why did they send them out in twos?
SPEAKER_02: Because they knew that they were going to experience rejection.
SPEAKER_02: And it's much nicer to experience rejection with someone.
SPEAKER_02: The other person can kind of come along and say, Do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: We were supposed Jesus told us to expect that.
SPEAKER_02: We'll keep praying for them.
SPEAKER_02: They'll be okay.
SPEAKER_02: Remember where your value is.
SPEAKER_02: So we go together.
SPEAKER_02: No, there's what, 100, 90, 100 people here?
SPEAKER_02: It's not that I'm saying, okay, all of you individually, off you go, race tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go together.
SPEAKER_02: You go this week, see how you go, you pray for your non-Christian friends, seek those opportunities to cross that pain line.
SPEAKER_02: You come back on Sunday or in community group or whatever it is and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: Give it a go.
SPEAKER_02: And they didn't respond particularly well.
SPEAKER_02: They were polite, but you could just tell that it kind of got a bit awkward.
SPEAKER_02: Would you pray for me that that wouldn't kind of gnaw away at me?
SPEAKER_02: Would you pray for that relationship?
SPEAKER_02: See, we did we do it together.
SPEAKER_02: So I invite us all to participate in that sort of dynamic.
SPEAKER_02: Let me close with four things.
SPEAKER_02: Some by way of reminder.
SPEAKER_02: Can I encourage you firstly to covenant with yourself?
SPEAKER_02: That is to make a vow, perhaps here and now, to pray for a non-Christian friend, colleague, housemate, family member, to just do that regularly.
SPEAKER_02: Pray.
SPEAKER_02: How many stories, how many testimonies, and maybe this is your testimony as well, that actually you've become a follower of the Lord Jesus, and somebody has come up to you, it's usually an old aunt or a grandmother, has come up to you and said, I've prayed for you every day for the last 10 years, 20 years, I prayed for you.
SPEAKER_02: So often that is the first step.
SPEAKER_02: It's the first step of transforming our hearts and getting us ready for crossing that pain line.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure that there are, as I'm talking, names popping up in your mind of people who don't know the Lord Jesus, you just think, oh, the Lord will never have mercy on them.
SPEAKER_02: Set a reminder in your phone that comes up daily.
SPEAKER_02: Whenever you know that you have a moment, maybe it's on your cycle, on your commute, pray for X.
SPEAKER_02: Pray for X and Y.
SPEAKER_02: Do that consistently and watch.
SPEAKER_02: See what the Lord does and see the kind of opportunities that He brings in your path and see how it may be.
SPEAKER_02: Begins to inform your interactions with them.
SPEAKER_02: Do that before you leave here.
SPEAKER_02: Get your phone out.
SPEAKER_02: I'll pretend like you're reading your Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Put a reminder in.
SPEAKER_02: Pray for that person daily.
SPEAKER_02: We did that as a church.
SPEAKER_02: We should not tick.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02: There was a year in our time we made a particular conscious effort in our community groups back when we were much smaller to be praying for non-Christians and to see uh what the what the Lord did over the course of that academic year.
SPEAKER_02: And as a result of the Lord's kindness, not a result, we didn't pray them into the kingdom, but we saw God move.
SPEAKER_02: And we baptized two people at the end of that year.
SPEAKER_02: There's a tremendous encouragement to the church at that point.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying quit broker, I'm not saying, you know, call cause and effect.
SPEAKER_02: But I think that the Lord does show up.
SPEAKER_02: He longs to answer prayers.
SPEAKER_02: That's the first thing.
SPEAKER_02: Second thing would be get to know the people around you.
SPEAKER_02: You so often we kind of we we buff up we buffer up against kind of uh non-Christians, but we never really get to know them.
SPEAKER_02: We kind of we banter with them in the workplace, we banter with our uh with our classmates and things like that, but we we don't seek out opportunities to actually get to know them, to find out their story, where they've come from, what their hopes and dreams and fears are.
SPEAKER_02: Now, don't tomorrow morning uh go into your what are your hopes and dreams and fears?
SPEAKER_02: A little bit more tact required.
SPEAKER_02: Do a really good way actually of kind of figuring out what makes a person tick, invite them to the movies, invite them to the movies, and then afterwards say, What'd you like about that film?
SPEAKER_02: And then say, What did you not like?
SPEAKER_02: Those are evangelistic questions because if you're paying attention to the movie, you'll be able to discern, okay, so that person resonates with that part of the message of that movie, or that person rejects that part of the message, you're building a picture of what makes that person tick, and you haven't asked a question about Jesus at all, you're simply getting to know them, and to listen to them, to build that connection and relationship so that you can get to that point of crossing that pain line.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the third thing.
SPEAKER_02: You need to know who you are in order to cross it.
SPEAKER_02: You are a disciple.
SPEAKER_02: If you are trusting in the Lord Jesus, you are one of his, held eternally in his grip.
SPEAKER_02: As John 6, 37 says, All that the Father has given to me will come to me, and all who come to me I will never cast away.
SPEAKER_02: You are his eternally, you are a disciple maker, you are one who has the Holy Spirit in your life, fueling and firing you in every sphere.
SPEAKER_02: You are one who has been loved before the foundation of the world, and nothing and no one can change that.
SPEAKER_02: It is only as that moves from here to here that we'll begin to cross the pain line.
SPEAKER_02: Here we're we're a bit like broken vending machines.
SPEAKER_02: The coin goes in here and it takes a little bit of time to kind of knock it on the side before it clunks down into your heart and you really believe it.
SPEAKER_02: Tell yourself daily that you are one who's blood bought love before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_02: See if that doesn't build your confidence across the pain line.
SPEAKER_02: And then finally, take a risk.
SPEAKER_02: Invite someone to come and see, invite someone to church, invite someone to community group, invite someone to read a gospel with you.
SPEAKER_02: There are loads of resources.
SPEAKER_02: You can Google uh uncover mark or uncover John.
SPEAKER_02: Those are little books that you would read together that have both the questions and the answers in them, crucially.
SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's the text of Mark or John and questions and answers.
SPEAKER_02: You could pick up a copy uh of that online.
SPEAKER_02: You could use Gospel Books Ireland when the Duncan and Becky aren't here, but they run a book company.
SPEAKER_02: And so you can say, could I get a uh you know, a couple of uncovers?
SPEAKER_02: And do it with a friend, do it with a couple of people.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read through this together.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know where to start, or if things begin to go wrong and deteriorate, uh they asked this question, I don't know where to go.
SPEAKER_02: Come and talk to us.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go together.
SPEAKER_02: It's the start of a new academic year.
SPEAKER_02: There are people moving in the city that are looking for connection, they're looking for meaning, they're looking for significance, they're looking for hope.
SPEAKER_02: We have it.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
SPEAKER_02: Let's tell them about it.