Go Make Disciples - Salt & Light - August 25th, 2024 (Sermon Transcript)

Welcome to the podcast of Penngrove Community Church.

We exist to bring glory to God through lives changed by the Gospel of Jesus.

Our church is located about 45 minutes north of San Francisco, and if you live in the area, we'd love to have you join us.

You can also learn more about us online at pengrovechurch.org.

Enjoy the sermon.

All right.

Well, this week, we're going to continue our new series on evangelism.

So pull out your Bibles, pull out the sermon handout.

You can follow along with me through various texts.

If you missed last week, then please go back and listen to that sermon so that you can catch up.

But here's the long story short.

We are taking a break for four weeks from the Gospel of John to talk about evangelism.

And evangelism, if you don't already know, simply means sharing the Gospel with others.

It comes from the same Greek word for Gospel.

The Greek word for Gospel is eungelion, and you can kind of see or hear the similarities with the word evangelism.

So to evangelize simply means to gospel somebody.

It literally means to gospel somebody.

As it says in Romans 1 verse 16, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

There is no other power of God for salvation.

There is no other way of salvation other than the Gospel, which is why we spend so much time talking about the Gospel and making sure that we clearly understand the Gospel and meditating on the Gospel and putting our faith in the Gospel, the Gospel being the good news about what Jesus did for us, about his life, death, and resurrection.

Now, if you've been a Christian for a while, I'm sure you've heard sermons and talks about evangelism, and I'm sure you felt guilty.

Usually, that's how these things go.

We do like a series on prayer or a series on evangelism, and at the end, you're like, yes, yes, that's so good, that's so important, and it's so hard to do, and I feel so guilty for not doing it enough.

Or maybe you felt totally inadequate.

You hear about the importance of telling other people about Jesus, and you're like, yep, that's great, but I'm not sure exactly what to say.

I don't know how to say it.

I don't know all of that theology stuff.

I don't know all of that doctrine stuff.

It feels so uncomfortable, and I don't think I can do it.

And so you feel that inadequacy, and then the guilt gets added on top of that.

So that's how we normally feel.

But what do you think Jesus would want us to feel?

What do you think Jesus intends for us to think and feel about evangelism?

Well, he's gonna make that very clear for us in just a moment.

This morning, we're gonna be looking at the most famous passage on evangelism in the Bible, the Great Commission.

And there's a lot to it that we need to unpack.

But one thing I want you to notice is that the Great Commission begins with a massive statement of confidence.

And it ends with a massive statement of confidence.

Jesus wants us to feel confident.

He wants us to feel empowered.

And he wants us to know that he's gonna be with us every step of the way.

Please stand for the reading of God's word.

I'll read the text for us.

Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 through 20.

Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated and join me as I pray for us.

Lord, I pray that your word would fill us with confidence this morning, would fill us with love for you, and a desire to see the lost reached with hope and joy, with truth, with light, with the salvation of the gospel.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus, amen.

Before we get to the actual great commission, I want to look at how Matthew sets the scene for us.

Matthew is the author of this gospel, this biography of Jesus, and he was one of the original 12 disciples.

So he would have been there when this happened.

But notice verse 16, how many disciples are there?

He says, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee.

They lost one.

It's a subtle reminder that Judas betrayed Jesus, and then later hung himself.

So at this point, they haven't found a replacement for him yet.

So there are 11 disciples, and they have been through a lot.

Judas would have been probably one of their closest friends.

They probably would have known his parents, his siblings.

They would have spent years traveling all around the area with Judas, doing ministry with Judas.

And Judas then betrayed Jesus and committed suicide.

They just experienced that not that long ago.

And then on top of that, Jesus, their beloved leader, their hope, their Messiah, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, put on trial, and then crucified.

And then after that, he rose from the dead.

So it has been a roller coaster of epic proportions.

We think about those times in our lives where everything is chaotic, and this happens, and then that happens, and you're super happy, and then you're super down, and you're grieving, and you experience loss and joy, and life just feels all over the place, and like it's way too much to handle.

They were in one of those situations times a thousand.

So when you read verse 17, it shouldn't be too surprising.

It says that some of them doubted.

Well, of course they did.

Think about all that they have gone through, and think about what's happening right here in this moment.

Jesus just died.

They had watched him die.

They had watched him get buried, put in the tomb, and now that same Jesus is standing before them alive.

It would have been obviously unthinkable.

People don't just rise from the dead.

So in a situation like that, it would be natural to doubt.

It would be natural for them to think, well, obviously that's Jesus, but people don't rise from the dead.

They just couldn't believe their eyes.

It was hard for some of them to believe what they were seeing, and they were just in the middle of the craziest time of their lives.

So in the midst of all of this chaos and craziness, what does Jesus say?

He delivers a message of calm and confidence.

He declares all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

In other words, I'm in charge now.

I'm in control.

You don't need to worry.

You don't need to be afraid.

You just need to listen and do what I tell you to do.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

That's the foundation of the Great Commission, the absolute authority of Jesus.

These aren't just filler words, like some fluff that you put into an essay to to reach the word count that you are assigned.

They're not just filler words.

It's not just a nice sounding preface to the main thing, the Great Commission.

This is the foundation of the Great Commission.

Jesus didn't use filler words.

Jesus spoke monumental, world changing truth like this.

What this means is that even today, 2,000 years later, when you share the gospel with somebody, you are standing on the unshakable foundation of the absolute authority of Jesus.

Sometimes people get the impression that Christians sharing the gospel is like them trying to make everybody else adopt to their point of view.

So in our so called pluralistic world where all religions are said to be equal, when Christians come along and say, no, you have to believe my religion, people take that sometimes as being really arrogant, or really imperialistic, or ethnocentric, or whatever you want to call it.

But we're not sharing the gospel with others because we're arrogant, and we're sure that we're right, and we want everybody else to think the same things that we do.

That's not where it's coming from.

It's not coming from our authority, or our preferences, or our views.

It's coming from the authority of Jesus.

We share the gospel because Jesus told us to.

We share the gospel because Jesus told us to.

We tell other people about King Jesus because Jesus is King, whether they understand it or recognize it or not.

This authority of Jesus is not something, it's not something that God gave to Jesus on a whim.

It's not something that will ever be taken away.

We can trace this back through the scriptures to prophecies in the Book of Daniel.

That's probably what Jesus was alluding to when he said that.

When you read through the gospels, Jesus repeatedly refers to himself as the son of man.

That's his favorite title for himself, the son of man.

And that title, the son of man, comes from this prophetic section in the Book of Daniel, from Chapter 7 and the surrounding chapters.

And right here in the middle of Chapter 7, we get this statement about the ultimate authority of the son of man.

Again, this is probably what Jesus was alluding to when he said those words, all authority has been given to me.

This is what it said about the coming son of man.

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one which shall not be destroyed.

The dominion of Jesus is an everlasting dominion.

Nobody will ever take the throne from him.

His kingdom will never pass away, even though we can't always see it.

Right now, today, Jesus' kingdom is expanding and growing and increasing and unfolding exactly how he planned it.

And eventually, you and I will have the privilege of seeing it fully revealed and established.

The rule and reign of Jesus, here's another way to say it, the main point.

The rule and reign of Jesus over all the universe is an unstoppable force.

Therefore, the Great Commission is an opportunity for us to participate in the expansion of the kingdom.

Don't you want to be on the winning team?

Don't you want to be on the field making a difference?

A lot of Christians are content to just ride the bench.

Why?

The Great Commission is like the coach telling you to get off the bench and get into the game.

Jesus is giving us a purpose.

He's inviting us to be part of something meaningful and lasting.

Scrolling on our phones is not meaningful and lasting.

Watching a show on Amazon Prime is not meaningful and lasting.

Our vacations and our homes and so many of the things that we do are not ultimately meaningful and lasting, but this is.

There's this quote from CS.

Lewis about immortality.

And it's really a powerful reminder that sharing the gospel with people is a matter of eternal consequence.

Lewis said this in the weight of glory.

He said, There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.

Immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

It is immortals, people who will live forever, that we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.

It is immortals who will populate the kingdom of Jesus and who will populate hell.

Therefore, it is immortals that we share the gospel with.

Their response to the gospel will determine their eternal destiny.

There is no purgatory.

This life is it.

There is no other way.

The gospel is it.

There is no other way for people to hear the gospel than us.

It depends on us to get the message out.

So the stakes could not be higher, and Jesus is telling us to get in the game.

I want you to think about this.

When a player is sitting on the bench, and the coach says to get up and get in the game, that's an exciting thing for the player.

It's a great opportunity, but it's not optional.

When the coach says go, you go.

When he says jump, you say how high.

When Jesus says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, and then he tells you to go, you go.

All authority has been given to him.

So let's be clear about this.

The Great Commission is the Great Commandment, and it applies to every single Christian.

Apparently, there's been some question about that, so let me state that very clearly.

It applies to every single Christian.

In this passage, Jesus is speaking directly to these 11 disciples.

But notice what he says at the very end, verse 20.

It gives us a little clue about the scope of this commandment.

He says, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

But they didn't live to the end of the age.

They all died long before the end of the age.

So what's going on there?

Why is Jesus speaking like that?

Did he think they were going to live to the end of the age, but he made a mistake?

He got confused and got the timeline wrong?

We know that Jesus doesn't make mistakes.

He doesn't get confused about the timeline.

There's a much better explanation.

Jesus knew that those 11 disciples would die before the end of the age, but he said that because he wasn't speaking to just them.

He was saying, I will be with you always to the end of the age, all of you, every single one of my disciples, those standing here right now, and those who will hear about me a thousand years from now.

You see, he was speaking to these 11 disciples as sort of figureheads, representatives of all disciples.

He was speaking to them as a group of disciples, and his words applied to that group of disciples and this group of disciples, and to all groups of disciples.

Ephesians chapter 2 says the apostles, so these disciples after Jesus' ascension back to heaven became known as the apostles, the sent ones, and they were sent by these words right here.

So these disciples who became the apostles became the foundation of the Christian church, sort of the first leaders, the first figureheads over the church at large.

So when he says, I will be with you always, he means all of us.

And if the promise is for all of us, then the commandment is for all of us.

But this commandment is to be carried out in a very specific way.

Last week, I referred to that famous quote attributed to St.

Francis of Assisi.

It says, preach the gospel always.

If necessary, use words.

Now why is that quote so famous?

Why is that quote so famous?

Well, because it sounds nice.

Nobody's going to get mad at you if you don't use any words, right?

It's never uncomfortable if you don't use any words.

But the Apostle Paul makes it clear for us, like I said last week in Romans 10, that words are necessary.

In some ways, I like the idea behind the quote.

Let me reiterate that.

There's some real truth to it.

We as Christians should live in such a way that it makes people wonder about Jesus, that it makes people respect the name of Christ.

When you bear the name of Christ as a Christian, you should be kind to people, and you should be honest and fair and generous in all of these things, and it should make people attracted to who Jesus is as Jesus lives through you.

But nobody will ever get saved just because a Christian was nice to them.

Nobody will ever get saved just because a Christian was nice to them.

It doesn't matter how nice you are.

You can be really, really nice, and they still won't get saved because of that.

You can be full of love and generosity, and you can do all sorts of amazing things in the community.

I mean, look at our world today.

People hate Christians.

I remember being on campus at the University of California, San Diego, and we were doing like an apologetics group.

And we would go out and we'd set up a table, and like the main thoroughfare along with all these other tables representing all these different clubs.

And in order to grab students' attention and to be able to engage with them, I would put up a whiteboard and I'd put a big question on the whiteboard, a yes or no question, and you could walk by and grab the marker and indicate your answer in the yes column or the no column.

And one of the questions that I asked was, is Christianity good for the world?

Is Christianity good for the world?

And so all of these students at this college would walk by and that day a good 10, maybe 20 of them decided to stop and answer that question.

And guess what they answered?

No.

Of course not.

The vast, vast majority of them said, no, Christianity is not good for the world.

Do you realize that Christianity is the responsible for the invention of the hospital?

There were no hospitals prior to Christians who started hospitals, because nobody cared about the sick and dying the way that we do.

People just left them for dead.

There were no universities before Christians started universities.

There was no modern science before Christians invented modern science.

Modern science is based upon rational principles that are only found within the Christian worldview.

Of course Christianity is good for the world.

It is amazing for the world.

Christians invented orphanages and on and on and on.

We could go down the list and say, look at how nice we've been to the world.

Look at how much good because of God working through us.

Look at how much good we've brought into the world.

But people deny it.

And they hate us anyways.

Nobody will ever get saved no matter how much good we do.

It's important to do good, but there's something else that needs to happen in order for people to actually get saved.

They need to hear the gospel.

They must believe the gospel.

In order to believe the gospel, you must hear it or read it.

So contrary to that, that quote that people love so much, words are necessary to communicate the gospel so that people can be saved.

But people love that quote, because it affirms their desire to do evangelism the way that they want to do it.

If you never use words, you never have to have an awkward conversation.

You never have to say anything that somebody might find weird or offensive.

But the problem is this, evangelism is not something that we can just do, however we please.

Jesus gives us very specific instructions right here in this text.

Right here in this text, He tells us how He wants us to do evangelism.

First, He commands us to make disciples of all nations.

Those men right there, those 11 disciples that He was speaking to, did not want to make disciples of all nations.

They wanted to make disciples of one nation and one nation only.

The nation of Israel.

At that time, in their culture, God only dealt with Israel.

He didn't deal with the other nations.

God's love and God's faithfulness was not for other nations.

It was only for Israel.

And so left on their own, if they were going to do evangelism their way, they would carry the message of Jesus to Israel and to Israel only, because they didn't like the other nations.

So Jesus right away says, go make disciples of all nations, telling them, you need to do it this way, even though you don't want to, even though it makes you uncomfortable, even though it's gonna cost you dearly, you need to do it this way.

Go make disciples of all nations.

And then he goes on and he gives two more elements of evangelism, how he wants this carried out.

This great commission, it's really, it's one command with three components.

The command is make disciples.

That's the goal.

But there are three components of this disciple making that when you look at the grammatical structure, especially in the original language, it becomes more clear.

One command, three components.

Make disciples.

In order to do that, you must go to all the nations and you must baptize, specifically baptize new disciples in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And the third component is to teach them to obey all of the commandments of Jesus.

Sadly, I don't think we've been doing a very good job.

How many people do you know who would say, yes, I'm a Christian?

They would identify as a Christian and maybe they prayed a prayer at some point or made a decision to follow Jesus at some point.

But they hardly obey any of the commandments of Jesus.

They haven't been baptized.

They barely go to church.

What do we do with people like that?

It's our job to teach them.

That's what Jesus is saying here.

Take people like that and teach them to be a disciple.

We can't just put on an event and hope people come forward at the end and say a prayer and then be like, all right, job done.

Let's go relax on the couch.

The job's not done yet.

It's one job with three parts.

Go and preach, baptize, and then teach them to obey.

And sometimes the job starts with us.

In one sense, it starts with us as in Jesus is calling us to go do it.

If the job's gonna get done, you and I have to be doing it.

And it starts with us in the sense of, we gotta do this for ourselves first.

If we're gonna go teach others how to be disciples, we better be disciples first.

Have you been baptized?

To be baptized means to trust in Jesus as your one and only hope for salvation, to understand that, to believe the gospel, and then to be immersed in water, identifying with Jesus in his death and resurrection.

In other words, baptism comes after faith.

Real biblical baptism is immersion in water as an expression of faith.

So babies can't be baptized.

Non-Christians can't be baptized.

Have you been baptized?

Are you obeying the commandments?

Obviously, we're not gonna obey all of the commandments perfectly, but are you working on it?

Are you getting better at it?

Are you obeying this commandment?

The Great Commission?

Are you making disciples?

You don't have to be an overseas missionary in order to fulfill the Great Commission.

He says, go make disciples of all nations.

Well, this is a nation, as I'm sure you are well aware.

There's a nation to the south of us, we could go there.

There's a nation to the north of us, we could go there.

We can go to any of the nations, but this is a nation too.

So when you make disciples of people in Penngrove, and Petaluma, and Roanoke Park, and Cotodian, Santa Rosa, and Sonoma, and Nevada, when you make disciples here, you are fulfilling the command to make disciples of all nations.

They're all nations, and they all need the gospel.

What's standing in the way?

What's more important than this?

What excuses do we have?

We don't have any excuses.

I think the main reason that people often give for not evangelizing is what I mentioned earlier, a lack of confidence.

So let me reiterate this for you.

All authority has been given to Jesus.

The kingdom of Jesus is an unstoppable force.

You don't have to be the star quarterback and carry the team to victory.

You just have to show up and get on the field.

Just get out there.

So what does that look like?

How do we actually get in the game?

How do we actually share the gospel with people?

We're doing this four week series on evangelism, and I'm hoping, I'm actually expecting, that you will actually start evangelizing.

So I know we as Christians, we're really good at talking about stuff and never doing anything, but that's not what this series is about.

That's not what we're doing this time.

Instead of just talking about it, it really blows me away, like, and I'm so guilty of this myself, like I can spend weeks and weeks and months and months going through something like the Gospel of James, and go in depth into the original language, and look at the grammar, and research the historical background, and study the literary structure, and think about it in the context of the New Testament, and think about who James was as a person, and how that affected the way he wrote the Book of James, and go so deep in depth, and then not actually put into practice what James says to put into practice, not actually do anything about it.

And so, James says that, I forget his exact wording, but he says that people who don't obey the scriptures are like people who look in a mirror, and then walk away immediately forgetting what they look like.

How silly is that?

It would be so silly for us to do a four week series on sharing the gospel, and then not actually share the gospel with people.

So I want to give you one effective and good method for sharing the gospel with people right now.

I'm gonna give you four steps for practical, easy to implement steps that are on your hand out, that you can take home, take with you, so you can actually start doing this this week.

And for some of you, depending on your relationships with other people, your life, your context, for some of you, you can skip straight to step three or step four.

It depends on where you're at.

But step one is pray.

The first step is to pray.

Pray specifically for specific people to get saved.

You can pray their names.

You can talk to God about them and plead with the Lord to save them.

Because salvation always depends on God.

Nobody will ever become a disciple of Jesus apart from the supernatural work of God in their life.

You can come up with the most eloquent and powerful gospel presentation ever spoken.

You could spend months, you could spend years crafting the most perfect and wonderful and beautiful gospel presentation, and nobody will get saved unless God does the work in their hearts in response to that gospel presentation.

On the on the other hand, you can give a horrendous gospel presentation, and God still might save them.

You can stumble and fumble and misspeak and forget stuff, and by God's grace, he may save them.

Many people have gotten saved by incomplete, poorly spoken gospel presentations, so there's a very positive side of that coin as well.

But either way, if salvation is a supernatural work of God, then we better ask God to do it.

We better pray.

We better say, hey, God, will you please do this?

I can't do it on my own.

Will you please save that person?

And I would love to be a part of that if you'll let me.

Step two is to engage.

The second step is to engage with non-Christians.

You can't share the gospel with people if you're not around them, if you're not in a relationship with them, or talking to them.

You can show up to a campus or to a street corner with a sign that has the gospel and big bold letters on the sign, and if you want to do that, go for it.

A lot of times we criticize those people, but I think there's a lot of good that happens in situations like that.

I'm not saying go get angry and yell at people and talk down on them and condemn them.

That's not what that's about.

But if you want to just put the gospel on a sign, like you can share the gospel with people with hardly engaging with them at all.

But generally speaking, in order to share the gospel with people, you start by praying, then invite them to dinner, invite them to go on a hike.

Just call them up, text them, engage with non-Christians, have a relationship with non-Christians, and then you'll have the opportunity to share the gospel with them.

So pray, engage.

And then the third step is to just be a Christian around them.

Just be a Christian.

Act like a Christian.

Talk like a Christian.

Act like a Christian in the way that you live your life and treat people.

Talk like a Christian.

Talk about church.

Talk about your faith.

It doesn't have to be some perfectly crafted speech or some master plan to get to the gospel somehow.

Sometimes you just have to openly be a Christian.

And finally, the fourth step, the most important one, is to share the gospel.

Just share the gospel with people.

And this may seem like the hardest part, but I want to try to make it really simple for you.

Ask them to sit down and read five Bible verses with you.

To just sit down and read five Bible verses.

That's it.

That's all you need to do to share the gospel.

And honestly, I think it's better if they read the verses.

You put the words of scripture in their mouth, open the Bible, show them the verse, and have them read it.

Of course, you could do this over the phone if necessary.

If they have any questions, just do your best to answer the questions.

And if you can't answer their questions, that's okay.

God is sovereign.

He's still in control.

God's word never returns void.

Just reading these verses will communicate the gospel with divinely inspired words.

These are God's words about the gospel, the words that he chose to speak through the Apostle Paul about his message of salvation.

So you sit down with somebody, and you turn to these scriptures and say, okay, read that verse.

All right, let's go to the next one.

Okay, read that verse through these five verses.

And I'm going to read them for you real quick.

And I'll skip the scripture references, but just listen to this beautiful message.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

That's it.

That's the gospel.

At the very heart of all of that is the very simple truth that we are sinners, but Jesus saves sinners.

When you're done reading that, you could ask them, hey, do you want Jesus to save you?

If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, then you will be saved.

Do you want that?

Do you want eternal life?

Then if they say yes, you can lead them through a simple prayer, asking Jesus to save them.

And what do you do if they become a Christian?

What next?

Bring them to church.

Tell them to get baptized.

Tell them to read the Bible and obey the commandments.

And if you don't feel equipped to do that or to help somebody grow after they become a Christian, find some other Christian that you can trust, that you think is more mature than you and say, hey, would you disciple this person?

That's how we make disciples.

That method is known as the Roman's Road, and it's not the only method.

Maybe it's not the perfect method.

Things can go wrong.

Things will go wrong.

You'll say the wrong thing.

It won't be perfect, but that's okay because Jesus is in control.

Jesus is in control, and he is with us always to the end of the age.

Let's pray.

Jesus, I pray that you would give us the love, the passion, the confidence that we need to go share the gospel with people.

And Lord Jesus, would you bring a great harvest of fruit, a great harvest of righteousness from our efforts to share the gospel?

I pray that when we do, people would get saved and that they would grow into maturity in Christ.

That's our prayer, Lord.

For our friends, for our friends that we love, who are lost, who need hope, who need salvation, we pray, Jesus, that you would save them.

For our family members, our grandparents, our grandkids, our cousins, our siblings, our parents.

Jesus, we pray, that they would hear the gospel and be saved, whether we preach it or somebody else does.

We pray that you would save them.

And Jesus, we pray that we would have the privilege of being a part of you bringing many people to salvation.

Give us confidence.

Give us passion and boldness and love.

We pray in your name, Jesus.

Amen.