Chad Vegas - Why the Great Commission is Accomplishable #RMC2020

that said look with me at Matthew 28:16 Matthew 28:16 I'm gonna read this very familiar passage to which were appealing in numerous sermons during this conference largely because the conference is about the Great Commission so Matthew 28 verse 16 I just want to read verses 16 through 20 and then have war prayer now the eleven 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 let me pray father we ask we ask that your spirit would illumine our hearts and minds as we consider what he is superintended what he has inspired through the apostle matthew for the sake of the church we pray that we would hear the voice of your son our Lord Jesus Christ the head of the church as he gives his church through his apostles his final marching orders as he tells us what our purpose is as a church in this world may we hear what Jesus is saying give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches we pray this in Jesus name Amen well here's the basic thesis of the topic that I'm really addressing today the basic thesis is this the Great Commission is accomplishable the Great Commission is accomplishable now that may seem an odd thesis in as much as it may seem unnecessary as a sermon Christ gave the Church of command so why even talk about whether it can actually be accomplished isn't it obvious that it's accomplishable if he gave us the command well there at least for reasons that I think we need to address this topic first because it's incorrect to assume that because God commands something we have the requisite ability in and of ourselves to fulfill that command quite the opposite is true just think about two other commands given in the Gospel of Matthew think of the great commandment in Matthew 22 37 through 39 Jesus has asked what is the greatest commandment and he responds love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength and the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself that command is impossible to keep in and of ourselves Adam failed to keep that command Israel failed to keep that command we failed to keep that command Jesus in fact came as the second Adam to keep that command for us think of another command in Matthew Matthew 5:48 be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect again another command we on its face know is impossible in of ourselves to keep the only man who's ever been perfect is the perfect man Jesus Christ tempted in every way yet without sin but it's impossible for us in and of ourselves the second reason that it's important we address this notion of the Great Commission being accomplishable is because the poor use of Scripture has caused an incorrectly optimistic view of the great Commission's accomplishment if you think about a passage like Matthew 24:14 the gospel this gospel will be preached in all the earth or in all the nations and then the end will come and so what people do is they they take this phrase in the Greek Ponte taw Ethne Ponte all all tava nations all these nations all the nations they take that they say we can identify with scientific precision what is meant by a nation and then we identify who those people are there are 30 100 plus such people groups and what we do in preaching the gospel to them is we take short turn teams we drop them in there for a couple weeks and once we've reached all 3,100 of them then we can usher in the return of Christ now that's just utter nonsense for a variety of reasons most of which I don't have time to address today but it causes a kind of false optimism about our ability to define Pontotoc F nee with absolute scientific precision to send teams there and then to bring about the return of Christ third reason it's important that we address this is because it is hard to a comp it is hard to discuss accomplishing the Great Commission when there is so much confusion about what we are being commissioned to do what is in fact the Great Commission teaching it seems everything has become missions so now nothing is missions what in fact is the mission of the church if you want to read a book by that Kevin de Young as a book called what is the mission of the church that's worth your time my point is simply that we are easily distracted by any number of tasks and our eyes are taken off of the Great Commission forth because all of the above everything I've just mentioned has caused excessive cynicism about identifying what the Great Commission is and to whom we are commissioned to go it's as if we've become because the abuse of the Great Commission the misunderstanding confusion around the Great Commission we've become cynical about being able to identify what the mission of the church is and the to whom we're to go as a result we lose the kind of dogged determination and laser focus on what Christ has commissioned us to do so today my hope is to help us see that the Great Commission is accomplishable to do that I want to move through what Jesus teaches us here in Matthew 28 and I want us to see three reasons that the Great Commission is accomplishable then they roughly fall out on the verses that we know is the Great Commission in verse 18 we will see the authority of Christ who gave the Commission in verse 19 and the first part of verse 20 we're gonna see the clarity of Christ's Commission and in verse 20 at the last phrase we'll see the promise of Christ in his commission but before we look at those three reasons the Great Commission is accomplishable let's look at the setting look with me at Matthew 28 verses 16 and 17 now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them and when they saw him they worshiped him but some doubted now the setting of this is somewhere between Easter Sunday the day on which we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the day of his ascension which is 40 days later and we're not quite sure exactly where to locate this but it seems to me the latter part of that 40 day time in which Jesus is with his apostles you'll notice that the eleven disciples were commanded to meet him in Galilee we know the about the eleven because one of the disciples the one who betrayed Christ had committed suicide and so now we have this emphasis on the eleven disciples who went to Galilee and notice that phrase at the end of verse 16 to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them that's not in just incidental to the text it isn't just we want to give you a little bit of geography the point in Matthew every time a mountain comes up Jesus is teaching something important so you think about Matthew 5 to 7 and the Sermon on the Mount or you think of the Mount of Transfiguration or you think of Mount gall Gotha where he's crucified and now this mountain where he's meeting them in Galilee to give what are his final marching orders the fact that it's given on a mountain is emphasizing the importance of what Jesus is about to say to his disciples it's a kind of commissioning story it's akin to the Old Testament commissioning stories in fact it's akin to the story with Moses being commissioned or with Joshua's commissioning or with Gideon's commissioning or Jeremiah's commissioning we see this same kind of story now note the emphasis as well as we walk through the primary passage we know as the great Commission on the word all it's it's actually striking how this comes out verse 18 and Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me he has all authority this word in greek is pause or ponte or pon depending on how it's being used in that for a particular place but it just means all all authority in heaven earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all nations all nations same Greek word baptizing them and name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded same Greek word that I've command you and behold I am with you always and actually in the Greek that's all the days I am with you all the days to the end of the age all authority all nations all I have commanded all the days I have all authority in heaven and earth it's all mine I want to go to all the peoples of the earth they're all mine I want them to obey all that I have commanded the whole Council of God it's all my word and I'm gonna be with you all the days without fail there's not a moment that will pass that I am not with you the emphasis so is emphasis is so Universal that it's a kind that there's a kind of exclusivity being emphasized here there is no realm that is outside of his sovereign rule in power there is no Ethne no people that is excluded from needing to hear the gospel being brought to faith in our triune Lord there is no command of Christ the Lord that should be left out there is not one moment in which Jesus fails to be with this church the Great Commission really is a remarkable statement from the Lord and Savior of all regarding his final marching orders to the church so let's look at the three reasons it's accomplishable first the Great Commission is accomplishable because of the unlimited authority of Christ the universal unlimited authority of Christ look again at verse 18 and Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me now that's an emphasis on everything everything in heaven and everything on earth it's all mine it's all been given to me this is a fulfillment of what's been promised in daniel 7:13 and 14 that the one like a son of man will come to the Ancient of Days and he'll be given all authority in heaven and earth this is a fulfillment of what we hear in Psalm 2:7 when Jesus singing through David by the Spirit says I will tell the decree or I will tell the Covenant the father said to me the Lord said to me you are my son today I have begotten you ask of me and I'll make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession it's being fulfilled it's all his it's what Jesus said when he said the father is covenant to me a kingdom it's all his he has authority over all things now as God it was always all rightfully his as the mediator he fulfilled the purposes of his father and has received the kingdom from him as God all authority is rightfully his as God man in our flesh the second Adam he is the heir of all things he's received the kingdom and has been granted all authority his unlimited and universal authority then becomes an encouragement to obey because of the nature of the one commanding this is the king of kings and these are his marching orders he has authority over your life all your life he has authority over your church all your church you don't get to modify his orders a bit you don't get to modify his orders that make you feel uncomfortable or that you find personally costly to you these orders aren't just true if you feel passionately about them or if you don't feel passionately about them they don't somehow become untrue you obey because the King has commanded you to you don't wait for a calling to obey you obey because you've been given a command this is not a command you obey only if you believe it matches your personality type or your giftings or your passions or whatever lame identity you've constructed that allows for some kind of disobedience look we don't accept homosexual marriage on the basis that people believe that's just who they are and that's just how God has wired them we call it sinful disobedience we don't we don't accept any kind of sexual immorality on that basis when we do accept it on that basis we claim a realm where Christ's word no longer has Authority see God made me this way so God has no authority in this area of my life well we shouldn't taller disobedience to the Great Commission on that same basis either Christ Authority is universal it's unlimited it's without bounds the local church should not construct excuses for why it can disregard the Great Commission his unlimited and universal authority to obedience as he has all the nations and times in his hands is given to the church that he's given that to the church covet 19 for example does not stop the mission of the church and unsettled America does not stop the mission of the church national prosperity and national desperation or depression don't stop the mission of the church church budgets that are way off and low don't stop the mission of the church ministers and missionaries who stumble and fall don't stop the mission of the church wars famines pestilences plagues natural disasters don't stop the mission of the church it wasn't like Jesus came and gave the Great Commission and said all authority in heaven earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all the nations wait here's a parenthetical comment unless times are hard and difficult then don't do it just disregard that unless something I didn't foresee as the king of kings and Lord of lords the creator and sustainer of all things the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power unless there's something I didn't foresee that happens like up plague then then put it on hold or maybe your church mission budget is really low this year so no need to continue in the missionary endeavor because Jesus couldn't have possibly foreseen that and so clearly the Great Commission doesn't apply to you currently he has all those events in his hands he is sovereign over them all not one is a mistake or an error and it is because he is Lord of all because he holds the universe in his hand that were that we are confident his mission is accomplished trouble jesus promised his commission would be accomplished acts 1:8 we often take it as corollary to the Great Commission but it's actually not a command there it's a promise it's a prophecy the Holy Spirit will come upon you you'll be empowered and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth further Christ said the gospel would be proclaimed in all nations and then the end would come Matthew 24:14 it's a promise Christ makes it's not a program given to us for the accomplishment of the Great Commission it's a prophetic word about its fulfillment and it's coming and the coming end of all things further the Spirit of Christ gave a revelation of the fulfillment of this commission to his church to the Apostle John in revelation 7:9 we see that it's fulfilled so we know it's accomplishable if the sovereign of all creation makes a promise that's money in the bank he cannot lie he promised it would be accomplished he has authority over heaven and earth thus it will be accomplished second the Great Commission is accomplishable because of the unambiguous clarity of the command to hear that it's accomplishable because of the unambiguous clarity of the command just in case you're not clear on what I mean unambiguous means that's not open to more than one interpretation not open to more than one interpretation the Great Commission is unambiguously clear and frankly it's not rocket science to read it you do not have to be a great scholar of the Greek language to read this unambiguously clear command it's clear in its command and it's clear in the example of its execution by the Apostles if you wonder what Jesus meant in Matthew 28:18 through 20 just go to the book of Acts and see what the Apostles do when they're empowered by the Holy Spirit it's clear in both its command and the example of its execution by the look at Matthew 28:19 through 20 the first part of verse 20 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 there's one imperative of herb here or one command make disciples and the command to make disciples is a command to plant churches disciples by their nature live in community or fellowship with one another and with those who teach them they hear they listen and they obey that's undergirded by what Jesus's disciples have already learned from him they have this in mind when they hear this command we know that in their execution of it but we also know that from the Gospel of Matthew so go back and look at Matthew chapter 16 Matthew chapter 16 and look at verse 18 this is the famous scene in which Jesus asks Peter who do you say that I am and he answers you were the Christ the Son of the Living God and then Jesus goes on and tells him this in verse 18 and 19 and I tell you you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven notice what Jesus is saying about his own mission I will build my church and it'll build it upon the foundation of the Apostolic witness we're told that in ephesians 2:20 that the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets i will build my church that's his mission that's Christ's mission the apostles have that ringing in their ears when they hear go therefore and make disciples of all the nations they've been told they're going to give the keys of the kingdom what keys do keys open gates or doors and they closed gates or doors they unlock and they lock them you're given the keys of the kingdom what does it mean to unlock them to loose the things on earth that have been loosed in heaven it means to proclaim the gospel so that people enter the kingdom of God and what does it mean to bind the things on earth that have been that have been bound in heaven it means to lock the door that's called church discipline we see that in Matthew 18 look there Matthew 18 this community discourse in the Gospel of Matthew and look down at verse 17 if he refuses you've gone through these steps of church discipline if he refuses to listen to them that's the witnesses tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen even to the church let him be to you as a Gentile or tax collector truly I say to you whatever you buy another shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven the church is to proclaim the saving gospel to open the gate the church is to exercise church discipline to close the gate that's why we tell it to the church now there is no emphasis it's true in Matthew 28:19 on proclaiming or preaching if you look there people often point that out that there is no emphasis on proclaiming or preaching if you look at Matthew 28:19 go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them now you will see this kind of thing come up under verse 20 and teaching them but people say well that doesn't say proclaim or preach it says to go and make disciples and what I want to argue is in context of what's happening here in the Great Commission in the context of planting churches proclamations being assumed we know that from for example twenty to twenty four fourteen this gospel will be proclaimed in all the nations or Matthew 26 13 Jesus de-emphasizes preaching here though be not because Jesus has somehow worried about the Western imperialist imposition of preaching that's not his concern he D emphasizes it because we're looking at largely what follows and defines proclamation in disciple-making what follows and defines the proclamation of the gospel in disciple making is that you baptized and you instruct you baptized and you instruct I'll get to that in a minute but think about the fact that Jesus talks clearly about proclamation in his Great Commission passage if you will in Luke 24 and verses 47 through 49 you will go and proclaim the gospel in all the nations beginning from Jerusalem and at Pentecost we see what they do they go and proclaim the gospel but this is talking largely about what happens following the proclamation of the gospel you proclaim the gospel that's assumed in the making of disciples and as people respond to the Gospel message in faith you baptize them that's their entrance into the church baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son of the Holy Spirit that's a participle you baptize them and then you teach them teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you see the preaching of the gospel is responded to in faith and those people respond in faith are baptized and then they're instructed in the church we in fact see that look at Acts chapter 2 we see that clearly in Acts chapter 2 verse 11 we're told that the Holy Spirit has come upon the Apostles that and those in the upper room and that they're speaking in foreign languages and they're proclaiming the mighty acts of God that's a way of saying the salvific acts of God throughout history they're proclaiming that and then Peter stands up and begins to preach the gospel and points to Jesus Christ and in verse 37 we read this now when they had heard this they were cut to the heart act 2 verse 37 they were cut to the heart and said to Peter the rest of the Apostles brothers what shall we do and Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God called to himself and with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying save yourself from this crooked generation so those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day about three thousand souls and they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching doctrine and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers and we could go on you see we're gonna see the Great Commission and every one of these passages and acts played out in just this way they proclaim the gospel people believe they baptize them into the church and then they begin to instruct them and teach them and grow them up in the church and they fellowship with one another in that community and then encouragement to one another this great commission of making disciples is actually helped along this command this imperative verb make disciples by these three participles go that first participle is taking on the nature of the command to make disciples as taking on the nature of the imperative you are to go in order for disciples we made in all the nations you have to go to those nations to make disciples so you go to those nations and make disciples and then we get this word baptized baptizing is a kind of participle of means all those who believe are baptized into the triune Lord his name the name of the father who decreed to save you the name of the son who accomplished your salvation the name of the Holy Spirit who applies your salvation or the work of Christ to you teaching is also a means teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you all those who are baptized into the church upon profession of faith in Christ are to be taught to obey all his holy will they're to be taught to obey the whole counsel of God so the Great Commission is unambiguously clear as to its task even to the example of how its fulfilled by the Apostles it's about church planting you proclaim the gospel to unbelievers you go where unbelievers are you proclaim the gospel to them those who believe are baptized into the church and they're instructed they're brought up they're matured but the Great Commission isn't just unambiguously clear in its command but really in the scope of its command when I say the scope of its command I mean the scope of its command in a universal sense that word go does bear a kind of geographical understanding geographical in as much as you are moving out from where you are to where the gospel has not been heard we can see that thrust in Luke 24:49 you're to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit or the gift of the Father has the promise the father's come upon you and in Luke 24:47 you are to preach the gospel to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem you start in Jerusalem and you go out to all the nations we see that in acts 1:8 you are when the Holy Spirit comes upon you you are going to proclaim Christ or be his witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth there is a going out now some have argued this phrase all nations Pontotoc F nay all the nations equals Gentiles exclusively those who are not Jews but we cannot argue that it means Gentiles for the express reason that it must include Jews and Gentiles minimally Jesus is the savior of the Jews and the Gentiles he is the son of Abraham and the son of David he has come to save his people he is the Lord of both Jew and Gentile Jesus has authority Daniel 7:13 through 14 over Jewish and Gentile nations the apostles are to make disciples beginning in Jerusalem and then all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth the eschatological judgment of the of or the end-times sorry judgment of the separation of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 32 upon total Ethne is there necessarily includes Jewish and Gentile nations we can see that in Paul's missionary journeys he begins and cares about the Jews for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greeks or the Gentiles I want to go where Christ has not been known we see that especially in Romans 15 if you look there Romans 15 and verse 19 Christ says I I in verse 18 that I'll venture to speak of nothing except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to faith to obedience by word indeed he goes on to verse 19 and says by the power of signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum that is modern day southern Albania I have fulfilled the Ministry of the gospel of Christ he has made a circular pattern from Jerusalem all the way down around to modern-day southern albania and back and he says I fulfilled the Ministry of the gospel of Christ in all of those places if 1% of those places had heard the name of Jesus that would be shocking at this point in time but he says he's fulfilled the gospel look down at verse 23 but now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions that's from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum there's no room for me to work there anymore and since I've longed for many years to come to you I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you once I've enjoyed your company for a while in other words you're starting to find out that Romans one of the major functions of Romans is a missionary support letter Paul's saying I'm gonna come visit you I long to see you and when I come see you I want you to help me out financially I want you to help me out with supplies I want you to help me out personally and spiritually be an encouragement to me and I'll be an encouragement to you and as I come through I want you understand I've already fulfilled my ministry from Jerusalem around southern albania and there are more people's who've never heard this gospel and so now i'm going to them there's no more room for me now why does he say that he doesn't mean that there are no more people in those regions who haven't heard the name of jesus christ clearly he knows that 99 98 99 percent of the people's regions have never heard the name of jesus christ but he knows there are peoples who haven't heard they have well let me just not take away my own thunder look at verse 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named lest I build on someone else's foundation but as it is written those who've never been told of him will see those have never heard will understand what Paul is saying the only explanation really for no more room it's Paul's understanding that where churches are established he has a continuous duty to move onward to where they are not churches are founded there that's what he means why I fulfilled my ministry from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum there are churches there I planted churches there those churches now reach those regions but I have an imperative a missionary imperative to go where there are no churches where no foundation has been laid where there is no witness to the name of Christ in that place I have a missionary imperative to go there Paul gets that missionary imperative from the mouth of Jesus himself not only in Jesus's appearance to him but in the Great Commission which you can bet he heard from the apostles he has the imperative whether we can precisely define what constitutes all f nays Pontotoc Ethne are not minimally we can say it includes nations tribes and languages that have not heard the gospel that have no gospel witness we don't have to be great scholars to figure that out that's just basic reading basic we can argue all day long about whether ethno-linguistic people groups this definition radius uses is an imposition on the text by missy ologists that are modern or not what we cannot do what we cannot do is ignore the fact that if an entire tribe an entire people an entire language group lacks the gospel in their language if they have no Christian witness among them then we are biblically obligated to go there Jesus leaves no room for tolerance on this question he has no room in his worldview if you will for any other religion among the nations Jesus's claim is exclusive universal and therefore exclusive it's all mine I alone should be known and worshiped in all the earth we think of pluralism as something that's beautiful oftentimes isn't it beautiful that we can all live together in a pluralistic society Jesus looks down at pluralism as an affront to his lordship he looks at pluralism in religion and philosophy as soul damning idolatry there is just zero ambiguity in the Great Commission we proclaim Clarke Christ and when folks believe we baptize them we organize them into churches to care for one another teach them to obey all God's holy word and we keep doing this among every people group where there is no gospel witness we keep going we keep going we keep going it's simple but it's not easy and that leads to the third reason the Great Commission is accomplishable third it is accomplishable because of the unceasing presence of Christ it's accomplishable because of the unlimited authority of Christ it's accomplishable because of the unambiguous clarity of the command and it is accomplishable because of the unceasing presence of Christ look back Matthew 28 verse 20 again and the last phrase and behold I am with you always in the Greek incidentally you don't pick that up as well I am as egg away me this is that claim that God makes of himself I am I am with you all the days to the end of the age until I return I am with you all the days this is the same statement I will be with you or I am with you that God gives to Moses Who am I to go to Pharaoh the greatest ruler on the earth and tell him let me take the basis of your economy and depart into the wilderness to worship our God Who am I to do that God's response I'll be with you Joshua Who am I to take the people on the promise into the Promised Land and conquer all these wicked nations I will be with you gideon who am i among all the tribes of israel my family small my tribe is insignificant who am i to take on these foreign armies god's answer i will be with you Jeremiah Who am I to speak to Israel in her sin Israel and Judah both the northern and southern kingdom have turned aside to idolatry they no longer care about God's law God's promises they are pursuing their sin to their own curse Who am I to go out and call them to repentance to tell them about their coming exile to tell them of the new covenant to go out as a prophet like that who will face certain death Who am I I will be with you this is an Old Testament call narrative God will be with you Christ is saying I am with you always that that that's a inclusion around the whole Gospel of Matthew and inclusions brackets those brackets literally tell you what this book is about to a large degree Matthew 1:23 the Virgin shall be with child and you will call his name Emmanuel which means God with us Matthew 28:20 I am with you always Christ is God with us all the days and it is because of his unceasing presence that the Great Commission is accomplishable it's an encouragement for two reasons it's an encouragement because it means that Christ upholds our faith he upholds our faith the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power Hebrews 1:3 and Hebrews 1:1 the author starts out saying long ago and many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers in the prophets talking about the Old Testament but in these last days he has spoken to us in his son whom he has made the heir of all things through whom also he created the world he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power uphold your faith by the word of His grace you as a living being would cease to be if Jesus for a moment s'up stops sustaining you by the word of his power and your faith would cease to be if Jesus for a moment ceased to be with you upholding you if Christ is not with us but one moment we would be spiritually lost undone damned he sustains our every breath and every beat of our hearts and he sustains our whole salvation our adoption and our glory so it's an encouragement to us that he is with us it's also an encouragement and perhaps more specifically to the missionary endeavor it's an encouragement because Christ empowers our missionary efforts that's what he's saying he's empowering the proclamation of the word listen it's because he is with us that were able to do anything anything we could not keep the Great Commission without him with us that's why he promised to send his spirit the Spirit will lead his apostles into all the truth the Spirit will come as the witness of Christ and we will also be his witnesses the Spirit wait in Jerusalem until the gift or the promise of my father has come upon you because you can't go out and power apart from me being present with you by my spirit so wait there when I come upon you I'll empower you when I come upon you by the Spirit I will empower you to speak the word this Commission is not made good by our pragmatic strategies built upon the shifting sand of cultural anthropology this commission has made good by the powerful presence of Christ by his Spirit in fact every word we preach would fall to the ground apart from the Ministry of the Spirit of Christ applying it to the hearts and minds of our listeners it is the power and presence of Christ that makes the Great Commission accomplishable I hope you hear what Jesus sang here I have unlimited unbounded universal authority it's all mine every nation tribe and tongue on the earth is mine every square inch of the earth Jesus looks upon as Abraham Kuyper said Jesus looks upon and declares mine it's all mine now here comes the command of the king of kings and Lord of lords 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 and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you I have universal Authority and I have given you an unambiguously clear command that is the mission of your church that is the mission of every Christian your identity is you belong to Christ you're his you've been bought with a price you've been renamed your old man is dead you've been resurrected to new life you belong to the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit that's who you are and what your purpose is is to make him known to all the earth that is our identity and our purpose that is who we are and what were to do as Christians and as Christ's Church it's clear it's unambiguous it is only our sin that ever fouls that up and makes it unclear and Christ says I will be with you or I am with you always even at the end of the age I am always present unrelentingly present with you the 18th century Baptist pastor John Gill said it well jesus promised he would be with them in a spiritual sense to assist them in their work to comfort them under all discouragements to supply them with His grace and to protect them from all enemies and preserve from all evils which is a great encouragement both to minister the word and the ordinances or Baptism Lord's Supper and to attend to them the command is simple the commander is all authoritative and he is always with us empowering us may we be faithful let me pray father we give thanks we give thanks for the gift of your son we give thanks that you and love sent him on mission to keep the law that we failed to keep that you in the fullness of time sent forth your son born of woman as you promised from the moment of our fall to save us in the skull-crushing seed of the woman that you sent him in the fullness of time born of woman born under the law to keep the law that your people that we have failed to keep so that he might redeem those who are under the law and we might be adopted as sons by the spirit of adoption who comes into our hearts so that we cry out to you as our Father we know this is the work that you have decreed father and your love for us the work that your son has accomplished in his mission among us and that your the work that your spirit is applied to us so that we are knighted to Christ through faith and thus receive all his benefits and more than everything else receive him we thank you Father that your son has given his church an unambiguously clear command that he has promised to be with us by his Spirit to accomplish it we pray that your spirit would move among us in such a way that we would be caused to be ever more faithful so that every tribe and tongue and nation would sing the glory of the Lamb who was slain that we might join them one day that we would look forward to that great choir when we sing alongside of them keep us faithful in our small part in that as both Kris individual Christians and as the Church of whom Christ is the head we pray this in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Radius International

Views: 602

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Keywords: Radius International, Missions, People Groups, Great Commission, Chruch, Radius, upgs, unreached, Church planting, Missiology, Conference, language, culture, unreached people groups, unengaged, Church planting Movements, Matthew 28, Accomplishable

Id: BztfqcYYT7E

Length: 49min 15sec (2955 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020