April 28, 2025 • 45 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I cannot believe it.
We are here Today.
We are wrapping up the book ofMatthew, the gospel according to
Matthew, and we have beenwalking through this thing verse
by verse.
I don't know if you know this,but the gospel according to
Matthew has 1,071 verses.
Congratulations, verses,congratulations.
(00:29):
We have spent 150 weekendsteaching this, giving 150
messages over three and a halfyears.
We have I went back and lookedat it 90 hours we spent on this,
which equates to 3.75 days thatyou have listened to and
journeyed through the gospel.
Just to note, matthew wouldhave been read out loud back
when it was Matthew.
Just to note, matthew wouldhave been read out loud back
when it was given.
A lot of people wouldn't havebeen able to read it.
It would take about two hours,so you guys really leaned in
(00:52):
from two to 90.
Get this.
We started this journey August22nd of 2021.
Yeah, I mean, some of you inhere weren't even alive then.
It's amazing.
It is incredible the life thatyou have gone through and I'm
going to tell you I know forsome of you, this has been a
gift, as you jumped in andexperienced something maybe some
(01:14):
of you have never experiencedand seen it through, or even if
you're newer with us and justbegan that journey but just the
depth in which we havediscovered together and me
personally, this has been a gift.
I've talked to so many peopleabout like how's it with the
church and I'm like I don't know, but for me, I have grown
immensely walking through thisand trying to teach through this
(01:36):
and discovering and I know thata lot of things have happened
as far as depth goes.
Get this.
So since just doing Matthew, wehave baptized more people
during the season and morepeople have made a first-time
decision for Jesus to be a partof the kingdom of heaven in our
time during Matthew than theprevious 10 years combined
(01:59):
before Matthew.
Like that's what's taking place.
So congratulations, we are here, we're doing it and today, yeah
, cool.
So today we're going to hit thistext, we're going to end with
this text this is how he'sending it With what's been
called throughout church historyas the Great Commission, and
we're going to talk about thereason for the church and as we
come into this passage ofMatthew.
(02:20):
If we don't understand thistext, I'm not sure we've really
understood the book of Matthewas a whole and what he's
actually been trying to do Likethis is the quintessential text.
This is everything that he'sbeen doing, from chapter one
actually leads up to this point.
It's all been about who Jesusis and then who we are.
(02:42):
And now we find him standing onthis mountain and he
commissions his church and hispeople to actually go out and do
what they're called to do inthe world.
And really this is answeringthe question of, like, why we
exist.
Like, why are you here?
If you're a follower of Jesus,why do you continue to actually
exist in the world?
And also, if I were to ask youwhat is the point and the
(03:05):
purpose of the church?
Like, what's the goal, what'sthe reason that the church
exists?
What would you say?
I can tell you that some peoplemight come up with a whole
bunch of different answers.
Like, if I sat you down, some ofyou might say I think the
purpose of the church and thegoal of the church is fellowship
, that we would gather together,like Acts 2 says that we would
get to know one another and wewould build community and kind
(03:28):
of be there for each other andexhort one another and serve one
another.
And like, do church disciplineand lead each other into
godliness, and so on.
Some of you might say, well, no, I actually think the point of
the church, the reason thechurch exists, is actually for
teaching that we would, you know, teach the word, that you've
got to have true doctrine,you've got to think properly
about God and the world andsalvation and we need to be
(03:51):
teaching and understandingtheology.
And others of you might say no,I think the purpose of the
church is praise Like.
We need to actually praise God,as Ephesians 1 talks about,
like praise God to his glory.
That that's the point of ourwhole life.
And you know, if the angels arealready doing as Revelation
talks about, if they're alreadypraising God, why don't we just
start joining with them rightnow and do what they do in the
(04:14):
present?
We should live lives that justpraise God and glorify God, and
so on and so forth.
And I'm going to tell you rightnow all of those things are
really really good things and wedo those things.
They're really good, but thereality is they're not the thing
, not the main point, and notthe main point, especially when
it comes to the church and whatthe point of the church is.
(04:35):
So the reality, if that's notthe case, you've got to start
asking like then why do we exist?
Why are we here?
That why question is a reallygreat one Simon Sinek.
He wrote a book called StartWith why.
It's a great read and it'sreally about every organization.
Every person should wake up inthe morning and say like, why do
we exist?
What am I actually doing here?
(04:55):
So not the what, not the how,but the why.
And so when we start to unpackthat, we would start to okay,
well, the point of my life wasfellowship and God.
Maybe then at the minute, ifthat was the sole purpose, was
fellowship, then why not at theminute that you became a
follower of him?
Why didn't he just take you onup to heaven?
(05:16):
Because there'd be purefellowship Like that's where
you're going to experience thepureness of it, where there's
all reconciliation, there's nodissension, no disagreement,
there's nothing but pure andbeautiful fellowship.
The New Testament, as we'vediscovered much of it, and this
passage specifically, actuallytells us our why, what our why
(05:38):
is, and then what it looks like.
It says your why isn't yourteaching?
Your why is not fellowship?
Your why isn't even praise?
All of those things actuallyare a part of something else.
And your why, what it is, isthe mission your why is to reach
(05:59):
the people for the cause ofChrist and to spend your entire
lifetime, energy, money given tothe sole purpose, which is
seeking and saving the lostperiod.
That's why we exist as a church.
That's why this faith communityactually exists up here on this
hill to seek and save the lost,just as Jesus did.
(06:19):
And the reality is is when westart to think about our own
priorities in life and we beginto say like, yeah, but I thought
the point was just like,glorify God.
Here's what the New Testamentsays about that.
Nothing glorifies God more thana sinner being redeemed and
found by him.
That's much of what Romans, thebook of Romans, is all about.
So I might manifest my glorywhen a person comes to know
(06:43):
Jesus.
God is most glorified in themoment.
In that moment, because themission of the church actually
is being accomplished.
Forget just the mission of,like, the corporate church for a
second.
Like I'll talk about that in amoment, but it's your mission.
Like it's my mission personally, individually, like are you in
(07:03):
coffee shops and workplaces,actually going and reaching out?
When was the last time youactually participated and walked
someone through the journey andshared your own journey and won
them to Christ.
Because here's the mistake thatwe can make.
We can come to church and whatare the things that we do?
We have teaching, we havepraise, we just experienced that
, we have fellowship, and thenwe think that those are the end
(07:26):
goal.
But the Apostle Paul uses thisanalogy in four of his letters
that he wrote to the church,where he says that we're
actually supposed to be likerunning a race and then
hopefully getting the rewardthat comes here, that after we
run this race, we participate inthis race, that we get the
reward.
But I'm going to tell you, youguys know this, if you guys have
(07:46):
ever run a race, there's adifference between training for
it and then actually doing itright, especially those of you
like me.
You know we're ultra marathonrunners, we're high-level
athletes.
Right, you can't just go outthere and do it I know you
probably think I could You'relike just go for a run.
No, you have to like prepareyourself and you have to train
(08:08):
to get ready to compete.
And what we're doing at church,as we gather together in
fellowship and we teach doctrineand we understand what God's
called us to be and to do, andwe praise him and we worship him
and we keep each otheraccountable and we do communion
and all of those things.
This is the moment of trainingfor you.
This is not the competitionitself, like as we gather here.
(08:30):
This is where we comecollectively together, being the
church, gathering as a churchin a moment of training.
Think of it like this, you knowwhen you were in high school,
or if you've a pep rally, right,that's not the actual
competition, that's just gettingeverybody fired up, Like here
we go, we're going to go getthis thing done, and then you
got to go out and you got toactually win the game.
You got to run the race.
And what we do here is, ofcourse we're going to teach, of
(08:52):
course we're going to praise, ofcourse we're going to have
fellowship, but all of that isactually building up to the game
.
It's end in itself, and some ofyou, some of us, honestly,
frankly, can kind of get caughtsitting in the stands sometimes
and just afraid to actually goout and get in the game to tell
people about Jesus, actually winsomeone to Christ.
(09:13):
But that's actually why weexist.
So what are some of theessentials, if you will, for
running the race?
Well, first, I think here's thething.
Let's go on the other side andtalk about the non-essentials.
And here's the thing withnon-essentials when
non-essentials begin tocharacterize or define a church
(09:37):
or a church brand or adenomination or an expression of
Christianity, what happens whenthat happens is honest,
thoughtful people eventuallystep away from that church, from
that denomination, from thatchurch expression.
And they step away not becausethey quit believing in God and
not because they quit honoringthe Bible or the scriptures.
(09:58):
They step away not because theydon't believe what they
believed about Jesus.
They step away becausesomething about their faith,
tradition, the non-essentials,this expression of faith, the
Christian faith, that juststarts to not seem right.
And in some cases what happensand maybe this is you you begin
(10:19):
to deconstruct your faith, whichbasically means they step out
of organized religion and kindof sort out what are the
essentials versus thenon-essentials, to figure out
what's actually fundamental,what truly represents first
century Christianity.
And, like I said, this mayactually be your story.
Maybe you've experienced thisand maybe you were de-churched
(10:41):
or anti-churched because of anexperience or someone else's
tradition and a non-essential,where you just kind of hit pause
on all things organizedreligion and you still have
faith.
You still have the faith in God, the God that you grew up with.
You still believe Jesus is whohe claimed to be.
But there's, like your faithtradition whether it was your
church or denomination, whateverit might be that you just began
(11:03):
to like sense that somethingwas just a little bit off in the
tone, in the posture, in theapproach that they took to the
Christian faith.
It began to feel to you in away un-Christ-like, like as if
the leaders and the people kindof led you in that tradition, in
that church, like they knew theBible and they wanted to kind
(11:25):
of use it to beat you up alittle bit and you wondered
sometimes if they actually knewthe Jesus of the Bible.
And this is a really big deal.
And the reason, one of the mainreasons, that this is a big
deal is because, practicallyspeaking, non-essentials
eventually become obstacles.
Non-essentials that get woveninto certain streams of
(11:46):
Christianity.
They eventually, for somebody,become obstacles of faith and
then it becomes unattainable,unlivable and for some people it
actually no longer becomes goodnews, it becomes a problem.
So those are the non-essentials.
But what are some of the mainessentials and fundamentals of
(12:09):
the gospel of Matthew that we'veactually covered and discovered
over our time going throughthis.
Well, let me just highlight sixmain themes, and today we'll
unpack the seventh and final one.
First is the thing that wediscovered is Jesus as the
Messiah, the King, as anessential.
Matthew emphasizes Jesus'lineage right off the bat,
(12:31):
tracing back to Abraham andDavid to establish him as the
promised Messiah.
We discover that anotheressential is Jesus as the new
Moses, and you can go unpackthat.
We've touched on it many timesas we've gone through this over
the last couple of years, butMatthew portrays Jesus as this
new authoritative teacher,similar to Moses, who delivers
(12:52):
God's law to the people.
A huge theme and essentialthroughout the gospel, according
to Matthew, was the kingdom ofheaven.
The kingdom of heaven is thiscentral theme referring to God's
reign and his new age that'sactually ushered in in this time
, here and now, then and now, byJesus.
(13:13):
Matthew's big focus also was onthe fulfillment of prophecy.
It's one of the reasons wepicked Matthew to go through,
because it's going to point backand connect where Matthew
highlights how Jesus fulfillsOld Testament prophecy,
demonstrating his authenticityas the Messiah.
Another essential is righteousliving and discipleship.
(13:33):
Matthew emphasizes theimportance of living according
to God's will, includingfollowing his teachings, the
teachings of Jesus and thenbeing his disciple, and then,
over the last couple of weeks,we discovered the death and the
resurrection of Jesus.
Then the gospel culminates inthe death and the resurrection
(13:53):
of Jesus, highlighting hisvictory over death and sin.
Now for today, as we wrap thisall up, we get to uncover and
unpack Jesus' final command, anessential fundamental in the
gospel according to Matthew.
In some ways, this is reallylike his farewell address.
(14:14):
It explains why we're even hereand for those of you who grew
up in church, it's very familiar, which actually means it's
essential.
And it's essential if we'regoing to follow him.
And it must be taken seriouslybecause it's actually from him.
And here's what we're going todig down into a little bit today
is that it also must be takenpersonally.
So here we go.
So, following the resurrectionwe talked about last week, jesus
(14:36):
appeared to his apostles andwomen who had been following him
and he told them that he wantedactually them to go on ahead
into Galilee, which is like 90miles north of where he was.
He appeared to them outside ofJerusalem and Judea.
He says hey, I want you tospend a couple of days, go all
the way back up to Galilee,where most of his followers
(14:56):
originated from.
This is where Jesus did themass of his ministry and he was
going to go up there, andthere's a couple of reasons why
Galilee was safer.
Matthew was also in Galilee,and so he documented then what
happens next.
And so here's what he said,hopping into verse 16.
Then the 11 disciples went toGalilee Now, many of you guys
(15:18):
know there was 12 when they camedown this way, but Judas is
missing.
You know that story and they goto.
They went to Galilee, to themountain where Jesus had told
them to go.
Now this is kind of the setupfor what happens next and what
happens next.
Oftentimes, I think we readright by and we shouldn't,
because this actually brings usback to the very beginning.
What comes next actually bringsus back to the first
(15:40):
fundamental or essential thatJesus claimed about himself that
Jesus, he is the Messiah andthe King.
And so then, do you see whatthey do next?
They do what everybodyeventually will do Verse 17,.
When they saw him, theyworshiped him.
Now just think about this for asecond Jewish men and women
(16:01):
worshiping a human being, as ifthis human being is a God or is
God, was so unlikely, likely,like it was actually so
offensive.
In fact, worshiping a humanbeing as if this human being is
a God was offensive not just tothe Jewish people, but to the
Romans, the Greeks and certainlyHebrew sensibilities.
(16:21):
And according to Matthew,according to people who were
actually there, jesus didn'tresist it.
He didn't say like no, no, no,no, no, no, no, it's okay, right
.
And then I love this.
And Matthew does this allthrough his gospel.
He tells us all the things.
He's so honest with this.
I love how honest he is.
And next the text says but I gotto be honest, some doubted,
(16:49):
like I just, you know, when youread that you think like people
saw Matthew was writing, maybehe was having some friends edit
this thing, or he's like hey,this is kind of writing out the
story, you want to check thisout.
And when they realized he wasgoing to write this in there or
put it in, they're like Matthew,do you have to include that?
That's a horrible sales pitch.
Like just end with and theyworshiped him.
Don't put that whole doubtthing in there, right, it makes
us look bad, to which Matthewwould have said hey guys, we've
(17:11):
looked bad the entire time.
Like every twist and turn wehave silly questions.
We responded incorrectly.
And don't you remember whenthey arrested our rabbi?
Do you remember what we did?
Yeah, we abandoned him.
Like I don't think we need toworry about looking bad.
We've been, we already look bad.
But the question is, when heputs this in here, like, why
(17:32):
would they doubt?
Who was doubting?
Was it some of the 11?
Was there more?
And when you like, unpack thatthe reason is is because they
saw him die, like they saw him,him die and dead people don't
come back to life.
Now, on a side note, just realquickly, I think the people who
(17:53):
are gathered here on themountain even though the text
hones in on the 11, I thinkhistorically the church is right
that there's probably around500 people men, women and kids
at this moment of the GreatCommission and where I get that
just parenthetically is from 1Corinthians 15, where the
apostle Paul talks about thatafter the resurrection he
actually appeared to 500brethren all at once.
(18:15):
So I think that it was actuallyhere.
So this Great Commission, he'shad the 11 come there.
But all of these followers arearound and they're experiencing
this moment and some of themwere like he was dead and so
they doubted.
They're trying to figure thisout.
Then Jesus says to them, andwhat follows is perhaps
(18:35):
potentially the most overlookedverse and statement of the
entire Bible.
I mean, if the church had, andif the church would actually
embrace what Jesus says next, itwould change things almost
instantaneously.
In fact, if you would embracethis completely and wholly, if I
(18:56):
would embrace what Jesus saysnext, we would change.
Listen to what he said.
And Jesus came to them and saidcame to them and said all
authority in heaven and on earthhas been given to me.
That would be everythingeverywhere.
(19:22):
Like all authority in heavenand earth has been given to me.
To which they thought, oh so,like that Messiah thing, like
that God's final king thing,like that's for real.
To which Jesus would have saidyeah, like all authority rests
on me.
Now Jewish men and women thatwere listening to Jesus, let me
tell you what they would haveheard that we don't really hear
(19:43):
because we're not first centuryJudeans.
Here's the implication of whathe just said.
He sits back and says ladiesand gentlemen, moses was your
guy, torah was your text, butthe king has arrived.
And they would think so you'rethe king.
You're the king with allauthority in heaven and earth.
(20:06):
In other words, you hold thekeys to heaven and earth and
like we're your guys, we're yourposse, we're your people, to
which Jesus would have said youare indeed.
And with that association ofthem being together comes
extraordinary accountability.
(20:26):
If you're going to continue tobe my people, do you realize
that, everywhere you go,everything you do reflects on me
?
If you're going to associateyourself with me, if you're
going to continue to use my nameand you're going to leverage my
name, do you realize howaccountable that actually makes
(20:48):
you?
To which, in that moment, ofcourse, in front of the
resurrected king, they're goingto be like oh, absolutely, we do
, right, and don't we do thesame thing sometimes?
Right, like, oh, yeah, no, I'mgoing to be very accountable
because I'm associated with you,and then we go and do on our
drive home, we lose it likeimmediately, right, my wife
(21:13):
works at American Canyon HighSchool.
She's worked there since itopened and one of the things I
love about going there I havekids there.
I love going there andvolunteering and for sports or
other things.
I love that nobody knows me,right?
I don't like wearing name tag.
I don't wear like little collarthing.
I'm not really known.
I get to just come and I get tobe a parent and somebody in the
community that's helping out.
And I want to tell you that Ihave a consistent awkward moment
(21:35):
there, and the consistentawkward moment is something I
call the double handshake.
So what happens is I go thereand oftentimes I get to meet new
people and I get introduced tosomebody and they're like, oh
hey, this is Lawrence.
They're like, oh hey, bob.
I get introduced to somebodyand they're like, oh hey, this
is Lawrence.
They're like, oh hey, blah,blah, blah.
I get to oh, my name's Lawrence.
I get to shake their hand.
They're like, oh yeah, nice tomeet you.
And then someone else goes like,oh yeah, this is actually
Michelle Davis's husband.
(21:56):
And then they go what you gowith, michelle?
And then they give me anotherhandshake.
Right, it's like we just didthis.
Like why are we doing thedouble handshake right now?
Right, the first one, I think,was just for politeness.
The next one, what is it for?
It's actually for theassociation.
Like no way, oh my gosh, she'sgreat.
(22:16):
Oh, she does this.
Oh my goodness, right.
And this is because of a sharedname.
And that shared name and thatassociation actually comes
pre-packaged with an element ofwhat Accountability?
Because I'm accountable now,now that they know who I go with
for protecting my wife'sreputation.
So I have to think what am Iwearing right now, right?
(22:38):
Or what am I saying?
Or what comments do I haveabout things and stuff, right?
So I'm aware that she has areputation and now, because of
that, part of my responsibilityis actually to help protect that
and to represent it and torepresent her, while everywhere
I go, because my behavior isactually a reflection on her.
(23:00):
Those of you who have kids,you're like preach.
I try to tell my kids that allthe time I get it right.
So not only because of theassociation now do I try to tell
my kids that all the time I getit right.
So not only because of theassociation now do I become
accountable for my actions, buteven more, what it does is it
makes me responsible for it,like I have a responsibility
with this Now.
(23:21):
So Jesus is now saying this onthis mountain and if I was
here's what I would have thoughtduring this moment.
Hey, I mean, this is awesome.
Since you conquered death, doesthis mean, like, we get to
conquer something now?
Like because we're associatedwith you?
Like since you conquered death.
We get to conquer some peoplebecause we've been waiting to
conquer the Romans for quitesome time.
(23:42):
We actually thought that's whyyou were coming and then, all of
a sudden, you died.
It was like what's happening?
And now you're back and we'relike let's go, right, do we
finally get to call down fire onour enemies, like we tried to
do months ago?
And you told us no, right, dowe finally get to?
Is this what is about to happen?
Is this what we're about to do?
To which I think Jesus wouldhave smiled and said like well,
(24:04):
as you're about to discover, andthey're like yes.
And then he says, no, I've gotway bigger plans for you
actually than Jerusalem and theRomans.
I have way bigger plans for youthan Judea.
I actually have bigger plansfor you than this territory of
Galilee, which most of thesepeople that's all they knew
(24:25):
we're.
He's looking at this.
He's like guys, get this.
We're about to launch somethingfor the entire world.
You, ladies and gentlemen, haveno idea how big the world
actually is, but you're notgoing to conquer anything.
Actually, you know what I'mgoing to do.
I'm going to send you out withan invitation.
(24:46):
I'm going to send you out toextend the same invitation that
I extended to you when we firstmet.
Therefore, therefore, go makedisciples.
Now, this phrase and the onethat follows, there's several
(25:07):
part of the souls in the Greektext and some of you are like
it's been way too long sinceI've been in English class.
What is an adjective, a verb, anoun which one talks to, which
right?
So let me just give you anexample of this statement and
how this is done in the text inGreek.
So you have water.
The sentence would be therunning water splashed on the
(25:28):
rocks.
Well, what describes the waterRunning?
The water's running.
So in this there's only in thestatement here.
And what follows there's onlyone imperatives.
So that means that there's onlyone command, and the only
command is make disciples.
This is the command he givesmake disciples.
(25:49):
Then he uses this parable toexplain like, what does that
look like?
Oh, it's going, it's baptizing,it's teaching, it's obeying,
it's all these pieces.
But the specific command hegives us here is make disciples.
And so the implication now ofwhat that looks like is as you
go that word go, or as you aregoing, as you are living, as you
(26:11):
are doing life, whatever you doin life, wherever you travel,
that your responsibility, ifyou're going to associate
yourself with me, is to actuallymake sure that you're engaged
in some form of fashion, makingmore Jesus followers.
In other words, jesus would sayif I show back up in a year
(26:31):
from now, I expect there to bemore of you.
Or he'd say you know, if I showback up in 10 years, I expect
there to be a lot more of youFor the rest of your life.
Part of your responsibility, asyou go, as you raise your kids,
as you do life, as you age,part of your responsibility if
you're going to associateyourself with me, is to take on
the mantle of responsibility,living your life in such a way,
(26:54):
engaging with people in such away that you actually multiply
yourself, replicate yourselfthat there would be more of us
because of you than there wasbefore.
As you go, multiply.
And then he says this, and Ithink actually this is where
they tap the brakes a little bitthey're like whoa, whoa, whoa,
(27:15):
like this all sounds okay, cool,cool, more of us.
He says, therefore, go makedisciples of all nations, of
like all people, groups to whichimmediately they thought wait,
like Gentiles, like GentileParthians, like, wait, romans.
Are you telling us that youwant us to go make disciples
Jesus, followers of every Rome,like even Rome, like I mean
(27:39):
we've been.
Are you kidding?
Wait, does that mean Samaritans?
Like, does this include theSamaritans to which they already
knew?
It included the Samaritans.
Of course it includes them,because he's already dealt with
that.
Like he made a Samaritan a heroin one of his famous parables
he was called the Good Samaritan, anyways.
And then and then get this.
(28:00):
And then he says, baptizing them.
I mean this part was shockingfor them.
Why, this is like covenantlanguage, like this means full
inclusion, that there is nodistinction.
Now, and once again they'rethinking Gentiles, like we don't
even cross their threshold,they don't cross ours, like
(28:25):
there's like dietary stuff,there's moral stuff.
I mean like wait a minute,you're telling us that you want
full inclusion of non-Hebrew,non-torah-believing people.
Like no distinction.
I'm telling you, friends, whatthey felt in this moment I don't
even think we can begin tocomprehend.
And then he says yeah, yeah.
And when you baptize them inthis part, I mean this is so
(28:45):
offensive, unless he wasactually who he claimed to be.
He says, do this baptizing themin the name of the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit and onceagain this is crazy he includes
himself in a list where no meremortals belong, equating
himself to deity, equatinghimself to the Father.
(29:06):
And then, maybe the mostimportant part of this, he says
teaching them.
Yeah, teach them to obeyeverything that I've commanded
you.
Like, there's this teachingelement of this, like teach him
to obey, not just to believe,not just to believe to which you
(29:29):
could say, well, obey who, obeywhat?
What do you say?
Everything, everything I'vecommanded you.
I don't know if you've everthought about it.
Have you ever thought about theimplication of the statement
that I want you to teach them,that I want you to take what
(29:51):
you've actually been taught andthen I want you to replicate it,
I want you to live it out, andthen I want you to teach others.
You know where he would say like, hey, you guys remember that
Sermon on the Mount thing?
We did Remember when we went upin there and we did this whole
sermon.
I want you to actually livethat out.
I want you to go teach that toothers.
Remember that thing about thelog and the speck and the eye.
(30:12):
I want you to teach that.
Remember that whole, likegolden extra mile thing.
Yeah, I want you to teach that.
Remember I told you that yougot to fix it with them before
you can fix it with him, thatyou can't fix it with him until
you fix it with them.
Yeah, I want you to teach peopleabout forgiveness, regardless.
I want you to teach people tobe the Samaritan in the parable,
(30:34):
not the older brother in thoseother parables.
I want you to teach them to dounto other people as they want
done unto themselves, but wait,I I want you to teach them to do
unto other people as they wantdone unto themselves, but wait,
I actually want you to take itup a notch.
I want you to teach people toactually love one another the
way I loved you.
I want you to teach them tolove their enemies the way I
loved you after you betrayed me,after you abandoned me and
(30:55):
after you quit believing in me.
You know what I want you to do.
I want you to teach people towash other people's feet like I
washed your feet.
I want you to teach themeverything that I commanded you.
I want you to do that.
Just pause, friends.
Let's be doing that Like, letthat be our focus.
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Let that be our focus of ourteaching, our preaching, our
discipling, our discussing whatif?
What if obeying, not simplybelieving, like I believe that's
good stuff, what if actuallydoing it, obeying what if
obeying what Jesus taught hadbeen at the epicenter of our
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preaching and our teaching allthese years, for generations?
I mean, think about this forgenerations.
I think the world might be in abetter place.
I think the church, too, wouldbe in a healthier place.
And then, if that's not enough,jesus ends with a promise.
A promise, and this is soimportant and this is really at
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the epicenter of everything weare and we believe as followers.
Here's the promise he makes.
He says, and surely he saysdon't worry.
And I think he says don't worrybecause I can imagine right now
.
I mean, they're just like whatis happening.
This is the things you'resaying to us.
Wait, I'm still just stuck onthis.
You want us to go in the wholeworld.
Like what does that even looklike?
Like our world is so small, wedon't know how to do this.
(32:25):
You want us to go to Gentiles Idon't even know a Gentile.
Like I don't even know someonelike that.
You want us.
We hate the Samaritans, theSamaritans hate us.
Like.
This is too much.
Rome is our enemy.
This is way too much for us.
Like, your little conversationyou're having right now is very
overwhelming, jesus.
And I think that Jesus rightnow appreciates the fact that
(32:46):
they're so overwhelmed.
You know, this is like a littlefainter oh, little fainter.
Frankly, I think it'soverwhelming for us to think
about.
What does that look like?
I think it's overwhelming forus to think about what does that
look like?
He says but I'll make you apromise If you do this, surely I
(33:17):
am with you always, to the veryend of the age.
So the question is well, who'syou?
When you say, if you do this,who's the you?
We're talking about Friends.
I'll tell you, you is thebelievers who belief actually
has feet to it.
You is the believers whounderstand that you're not just
believing, but you're actuallypartnering with our King.
(33:37):
You is not someone who justbelieves, but you are disciple
makers.
You're doing, and I wonder, doyou do?
We want Jesus to be with youand we?
Well then, you and we actuallyhave to choose to be with him.
(33:59):
So that's ultimately thequestion Are you with him on
this?
To make it more specific is anyof your time, is any of your
resources already ahead of time,allocated like part of your
rhythm of life, prededicated andcarved out?
Is any of your time, anyresources allocated to actually
(34:21):
making more followers of Jesus?
Does any of your money or yourtime intersect systematically
with endeavors, with a localchurch or organization somewhere
to actually make more disciples?
In other words, do yourresources and your time, does it
intersect systematically withthe mission of our king?
(34:42):
Are you engaged, am I engagedin our king's business or are we
just too caught up minding ourown business?
Here's what I do know andfrankly, friends, I'll just tell
you this, this thrills me thateven right now, as I, this very
(35:03):
moment, as I am speaking, thereare teenagers and adults over in
the nursery and over in all ofthe other buildings around the
campus, right now, this verymoment, making disciples of the
next generation.
And if you're a part of thatgroup, if you serve in that
space, I just want to thank youfor that investment.
(35:25):
In our local church, there arehundreds of you that meet in
homes on campus or on campusevery single week, or to sit in
circles and literally to askquestions like how do we do this
?
Like how do we actually livethis out?
Like how do I live this out inmy difficult marriage?
How do I live this out in mydifficult marriage?
How do I live this out with mydifficult boss?
Or while I'm unemployed?
(35:45):
Or as a parent?
How do I do this as a parent?
Or as a student, a young adult?
What does it look like tofollow Jesus?
Pray for me, hold meaccountable.
I want to get this right.
And then what happens is theyshare their stories and people
hear their stories and they'reencouraged then to follow Jesus,
inspired to follow Jesus,because people have put feet on
(36:07):
their faith.
And then dozens, dozens of youshow up to serve on Sundays to
assure that the local churchexperience here is hitting on
all cylinders and it's fabulous.
And dozens of people during theweek show up here in other
places around the community toserve other people and students
and the hungry and unhoused andthe unclothed and so much more,
(36:33):
in Jesus's name, because youunderstand that when you meet a
person's physical need in thename of Jesus, you're just
opening the door up to them tobecoming a follower of Jesus,
because they're like.
That's not normal.
I need more of that.
That was a light and a darkspace in my life and for those
(36:53):
of you who are already doingthat.
Thank you.
I can make this promise withoutany hesitation your Savior is
with you because you are withhim.
That's what he says.
This is parting words.
These were Jesus's finalinstructions, and that makes
(37:15):
them essential.
That makes them fundamental.
And so number seven, the finalone of the gospel according to
Matthew, is simply this Jesusfollowers are multipliers.
Jesus followers are not justbelievers.
Jesus followers are multipliers, and this is something you have
(37:38):
to believe, whether you ever doit or not, because this is what
Jesus said about his followersthat Jesus' followers are
multipliers, individually andcollectively.
Now, this is so important.
When the church starts tosubstitute belief for obedience
(37:59):
like oh yeah, we're just goingto believe that thing, it's
really great, we're going torally behind that when they
begin to substitute belief forobedience to what Jesus taught,
when the church substitutesbelief statements, when the
church substitutes belief forfollowing, like actually obeying
, participating, doing whatJesus taught I'm gonna tell you
this People always get hurt, butworse and maybe some of you
(38:25):
experienced this they get hurtin the name of Jesus.
They will use the authority andleverage of Jesus's name to
shame and to beat up or to pushup, and again.
Maybe some of you.
That's your story.
You experience it throughsomeone else's experience at
church.
Maybe you experienced itpersonally.
That's what happens when wejust substitute belief and
(38:51):
belief statements for actuallydoing what he taught, everything
that he taught.
So teaching them to obeyeverything I've commanded you.
Let's just do this, like, let'sjust do that.
Or, to be honest and fair,let's keep doing that.
And if you're not playing apart, no problem.
(39:13):
But you got to find your part.
You got to get in the game, yougot to be about the king's
business.
This isn't an add-on, this isn'tfor professionals.
This is for everyone.
This is fundamental.
This is essential.
Jesus followers, friends, aremultipliers, so figure out a way
to be a multiplier.
(39:33):
It's literally how the worldchanged and someone did it for
you.
So figure out a way to be amultiplier.
It's literally how the worldchanged and someone did it for
you.
So let's do for others whatothers did for us, and if we do,
this is the best part of thepromise.
He will be with us, because wehave decided to be with him and
his work where he abides.
(39:53):
So here's the deal let's go allin.
This is what it looks like, togo all in.
That's actually what we'regonna talk about for the next
several weeks.
What does that look like?
If this is what he commanded usto do and this was his final
farewell message of like this iswhat it looks like Go make,
teach, baptize, obey.
(40:15):
What does that look like?
I think it looks like somethingthat can change a lot of things
.
Next week we're gonna hop intothat.
It's gonna be what I'm gonnasay is really a vision Sunday,
where I'm gonna talk about whatwe really believe, like God is
up to once we go all in together.
What's gonna happen in thisplace and through this place for
(40:36):
the next two to four years.
The opportunities we have, theimpacts that we're going to be
called to.
What it looks like to go and tomake and to teach and to
baptize the name of the Father,the Son and the Holy Spirit and
to obey everything that he hascommanded Spirit and to obey
everything that he has commanded.
(40:56):
So I don't want you to missthat.
I'm so encouraged.
This has been such anexperience for me and so for
today, as we kind of put aclosing mark on this chapter.
As we wrap up, matthew, there'sactually something you can
participate in today.
You can get involved.
If you're not playing a partyet, there's parts for you.
So out in the lobby as youleave today we're going to give
(41:17):
like a little extra space andtime.
You can hang out there.
There's a change maker fair,which is like really just.
It's all the different thingswe offer and we do and ways you
can participate in ministry.
That happens not here just likeon a Sunday, but during the
week and then in the in the likeneighborhoods, then in the
nation and then in theneighborhoods, then in the
nation and then all around theworld, and you can go and see
how you can participate in thosethings.
(41:38):
You can sign up for something.
You can be encouraged by it.
You also can be in communities.
Today and I will say this we'rehaving a picnic today and I
know the weather is not so hot,so no shame if you're like I'm
not gonna sit outside in this,but we still have bounce houses
and some other fun stuff, sothat's going on.
You can hang out for that.
(41:58):
So no shame.
Either way, that was just a wayto celebrate and the weather
wasn't participating today, butgo out there and then next week
let's rally and come all back tothis pep rally and talk about
what it looks like to be all in.
If you came here today, you'relike I just need somebody to
pray for me.
This is great.
You're finishing, matthew, Ineed help, like I am.
(42:20):
I'm going through it.
We would love that we haveprayer walls in the back of the
room as you leave, right infront of you, or on that next
steps card.
You can put that drop in one.
Also, if you came here andyou're ready for Jesus to be
with you, he's ready for thattoo, and it changes everything.
In fact.
He talks about in the gospel ofJohn, chapter 10, verse 10,.
(42:43):
He says look at, the enemy cameto kill, steal and destroy, and
some of you are experiencingthat or have experienced that.
But he says but and this isthesis statement I have come to
give life, and life abundantly,in the fullest, and it's
something that we actually getto experience in the here and
now and begin to participate,not in just some future tense.
And so, if you're ready to dothat we had a couple of people
last service do that and they'vescrewed a light bulb in the
(43:04):
cross over.
There you go.
This changes everything.
We blew a bugle.
We all screamed.
It was fun.
Don't let overwhelm you, it'sgoing to be awesome.
We also have a little journalfor you that just talks about
hey, this is what the kingdomlooks like, this is what
participating in this new thinglooks like as a gift, and let me
just send you off with ablessing.
I'll ask you all to stand up.
We have this posture of givingup and receiving.
(43:25):
May you have been blessed, as Ihave been blessed, just slowly
meditating and chewing onscripture throughout the book of
Matthew and today.
May the Lord bless you andencourage you and equip you and
(43:47):
convict you to obey everythingthat he's commanded you to do as
we go and we multiply andrepresent him well, and
represent, then to those in needaround us, because someone did
it for you.
Friends, this has been a gift.
Love you, I'll see you nextweek.
Well, I cannot believe it.
We are here Today.
We are wrapping up the book ofMatthew, the gospel according to
Matthew, and we have beenwalking through this thing verse
by verse.
I don't know if you know this,but the gospel according to
Matthew has 1,071 verses.
Congratulations, verses,congratulations.
(00:29):
We have spent 150 weekendsteaching this, giving 150
messages over three and a halfyears.
We have I went back and lookedat it 90 hours we spent on this,
which equates to 3.75 days thatyou have listened to and
journeyed through the gospel.
Just to note, matthew wouldhave been read out loud back
when it was Matthew.
Just to note, matthew wouldhave been read out loud back
when it was given.
A lot of people wouldn't havebeen able to read it.
It would take about two hours,so you guys really leaned in
(00:52):
from two to 90.
Get this.
We started this journey August22nd of 2021.
Yeah, I mean, some of you inhere weren't even alive then.
It's amazing.
It is incredible the life thatyou have gone through and I'm
going to tell you I know forsome of you, this has been a
gift, as you jumped in andexperienced something maybe some
(01:14):
of you have never experiencedand seen it through, or even if
you're newer with us and justbegan that journey but just the
depth in which we havediscovered together and me
personally, this has been a gift.
I've talked to so many peopleabout like how's it with the
church and I'm like I don't know, but for me, I have grown
immensely walking through thisand trying to teach through this
(01:36):
and discovering and I know thata lot of things have happened
as far as depth goes.
Get this.
So since just doing Matthew, wehave baptized more people
during the season and morepeople have made a first-time
decision for Jesus to be a partof the kingdom of heaven in our
time during Matthew than theprevious 10 years combined
(01:59):
before Matthew.
Like that's what's taking place.
So congratulations, we are here, we're doing it and today, yeah
, cool.
So today we're going to hit thistext, we're going to end with
this text this is how he'sending it With what's been
called throughout church historyas the Great Commission, and
we're going to talk about thereason for the church and as we
come into this passage ofMatthew.
(02:20):
If we don't understand thistext, I'm not sure we've really
understood the book of Matthewas a whole and what he's
actually been trying to do Likethis is the quintessential text.
This is everything that he'sbeen doing, from chapter one
actually leads up to this point.
It's all been about who Jesusis and then who we are.
(02:42):
And now we find him standing onthis mountain and he
commissions his church and hispeople to actually go out and do
what they're called to do inthe world.
And really this is answeringthe question of, like, why we
exist.
Like, why are you here?
If you're a follower of Jesus,why do you continue to actually
exist in the world?
And also, if I were to ask youwhat is the point and the
(03:05):
purpose of the church?
Like, what's the goal, what'sthe reason that the church
exists?
What would you say?
I can tell you that some peoplemight come up with a whole
bunch of different answers.
Like, if I sat you down, some ofyou might say I think the
purpose of the church and thegoal of the church is fellowship
, that we would gather together,like Acts 2 says that we would
get to know one another and wewould build community and kind
(03:28):
of be there for each other andexhort one another and serve one
another.
And like, do church disciplineand lead each other into
godliness, and so on.
Some of you might say, well, no, I actually think the point of
the church, the reason thechurch exists, is actually for
teaching that we would, you know, teach the word, that you've
got to have true doctrine,you've got to think properly
about God and the world andsalvation and we need to be
(03:51):
teaching and understandingtheology.
And others of you might say no,I think the purpose of the
church is praise Like.
We need to actually praise God,as Ephesians 1 talks about,
like praise God to his glory.
That that's the point of ourwhole life.
And you know, if the angels arealready doing as Revelation
talks about, if they're alreadypraising God, why don't we just
start joining with them rightnow and do what they do in the
(04:14):
present?
We should live lives that justpraise God and glorify God, and
so on and so forth.
And I'm going to tell you rightnow all of those things are
really really good things and wedo those things.
They're really good, but thereality is they're not the thing
, not the main point, and notthe main point, especially when
it comes to the church and whatthe point of the church is.
(04:35):
So the reality, if that's notthe case, you've got to start
asking like then why do we exist?
Why are we here?
That why question is a reallygreat one Simon Sinek.
He wrote a book called StartWith why.
It's a great read and it'sreally about every organization.
Every person should wake up inthe morning and say like, why do
we exist?
What am I actually doing here?
(04:55):
So not the what, not the how,but the why.
And so when we start to unpackthat, we would start to okay,
well, the point of my life wasfellowship and God.
Maybe then at the minute, ifthat was the sole purpose, was
fellowship, then why not at theminute that you became a
follower of him?
Why didn't he just take you onup to heaven?
(05:16):
Because there'd be purefellowship Like that's where
you're going to experience thepureness of it, where there's
all reconciliation, there's nodissension, no disagreement,
there's nothing but pure andbeautiful fellowship.
The New Testament, as we'vediscovered much of it, and this
passage specifically, actuallytells us our why, what our why
(05:38):
is, and then what it looks like.
It says your why isn't yourteaching?
Your why is not fellowship?
Your why isn't even praise?
All of those things actuallyare a part of something else.
And your why, what it is, isthe mission your why is to reach
(05:59):
the people for the cause ofChrist and to spend your entire
lifetime, energy, money given tothe sole purpose, which is
seeking and saving the lostperiod.
That's why we exist as a church.
That's why this faith communityactually exists up here on this
hill to seek and save the lost,just as Jesus did.
(06:19):
And the reality is is when westart to think about our own
priorities in life and we beginto say like, yeah, but I thought
the point was just like,glorify God.
Here's what the New Testamentsays about that.
Nothing glorifies God more thana sinner being redeemed and
found by him.
That's much of what Romans, thebook of Romans, is all about.
So I might manifest my glorywhen a person comes to know
(06:43):
Jesus.
God is most glorified in themoment.
In that moment, because themission of the church actually
is being accomplished.
Forget just the mission of,like, the corporate church for a
second.
Like I'll talk about that in amoment, but it's your mission.
Like it's my mission personally, individually, like are you in
(07:03):
coffee shops and workplaces,actually going and reaching out?
When was the last time youactually participated and walked
someone through the journey andshared your own journey and won
them to Christ.
Because here's the mistake thatwe can make.
We can come to church and whatare the things that we do?
We have teaching, we havepraise, we just experienced that
, we have fellowship, and thenwe think that those are the end
(07:26):
goal.
But the Apostle Paul uses thisanalogy in four of his letters
that he wrote to the church,where he says that we're
actually supposed to be likerunning a race and then
hopefully getting the rewardthat comes here, that after we
run this race, we participate inthis race, that we get the
reward.
But I'm going to tell you, youguys know this, if you guys have
(07:46):
ever run a race, there's adifference between training for
it and then actually doing itright, especially those of you
like me.
You know we're ultra marathonrunners, we're high-level
athletes.
Right, you can't just go outthere and do it I know you
probably think I could You'relike just go for a run.
No, you have to like prepareyourself and you have to train
(08:08):
to get ready to compete.
And what we're doing at church,as we gather together in
fellowship and we teach doctrineand we understand what God's
called us to be and to do, andwe praise him and we worship him
and we keep each otheraccountable and we do communion
and all of those things.
This is the moment of trainingfor you.
This is not the competitionitself, like as we gather here.
(08:30):
This is where we comecollectively together, being the
church, gathering as a churchin a moment of training.
Think of it like this, you knowwhen you were in high school,
or if you've a pep rally, right,that's not the actual
competition, that's just gettingeverybody fired up, Like here
we go, we're going to go getthis thing done, and then you
got to go out and you got toactually win the game.
You got to run the race.
And what we do here is, ofcourse we're going to teach, of
(08:52):
course we're going to praise, ofcourse we're going to have
fellowship, but all of that isactually building up to the game
.
It's end in itself, and some ofyou, some of us, honestly,
frankly, can kind of get caughtsitting in the stands sometimes
and just afraid to actually goout and get in the game to tell
people about Jesus, actually winsomeone to Christ.
(09:13):
But that's actually why weexist.
So what are some of theessentials, if you will, for
running the race?
Well, first, I think here's thething.
Let's go on the other side andtalk about the non-essentials.
And here's the thing withnon-essentials when
non-essentials begin tocharacterize or define a church
(09:37):
or a church brand or adenomination or an expression of
Christianity, what happens whenthat happens is honest,
thoughtful people eventuallystep away from that church, from
that denomination, from thatchurch expression.
And they step away not becausethey quit believing in God and
not because they quit honoringthe Bible or the scriptures.
(09:58):
They step away not because theydon't believe what they
believed about Jesus.
They step away becausesomething about their faith,
tradition, the non-essentials,this expression of faith, the
Christian faith, that juststarts to not seem right.
And in some cases what happensand maybe this is you you begin
(10:19):
to deconstruct your faith, whichbasically means they step out
of organized religion and kindof sort out what are the
essentials versus thenon-essentials, to figure out
what's actually fundamental,what truly represents first
century Christianity.
And, like I said, this mayactually be your story.
Maybe you've experienced thisand maybe you were de-churched
(10:41):
or anti-churched because of anexperience or someone else's
tradition and a non-essential,where you just kind of hit pause
on all things organizedreligion and you still have
faith.
You still have the faith in God, the God that you grew up with.
You still believe Jesus is whohe claimed to be.
But there's, like your faithtradition whether it was your
church or denomination, whateverit might be that you just began
(11:03):
to like sense that somethingwas just a little bit off in the
tone, in the posture, in theapproach that they took to the
Christian faith.
It began to feel to you in away un-Christ-like, like as if
the leaders and the people kindof led you in that tradition, in
that church, like they knew theBible and they wanted to kind
(11:25):
of use it to beat you up alittle bit and you wondered
sometimes if they actually knewthe Jesus of the Bible.
And this is a really big deal.
And the reason, one of the mainreasons, that this is a big
deal is because, practicallyspeaking, non-essentials
eventually become obstacles.
Non-essentials that get woveninto certain streams of
(11:46):
Christianity.
They eventually, for somebody,become obstacles of faith and
then it becomes unattainable,unlivable and for some people it
actually no longer becomes goodnews, it becomes a problem.
So those are the non-essentials.
But what are some of the mainessentials and fundamentals of
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the gospel of Matthew that we'veactually covered and discovered
over our time going throughthis.
Well, let me just highlight sixmain themes, and today we'll
unpack the seventh and final one.
First is the thing that wediscovered is Jesus as the
Messiah, the King, as anessential.
Matthew emphasizes Jesus'lineage right off the bat,
(12:31):
tracing back to Abraham andDavid to establish him as the
promised Messiah.
We discover that anotheressential is Jesus as the new
Moses, and you can go unpackthat.
We've touched on it many timesas we've gone through this over
the last couple of years, butMatthew portrays Jesus as this
new authoritative teacher,similar to Moses, who delivers
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God's law to the people.
A huge theme and essentialthroughout the gospel, according
to Matthew, was the kingdom ofheaven.
The kingdom of heaven is thiscentral theme referring to God's
reign and his new age that'sactually ushered in in this time
, here and now, then and now, byJesus.
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Matthew's big focus also was onthe fulfillment of prophecy.
It's one of the reasons wepicked Matthew to go through,
because it's going to point backand connect where Matthew
highlights how Jesus fulfillsOld Testament prophecy,
demonstrating his authenticityas the Messiah.
Another essential is righteousliving and discipleship.
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Matthew emphasizes theimportance of living according
to God's will, includingfollowing his teachings, the
teachings of Jesus and thenbeing his disciple, and then,
over the last couple of weeks,we discovered the death and the
resurrection of Jesus.
Then the gospel culminates inthe death and the resurrection
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of Jesus, highlighting hisvictory over death and sin.
Now for today, as we wrap thisall up, we get to uncover and
unpack Jesus' final command, anessential fundamental in the
gospel according to Matthew.
In some ways, this is reallylike his farewell address.
(14:14):
It explains why we're even hereand for those of you who grew
up in church, it's very familiar, which actually means it's
essential.
And it's essential if we'regoing to follow him.
And it must be taken seriouslybecause it's actually from him.
And here's what we're going todig down into a little bit today
is that it also must be takenpersonally.
So here we go.
So, following the resurrectionwe talked about last week, jesus
(14:36):
appeared to his apostles andwomen who had been following him
and he told them that he wantedactually them to go on ahead
into Galilee, which is like 90miles north of where he was.
He appeared to them outside ofJerusalem and Judea.
He says hey, I want you tospend a couple of days, go all
the way back up to Galilee,where most of his followers
(14:56):
originated from.
This is where Jesus did themass of his ministry and he was
going to go up there, andthere's a couple of reasons why
Galilee was safer.
Matthew was also in Galilee,and so he documented then what
happens next.
And so here's what he said,hopping into verse 16.
Then the 11 disciples went toGalilee Now, many of you guys
(15:18):
know there was 12 when they camedown this way, but Judas is
missing.
You know that story and they goto.
They went to Galilee, to themountain where Jesus had told
them to go.
Now this is kind of the setupfor what happens next and what
happens next.
Oftentimes, I think we readright by and we shouldn't,
because this actually brings usback to the very beginning.
What comes next actually bringsus back to the first
(15:40):
fundamental or essential thatJesus claimed about himself that
Jesus, he is the Messiah andthe King.
And so then, do you see whatthey do next?
They do what everybodyeventually will do Verse 17,.
When they saw him, theyworshiped him.
Now just think about this for asecond Jewish men and women
(16:01):
worshiping a human being, as ifthis human being is a God or is
God, was so unlikely, likely,like it was actually so
offensive.
In fact, worshiping a humanbeing as if this human being is
a God was offensive not just tothe Jewish people, but to the
Romans, the Greeks and certainlyHebrew sensibilities.
(16:21):
And according to Matthew,according to people who were
actually there, jesus didn'tresist it.
He didn't say like no, no, no,no, no, no, no, it's okay, right
.
And then I love this.
And Matthew does this allthrough his gospel.
He tells us all the things.
He's so honest with this.
I love how honest he is.
And next the text says but I gotto be honest, some doubted,
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like I just, you know, when youread that you think like people
saw Matthew was writing, maybehe was having some friends edit
this thing, or he's like hey,this is kind of writing out the
story, you want to check thisout.
And when they realized he wasgoing to write this in there or
put it in, they're like Matthew,do you have to include that?
That's a horrible sales pitch.
Like just end with and theyworshiped him.
Don't put that whole doubtthing in there, right, it makes
us look bad, to which Matthewwould have said hey guys, we've
(17:11):
looked bad the entire time.
Like every twist and turn wehave silly questions.
We responded incorrectly.
And don't you remember whenthey arrested our rabbi?
Do you remember what we did?
Yeah, we abandoned him.
Like I don't think we need toworry about looking bad.
We've been, we already look bad.
But the question is, when heputs this in here, like, why
(17:32):
would they doubt?
Who was doubting?
Was it some of the 11?
Was there more?
And when you like, unpack thatthe reason is is because they
saw him die, like they saw him,him die and dead people don't
come back to life.
Now, on a side note, just realquickly, I think the people who
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are gathered here on themountain even though the text
hones in on the 11, I thinkhistorically the church is right
that there's probably around500 people men, women and kids
at this moment of the GreatCommission and where I get that
just parenthetically is from 1Corinthians 15, where the
apostle Paul talks about thatafter the resurrection he
actually appeared to 500brethren all at once.
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So I think that it was actuallyhere.
So this Great Commission, he'shad the 11 come there.
But all of these followers arearound and they're experiencing
this moment and some of themwere like he was dead and so
they doubted.
They're trying to figure thisout.
Then Jesus says to them, andwhat follows is perhaps
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potentially the most overlookedverse and statement of the
entire Bible.
I mean, if the church had, andif the church would actually
embrace what Jesus says next, itwould change things almost
instantaneously.
In fact, if you would embracethis completely and wholly, if I
(18:56):
would embrace what Jesus saysnext, we would change.
Listen to what he said.
And Jesus came to them and saidcame to them and said all
authority in heaven and on earthhas been given to me.
That would be everythingeverywhere.
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Like all authority in heavenand earth has been given to me.
To which they thought, oh so,like that Messiah thing, like
that God's final king thing,like that's for real.
To which Jesus would have saidyeah, like all authority rests
on me.
Now Jewish men and women thatwere listening to Jesus, let me
tell you what they would haveheard that we don't really hear
(19:43):
because we're not first centuryJudeans.
Here's the implication of whathe just said.
He sits back and says ladiesand gentlemen, moses was your
guy, torah was your text, butthe king has arrived.
And they would think so you'rethe king.
You're the king with allauthority in heaven and earth.
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In other words, you hold thekeys to heaven and earth and
like we're your guys, we're yourposse, we're your people, to
which Jesus would have said youare indeed.
And with that association ofthem being together comes
extraordinary accountability.
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If you're going to continue tobe my people, do you realize
that, everywhere you go,everything you do reflects on me
?
If you're going to associateyourself with me, if you're
going to continue to use my nameand you're going to leverage my
name, do you realize howaccountable that actually makes
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you?
To which, in that moment, ofcourse, in front of the
resurrected king, they're goingto be like oh, absolutely, we do
, right, and don't we do thesame thing sometimes?
Right, like, oh, yeah, no, I'mgoing to be very accountable
because I'm associated with you,and then we go and do on our
drive home, we lose it likeimmediately, right, my wife
(21:13):
works at American Canyon HighSchool.
She's worked there since itopened and one of the things I
love about going there I havekids there.
I love going there andvolunteering and for sports or
other things.
I love that nobody knows me,right?
I don't like wearing name tag.
I don't wear like little collarthing.
I'm not really known.
I get to just come and I get tobe a parent and somebody in the
community that's helping out.
And I want to tell you that Ihave a consistent awkward moment
(21:35):
there, and the consistentawkward moment is something I
call the double handshake.
So what happens is I go thereand oftentimes I get to meet new
people and I get introduced tosomebody and they're like, oh
hey, this is Lawrence.
They're like, oh hey, bob.
I get introduced to somebodyand they're like, oh hey, this
is Lawrence.
They're like, oh hey, blah,blah, blah.
I get to oh, my name's Lawrence.
I get to shake their hand.
They're like, oh yeah, nice tomeet you.
And then someone else goes like,oh yeah, this is actually
Michelle Davis's husband.
(21:56):
And then they go what you gowith, michelle?
And then they give me anotherhandshake.
Right, it's like we just didthis.
Like why are we doing thedouble handshake right now?
Right, the first one, I think,was just for politeness.
The next one, what is it for?
It's actually for theassociation.
Like no way, oh my gosh, she'sgreat.
(22:16):
Oh, she does this.
Oh my goodness, right.
And this is because of a sharedname.
And that shared name and thatassociation actually comes
pre-packaged with an element ofwhat Accountability?
Because I'm accountable now,now that they know who I go with
for protecting my wife'sreputation.
So I have to think what am Iwearing right now, right?
(22:38):
Or what am I saying?
Or what comments do I haveabout things and stuff, right?
So I'm aware that she has areputation and now, because of
that, part of my responsibilityis actually to help protect that
and to represent it and torepresent her, while everywhere
I go, because my behavior isactually a reflection on her.
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Those of you who have kids,you're like preach.
I try to tell my kids that allthe time I get it right.
So not only because of theassociation now do I try to tell
my kids that all the time I getit right.
So not only because of theassociation now do I become
accountable for my actions, buteven more, what it does is it
makes me responsible for it,like I have a responsibility
with this Now.
(23:21):
So Jesus is now saying this onthis mountain and if I was
here's what I would have thoughtduring this moment.
Hey, I mean, this is awesome.
Since you conquered death, doesthis mean, like, we get to
conquer something now?
Like because we're associatedwith you?
Like since you conquered death.
We get to conquer some peoplebecause we've been waiting to
conquer the Romans for quitesome time.
(23:42):
We actually thought that's whyyou were coming and then, all of
a sudden, you died.
It was like what's happening?
And now you're back and we'relike let's go, right, do we
finally get to call down fire onour enemies, like we tried to
do months ago?
And you told us no, right, dowe finally get to?
Is this what is about to happen?
Is this what we're about to do?
To which I think Jesus wouldhave smiled and said like well,
(24:04):
as you're about to discover, andthey're like yes.
And then he says, no, I've gotway bigger plans for you
actually than Jerusalem and theRomans.
I have way bigger plans for youthan Judea.
I actually have bigger plansfor you than this territory of
Galilee, which most of thesepeople that's all they knew
(24:25):
we're.
He's looking at this.
He's like guys, get this.
We're about to launch somethingfor the entire world.
You, ladies and gentlemen, haveno idea how big the world
actually is, but you're notgoing to conquer anything.
Actually, you know what I'mgoing to do.
I'm going to send you out withan invitation.
(24:46):
I'm going to send you out toextend the same invitation that
I extended to you when we firstmet.
Therefore, therefore, go makedisciples.
Now, this phrase and the onethat follows, there's several
(25:07):
part of the souls in the Greektext and some of you are like
it's been way too long sinceI've been in English class.
What is an adjective, a verb, anoun which one talks to, which
right?
So let me just give you anexample of this statement and
how this is done in the text inGreek.
So you have water.
The sentence would be therunning water splashed on the
(25:28):
rocks.
Well, what describes the waterRunning?
The water's running.
So in this there's only in thestatement here.
And what follows there's onlyone imperatives.
So that means that there's onlyone command, and the only
command is make disciples.
This is the command he givesmake disciples.
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Then he uses this parable toexplain like, what does that
look like?
Oh, it's going, it's baptizing,it's teaching, it's obeying,
it's all these pieces.
But the specific command hegives us here is make disciples.
And so the implication now ofwhat that looks like is as you
go that word go, or as you aregoing, as you are living, as you
(26:11):
are doing life, whatever you doin life, wherever you travel,
that your responsibility, ifyou're going to associate
yourself with me, is to actuallymake sure that you're engaged
in some form of fashion, makingmore Jesus followers.
In other words, jesus would sayif I show back up in a year
(26:31):
from now, I expect there to bemore of you.
Or he'd say you know, if I showback up in 10 years, I expect
there to be a lot more of youFor the rest of your life.
Part of your responsibility, asyou go, as you raise your kids,
as you do life, as you age,part of your responsibility if
you're going to associateyourself with me, is to take on
the mantle of responsibility,living your life in such a way,
(26:54):
engaging with people in such away that you actually multiply
yourself, replicate yourselfthat there would be more of us
because of you than there wasbefore.
As you go, multiply.
And then he says this, and Ithink actually this is where
they tap the brakes a little bitthey're like whoa, whoa, whoa,
(27:15):
like this all sounds okay, cool,cool, more of us.
He says, therefore, go makedisciples of all nations, of
like all people, groups to whichimmediately they thought wait,
like Gentiles, like GentileParthians, like, wait, romans.
Are you telling us that youwant us to go make disciples
Jesus, followers of every Rome,like even Rome, like I mean
(27:39):
we've been.
Are you kidding?
Wait, does that mean Samaritans?
Like, does this include theSamaritans to which they already
knew?
It included the Samaritans.
Of course it includes them,because he's already dealt with
that.
Like he made a Samaritan a heroin one of his famous parables
he was called the Good Samaritan, anyways.
And then and then get this.
(28:00):
And then he says, baptizing them.
I mean this part was shockingfor them.
Why, this is like covenantlanguage, like this means full
inclusion, that there is nodistinction.
Now, and once again they'rethinking Gentiles, like we don't
even cross their threshold,they don't cross ours, like
(28:25):
there's like dietary stuff,there's moral stuff.
I mean like wait a minute,you're telling us that you want
full inclusion of non-Hebrew,non-torah-believing people.
Like no distinction.
I'm telling you, friends, whatthey felt in this moment I don't
even think we can begin tocomprehend.
And then he says yeah, yeah.
And when you baptize them inthis part, I mean this is so
(28:45):
offensive, unless he wasactually who he claimed to be.
He says, do this baptizing themin the name of the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit and onceagain this is crazy he includes
himself in a list where no meremortals belong, equating
himself to deity, equatinghimself to the Father.
(29:06):
And then, maybe the mostimportant part of this, he says
teaching them.
Yeah, teach them to obeyeverything that I've commanded
you.
Like, there's this teachingelement of this, like teach him
to obey, not just to believe,not just to believe to which you
(29:29):
could say, well, obey who, obeywhat?
What do you say?
Everything, everything I'vecommanded you.
I don't know if you've everthought about it.
Have you ever thought about theimplication of the statement
that I want you to teach them,that I want you to take what
(29:51):
you've actually been taught andthen I want you to replicate it,
I want you to live it out, andthen I want you to teach others.
You know where he would say like, hey, you guys remember that
Sermon on the Mount thing?
We did Remember when we went upin there and we did this whole
sermon.
I want you to actually livethat out.
I want you to go teach that toothers.
Remember that thing about thelog and the speck and the eye.
(30:12):
I want you to teach that.
Remember that whole, likegolden extra mile thing.
Yeah, I want you to teach that.
Remember I told you that yougot to fix it with them before
you can fix it with him, thatyou can't fix it with him until
you fix it with them.
Yeah, I want you to teach peopleabout forgiveness, regardless.
I want you to teach people tobe the Samaritan in the parable,
(30:34):
not the older brother in thoseother parables.
I want you to teach them to dounto other people as they want
done unto themselves, but wait,I I want you to teach them to do
unto other people as they wantdone unto themselves, but wait,
I actually want you to take itup a notch.
I want you to teach people toactually love one another the
way I loved you.
I want you to teach them tolove their enemies the way I
loved you after you betrayed me,after you abandoned me and
(30:55):
after you quit believing in me.
You know what I want you to do.
I want you to teach people towash other people's feet like I
washed your feet.
I want you to teach themeverything that I commanded you.
I want you to do that.
Just pause, friends.
Let's be doing that Like, letthat be our focus.
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Let that be our focus of ourteaching, our preaching, our
discipling, our discussing whatif?
What if obeying, not simplybelieving, like I believe that's
good stuff, what if actuallydoing it, obeying what if
obeying what Jesus taught hadbeen at the epicenter of our
(31:41):
preaching and our teaching allthese years, for generations?
I mean, think about this forgenerations.
I think the world might be in abetter place.
I think the church, too, wouldbe in a healthier place.
And then, if that's not enough,jesus ends with a promise.
A promise, and this is soimportant and this is really at
(32:04):
the epicenter of everything weare and we believe as followers.
Here's the promise he makes.
He says, and surely he saysdon't worry.
And I think he says don't worrybecause I can imagine right now
.
I mean, they're just like whatis happening.
This is the things you'resaying to us.
Wait, I'm still just stuck onthis.
You want us to go in the wholeworld.
Like what does that even looklike?
Like our world is so small, wedon't know how to do this.
(32:25):
You want us to go to Gentiles Idon't even know a Gentile.
Like I don't even know someonelike that.
You want us.
We hate the Samaritans, theSamaritans hate us.
Like.
This is too much.
Rome is our enemy.
This is way too much for us.
Like, your little conversationyou're having right now is very
overwhelming, jesus.
And I think that Jesus rightnow appreciates the fact that
(32:46):
they're so overwhelmed.
You know, this is like a littlefainter oh, little fainter.
Frankly, I think it'soverwhelming for us to think
about.
What does that look like?
I think it's overwhelming forus to think about what does that
look like?
He says but I'll make you apromise If you do this, surely I
(33:17):
am with you always, to the veryend of the age.
So the question is well, who'syou?
When you say, if you do this,who's the you?
We're talking about Friends.
I'll tell you, you is thebelievers who belief actually
has feet to it.
You is the believers whounderstand that you're not just
believing, but you're actuallypartnering with our King.
(33:37):
You is not someone who justbelieves, but you are disciple
makers.
You're doing, and I wonder, doyou do?
We want Jesus to be with youand we?
Well then, you and we actuallyhave to choose to be with him.
(33:59):
So that's ultimately thequestion Are you with him on
this?
To make it more specific is anyof your time, is any of your
resources already ahead of time,allocated like part of your
rhythm of life, prededicated andcarved out?
Is any of your time, anyresources allocated to actually
(34:21):
making more followers of Jesus?
Does any of your money or yourtime intersect systematically
with endeavors, with a localchurch or organization somewhere
to actually make more disciples?
In other words, do yourresources and your time, does it
intersect systematically withthe mission of our king?
(34:42):
Are you engaged, am I engagedin our king's business or are we
just too caught up minding ourown business?
Here's what I do know andfrankly, friends, I'll just tell
you this, this thrills me thateven right now, as I, this very
(35:03):
moment, as I am speaking, thereare teenagers and adults over in
the nursery and over in all ofthe other buildings around the
campus, right now, this verymoment, making disciples of the
next generation.
And if you're a part of thatgroup, if you serve in that
space, I just want to thank youfor that investment.
(35:25):
In our local church, there arehundreds of you that meet in
homes on campus or on campusevery single week, or to sit in
circles and literally to askquestions like how do we do this
?
Like how do we actually livethis out?
Like how do I live this out inmy difficult marriage?
How do I live this out in mydifficult marriage?
How do I live this out with mydifficult boss?
Or while I'm unemployed?
(35:45):
Or as a parent?
How do I do this as a parent?
Or as a student, a young adult?
What does it look like tofollow Jesus?
Pray for me, hold meaccountable.
I want to get this right.
And then what happens is theyshare their stories and people
hear their stories and they'reencouraged then to follow Jesus,
inspired to follow Jesus,because people have put feet on
(36:07):
their faith.
And then dozens, dozens of youshow up to serve on Sundays to
assure that the local churchexperience here is hitting on
all cylinders and it's fabulous.
And dozens of people during theweek show up here in other
places around the community toserve other people and students
and the hungry and unhoused andthe unclothed and so much more,
(36:33):
in Jesus's name, because youunderstand that when you meet a
person's physical need in thename of Jesus, you're just
opening the door up to them tobecoming a follower of Jesus,
because they're like.
That's not normal.
I need more of that.
That was a light and a darkspace in my life and for those
(36:53):
of you who are already doingthat.
Thank you.
I can make this promise withoutany hesitation your Savior is
with you because you are withhim.
That's what he says.
This is parting words.
These were Jesus's finalinstructions, and that makes
(37:15):
them essential.
That makes them fundamental.
And so number seven, the finalone of the gospel according to
Matthew, is simply this Jesusfollowers are multipliers.
Jesus followers are not justbelievers.
Jesus followers are multipliers, and this is something you have
(37:38):
to believe, whether you ever doit or not, because this is what
Jesus said about his followersthat Jesus' followers are
multipliers, individually andcollectively.
Now, this is so important.
When the church starts tosubstitute belief for obedience
(37:59):
like oh yeah, we're just goingto believe that thing, it's
really great, we're going torally behind that when they
begin to substitute belief forobedience to what Jesus taught,
when the church substitutesbelief statements, when the
church substitutes belief forfollowing, like actually obeying
, participating, doing whatJesus taught I'm gonna tell you
this People always get hurt, butworse and maybe some of you
(38:25):
experienced this they get hurtin the name of Jesus.
They will use the authority andleverage of Jesus's name to
shame and to beat up or to pushup, and again.
Maybe some of you.
That's your story.
You experience it throughsomeone else's experience at
church.
Maybe you experienced itpersonally.
That's what happens when wejust substitute belief and
(38:51):
belief statements for actuallydoing what he taught, everything
that he taught.
So teaching them to obeyeverything I've commanded you.
Let's just do this, like, let'sjust do that.
Or, to be honest and fair,let's keep doing that.
And if you're not playing apart, no problem.
(39:13):
But you got to find your part.
You got to get in the game, yougot to be about the king's
business.
This isn't an add-on, this isn'tfor professionals.
This is for everyone.
This is fundamental.
This is essential.
Jesus followers, friends, aremultipliers, so figure out a way
to be a multiplier.
(39:33):
It's literally how the worldchanged and someone did it for
you.
So figure out a way to be amultiplier.
It's literally how the worldchanged and someone did it for
you.
So let's do for others whatothers did for us, and if we do,
this is the best part of thepromise.
He will be with us, because wehave decided to be with him and
his work where he abides.
(39:53):
So here's the deal let's go allin.
This is what it looks like, togo all in.
That's actually what we'regonna talk about for the next
several weeks.
What does that look like?
If this is what he commanded usto do and this was his final
farewell message of like this iswhat it looks like Go make,
teach, baptize, obey.
(40:15):
What does that look like?
I think it looks like somethingthat can change a lot of things
.
Next week we're gonna hop intothat.
It's gonna be what I'm gonnasay is really a vision Sunday,
where I'm gonna talk about whatwe really believe, like God is
up to once we go all in together.
What's gonna happen in thisplace and through this place for
(40:36):
the next two to four years.
The opportunities we have, theimpacts that we're going to be
called to.
What it looks like to go and tomake and to teach and to
baptize the name of the Father,the Son and the Holy Spirit and
to obey everything that he hascommanded Spirit and to obey
everything that he has commanded.
(40:56):
So I don't want you to missthat.
I'm so encouraged.
This has been such anexperience for me and so for
today, as we kind of put aclosing mark on this chapter.
As we wrap up, matthew, there'sactually something you can
participate in today.
You can get involved.
If you're not playing a partyet, there's parts for you.
So out in the lobby as youleave today we're going to give
(41:17):
like a little extra space andtime.
You can hang out there.
There's a change maker fair,which is like really just.
It's all the different thingswe offer and we do and ways you
can participate in ministry.
That happens not here just likeon a Sunday, but during the
week and then in the in the likeneighborhoods, then in the
nation and then in theneighborhoods, then in the
nation and then all around theworld, and you can go and see
how you can participate in thosethings.
(41:38):
You can sign up for something.
You can be encouraged by it.
You also can be in communities.
Today and I will say this we'rehaving a picnic today and I
know the weather is not so hot,so no shame if you're like I'm
not gonna sit outside in this,but we still have bounce houses
and some other fun stuff, sothat's going on.
You can hang out for that.
(41:58):
So no shame.
Either way, that was just a wayto celebrate and the weather
wasn't participating today, butgo out there and then next week
let's rally and come all back tothis pep rally and talk about
what it looks like to be all in.
If you came here today, you'relike I just need somebody to
pray for me.
This is great.
You're finishing, matthew, Ineed help, like I am.
(42:20):
I'm going through it.
We would love that we haveprayer walls in the back of the
room as you leave, right infront of you, or on that next
steps card.
You can put that drop in one.
Also, if you came here andyou're ready for Jesus to be
with you, he's ready for thattoo, and it changes everything.
In fact.
He talks about in the gospel ofJohn, chapter 10, verse 10,.
(42:43):
He says look at, the enemy cameto kill, steal and destroy, and
some of you are experiencingthat or have experienced that.
But he says but and this isthesis statement I have come to
give life, and life abundantly,in the fullest, and it's
something that we actually getto experience in the here and
now and begin to participate,not in just some future tense.
And so, if you're ready to dothat we had a couple of people
last service do that and they'vescrewed a light bulb in the
(43:04):
cross over.
There you go.
This changes everything.
We blew a bugle.
We all screamed.
It was fun.
Don't let overwhelm you, it'sgoing to be awesome.
We also have a little journalfor you that just talks about
hey, this is what the kingdomlooks like, this is what
participating in this new thinglooks like as a gift, and let me
just send you off with ablessing.
I'll ask you all to stand up.
We have this posture of givingup and receiving.
(43:25):
May you have been blessed, as Ihave been blessed, just slowly
meditating and chewing onscripture throughout the book of
Matthew and today.
May the Lord bless you andencourage you and equip you and
(43:47):
convict you to obey everythingthat he's commanded you to do as
we go and we multiply andrepresent him well, and
represent, then to those in needaround us, because someone did
it for you.
Friends, this has been a gift.
Love you, I'll see you nextweek.
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