Ecclesia Princeton

Co-Missional: All Authority

• Ian Graham

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0:00 | 25:54
SPEAKER_00:

She's gonna hate this, but can we give it up for Elisa, please? We will only know in eternity the level of gift that Elisa is to this church and our children, seriously. Uh but I'm honored to have her as a friend, but even more so to have our kids learn under her tutelage. It's been such a gift. Uh hello, if you're new here, my name is Ian. It's a joy to be with you. Uh I have learned a trick for these baby dedication Sundays. Um I am notoriously short-winded, so we're setting a timer. At 11:40, we will be done with the talking portion. All right. So for those of you who are like, thank God there's an ending point, you're welcome. We'll move to the table in response, but just settle in. It's a gift to be here with you. Thanks for those that are sitting in the lobby. My word, uh, what a joy. Oh, yes, there is a there's an outline also, which means I have thought about this ahead of time. All right. What is the Great Commission? Just say it out loud if you know it. Go forth and make disciples of all the world, yes. Any other baptizing themselves? Baptizing them in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yes, amen. Teaching them, teaching them what? Yeah. Obey what? Obey what?

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Everything.

SPEAKER_00:

Everything. Right? Alright, so if you're not, if you didn't grow up in Christian circles or language and enculturation, the Great Commission is something that Jesus says, one of the first things he says upon his resurrection at the end of Matthew's gospel. And those words have sent people to all the corners of the earth. Uh we're enjoyed to have Ted and Kim with us here from their time in Africa. And, you know, just people have lived by these words and found them not to be words of empty promise, but to be words of great fulfillment. And what I want to do for the next couple weeks is just talk about the Great Commission, as we are people that are sent by Jesus. And I wonder sometimes, just both as a church as Ecclesia, but also just as a church broadly in America, how often we conceive of ourselves as sent by God, as people commissioned by God to go. The Great Commission, we can turn over to Matthew 28 if you want to follow along in your Bible. Also, the words should be on the screen behind me if I did the slides right. Craig's always on it, so I know that. Alright, I'm going to begin in verse 16. Now, the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but they doubted. Can anybody relate to that? I mean, these people are literally seeing the risen Jesus proclaiming that he has conquered death after dying on a cross, and they see him. And for many of us, we just we think if we could just see Jesus that we would believe like that would be enough. Apparently not. Right? They're seeing him, and they're like, Yeah, you are Lord, but also, are we sure? Verse 18. Jesus said to them, and this may be the first part of the Great Commission, all authority 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, and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. Remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now there's several appearances of Jesus that are recorded by the gospel writers. These writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We'll get a sense for each of those readings next week, kind of look at those in concert together. But looking at Matthew's, he locates this interaction of the risen Jesus with his disciples in Galilee. Not only far from the Roman center of power, but far from Jerusalem. Jesus takes them to a backwater place, a know-nothing place, back to where the mission initially began. And he has them meet with him on a mountain. Now, if you want to tie biblical themes together, here yet again you have God meeting with his people on a mountain. Exodus 19, God meets with the people on Sinai. Matthew chapter 5, Jesus meets with the people and says, I'm giving you a teaching that is summarizing the whole of the law and the prophets. And Jesus says to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. I'm curious, when you think of authority, what are some different types of authority that you think of? Parents. You know what's so funny? That was the first answer in the first service, too. And I had not even thought of parental authority. I was like, wow, I had not thought of parental authority. Yes. I gotta put that higher up in my register as a father of four. Like that. Parental authority. And obviously, there are vast cultural differences in our experience of parental authority, right? We could go around the room and talk about our story, our heritage, and how that impacts the way that parents impact our lives, right? Parental authority, absolutely. What else? Political authority. That being the loudest and most contested in our world, right? And Ecclesia, I don't do this because I enjoy it. I don't do it because I'm called to be a pundit. I am not. I will not run running commentary on the news cycle or on the mechanations of Washington, but I will say, and I will say this to you plainly. When things happen like they did this week, where there is a racist trope that is shared, a stereotype that is shared that has long stood in culture and long been used to dehumanize, especially black and brown people, I will say very clearly to you, this is not the way of Jesus. And that we as a people, even if it means that we have to step on the landmines of being potentially politically divisive, I don't do this because it's like, oh, this is fun. Let me get half the room mad at me. But what I will say is when that happens, I will say very clearly to you, this is not the way of Jesus. And I will also say to you, we choose each other. Like it's very clear to me when I hear those kinds of words, it's like I stand with these people. I stand here, I am pastored to these people. And so if you are hurt by that language or you were brokenhearted or brought back to some other experience in your life, let me just say, I am sorry. And let me call us to be a people. What do you lose by listening to your brothers and sisters? What do you sacrifice? So we don't have to spend all this time explaining away, oh, here's what was really happening. It's like, let's just stop there and listen. But yes, political authority often is a very contested space. And we live in this back and forth, this politics of grievance that tells us, well, this side's in control now. When the other side gets in control, everything will be better. It's it's it's fundamentally kind of Marxist back and forth. And both sides conceive of themselves as the proletariat. But political authority, right? We think about that, we think about all these different ways that it manifests itself. Usually we're paying attention to the pinnacle of that, i.e., the president, Congress. But political authority plays out in local ways and so many powerful ways too, right? So political authority. And we're gonna talk about this after Easter, but not all power is bad, right? So we have this posture of suspicion where any sort of impulse towards authority is like, whoa, that person is trying to dominate. It's like, well, no, there are good uses of power, as we'll see in Christ Jesus. Political authority, parental authority. What else? Yeah, like there's a hierarchy at the office. I don't know who said that. Oh, Laura. Right? Like there's you walk into a setting and you realize immediately like who has the power, who has the authority, right? And it doesn't matter what shape your job is. I was a soccer referee. That was my first job. And uh the kind of person that will become a referee and stay a referee for 20 years, I was immediately introduced to. I was like, oh, this this guy talking about a referee being on a power trip, he's on one. Uh so yes, that that that is not your imagination at times, Ecclesia. Uh, but yes. Work, hierarchies, authorities, yes, and again, can be stewarded well. Many of you are good managers. You take responsibility for your people. I see this in my wife all the time. She is a high-level marketing executive. They take good care of their people, they try their best, and it's really amazing to watch. What else? School, yeah, or like uh degrees too, right? So it could be like, why should I listen to you? It's like, look at all these, all these diplomas, right? And and again, that can breed sort of pride, right? Like you should listen to me because of these pieces of paper, but there's a different kind of accumulated wisdom that we we call wisdom, or experience, or being weathered. And how different is that, drawing from a deep well of experience and and and saying, hey, it's gonna be okay. Hey, you can get through this. There are ways out of this that you probably conceive. That's absolutely beautiful. What else? Anything else? I think of cultural authority. I mean, we could call it just like this is cool. Right? Like that has its own kind of sway. I don't know if you know this. The the kids are are into this thing right now. It just started, so maybe it hasn't like taken root yet, but they do this thing like 6'7. You guys know about this? Seriously? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was oh, okay. So you guys heard about this. Culture takes over, right? And it it's ubiquitous. Now, the beautiful thing is with something like that, my son will never let it die, our five-year-old, so it'll still be going three years from now in our house. Cultural authority, technological authority, right? Listen to the pioneers of AI. Sam Altman thinks he's gonna solve all the world's crises and problems with AI. Uh I'm not even sure Sam Altman's always sure what he's talking about, but he's gonna fix everything, right? Any others? Oh, what about religious authority? Why should you listen to me? You should always be asking yourself that question, also. Truly. Now there's the cult version of this where it's like, I hear from God more rightly than you and more directly, and usually the logical outcome of this is the person saying that says, give me money, right? But there's also like there are systemic theological perspectives that tend to imbue themselves with authority. And and so often these can be kind of used as a hammer, right? This is how God is, this is what he's like. And I wonder sometimes if we're missing Jesus in the midst of that. Alright, so there's there's a lot of authority. Uh on that outline that was put up there. Thank you for doing that, Craig, because I forgot about it. Uh, there are some other quotes that kind of lend themselves to some of those different ways, but we're gonna walk past that a little bit. This is Leslie Nubigan, who I love, and I think is, though he was a theologian ahead of his time, is a theologian for our times. He says, The confession I am making is that Jesus is the supreme authority, or using the language in the New Testament, that Jesus is Lord. This confession implies a claim regarding the entire public life of mankind and the whole created world. What did Jesus say about the authority that was given to him? How much of it did he get? He got all of it. Every ounce of authority given to him by the love and behest of the Father and the power of the Spirit, Jesus receives vindicated as the true Lord of all the world upon his resurrection after giving his life on the cross. Jesus is the Lord of all creation. And the scriptures don't just try to explain one element of our life, they are trying to give an account of the entire cosmos, the story of the world. And the beautiful thing about the Lordship of Jesus is we build up all these compartments. I'm gonna have this political posture, I'm gonna have this investment strategy, I'm gonna have these ethics when I'm at work and these when I'm at home. Jesus' lordship integrates our entire lives. And it gives us what we've been after all along: coherence, peace. How many of us want to be called hypocrites? How many of us want to live our lives in such a way that that creeping voice in our own interior begins to say, you're a hypocrite, you're a fraud. And what the Lordship of Jesus is doing is saying, It's all mine. All of it finds its place under my rule and reign when submitted to me. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And my way, the way of peace, the way of shalom, will lead to flourishing for all. Nubigan goes on. This claim that by following the clue that is given in the story that constitutes the gospel, the believing community will be led to a true understanding of all that is right and to a right practical relation to it. The confession, Jesus is Lord, implies a commitment to make good that confession in relation to the whole life of the world. Its philosophy, its culture, and its politics, no less than the personal lives of its people. The Christian mission is thus to act out in the whole life of the whole world the confession that Jesus is Lord of all. And you have been sent with that call. And you've been sent to very specific, limited places. You don't go to all the places I go. I can't go to all the places you go. We have different giftings, we have different contributions, we have different ways that we spend our time during the day, and all of it is an invitation to do everything to the glory of God, to declare that Jesus is Lord with the whole of our lives. No matter how extravagant our days may seem. You know, the Olympians that are winning gold medals and giving glory to God, that seems so prominent and paramount. But the woman who's spending her time taking care of her dying father, proclaiming no less that Jesus is Lord, sent no less by a great commission. Jesus' Lordship is integrating our lives. Jesus says, All authority has been given to me, all of it. And then he tells us, in response to that truth, go. Go in the power of that authority. Go and do what? Make disciples. Now, if we're compelled to make a disciple, it might be helpful to know what a disciple is. So I put to you the question what is a disciple? A follower? Absolutely. And and we usually use that term within the register of Christian religious language, a disciple, but you could use that term in a lot of different ways, right? Disciple of many things or many people. But yeah, a follower, what else? Apprentice, yes. In the year of our Lord John Mark Comer. An apprentice, right? An apprentice is somebody who does what Jesus did, right? And it's a it's a beautiful image because an apprentice is somebody who starts, they don't even know the right questions to ask. Their job is just a copy. I'm like, okay, I think he's doing that. And then as they try and they inevitably fail, hey, tell us about that. The disciples see Jesus praying and they say, Lord, teach us how to pray. The way you pray is different. Oh, when you pray, pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You know, Jesus invites us along the way. And Jesus' way is so powerful. Again, I don't know what your perception is of Jesus, how often he was walking around, gathering rooms like this, and be like, Let me teach you something. I assure you it was rare. Most of Jesus' time was spent walking with his disciples, just doing stuff, and eventually they would muster up either the courage or the confusion to be like, Can you tell us why you were doing that? And sometimes he would answer them clearly. And other times he would tell them another story, and they'd be like, Oh man, he's doing the parable thing again. Like at one point, Thomas is like, finally, he's like, finally, you're speaking plainly. Like you're so grateful, right? But an apprentice watches what the master is doing. What else does is a disciple? How would you define that? A leader? A believer. Yeah. Somebody who believes what they're being taught, right? And eventually, within that realm of belief, eventually takes on that perspective. And we talked about this in the first service. If you were gonna look to Jesus for chapter and verse in the Bible about why you should or shouldn't do anything that faces you in our modern world, you're gonna find yourself at bottlenecks frequently, right? Because Jesus was a first century Jewish man. He didn't have a cell phone. So how much time should you spend on your cell phone? Well, in Matthew 18, it doesn't say that. Right? And so you have to allow Jesus' way to begin to infuse your life, his way of seeing, his way of being, so that you can live wisely and skillfully in the world that you are presented. Right? And so we believe Jesus in order to take upon his imagination. And the beautiful thing about if you read the Gospels, you see that Jesus' imagination is formed by the scriptures. He gets up in the temple, he turns to Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me to proclaim good news to the poor, to open the eyes of the blind, to set free the captives. This is Jesus' framework for understanding himself. And if the scriptures are enough for Jesus to understand himself, I think we'll find that they are enough for us too. Anything else? I got two minutes. Discipline. Yeah. So you're taking on in in first century terms a yoke. Now Jesus says, now a yoke is an agricultural tool. We're two oxen, we're yoked together. Now, my friend Sarah, when talking about raising kids and talking about the pressure that we often feel as parents to raise them in the way of Jesus, she says this, and it's very funny. She says, You're the baby ox. You've been yoked together with Jesus. He's the strong ox that's pulling all this along. And you get to carry his yoke, which, as he says, is easy and his burden is light. But it is a yoke nonetheless. And what we find is that dying to our flesh and doing his will, we don't lose or get diminished in the process. What we find is that we find fullness, or what John 10 says, the fullness of life. Life and life to the full. Now, there's many other parts to the Great Commission. And a much longer sermon would cover all of those parts. But we have one minute, so let's go to the end. Jesus says, Teach them and do everything I commanded you. Now, what are some things Jesus taught quickly? Love your neighbor as yourself, right? Love your all the law and prophets are summarized in these two commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself, right? That's it. What else? Love your enemy. Oh man. You sure that's in there? Dang it. Alright. So that's in there. Yeah. Because who is your neighbor? Oh, it's also the enemy. And the enemy is not actually your enemy. Jesus unmasked the enemies of God on the cross. Sin and death. These are the enemies of God. Jesus won't make an enemy out of Pilate. He won't make an enemy out of Judas. He won't make an enemy out of those that turned him over. Jesus says, love your neighbor. Forgive them, Father. They don't know what they're doing. What else? Abide, right? Remain in me. And you will bear much fruit. That's it. What else? Oh, forgive, right? And learn the art of forgiveness. We put so much pressure on ourselves that forgiveness is this one-time thing. And then when those feelings of retribution begin to creep back within us, or those feelings of like, you know what, I don't feel like I'm forgiven, we we think that we're not forgiving like God. You are not God. The grace to forgive is a daily bread. And so forgiving and forgiving and learning what that means and being honest when you're like, God, I don't want to forgive. Where's a psalm for me? There's lots of them. But the art of forgiveness. Jesus didn't just teach with the words that he said, he taught with his very life. Right? He taught with the way that he comes in his kingdom. I'll invite the worship team forward so I can be somewhat honest about when we're ending. When Jesus comes in his kingdom, he's not robed in purple or gold, he's stripped of his robes and his clothes. When Jesus comes in his kingdom, he doesn't rise to a throne of gold or a throne of majesty. He is lifted up on a cross. He's not given a crown of diamonds, he's given a crown of thorns. Paul writes it this way in Philippians chapter 2. Your mindset, your attitude should be the same. Name is Christ Jesus, who did not consider equality with God as something to be held on to, as something to be grasped, or some status to be projected into all the world. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the very form of a slave, and giving himself over to death, even death on a cross, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Great Commission is about living life in Jesus' way. And saying that it is a holistic, integral account of the true story of the world. And that's enough for us to receive both the gift of this commission and to live out of the wellspring of it. All right. Let's pray for the Holy Spirit to come. God, we ask that you would, because you are who you are. Draw near to us in this place. We pray, come, Holy Spirit. It's interesting that in this passage in Matthew 28, Jesus doesn't focus on our sins at all. He just presents himself, draws near. And God, when we encounter these kinds of moments in the scripture and we try to put ourselves somewhere within their confines, Lord, often we find that we build up barriers that you haven't built. We drag in our regret, we drag in our sinfulness, our shame, that habit that we can't put down, and we say, Yeah, but. And what we find is that you are just here. Proclaiming who you are, the conqueror of sin and death, the forgiver of our sins, the one who's cast them into the ocean, as far as the east is from the west, Lord. So God help us as we encounter this great commission, Lord, to see that the original Great Commission was your impulse to go. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that you came, Lord Jesus. You came to us, people such as us. To not only show us how to live, to be an example, but to empower us. God, we don't just follow your model, Lord. We receive your spirit. To put down our sinfulness, God, and to take up your garments of righteousness. So, Lord, would you declare that to us here? God, don't let us reject the invitation that has been given to us freely and fully in the sun. And as we receive that invitation, Lord, we are invited carrying invitations, Lord. You tell us to go. And the wisdom of that we're still trying to figure out. You could have gone up to the Temple Mount, you could have gone to the sinners of the Imperial Palace in Rome. You could show up today on CNN and say, I am Lord, follow me. And it would work for a moment. But instead you sat down to meals with your friends, instead, you took a group of ragtag believers, people who were half-hearted, worshiping and doubting, and you said to them, Go, and I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. That's awesome. So, Lord Jesus, help us to see you rightly, God, and to find that in your invitation, God, there is fullness of joy, fullness of life. We ask these things in your name, we declare these things in your name, in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen. Echo see, I'm gonna invite you to stand where you are, just in that same posture of worship and response.