Dead men don't initiate world wide campaigns matthew 28
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•344 views
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (11)
Similar to Dead men don't initiate world wide campaigns matthew 28
Similar to Dead men don't initiate world wide campaigns matthew 28 (20)
More from Grace (Rural Wales) Partnership - Y Grwp
More from Grace (Rural Wales) Partnership - Y Grwp (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (16)
Dead men don't initiate world wide campaigns matthew 28
- 1. “… go and make disciples of .” Matthew 28:19
- 3. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction “THEN Jesus came to THEM and said …” 1. ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 2. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, 3. baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and 4. teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. 5. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”
- 4. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction “THEN Jesus came to THEM and said …” – Then
- 5. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction “THEN Jesus came to THEM and said …” – Then – Them
- 6. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction “THEN Jesus came to THEM and said …” – Then – Them “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.”
- 7. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
- 8. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. • Therefore go and make disciples of all nations
- 9. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. • Therefore go and make disciples of all nations – Go
- 10. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. • Therefore go and make disciples of all nations – Go – Make disciples
- 11. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. • Therefore go and make disciples of all nations • baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
- 12. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. • Therefore go and make disciples of all nations • baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit • teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you
- 13. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. • Therefore go and make disciples of all nations • baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit • teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you • And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age
- 14. Matthew 28:16-20 • Introduction • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. • Therefore go and make disciples of all nations • baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit • teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you • And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- How do you sustain the church’s mission, the onward going work of the Kingdom of God, in the midst of a massive recession?I’ve heard of 2 missionary families in the course of this week doing undeniably crucial work at the front end of the church’s mission in desperately hard places having their funding cut by 80%Oh, well … we’re feeling the squeeze.Not THAT much of a squeeze, surely?!So, of course, to some extent, we need to be out there saying to the Lord’s people … ‘let’s get our priorities right’!The danger at times like these for people like us is that WE feel a bit threatened and shaken and so we pull up the draw-bridge and shut up the shop!The truth is that most middle class Christians in work are now better off than they’ve been for some time because their mortgages have NEVER been lower and retail margins have never been more pinched.I just wish we had more like that at Grace!That TENDS not to be our position!So how do you handle a recession and still keep God’s work going forwards?There’s a view out there that the way to plant a church is to work out a budget for premises, a load of fancy equipment to be able to put on the best audio-visual and musical show in town, employ a cast of thousands and publicise a big multi-media ‘launch’.Lots of money gets spent out that way … and the American church growth people I read some of are beginning to suggest that the biggest numbers of lives are not changed in this way.(To be honest, we knew that already).The Lord’s church planting strategy looks different.Here’s how it goes:Defeat sin and death and hell by sacrificially atoning for sin and rising from the deadGive clear evidence to both followers and doubters that sin’s price has been paid and the gate to life flung wideGet those followers who’ll believe this to go out and live to tell the tale to anyone and everyone who will hear itGet those who believe baptised and discipled… stay close to the people who do.And that’s really all that there’s ever been to it.Now, I confess, I find myself longing for all sorts of props to help me.They can help.I could do an awful lot more with a salary.You could do an awful lot more to win people to Jesus if you had time committed help and coaching with your witness. (I mean a full time Pastor).We could do an AWFUL lot more with a building where we could put useful stuff on and welcome people to come in.We’d be much better at attracting and holding people if we had a band, and a floor show, and the funding for ‘a programme’ with provision for all sorts of people and interest groups.But Jesus’s pattern of outreach at a time of horrible pressure on the economy of His day was this:
- So there’s an introductory reference here to the circumstances of this comment and he people it was addressed to (which might be surprising!) then five things that He wants them to know.So then …
- When did Jesus come to them?These words represent the final emphasis, the final briefing from the Saviour before He leaves them for good and heads back home to Glory.When did Jesus come to them?When He had called them to repentance and faith as He’d walked by the beach, from living a life defaulting towards sin towards following Him.When He’d taught them for three years about the sin they should leave and the life they should lead … and done so by precept, example and APPRENTICESHIP.When they’d all seen Him betrayed and fitted up by the religious and political establishment for sins He’d never committed; seen Him stripped, whipped, mocked and hung on a Cross until He was dead, then laid in a borrowed tomb by some brave rich men.When they’d seen the darkened heavens, felt the earthquake, heard the cries of dereliction and of death … “lifted up was He to die, ‘it is finished’ was His cry …” and then heard about the torn veil in the Temple.When?When they’d seen His body prepared for burial, tomb sealed, guard set … body gone, rumours of angels and appearances then the evidence of their own eyes, ears and hands.Repeatedly.Publicly.Searchingly.(‘Do you LOVE me?’)It was THEN.THEN Jesus came to them and said …Wait!To Whom?
- A right sample … as my Grandmother used to say, to show her disgust.These were not the beautiful people.Who was there?Taxmen and outcasts.Violent men and cowards.Prostitutes turned preachers … first century Hookers for Jesus.If you’d wanted to pick a group of people to wield big this-world influence, to run your world-wide campaign … you wouldn’t have landed on that lot!They hadn’t the pedigree.They hadn’t the training.They hadn’t the skills or the means for it.From the start the church was just black sheep for Jesus.And black sheep who had often let Him down.Who were they, this ‘them’ that these words are addressed to?We tend to think of them as the elite, hand-picked eye-witnesses of the glorious resurrection of Jesus.So they were.But look at their description in v. 16 & 17 …
- In v. 16 we know that Matthew’s summarising the story and shortening the time span considerably.We know from what we’ve been looking at in recent weeks that some of these guys were together, not in Galilee, as instructed.But we also know that some like Thomas had wandered off, and guys like Peter and John had returned to their old careers and gone back fishing.Jesus came to THEM.He rounded them up where they’d wandered away to, and when they’d ended up in Galilee together in the mountain He’d told them about going to from the start, then to them He appeared to give them the responsibility to take forward the world wide, saving work of God.They were still a horribly imperfect, non-elite bunch!Listen to this:““Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.”And to THAT lot, in mercy, grace and forbearance, the Saviour committed His mission in the world.Here’s the point.You feel weak, and unable, and incapable of meeting the calling and the tasks Christ lays on you?That eleven in Galilee (not twelve … you remember?) were the men chosen by Jesus to change the whole world.And when they saw Jesus with their OWN EYES some of those men there still doubted!And to those weak feeble black sheep with pitifully poor, scant resources … Jesus committed His Final Solution.Five clear, costly, life changing things … here they are.
- The issue of the Gospel IS an issue of attraction, but fundamentally it is an issue of authority.Jesus didn’t come preaching the beauty contest of God … He came preaching the Kingdom of God.More than that, if you read Matthew 4 you’ll hear this:“Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.”Or if you dip into Mark 1’s account of those early days in Galilee you’ll read the accounts I’ve been working through out in Llansawel recently …(Mark 1:27) “The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, ‘What is this? A new teaching – and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.’”From the beginning Jesus’s message has been about the Kingdom and the authority that now commands all men everywhere to repent (as Paul put it to the Athenians) “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.’”Jesus sends His followers out into the world to preach to it God’s message and to command all men everywhere to repent.It is a matter of authority … of whose authority will be obeyed … and Christ sends them out on this mission because He is the One with the authority mankind needs to hear, heed and hold out.And He’s ‘proved’ it by His death and resurrection.But there’s more …
- Because that authority’s been given to Jesus, His followers’ primary task is quite simple.What’s more, it is recession and stag-flation proof.The core task is a task that requires little by way of resources, and can be undertaken by the very least promising but simply faithful of followers.Here it is:‘Go and make disciples of all nations’.
- Yes it’s lovely with me on the mountain … now get FROM here.Your primary task doesn’t lie here.Of course, you can’t perform this task without guarding your relationship with the One they were meeting on the mountain!But the primary TASK doesn’t happen there.Get from here.Recession means be ready to ‘go’.Mission means be ready now to ‘go’.The important thing to manage is that when He says ‘go’, we ‘go’ and d the things that He says here …
- Funny He doesn’t say: ‘and do evangelism’.Now, of course, to do the one involves the other.But to simply tell it doesn’t cut it … do you see the point here?The focus is NOT just on the communication, the elaboration or the illumination of the point.The job sits down in the trenches making followers out of sinners – living for Jesus.The rabbi made a commitment to his disciples.He shared his life with them and invested his time in them.He heard their problems, led their prayers, taught them face to face, one to one … eye to eye, toe to toe.And Jesus calls His followers to do that.If really want to see how to make disciples for Jesus, go and see in the Scriptures how He did that!He took unlikely unappealing people and opened up His life to them.He spent time.He shared life.He showed love.He understood and forgave and showed mercy.It’s hard and it hurts … and puts Heaven in men’s hearts.Watch the way that He did it in the Scriptures.And they were black sheep.And they failed Him.And they disappointed and dismayed and distressed Him.But He came back and discipled them.He taught them and showed them and led them to the Father.And His final briefing to His followers about God’s final solution, was that we should do as He did and make disciples.THAT is the Christian’s mission.THAT is the focus for the people of God.THAT is the business of His church.What does it cost in a time of recession?It’s a mission that costs nothing, and everything.Go and make disciples of all nations …
- How do you do that?You teach them to change their allegiance to be followers of Jesus and you baptise their bodies in water.Two things new here …BaptismOn the authority of Whom?The Father, the Son and the Spirit.The Trinitarian authority that emerges here …It is the plan and the purpose of the eternal Trinity that the name of God should be put on His saved and discipled people at the point of their initiation into following Him … as three in one.Baptism.The clear visible symbol that one way of life has come to a decisive and shuddering halt, and that the disciple has been raised to live a new life following Jesus.Clean break.Fresh start.New life.We are to build that symbolism into the way we express what it means to become and to be a Christian.And we do that in the Name of the Triune God Father as God, Jesus as God, Holy Spirit as God … one God, three persons. As non-negotiable as Christian baptism.And as non-negotiable and fundamental as this next piece in the final briefing for God’s final age-end solution …
- Repentance because the Kingdom of God is at hand is fundamental, the foundation, of the message Christ preached from the first days He set out preaching in Galilee … check it out in Matthew 4 and Mark 1.You are not a Christian without it.This is how we enter God’s KINGdom, come under the authority Christ has been given by the Father after His sin atoning death and life giving resurrection.Repentance born of faith.What is it?It is turning away from living under our own authority, on the basis of our own moral judgements and in the light of our own self-determined wisdom.It is turning to living in God’s Kingdom, under His authority, entrusting ourselves to Him and His Word.The Kingdom of God is at hand.The consequence?Repent and believe the Gospel.These people you are going to make disciples, they need to know what the job will entail.Paul writes to the Romans in ch. 1 about the whole purpose of His life once He’d met the Lord on the Damascus Road, and he describes that purpose as calling people from amongst all the Gentiles to ‘the obedience that comes from faith’.Am I asking you to become a legalist?Not at all!I’m telling you the consequence of taking God at His Word.I have no idea what you sit there today thinking faith IS … but I’m here to tell you on the basis of this Word of God that THAT’s what faith is.And I’m here to tell you that I am NOT asking too much.Firstly, because I am not the One asking for it.Secondly, because it’s NO WAY too much.‘If Jesus Christ is God, and He died for me, then NOTHING is too much for me to do for Him.’We model, we instruct and we expect that the turning and trusting follower of Jesus will be serious about obeying everything the Lord Jesus has commanded us.And do you have ANY idea of the value of the promise that comes with this?
- Go – on His authorityMake disciples – on His authorityBaptise in the Name of the Triune God – on His authorityTeach His followers obedience to His commandments – on His authorityAnd will you look at what comes along with that?His presence.For ever.And ever.If you want to be close to Jesus, you go for Him.You take His last words of commission very seriously … and you GO for this vision, this MISSION of disciple-making.That’s how you get and stay close to God.We don’t need to take our life to a cloister, up a pole or a mountain … although times away with Him can be precious.We go out and make our purpose in life to get people to follow Jesus.This isn’t just God’s vision for sustaining – or even growing – the institution of the church through recession, when funds for fancy and impressive projects will be lacking.This is the all-times plan and purpose of God.It is not descriptive, for times that are bad.It is normative … the norm for all seasons and ages.Here’s the plan.We’ve seen what comes of man’s plans from Eden until now.Here, says Jesus, is God’s final solution.And it’s particularly important in days when missionaries get their pay cut back, ministers have to find part time work and money isn’t getting poured into mission.Here it comes.YOU go.YOU make disciples.
- The more we turn in on ourselves looking for the presence of God and the company of HIS people, the more the felt presence of God has departed from His people in Wales.And every time that His presence has come close, hot and precious … His people have already been making His mission their priority.We can demonstrate that principle from 17th century Puritanism with Vavassor Powell and the Society for the Promotion of the Gospel in Wales.We can demonstrate that principle from 18th century Evangelicalism with Griffith Jones, Hywel Harris and William Williams.We can demonstrate it from 19th century movements of the Spirit of God under the preaching of men like Christmas Evans, John Elias and Henry Rees.We can demonstrate it in the early 20th century, in the awakenings around Ammanford , Dowlais and Loughor in the South and Blaenau Ffestiniog in the North under the preaching of Nantlais Williams, Joseph Jenkins, Seth and Frank Joshua and most famously Evan Roberts at Loughor.In all those places and in all those times, the work of making disciples of the lost had been proceeding apace before the Spirit of God powerfully fell.What, after all, would you expect?