(Tim) Here's the manuscript for our final sermon on the Gospel of Matthew; and specifically, our final sermon on the Great Commission. Please forgive me for not cleaning it up prior to posting it, here. Lots of formatting and spelling mistakes will irritate you, I'm sure. And please keep in mind that sermon manuscripts are not sermons.

Lots is added and some taken away when in the pulpit.

* * *

From the Pulpit of Church of the Good Shepherd

August 30, 2009 AM

Lo, I Am with You Always

Sermon Text: Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew Series Number 198

 

Please turn with me to Matthew 28:18-20; this is the Word of God, eternally true.

(Matthew 28:18-20) 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NASB)

These are the final three verses of the Gospel of Matthew, what the church calls the Great Commission, and for several weeks we’ve been studying this set of commands given by our Lord Jesus asking how we are to obey them?

Many Bible students point out that this is the crescendo, the mighty finale of the Gospel of Matthew. These are the command (or the commands) the entire Gospel has been pointing towards. Here we have the marching orders our Commanding Officer gave to His Disciples just before His Ascension into Heaven. Down to this very day, our Lord has never called them back or changed them.

This is the Great Commission.

And although this commission was given principally to the officers of Christ’s Church—not simply to every individual Christian, as we saw in past weeks; these orders have particularly to do with the Apostles and the Apostles’ successors, today, pastors and elders—these orders are also to be obeyed by the Church and by every one of  her members. That means every one of you who is a believer is to give your life as a witness to the Gospel, joining with your officers in this work of making disciples of all men.

We’ve noted how difficult it is to carry out these orders.

Fulfilling the Great Commission is not simply a case of living cheerfully so your roommate or foreman asks you why you’re so cheerful? It’s not simply a case of “sharing the Gospel” in a positive way and avoiding causing unbelievers any offense.

Fulfilling the Great Commission is difficult because it always means being offensive and divisive.

This can be discouraging to hear if we’re been seduced by the lie that Jesus is just a pleasant add-on to the nice and smiling version of civic religion known in these United States as “Christianity.”

But don’t be misled. Fulfilling the Great Commission is difficult. It means sufferings as our Lord suffered. It means taking up our cross as He, our Lord, took up His. Fulfilling the Great Commission means repeating that unbelievably intolerant Gospel truth that Jesus first stated, Himself:

(John 14:6) “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

In our day when we want to allow others to say Jesus is just one of many paths to Heaven; just one of many ways to get in touch with our spiritual side; just one of a number of great spiritual prophets God has sent into the world; in our day when we want to refer to the Christian faith as just one of many faith traditions, we must realize that this Great Commission is no peace proposal sent through us to Paris to end hostilities with our Enemy, Satan, and his worldwide army.

The Great Commission is great, after all. It is universal. It is exclusive. It is absolutely authoritative, beginning with this clap of thunder from the Lord of the Universe before Whom, one day, every knee shall bow:

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…

Faithfully carrying that authority, that universal or cosmic authority that extends to the bottom of the deepest trenches in the Pacific Ocean and the farthest reaches of our ten to fifteen billion light year universe, that supreme authority that at the Last Day will judge the highest offices of power in our state or national capital and every last professor instructor, or teacher in every classroom of Ivy Tech, Indiana University and the Monroe County School District; yes, faithfully carrying and bearing witness to that authority—Christ’s authority, that is—will always be divisive; obeying this Great Commission—not suing for peace with the Enemy, but preaching, proclaiming our Master’s cosmic authority—obeying this Great Commission, no preacher of the Gospel following in the footsteps of the Apostles and prophets and their Lord Jesus Christ has ever had an easy time of it or been popular.

Our Lord told us:

(Luke 6:26) 26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

Our Lord told us:

(John 15:18-20) 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

So we know and are resigned to faithful witness to Jesus Christ being divisive in all ages, but especially in this age when the pressures of the iron-clad conformity known as the tolerance of diversity, the salute to pluralism which is the only moral law left in these United States, are intense.

Yes, fulfilling or obeying or carrying out the Great Commission is very, very difficult.

To proclaim that Jesus Christ and His precious blood is the only path to Heaven; to proclaim that men and women must repent and believe—not simply believe while avoiding falling humbly before our Lord in repentance; to proclaim, as the Apostle Paul did in the Areopagus in Athens, that all the gods of the nations are idols and the Lord, this Lord, is the Maker of heaven and earth (or rather, the Creator of heaven and earth); this is very difficult work requiring great faith, today.

But faith in Whom?

Faith in our Lord Jeus—the same Lord Jesus Who held the Apostle Paul up and gave him courage to continue to carry out the Great Commission while he was in chains in prison, facing death. Then--right then--we see what sustained the Apostle Paul in the middle of the persecution that came to him for his work in fulfillment of the Great Commission:

(2 Timothy 1:8-15) 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, 10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. 12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. 15 You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.

Often, what makes fulfilling the Great Commission most difficult is this, that we see here in the Apostle Paul’s letter, written shortly before his death: many, many souls who have received the seed of the Word; many, many of those who have tasted of the Holy Spirit; many, many of those who first joined the church through the proclamation of the Gospel done by the Apostle Paul soon abandoned that very Gospel and the Apostle who proclaimed and witnessed and discipled and taught and (in some cases) baptized them.

“All who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.”

Have you heard anyone naming their sons Phygelus or Hermogenes, recently?

If not, why not?

Because they caused great pain to our beloved Apostle Paul when he was faithfully fulfilling the Great Commission. And we’re not surprised because our Lord said we would be persecuted and suffer and be hated and despised among men, just as He was; but we don’t lose heart, either, because?

Because we know whom we have believed and we are convinced that He, Jesus, is able to guard what we have entrusted to Him until that day.

What have we entrusted to Him?

We have entrusted to Him our comfort, our convenience, our reputation, our riches, our degrees, our union card and the easy acceptance of our union brothers, our saluting the flag of diversity and tolerance, our cars and houses, our pride, our children, our husband, our wife, our movies and MP3 files, our very lives.

These are the things we have entrusted to Him in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

But entrusting them to Him, we haven’t given them up forever, have we?

No, we have entrusted them to Him “until that day.”

What day?

The Last Day, when He will reveal the secrets of every heart and will bring in justice—true justice—by the scepter of His Father Almighty.

(Mark 10:28-31) 28 Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.”

29 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, 30 but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 “But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”

So, those who have true faith in Jesus Christ and are not simply making a show of obedience of His Great Commission; those who are truly His disciples will suffer as they carry out the Great Commission; it will mean losing respectability and houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and children and farms and persecutions; and often, our very lives; but will not turn back because we know He has promised us blessings without number; and in the life to come, “eternal life.”

Blessed eternal life. Eternal eternal life. Heavenly eternal life. The presence of the Lord where there is no sin, no guilt, no sorrow, no remorse, no sickness, and no death.

Eternal life.

Yes, fulfilling—truly fulfilling and not simply giving lip service to it; not simply making a show of being missional or evangelistic for the sake of the blogs and the books and the money and the status and the suits who make money off all these things—but fulfilling, truly fulfilling the Great Commission is very, very difficult. It will mean loss—great loss; it will mean suffering; it will mean persecution, both small psychological and relational persecution and large life and death persecution; it will mean selling everything and giving it to the poor; it will mean giving up tenure and degrees and pensions and security; but God is no man’s debtor.

Whatever we give up will be given back to us, both in this life and the next, with persecutions ending in eternal life.

Yes, the Great Commission is not easily obeyed, easily carried out, easily fulfilled.

Many will tell us it is. Many will try to sell us this or that curriculum; this or that little pamphlet or booklet, this or that clip or video; this or that church or campus ministry, telling us how missional they are and how hip the graphics or beautiful the women or handsome the men of that fulfillment of the Great Commission are.

But of course, true fulfillment of the Great Commission has never been sexy. It’s never been rich. It’s never been hip or cool. It’s never had rock stars as its headliner. It’s never been a matter of outcooling and outhipping and outshining the world with all its bangles. The fulfillment of the Great Commission has never been done in power and glory; it’s never been sauve and chic and cosmopolitan; it’s never coalesced with the world’s wisdom and been respected by philosophers.

No, it’s not easy to fulfill the Great Commission. It’s not easy to be a church that fulfills—truly fulfills—the Great Commission.

Think of how much shame came with associating with, and loving the Apostles as they preached the Gospel, as they made disciples of all men, as they baptized them in the Names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; as they taught them to obey everything Jesus commanded.

No, it’s not easy to fulfill the Great Commission. It’s not easy to be a church that fulfills—truly fulfills—the Great Commission.

Being evangelistic, being Gospel-driven, being missional is not hip and it won’t ever be. When the Gospel is cool, it’s not the Gospel. When fulfillment of the Great Commission is hip, it’s not the Great Commission and it’s not fulfillment.

Rather, it’s lip service. It’s hypocrisy.

Remember our Lord’s question?

(Matthew 21:23-32) 23 When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” 24 Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 “The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 26 “But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.” 27 And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29 “And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 “The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 31 “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They *said, “The first.” Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. 32 “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

Remember our Lord’s warning?

(Matthew 7:21-29) 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall.” 28 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Fulfilling the Great Commission is not easy, brothers and sisters.

It will be a work of glorious heartache, like the heartache of Elisabeth Elliot. Like the heartache of Stephen, the first martyr. The heartache of Wycliffe and Hus; Calvin and Luther; the Blessed Virgin Mary and her cousin, Elizabeth; the heartache of every one of the Twelve Apostles, save Judas.

The Great Commission is a work of heartache to fulfill, but glorious heartache.

Why can I say glorious?

Because the end of Matthew is not command, but promise; or rather, command with a promise—a precious promise—bringing it to an end:

(Matthew 28:18-20) 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NASB)

This is the reason Jesus ends His commission with a promise—a glorious, heavenly promise.

“And lo.”

And behold. And look. Note well. Be certain of.

See here!

Surely!

Surely what?

“Surely I will be with you,” says Jesus.

Does this ring a bell? Do we recognize this from another place?

(Matthew 1:23) 23 “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”

(Matthew 18:20) 20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

And etc.