SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: As Webb said, we are at the end of Matthew's gospel this morning, but just to spite Webb, I might do something different.
SPEAKER_01: Just fair warning.
SPEAKER_01: We're coming back to Matthew at the end of March.
SPEAKER_01: I just can't let a couple of things go.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to focus our attention this morning at the end of Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But before we do that, I receive feedback.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say it's every Sunday from what we study, but it's fairly typical.
SPEAKER_01: It surprised me a little bit that I think the most feedback I've gotten on one day, on a Sunday, from any particular sermon in Matthew was last Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And y'all chastised me for saying, no, there were there were other there were other people at the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I said, I said that Matthew here presents a situation in which there's only only women at the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you said, well, that's not right.
SPEAKER_01: That's not right.
SPEAKER_01: Then I was chastised that.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This this gentleman named named Joseph of Arimathea, he wasn't the only one at the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I appreciate about that?
SPEAKER_01: You are paying attention.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
SPEAKER_01: The Gospel of John indicates that the disciple John was at the foot of the cross with Jesus' mother.
SPEAKER_01: You're also right that the other gospels say that Nicodemus helped Joseph of Arimathea at the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: So those of you that noticed that, good job.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't miss it though.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing about some of these Bible texts, especially our Gospels.
SPEAKER_01: They don't tell us everything in one book, do they?
SPEAKER_01: Some of the Gospels include different stories.
SPEAKER_01: So they are different.
SPEAKER_01: They vary from individual to individual, from writer to writer, and Matthew is giving us his particular perspective, and he's telling us, I want you to know this.
SPEAKER_01: And what Matthew wanted us to know was not that Joseph had help, taking the body of the Lord Jesus to the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew wanted us to note, here's Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man who went through the eye of a needle.
SPEAKER_01: Doing the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, when we come to texts like this, sometimes I'm not going to include the whole picture because I want you to hear Matthew's voice.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to hear what Matthew is seeing, what Matthew's remembering, and how he wants that to come across to us.
SPEAKER_01: The same is true with this very last section of Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Not all of the Gospels have exactly what Matthew has.
SPEAKER_01: We know the Great Commission text is Matthew 28, it's the end of the chapter, it's the last thing we hear.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Luke has something a little bit different, both in the Gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: So our tech, our goal when we look at these passages is to get into as much as we can, into the heart and the mind and the soul of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: And to ask ourselves, what does he want me to get from this?
SPEAKER_01: What is he saying?
SPEAKER_01: Others may say something a little bit different.
SPEAKER_01: They have a little bit different perspective.
SPEAKER_01: You know how, for those of you that are married, you know how your wife can look at the situation, and the husband can look at the situation, and the kids can look at the situation, and they can all tell it completely differently.
SPEAKER_01: But they're referencing the same accounts, the same situation.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew is doing that.
SPEAKER_01: So as we think about that then, I want to ask you some questions.
SPEAKER_01: What keeps you from speaking about Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Just ponder that for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: What hinders you?
SPEAKER_01: What holds you back from speaking about Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Are you willing to initiate a conversation about Jesus with a friend?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: What about with a coworker who is antagonistically atheist?
SPEAKER_01: What about a classmate who really doesn't know much about religion or doesn't like going to church, doesn't want to hear anything about that?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe most challenging to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: When was the last time you made a disciple out of someone who was not a follower of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: I remember when the search committee here at Faith was interviewing me.
SPEAKER_01: We were doing video interviews at the time, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: And one of one of the most significant questions that I was asked was, can you tell us about the last time you shared the gospel with somebody?
SPEAKER_01: You know, last year the Jesus Film Project surveyed 1,600 multi-generational people, all the way from age 18 to over 65.
SPEAKER_01: They surveyed 1,600 multi-generational people about sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The results were astoundingly discouraging.
SPEAKER_01: Only an average of seven and a half percent of all of those sixteen hundred Christians, only an average of seven and a half percent said they were always willing to talk about spiritual things with people who might disagree.
SPEAKER_01: Put that a little bit differently.
SPEAKER_01: An average of about twenty to twenty-five of us in this room are always willing to speak of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Probably three hundred to three hundred and fifty of us in this room.
SPEAKER_01: The same poll showed that Christians of all age groups were unwilling.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Christians of all age groups were unwilling to speak of Christ to those who needed to hear, they were unwilling to speak of him more than half of the time.
SPEAKER_01: They knew the situation said, here's somebody who needs to hear about Christ, but I'm not willing to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: The answers are just as curious as the questions.
SPEAKER_01: The answers receiving the highest response rates were fear.
SPEAKER_01: We get that one, right?
SPEAKER_01: And lack of opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Tied with lack of opportunity in third place, it was nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Literally.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing hindered people from sharing their faith.
SPEAKER_01: They just didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Fear we kind of get.
SPEAKER_01: Lack of opportunity, okay, we kind of get that one.
SPEAKER_01: But then we just don't.
SPEAKER_01: Those survey results are significant as we come to the last section of the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission, because this section of Scripture shines a bright light on where our priorities lie.
SPEAKER_01: If we have followed the King, if we have come to understand that He is Emmanuel, that He is God with us, that He is to be named Jesus, because He has come to save us from our sins, and that He has been revealed to us in all of His glory on the mountaintop.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter, James, and John saw of that, and they wrote of that, and we have been convinced that he is the King of heaven who has come to rescue us from our sins and that we are to follow him and to take up our cross and follow him, then this passage of Scripture shines the brightest light on where our priorities lie.
SPEAKER_01: Let's spend a few minutes thinking about it.
SPEAKER_01: If you made your way there, let's let's read it.
SPEAKER_01: If you would follow along with me.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 28, beginning in verse 16.
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 worshiped him.
SPEAKER_01: But some doubted.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to 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.
SPEAKER_01: How long?
SPEAKER_01: Always.
SPEAKER_01: To the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Going to identify five key aspects of Jesus' final instructions here to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: But before we get to those five key aspects of his instructions, let's think a little bit about the setting here because that's how verse 16 begins.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew wants to remind us of the circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: And those circumstances back up to chapter 28 and the resurrection day account, where an angel met the two Marys at the tomb and said, Listen, he's not here because he's risen, but go, tell his brothers to go to Galilee and he will meet them there.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus meets those two women, says, Hi, good morning.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Go, tell my brothers, go to Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: So Matthew's reminding us, he's picking up on that, saying, This is all happening at the direction of the angel and the command of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So we have to remember then that this is a shift from the city of Jerusalem where the crucifixion took place.
SPEAKER_01: And now we're going back north in the region of Galilee, which was really the home region for the majority of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They're moving from the place of intensity to maybe a place not quite so intense.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus directed them to what was likely a familiar mountain to them.
SPEAKER_01: And now he's giving them final instructions.
SPEAKER_01: But don't miss, don't miss in the scope of all of Scripture what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: Because we think this is Jesus telling us what we need to do.
SPEAKER_01: But if we've learned anything about Matthew, it's that Matthew wants to tell us about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And even here, at the very end, Matthew is telling us about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: Where did Israel receive the law from God, the Ten Commandments?
SPEAKER_01: Mount Sinai, right?
SPEAKER_01: Where was Jesus revealed in all of his glory before the three disciples?
SPEAKER_01: On a mountain.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew is tying in a theme from all of Scripture here, where God gives his word, he reveals instructions, he gives his law from a mountaintop.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Matthew says Jesus is doing this from a mountaintop, he's identifying him from beginning to end of his gospel with the God who speaks to his people.
SPEAKER_01: This is not just about the Great Commission, friends.
SPEAKER_01: This is about the God who gives the commission.
SPEAKER_01: This is about Jesus in all of his glory, the word incarnate, giving his instructions to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Just as Israel needed to hear at Mount Sinai and believe and obey, so too Jesus' disciples and all of us need to hear, believe, and obey what God reveals on the mountaintop.
SPEAKER_01: And this situation for those disciples was probably more difficult than we might perceive.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew told us that there were only two women at the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: Where were the rest of the disciples?
SPEAKER_01: Still trying to figure out what to do next.
SPEAKER_01: Thinking about going fishing.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, before somebody comes and talks to me afterwards, Peter and John ran to the tomb to find out.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't let that keep you from talking to me.
SPEAKER_01: I love to hear your responses.
SPEAKER_01: I'm teasing you.
SPEAKER_01: But Matthew tells us there's just two women.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples are nowhere to be found.
SPEAKER_01: So how do they process hearing the command to go to Galilee, to this mountain, to meet Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: When you know that Jesus was crucified, he died, he was buried, and somehow the tomb's empty, how do you process through that to then actually go and obey?
SPEAKER_01: They had abandoned Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: How would you not be full of shame and guilt?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died.
SPEAKER_01: Was he really alive?
SPEAKER_01: Note that Matthew says in verse 17, some doubted.
SPEAKER_01: How could you not?
SPEAKER_01: As human beings, how could we not doubt?
SPEAKER_01: After failing Jesus, they were in a place of examining their faith.
SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus and who am I, and what do I do with that?
SPEAKER_01: That leads us to the first detail of the Lord's final instructions in Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That first detail is that these instructions are for all disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Even, maybe we should say, most especially directed to those with little faith.
SPEAKER_01: So, like the women in chapter 28 and verse 9 at the garden tomb, the disciples fall down and worship Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There's something about recognizing and meeting the risen Lord that causes one to fall down and worship.
SPEAKER_01: There is knowledge that the one who is dead is now alive and is present with them, and that demands a response.
SPEAKER_01: So the record of the Lord's appearance here is God's enduring means of challenging us to also believe and worship the risen one who speaks to us from the mountaintop.
SPEAKER_01: How will we respond to him?
SPEAKER_01: Will we worship him?
SPEAKER_01: After all of Matthew's biography, how do we respond to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And remember, there is a sense in which he is our brother.
SPEAKER_01: We learned that last time, where Jesus says in verse 10 of chapter 28, go and tell my brothers.
SPEAKER_01: There is a sense in which Jesus is our brother, our friend, our companion.
SPEAKER_01: But we must also remember that he is always that and much more.
SPEAKER_01: He's our Maker.
SPEAKER_01: He's our sovereign Lord, who is to be worshiped.
SPEAKER_01: Our view of Jesus must never be lowered to the point where we lack the instinct to bow in humble awe, adoration, and worship in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: That's why there's a bit of solemnity in our worship services.
SPEAKER_01: We come joyfully in the presence of our sisters and our brothers, knowing that Jesus, our brother, is here with us.
SPEAKER_01: But we're also here to worship in humility before the one who bought us with his blood so that we might stand forgiven in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only one who is powerful enough to conquer death and exit the tomb alive.
SPEAKER_01: How could we not be in awe and adoration?
SPEAKER_01: So, in that sense, we don't come and gather together to have a chat with a friend.
SPEAKER_01: We come in awe and reverence of our holy God.
SPEAKER_01: So our challenge then is to remember both of those elements and hold them in tension together.
SPEAKER_01: And in the moment to discern what aspect of our relationship is appropriate for the moment.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we speak to Jesus as though he is our friend or our brother.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are able to have that relationship, that signifies something about your connection to him and his spirit living within you.
SPEAKER_01: But there are also times when we need to remember that he is worthy of our worship as the God who made all things and sustains everything this very moment.
SPEAKER_01: We serve this risen Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We would do well, I think, to have our perception of him challenged by the response of the women at the tomb and all of the disciples when they saw him.
SPEAKER_01: And among those disciples who saw him were some who doubted.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' instructions here are for all disciples, not just the super spiritual ones.
SPEAKER_01: How many among the disciples are super spiritual at this point?
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew's gospel, just two women and Joseph of Arimathea, who is not among the eleven.
SPEAKER_01: There's no difference.
SPEAKER_01: To come to faith in Jesus means you are a disciple.
SPEAKER_01: To be a disciple means that you have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: To be one is to be the other.
SPEAKER_01: But notice that Matthew says, of these 11 disciples who are on the mountaintop with Jesus, some doubted.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: I know you want to get to the Great Commission stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to get there.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we miss some of the depth and the intensity of the Great Commission if we skip over some of these details too quickly.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean that some of these 11 disciples doubted?
SPEAKER_01: We don't know who doubted.
SPEAKER_01: John tells us in his gospel that Thomas doubted initially.
SPEAKER_01: But Matthew doesn't give us names, he just throws it out there like a Scattered shots.
SPEAKER_01: Some doubted.
SPEAKER_01: You can imagine the disciples look, is it you?
SPEAKER_01: Is it you?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, is it me?
SPEAKER_01: The way Matthew writes this, it's very ambiguous.
SPEAKER_01: It could be some or all of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But there's greater difficulty here in understanding what it means that some doubted, because this particular word that Matthew uses here is only found two times in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: One of them is here.
SPEAKER_01: So other than Matthew 27 or 28, 17, there's only one other time in the New Testament that we find this word doubted.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't have much context to help us understand the meaning.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we might have enough to be able to have a grasp of what Matthew is telling us, because both times that this word occurs in the New Testament, they come from the pen of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: So it's used here.
SPEAKER_01: And all the way back in Matthew chapter 14.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 14.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 14 begins with the death of John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: Then it moves to Jesus feeding the 5,000.
SPEAKER_01: And then it moves to Jesus sending the disciples off across the Sea of Galilee on a boat while he stays back to get rid of the crowds, to dismiss them.
SPEAKER_01: As they're going across the Sea of Galilee, it gets dark, and the wind starts to blow, and a storm comes up, and they are struggling to make their way across the Sea of Galilee, and all of a sudden they see a ghost.
SPEAKER_01: At least they think they do.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is walking on the water as the Lord of the waters.
SPEAKER_01: You know the story, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're all afraid, and Jesus says, Hey, don't be afraid, it's just me.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's looking around and saying, Lord, if it's really you, command me to come out onto the water.
SPEAKER_01: What person in his right mind would do that?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus gives a single command.
SPEAKER_01: Come.
SPEAKER_01: What does Peter do?
SPEAKER_01: He comes.
SPEAKER_01: Steps out of the boat and onto the water, and his foot doesn't go down any further.
SPEAKER_01: So another foot comes out and he starts walking.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You know the story.
SPEAKER_01: It's walking on the water to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We're not told how far he has to go or how many steps he took.
SPEAKER_01: But it didn't take very long for Peter to get distracted by the force of the wind stirring up the waves around him.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe we can even go so far in a sanctified imagination to feel the mist, the spray of the water blowing on his face.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden he's distracted and he starts to sink.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what Jesus says in Matthew 14.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 30, he begins to sink.
SPEAKER_01: He cries out, Lord, save me.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?
SPEAKER_01: Fascinating.
SPEAKER_01: Spend a whole sermon right there on this connection between Matthew 14 and Matthew 28.
SPEAKER_01: This hesitation and uncertainty are described as little faith by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Peter is beginning to doubt because of his little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that Jesus describes then this word doubt by saying it's not no faith, it's little faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's an insufficient faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's a faith that needs to grow, that needs to be grounded, that needs to be built up.
SPEAKER_01: He's not telling Peter, you don't have any faith.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, no, you have faith such that when the life, when life's circumstances begin to beat down upon you, it's not enough faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's not strong enough to keep you going.
SPEAKER_01: That hesitation and uncertainty is little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus equates it with doubting, though same word used in Matthew 28, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: So when we read that some of the disciples doubted on the mountaintop, it doesn't imply that they didn't believe.
SPEAKER_01: They did believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But their faith was little.
SPEAKER_01: Recent events, you can understand this, recent events impacted their faith.
SPEAKER_01: They have Peter betrayed Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples ran away from him and left him alone.
SPEAKER_01: They've abandoned him.
SPEAKER_01: All of life's circumstances have beaten down upon them just as the wind drove the waves of the sea, and it stirs them up and brings them to the point of recognition that their faith is little.
SPEAKER_01: It needs maturation, it needs depth, it needs growth.
SPEAKER_01: So it's no wonder that some of them were uncertain or hesitant as they saw Jesus on the mountaintop in Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps some of them were hesitant because they were ashamed of their abandonment of him, just as many of us are ashamed of our sin when we come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe some were uncertain that Jesus would show up that day.
SPEAKER_01: Is he really alive?
SPEAKER_01: Is he really going to show up?
SPEAKER_01: Their faith has been challenged and found to be little.
SPEAKER_01: But friends, here's a secret.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a secret about trials and little faith.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel as though your faith is little, take heart.
SPEAKER_01: God will bring you a trial.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you heard that right.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel that your faith is little, take heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because God will bring you a trial, because trials are the Lord's way of growing us.
SPEAKER_01: Trials are the Lord's way of causing our roots to grow deeper, our trunks to be stronger, and to be able to face the winds and storms of time.
SPEAKER_01: And as Jesus was there for Peter on the water, he is there for us.
SPEAKER_01: As he was there that day for the disciples on the mountaintop, he will be there for us even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus soothes their hesitancy and their uncertainty by coming to them.
SPEAKER_01: He came to them and he spoke to them.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that a sweet and encouraging picture?
SPEAKER_01: Especially, especially to doubting worshipers, suffering worshipers, trialed worshipers.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes to them and speaks to them.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, when you find yourself in that place, open your Bible and read.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe even read aloud.
SPEAKER_01: And hear Jesus come to you and speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' instructions for his mission are for all disciples, even those with little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe especially those with little faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is not just an instruction to the church, though.
SPEAKER_01: We need to clarify this a bit.
SPEAKER_01: This is not an instruction to the church, but to individuals who make up the church.
SPEAKER_01: The instructions are given to you as an individual and to me as an individual first, not the church collective.
SPEAKER_01: So the expectation is that you and I will make disciples as we live our lives.
SPEAKER_01: The implication is that making disciples becomes a core part of who we are as followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Then the natural result is that we will endeavor to make disciples together.
SPEAKER_01: It's an individual command from the Lord Jesus before it is a collective expectation.
SPEAKER_01: So when the Spirit then comes to empower us to do his will, there is no excuse for each believer in Jesus to endeavor to make disciples and to gather them into the collective body for baptism, teaching, and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: There are no excuses for doubt in the face of the risen Lord.
SPEAKER_01: There are no excuses for insecurity, for immaturity, or for any of the common excuses that we give.
SPEAKER_01: We have no excuses, not because those feelings don't exist.
SPEAKER_01: They all exist, right?
SPEAKER_01: Those levels of fear and uncertainty and, oh, I just don't want to do this.
SPEAKER_01: All of those things are real feelings in us.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what this is about.
SPEAKER_01: It's because Jesus gave the instructions even to those with little faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is God speaking to Moses on the mountaintop for all of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus speaking to the disciples on the mountaintop for all of the believers in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is not how we feel about ourselves, but how much we believe and obey the Lord's words.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have much time left.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go on.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' final instructions are grounded in all authority.
SPEAKER_01: The son of Mary is the son of God who possesses all the authority of his Father.
SPEAKER_01: All authority has been granted to me.
SPEAKER_01: And the basis of these instructions is Jesus' all-encompassing authority.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that he doesn't leave any sphere of authority outside of his boundaries.
SPEAKER_01: All authority in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_01: It's a way of saying all of creation.
SPEAKER_01: There is no authority that exists outside of my authority.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not the first time we've heard this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has spoken of this multiple times.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling his disciples his authority has no boundaries.
SPEAKER_01: His authority has no superior.
SPEAKER_01: His authority has no weakness.
SPEAKER_01: His authority has no equal.
SPEAKER_01: And we've seen this again and again and again all throughout Matthew's biography.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew has shown us Jesus' authority to heal, to forgive sins, to judge.
SPEAKER_01: He has authority over life and death.
SPEAKER_01: He has authority over creation.
SPEAKER_01: He has authority over the spirit world and demons.
SPEAKER_01: There is no area or region or authority over which Jesus is not more authoritative.
SPEAKER_01: Every believer in Jesus and every assembly of believers needs to grasp that truth.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus commands here is not optional because he possesses all authority.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we remind you every week in your bulletin.
SPEAKER_01: Our purpose and our intention is to declare the Word of God to make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: We have no option.
SPEAKER_01: This is God speaking to us from the mountaintop, telling us, this is what you are to do.
SPEAKER_01: Almost every child has heard the phrase, because I said so.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's an implied authority in that statement, right?
SPEAKER_01: The implication is that the parent has more authority than the child.
SPEAKER_01: Who's hearing that?
SPEAKER_01: Even though the child may not understand that there are always other reasons to obey, that the parent is giving the command out of love, out of care, concern, protection, whatever the case may be.
SPEAKER_01: But there's an implied authority in the statement, because I said so.
SPEAKER_01: Similarly, we obey the Lord Jesus for many reasons.
SPEAKER_01: His commands are always ultimately for our good.
SPEAKER_01: May not feel like it, but they are.
SPEAKER_01: He intends all things to conform us, to mold us, to make us into his image.
SPEAKER_01: But we also obey because he said so.
SPEAKER_01: He possesses all authority.
SPEAKER_01: He is building his kingdom and he is the king who commands.
SPEAKER_01: Would we ever dare to question the one who died but now lives forever?
SPEAKER_01: But see, that requires an understanding of status.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the God who saves.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the God who rules, not me.
SPEAKER_01: Apart from his grace, I deserve nothing but condemnation for my sins and forsakenness from God for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: But God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the one who holds all authority, and this requires humility.
SPEAKER_01: It's a statement that speaks of taking up our cross and following Jesus because there's no other person who holds greater authority.
SPEAKER_01: Our next aspect is that Jesus' final instructions are for reaching all ethnicities.
SPEAKER_01: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: The central command here is to make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: The other statements about going and baptizing and teaching, they're forms that support that disciple-making process.
SPEAKER_01: The risen Lord Jesus, the King who rules over all, commands his disciples to make other disciples as they go about their lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Lord's designed means of reaching all nations and all ethnicities of the world.
SPEAKER_01: The word nations is the word from which we get ethnicity, ethnos.
SPEAKER_01: It can be referred to to people groups or to nations.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a way of saying it's reaching all peoples.
SPEAKER_01: Making disciples means leading someone to believe in Jesus so that they become followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We tell others that Jesus is of utmost value, that he is worth leaving everything to follow, that he is the supreme authority, and that trusting in him, dying to self, and following him is absolutely necessary.
SPEAKER_01: That involves a telling about Jesus, much like Matthew has told us about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There's a telling about who he is.
SPEAKER_01: There's a telling about sin and forgiveness in Jesus and how that forgiveness is accomplished and applied.
SPEAKER_01: There's an encouragement to trust in Jesus because he died, he was buried, and he rose again.
SPEAKER_01: There's an urging to take up one's cross and follow him such that we're no longer our own masters, but we submit to the one who has all authority.
SPEAKER_01: See, making disciples is not just telling others about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Note that Jesus says that making disciples means leading someone to learn Jesus' teaching, which results in a baptism and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: The command does not end with speaking about Jesus, but leading people to trust in him and continually teaching and leading them so that they mature beyond little faith.
SPEAKER_01: They become active, faithful followers who can then go out and begin making other disciples.
SPEAKER_01: So you can see then why it's essential for the instruction to be given to individuals.
SPEAKER_01: We cover far more territory as individuals than we do as a group.
SPEAKER_01: We're going out all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: As they go, they make disciples, and those individuals go all over and make disciples in a kind of replication process.
SPEAKER_01: See, the expectation is that the Lord will lead all disciples, the little and the great faith disciples, somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: You live a life, and the Lord will take you somewhere in that life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as you go in that life, make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: The implication is that disciples assemble in each location for teaching, prayer, encouragement, fellowship, and then we labor to make more disciples, incorporating them into local assemblies of believers.
SPEAKER_01: Now imagine what would happen if more than 7.5% of us followed those instructions.
SPEAKER_01: All of us are to be about this work.
SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
SPEAKER_01: What if only half of us?
SPEAKER_01: What if only half of us could make one disciple in the rest of 2024?
SPEAKER_01: What if the Lord would be gracious to work through us and and to to result in 150 to 200 people being made disciples?
SPEAKER_01: We'd have to knock down a wall.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we'd need to plant another church.
SPEAKER_01: How exciting would it be to add 150 to 200 people in the Lord's church in one year?
SPEAKER_01: But that you only need to reach one.
SPEAKER_01: It'd be so exciting, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_01: The central command here is to make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: There's a sense in which the command implies we're going.
SPEAKER_01: The teaching is a command.
SPEAKER_01: The baptizing is a command.
SPEAKER_01: All of these are supportive expectations in the life of discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: We are to make disciples during our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Making disciples then means we baptize them and we teach them to obey Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the Lord's ordained means of reaching all of the ethnicities and the nations of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And his final instructions are also for all of his commands.
SPEAKER_01: People believe in Jesus and they identify in baptism with the triune God.
SPEAKER_01: And they are taught to obey.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus clarifies this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, We're on the mountaintop, and you know what happened at the mountaintop in Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: Moses came down with the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm not just giving you the Ten Commandments, I'm telling you you need to teach them to obey all the things that I said.
SPEAKER_01: You should have noticed the alls in our text by now.
SPEAKER_01: We get focused on on the making disciples and the baptizing, teaching them.
SPEAKER_01: Those are good things.
SPEAKER_01: But underneath all of that, Matthew has a structure here that surrounds these all.
SPEAKER_01: All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_01: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus possesses all authority to reach all the world's ethnicities and to teach them all of his commands.
SPEAKER_01: That's the maturation process of strengthening our little faith.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where the individual mandate begins to need the collective of the church.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that worked out in the book of Acts and the rest of the church epistles.
SPEAKER_01: There's one more, all.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the reminder that Jesus' final instructions are all-encompassing.
SPEAKER_01: This one's a little bit harder to see because our translations don't give us the exact word all, but Jesus says, I am with you all.
SPEAKER_01: Always, all times.
SPEAKER_01: Who sustains this mission?
SPEAKER_01: Not the church.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: The one who possesses all authority is the one who sustains the mission.
SPEAKER_01: Note the behold in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Look, behold.
SPEAKER_01: The presence of Jesus sustains the mission until his return.
SPEAKER_01: The mission is not fulfilled in the power and the ability of the doubting disciples, but in the power and the presence of the one who issues the command.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is with you even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see what's happening here?
SPEAKER_01: It's glorious.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Matthew ends right where it begins with Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: The book begins with Emmanuel coming to his creation.
SPEAKER_01: The book ends with Emmanuel being with each of his people.
SPEAKER_01: God is with us always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: That's the ultimate encouragement for those with little faith.
SPEAKER_01: What was the encouragement to Peter as he's starting to sink and he's drowning and he commands Jesus, Lord, save me?
SPEAKER_01: Peter, I'm right here with you.
SPEAKER_01: What are you worrying about?
SPEAKER_01: So in the same way, Jesus tells the 11 disciples on the mountaintop, I'm with you.
SPEAKER_01: What are you worried about?
SPEAKER_01: As you're going, make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: There's no reason for a lack of follow-through.
SPEAKER_01: There's no need for fear or hesitation.
SPEAKER_01: We have no reasons for excuse or avoidance or complaint about our inability, but we do have every reason to trust and obey, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: We trust his word, we trust his promise, we trust his power, for he is our risen Lord who will build his kingdom through imperfect, weak disciples who worship him in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_01: So it turns to us then to ask, Will we follow?
SPEAKER_01: I think the Irish theologian Christopher Wright correctly asserted that the question here is not what kind of mission does God have for me?
SPEAKER_01: There's one mission: make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to wonder what God wants for me.
SPEAKER_01: He's told us, make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, Christopher Wright says that the proper question is, what kind of me does God want for his mission?
SPEAKER_01: And the answer to that question in this context is he wants someone who exercises whatever faith they have to trust the crucified, buried, and risen Lord by making other disciples, even though their faith is small.
SPEAKER_01: And disciples, we know, are called to understand and submit to Christ's unsurpassed authority to bring about his kingdom, not through super apostles, but through sometimes doubting disciples.
SPEAKER_01: So as disciples, we follow obediently, making other disciples by continually pointing to Jesus, speaking to Jesus, and drawing to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And once the Spirit causes a person to be born again to new life, we gather them into the assembly of God's people for baptism, for teaching, for growth, and encouraging them to make disciples as they go.
SPEAKER_01: And that's our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: That God empowers each of us to make disciples as we go.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, would you do just that?
SPEAKER_01: Would you fulfill your purpose and your plan and your intention among us to make disciples through weak vessels?
SPEAKER_01: We commit ourselves to you in this endeavor, asking that you would strengthen our weak faith, that you would embolden us, as you did those early apostles, to speak of you no matter the circumstances, and to trust that you will do your work even through us.
SPEAKER_01: This we trust, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.