No Excuses - GO!

Scripture Reading

Will you please turn over in your Bibles with me to the book of Matthew. The very last verse is the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 28. We'll be reading this morning verses 18 through 20. Matthew chapter 28, beginning at verse 18. Over the next few weeks, we started this last week, over the next few weeks we'll be looking at the Great Commission phrase by phrase. So, Matthew chapter 28, beginning at verse 18, hear now God's perfect word.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

Prayer for Illumination

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank You, Lord, that though the grass withers and though the flower may fade, Your Word endures forever. And Father, we pray that now during this time, that You would please help us, that Your Spirit would enlighten our eyes. Lord, that You might do an amazing work that those who may have hard hearts, that there may be a heart transplant, that they would know You have new life and walk in Your ways. Father, we pray that Your Spirit would propel Your people to actually doing what You have commanded us to do. Please help us during this time, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

I got an email this week from, unexpected email, I haven't received an email from this missionary in a number of months, and they just sent out an email updating, and one of the things that they were updating is that they were really encouraged by the culture they live in.

I was somewhat surprised by this, because they live in a closed country. They live in a majority Muslim country, and what they were encouraged by is that it's so different than America. In America, it's taboo to talk about politics or religion, but especially religion. But in their country, where they're serving the Lord, it is commonplace when they'll enter into a taxi, they'll ask them about their religion before they ask them about their names. When they meet someone on the street to either mend some clothes or to do some work for them, the first thing they want to ask these people is, what religion are you? And they said it's so refreshing to be in a culture where it's so readily available to talk about Jesus Christ.

But we live in a very different culture, don't we? Where it's just like the stigma of our culture is that you keep religion to your private self and you're not supposed to talk to other people about it. The issue is that Jesus commands us differently. Jesus commands us differently. And this morning, I want us to look specifically at one word at the very beginning of verse 19.

Go. Go. And I hope that when you walk out of here, that you will embrace this command that Jesus gives, this imperative that Jesus gives, that you must go and make disciples of all nations. I hope that that grips your heart, seizes your mind, and you know that Jesus has given you a job to do.

And it's not just to sit in a pew and keep your Christianity to yourself. So first we need to recognize something that's going on here as we explore this idea of Jesus telling them to go, and that's recognizing that there's something that's changing in the apostles' lives. Notice I just called them apostles. From this point on, their title begins to change. They will always be disciples of Jesus. They have learned with Jesus. They have walked with Jesus. They absorbed His teaching and His life for three years. And now is their graduation ceremony. Now they move from disciples to apostles.

Apostolos in the Greek just means sent one. But it's somebody who has authority because they are sent by somebody above them. They have a mission, they have a job, the person above them is entrusting them with a purpose, and they are to go and accomplish this job on behalf of the person who's over them. And what's the job that Jesus has given them? to go 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 all which I have commanded you." This is the job that he has given to the apostles. I'm really thankful for this part of the Scriptures.

Imagine, if you would, somebody taking driver's education. They read the books, they take the test, they even sit in the car with somebody else in the right-hand seat, and they do all this stuff. They even pass their driver's test, but then they never drive the car themselves once they have their license. What would have been the whole point of driver's ed? It wouldn't make any sense.

Or imagine a kid going through swim lessons, right? For weeks going through swim lessons, learning how to tread water, learning how to swim, learning how to breathe. And then finally, when they pass their swim lessons, they don't actually want to get in the pool. They just want to sit on the cement next to the pool.

That's what it would have been like if Jesus had not given them this command to go. They had been trained, they were made apprentices, they were given a job to do, and now Jesus is saying, I didn't just give you theory, boys. Now you're supposed to go do it. Now you're supposed to go and teach. Now you're supposed to go and make disciples. Now you're supposed to go and baptize.

And so what is the content of the job they're supposed to do? What is the content of the mission? Well, I need to tell you, in the world of missiology, in the world of missions, there's something that's a little bit of a problem right now, and that's missions is easily hijacked by humanitarianism. Right, missions is often hijacked by what is a good thing, right? Trying to care for people.

There are many people who walk around saying that they are missionaries, and they will go dig wells in poor African tribal lands, but you'll ask them about telling people about Jesus Christ, and they haven't. There are many people who will go and they'll serve saying they're doing missions and they'll go to hospitals as doctors and nurses and dentists and you'll ask them, did you tell anybody about Jesus? And they say no. Or they'll go and they'll establish schools and they'll be teachers and they'll teach children arithmetic and reading and writing and all sorts of amazing things. But you'll ask them, did you teach them about Jesus? And they'll say no. Brothers and sisters, I tell you that they are not fulfilling the Great Commission.

They're doing something loving, and that's good. Humanitarian work is good, but it is not Christian missions. That's not to say that this can't be part of a Christian mission. By all means, care for people, body and soul. This is one of the reasons why we have a Christian school in South Sudan, but it's also why we use Christian curriculum. And why we also, the teachers there must be members of the church so they can pour their lives into the children and challenge them with biblical truths day in and day out.

I have a friend who operates a business in a closed country. And this is a whole model of doing business as mission. And he has a business that he owns and he employs people who are not Christians. And he gives them good wages and he cares for them in their life. But he also uses it so he can bring in non-Christians as employees, not just to bless their lives, but also to share Jesus Christ with them on a regular basis.

There is a missionary who I know quite well who went to the Middle East and he taught STEM classes in a closed country. This is the only way that he would ever be allowed into this extremely closed country, was he went and he taught graduate-level STEM classes. I can't tell you exact classes and things like that, because when he writes articles, he has to use a pen name. He can't write his actual name, because it would be tied to the country he was in, and it was illegal for him to be there doing missions work. But he went and taught graduate level classes, and in those small groups, regularly told them of Jesus Christ.

The mission is not humanitarianism, but the mission is telling people, making disciples for Jesus Christ. A missionary must be one who proclaims the good news. What is the good news? What's the content? What are they really preaching? What is it that they are supposed to be proclaiming?

Well, we can think back in our minds to Acts chapter 16. When you have Paul and Silas, they go to Philippi. And they're sharing the gospel with all these people in Philippi. They meet people like Lydia, and she believes and is baptized. And then eventually they cause such a ruckus, because they're preaching this good news of Jesus Christ, that they're put in prison. They're put in jail. And then an amazing thing happens.

As they're singing, and as they're praying, and as they're praising God late into the night in the jail, there's an earthquake, and all the doors of the jail open. And the jailer's scared to death, and rightly so, because if a single prisoner gets out, the jailer would be put to death. And so he cries out to them, as he brings light into the prison, and he finds out nobody's there, don't kill yourself, is what they tell him.

He says, no, interesting, our translation in New King James, if you look at Acts chapter 16, verse 30, will say, sirs, what must I do to be saved? That word sirs is the word lords. Lords, what must I do to be saved? I think he's talking about what do I need to do to save my neck?

But Paul and Silas tell the Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. They take it from, you don't need to worry about your neck being saved, we're going to talk to you about your heart. We want to talk to you about your whole being being saved.

And he lets them out of prison, and they talk to him, and he believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is baptized, he and his whole household. See, that is the fulfillment of the Great Commission. They're going and telling him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul will tell us again the content of the Great Commission in 1 Corinthians 15 3-8. I'm actually going to turn there. If you want to turn with me, you can. 1 Corinthians 15 3-8.

For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained in the present, but some had fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then, last of all, he was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time." Paul tells them, I gave to you what I first received. What did I preach to you? What was the content of the message I came to you when I arrived in Corinth?

I told you that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. I told you that Jesus Christ was buried. He was dead and buried. But that Jesus Christ's resurrection is a verifiable historical fact. He rose from the dead on the third day. He was seen by the apostles. He was seen by over 500 people. You doubt me? Go to Jerusalem. There's a whole bunch of people still alive who will tell you. Some of them have died, but not all of them. The greater part is still alive.

And then He appeared to James. And last of all, He appeared to me. He says, I know that Jesus Christ died for my sins, was buried, but rose again. And how does He know it? Because He saw Jesus Himself. Do you see the content of the Gospel? The content of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ saves sinners by dying on the cross, and that He rose again from the dead and is alive today. This is the content that Paul proclaimed that all the Apostles proclaimed when they went from town to town to town.

But it's at this point I need to stop. Because the next few points are going to be a lot of application. But do not do any of these applications if you cannot answer these next questions in the affirmative. If you cannot say yes to these next questions, you've got something else to deal with in your soul than obeying the Great Commission.

The question I have for you is, do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you? Do you believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died under Pontius Pilate Do you believe that that's a historical fact? Do you believe that Jesus Christ truly did raise from the dead bodily? Not a phantom, not a ghost, not some willy-nilly spirit, but that he actually appeared to Thomas and he said, put your hand here, put your finger here in my hand, put your hand in my side. Do you believe that the Jesus who actually prepared breakfast for his disciples next to the Sea of Galilee was real?

If you don't believe the resurrection, do not go and make disciples. If you do not believe that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, do not go and make disciples. If you do not believe that Jesus Christ will someday physically, bodily return and judge the world in equity, do not go and make disciples. You must be convinced that the scriptures are true. Do you believe it? Do you believe that Jesus is the King of Kings? Do you believe that Jesus is your Lord? That he is the master of your life? That he is the only hope you have for eternal life? Is this true for you?

I know many of you this is. Just this morning it was fun to get to sit and hear the testimony of four people. I've never heard their testimonies before of how Jesus Christ came into their life and saved them in amazing ways. But for some of you, I don't know your souls. For some of you, you come to church week in and week out. You might as well sleep in the pew. It's this morning, your wake-up call.

You have to ask yourself, am I truly resting in Jesus Christ alone? Do I truly believe these things? If that's true of you, then you are invited and commanded to partake in this command. First word of verse 19, go. Go. And notice the scope of this going. How far are you supposed to go?

Well, notice verse 18, Jesus says that all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth. And as we look through the whole Old Testament, we find out that the scope of the gospel is global. You sang it in Psalm 67. You sang it in Psalm 96. We're going to sing it in Psalm 117.

God's plan is for all the nations, all the nations to praise Him. All the peoples to come to Him. All the ethno-linguistic groups to confess that He is Lord. This is the scope of the Great Commission. That's exactly what Jesus is going to command them right before he ascends up into heaven in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. When he tells them to go into Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And they did it. The apostles actually did it. They went to that same place where their Lord was murdered. And they preached the gospel to the Jewish priests and the Sadducees and the scribes in the temple. Knowing that they could be put to death for it as well. And yet they still did it. And then they did it throughout Judea.

And then they even went to the people that they didn't like. to the Samaritans in Acts chapter 8. And then the rest of the book of Acts is filled with this testimony of God sending out these apostles throughout the known world, all over the place, to go share the gospel. And the pages of church history tell us that they didn't just go to those places mentioned in the book of Acts. That's just a small picture into all that they did.

But if the church historians are right, Then Andrew went all the way up into Scythia. He went into what's now modern-day Ukraine. That Thomas went east. He went all the way to the Indus River. He went to Iran and to India and shared the gospel with people there. That Matthew went all the way down into Ethiopia and he shared the gospel with people in Ethiopia. That Peter went to Cappadocia and Asia Minor. that He went even to Rome where He was crucified upside down for making disciples for Jesus Christ. And what about even Paul? to Syria and Cyprus, Cappadocia, Galatia, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and Rome itself.

This was so burdened upon their hearts that the disciples didn't just say, well, he saved us. We'll sit at home in Bethsaida and eat our fish. No, they knew that Jesus had given them good news. That's what gospel means. Gospel, evangelion, means good news. And they were to take that good news and herald it to the nations. And so they went.

My question this morning is, will you go? Will you go? I'm not telling you all of you are called to go. to faraway places, but I think some of you may be. I think some of you are called, like Jesus, to go to Jerusalem first. I think some of you are called to go to your own local communities, in your own family. I need to ask you, are you going in your capacity right now?

Are you making disciples of your children? Are you leaving a legacy for your grandchildren? Do you purposely set aside time in your schedule, in your life, that you want to invest in your grandchildren and in your great-grandchildren? Are you spending time with them, telling them of the amazing things that God has done in your life, of the good news that is so sweet to you that you want to share it with the next generation?

Please do not retire from disciple-making. I know some of you have been doing this for years. You've been doing this for decades. You've been doing this twice as long as I have been alive. I'm begging you, do not grow weary of sharing the good news with the next generation.

Go and make disciples in your home. Go and make disciples with those people in your community who need to hear about Jesus Christ. There are so many children in the schools who desperately need to hear of Jesus Christ. There are so many of our family members, extended wives, that need to hear of Jesus Christ. There are so many people who are our neighbors.

I need to ask, if you want to wrestle with are you actually doing the Great Commission, I need to ask you, when's the last time you've talked to any of your neighbors or community members about Jesus? Have you invited someone to church in the last year? Decade? Twenty years? Has the gospel and the Great Commission gone on the back burner for you? It's just a way of life, but not a push and a drive that Jesus gives for you. Our country desperately needs the gospel. I didn't coordinate with Elder Turner this morning to pray for our nation.

29% of Americans have never read a single part of the Bible. 29%. Nearly one in three people, and this was a couple years ago that this survey came out, nearly one in three people have never cracked open their Bible. As of 2019, and I'm sure the number has raised since then, 26% of the American population categorizes themselves as atheist, agnostic, or not religiously affiliated in any way. That's 30 million Americans. And don't think that just because we're a small country, Midwest people, that that doesn't extend to your neighbors because I know my neighbors and I know that this categorizes them as well.

The mission field is next door, near to you. Show hospitality, invite people in, get involved and tell them the good news of Jesus Christ. But some of you, some of you may indeed be called to go even to other nations. The Lord may be burdening your heart. The Holy Spirit may be pushing on you such a desire and a sense of, I've got to go and tell unreached people about this. And the Lord is glorified with that.

Because there's over four and a half billion people on this planet who will never hear of Jesus Christ. There are over 70,000 people who die every single day on this globe, who have never heard of Jesus Christ, never opened a Bible, nobody's ever told them the good news. There's a map on the back, pray for the nations, pray for the persecuted church, and there's a black streak across that black map, that's a 1040 window. It's where the vast majority of the world's population lives. But the vast majority of the people are not allowed to hear of Jesus. 68% of those countries refuse any type of missionaries to ever enter in. Dying without hope.

I need to ask you. Is heaven and hell real to you? Is the judgment that is to come real to you? For it is appointed for every man to die once and after this the judgment. Does your heart break when you think about your neighbors who are filling their lives with all the things of this world, with all the pleasures that come from Vanity Fair, and they're so satisfied with the things of this world, not realizing that they aren't taking count of their own soul.

Does it grieve you to know that there's over 4 billion people on the face of this planet who do not know of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? What are you going to do about it? What will we, as a Christian congregation, will we take the great commandment seriously?

To go. To go and tell our children that there is good news for them if they believe in Jesus Christ. To go and to tell our neighbors that the Lord Jesus Christ is the King of Kings. And that salvation can be offered to them today. Will you go? Will you support? Will you partake in what Jesus has commanded us to do? To go and to make disciples of all nations.

Start here. Start in your family. Start in your communities. Start in this church. Disciple the younger generation here and take it out to the nations. This is the imperative. that Jesus places upon his church. So will you go? Will you obey Jesus? It's not easy. It's not easy.

This congregation has a rich history of sharing the gospel. There's a whole book, White Chief, that's all about work Carthy-ers who went to the Oklahoma mission field to go work with Native Americans and to bring the gospel to Native Americans. There is a grandson of that mission work who is a member of this church now. There's been pages and pages of history of people in this congregation sending support to missionaries and even sending missionaries. There's the last name French who's buried in the cemetery right here who was a missionary to Cyprus. For decades in this congregation there was a women's missionary fellowship who sent and supported and let the congregation be known year after year after year, month after month, that Jesus Christ was being proclaimed. throughout the world. We must not lose sight of that, but it is hard to go yourself.

Just a few years ago, we had one of my friends, Lucas Hanna, he was preaching at Synod in 2000, I think it was 2018. And Lucas and his family had gone to South Sudan previously, just to kind of see whether or not they should go to South Sudan long term, and they decided no. No, they didn't think it was for them. They shouldn't go to South Sudan. It would be too hard on their family. It would be too hard on them. And to be honest, he preached to us at Synod saying he was just scared to go.

And his comment that has stuck in my memory for years now, as he was confessing this to the whole body of elders in the denomination, was Zach Smith and his family were going to South Sudan to go and serve the Lord long-term for at least a decade. and he was too chicken to go himself."

Those are his words. But the Lord used that fear, and as he confessed that fear, even to the body of elders, that people were able to come around him and pray for him and his family. And the next year, he was on the mission field, and has served faithfully for years there, and is now coming home with his family from that mission field. And he has seen great fruit making disciples of the Dinka people.

You may feel like I'm not up for this. Maybe this isn't for me. The Lord can give you strength. But maybe you're thinking, maybe this might be for me. At the bottom of your bulletin, there's a website. If you specifically want to think about going on a missions trip. Doing missionary work or exploring that idea, there's a website on the bottom where you can go and get more information or you can come talk to the elders and we can walk you through that path as well.

Closing Prayer

Will you follow Jesus' command to go and to make disciples of all nations? Let's pray. God, every single one of us here today, as a result of disciple makers, everyone who calls upon you is because you sent somebody to go and declare the gospel to them. Lord, you gave us faith to hear, to receive, rest, and believe. Lord, we pray that you would spur us on. that we would share the good news with others. Lord, we need your Holy Spirit. Father, I pray that even this morning, people might not have felt manipulated into doing these things, but Lord, that they could pin this commandment on a verse in your word, and that your Holy Spirit might drive it home, and that you would send us to make disciples. We pray these things in Jesus's name.