Go to all People
The Purpose of the Church: Evangelize the Lost • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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What is the Purpose of the Church?
What is the Purpose of the Church?
Well good morning everyone and welcome to Burr Oak Church. For those who are visiting for the first time today or viewing this online I am Pastor Ben and it is so good to be with you today.
Well today we are beginning our last purpose of the Church. We have two more messages left in this series. Today’s message, then we will take a break for Communion next week, which reminder after service today the elders will remain up front for anyone wanting to come forward for prayer. The following week is Resurrection Sunday in which we will have service at 10 am. Then we will have the last message for this series.
On the 23rd we will be having a guest speaker from LifeWise who’s going to come in to talk to us about what LifeWise is an why we should be in support of it. And the the last Sunday of April we are going to do something a little different. With it being a 5th Sunday we are going to have a praise and worship Sunday. Then in May we are going to take off running with our revitalization series.
Well, that seems like a whole lot in a very little bit, but God is so gracious and good. In one of my morning prayer times this past week as I sat and reflect on our church family, I became overwhelmed with such a sense of joy. As I am seeing people grow closer to Jesus. As I see people finding freedom from the things they have struggled with for years. As I think about the prayers we have been saying as a church since I came on board nearly 4 years ago, I am seeing God answer these prayers daily! And I hope that I am not the only one. I hope that for those who have been here a while you can see this happening as well. It is an amazing thing to experience.
Yet, we cannot get too comfortable. The moment we get comfortable, the enemy will be ready to strike. Let us rejoice in the work we see God doing, but let us stay diligent in our prayers. Let us stay focused on our purposes. Which what are they say them with me: exalt God, edify the saints, and evangelize the lost. Before we turn to our final purpose let us have our memories refreshed of what we have discovered to this point.
Why do we exalt God? Because he alone in the incomparable Yahweh, there is none like him. How do we go from walking in rebellion to exalting God? We must first see God in all his glory as holy, holy, holy. Next we must recognize our filthiness in light of his holiness. Finally, we must experience his cleansing of our filthiness. Out of this experience we become concerned for the things that God is concerned about and offer ourselves in service to him.
When we go through this experience and give our life to Jesus we become Incorporated into the organization known as the church. The church exists in a two fold fashion, both universal and local. Within the local body the members are to work to serve or rather edify one another.
We defined edification as being both the inspiration and equipping for one to continue in their walk with Jesus. And we determine that edification served three purposes. It grew the church together in oneness. It help us to know why we believe what we believe. And it becomes the fuel tank of encouragement we need to live our lives faithfully Monday through Saturday. We also discovered that the reason edification is possible is because of the Spirit and how we operates within the life of the Christian and the Church.
Now that we have refreshed the last 3 months of preaching, let us now turn to the final purpose, to evangelize the lost. As we do let us have our hearts and minds brought to attention with our focus verse.
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Please pray with me.
Matthew 6:9–13 (ESV)
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgiven those who have sinned against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Lord you taught us to pray this way. As we come before you today let these words of your settle in our hearts. Let us glorify your name. Let us seek to have your will done here on earth. Let us look to you for our provision. Let us lay down our rebellion and seek your forgiveness while extending that forgiveness to others. Guard us from the attacks of the evil one.
We ask that you bless our gathering and this message today. May your Spirit meet us here today. We ask that you open our hearts and minds to receive your word this day. Lord let us rejoice and be glad for this is your day and you have allowed for us to come together! Let us praise your name, amen!
Well as you may expect, if we are going to talk about evangelizing the lost we are going to look at the great commission. And indeed we are. Our message for today is titled: Go to all People: Christ the King Calls His Citizens, and we are looking to Matt 28 starting in verse 16.
Let us hear the word of the Lord
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 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,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
May the Lord bless the reading of his word.
AS we consider this passage today there are four biblical truths we will look at. First is Our Reaction to the King’s Call. Next, Jesus, the Long Awaited King. Next is The King’s Command. And finally, The Assurance of the King.
Our Reaction to the King’s Call
Our Reaction to the King’s Call
Earlier in this series we studied through Isaiah’s call, we understood this as the model of what it takes for a rebel to lay down his arms and follow the king. Yet, to a degree Isaiah’s response is typical of those who find themselves in the presence of a holy exalted being.
Jacob Gen 28:17
17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Moses Ex 3:6
6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Ezekiel Eze 1:28
28 Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
When we come into the presence of the almighty God, these are the two response that can take place. We can fall and worship, or we can fall out of fear. As we look at the great commission today we need to see that Matthew is making this connection to his reader.
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
Something we need to keep in mind with Matthew’s Gospel is that he is writing to a Christian audience with a Jewish heritage to show how all of God’s purposes are fulfilled in Jesus. As he is closing out his gospel Matthew presents that Jesus is worthy of the same response that was given to God in the OT. How do we know this?
First we see that Matthew call’s out the eleven. This is the twelve minus Judas. There is debate as to whether or not at Jesus ascension there were just the eleven, or could there have been up to 500 as mentioned elsewhere. Ultimately we do not know. What we can understand though is that the eleven are representative of the whole Christian community. From this we can understand Matthew to communicate here that Jesus is talking to those that he has hand selected as his followers. This is not a mixed group that he is addressing, this is Christians.
Keeping with showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of all things the Jews understood, Matthew relays that Jesus directs them to a mountain to meet him. This is reminiscent Moses meeting God at mount Sinai. The next thing we see is the response of those who have been called. Worship and doubt.
Now with the term worship it is the one that we have looked at before, the term that means to lay yourself out prostate. To bend yourself low in the presence of another. Now the word doubted we need to understand a little better. When we read this word, we might initially come to the conclusion of a settled unbelief. Yet, that would not make sense with the fact that we just established that this is one Christians here.
This word that Matthew uses here he only uses one other time and it is in the story of Peter walking on the water and Jesus needing to rescue him.
31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
While doubt is how this word gets translated, it carries the idea of hesitation or fear. Commenting on this section Craig Bloomberg weighs the options for how to understand this and come to this conclusion.
Matthew (2. Resurrection! (28:1–20))
Or (most likely?) they may simply continue to exhibit an understandable confusion about how to behave in the presence of a supernaturally manifested, exalted, and holy being. … Some of the disciples worshiped Jesus at once; some were less sure how to react.
This would align with how we see people in the OT respond to being in the presence of God, worship or fear and hesitation. But why would Matthew include this? And why at the end of his book? This brings us to our next point.
Jesus, the Long Awaited King
Jesus, the Long Awaited King
The topic of worship or rather the object of worship is an important things to Jews and was so during the first century. See the Jews remembered within their traditions that their immaculate temple of Solomon, and the city that it resided in was destroyed because the nation gave themselves over to the worship of false gods. When they returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt everything, they did all that they could to try and show that they could keep the Law. They could not keep it, but they tried to show they could. This is why we often hear Jesus call the Pharisees hypocrites.
This element of false worship however was one that most probably kept close to their minds as it was the reason they had always been subjugated to other nations. Every Jew would have known Exodus 20:5.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Matthew, in writing to Jewish Christians he is wanting to show them that the worship due to Jesus is not idol worship. That when they worship Jesus, they are in fact worshipping the one true God because Jesus is him. Let’s look to verses 17 and 18.
17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
We need to consider this aspect of the worship of Jesus for a moment. There have been many throughout the centuries that have argued that Jesus is not equivalent to God, but instead he was the first born, or rather the first created. The earliest record of this being argued for was around 300 AD, by a priest from what is now Libya, known as Arius. Arius argued that Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, but rather a subordinate created being. It was at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 that this position was officially rejected by the Church as a whole.
Yet Arius’ position has not gone away. This is the position cults like the Jehovah Witnesses’ or the Mormons would hold too. If this position is true though, we have an issue presented to us in our passage today. Scripture would be in contradiction of itself and would need to be rejected.
The contradiction would be that if Jesus is a created being that is not coeternal with God the Father, but Matthew clearly shows him here as accepting worship, this would go against the Scriptures. We know from the book of Revelation that the created heavenly beings who are holy reject worship of themselves because they know that it only belongs to God. The created spiritual beings that accept worship are in fact demonic. So if Jesus is a created being that accepts this worship he could not be holy and righteous but demonic and that would undo the entire testimony of the Scriptures.
The only other logical explanation is that Jesus is in fact God in the flesh, coequal and coeternal with the Father, and thus rightly deserving of all worship. If we look at what verse 18 is saying we can see that this is reminiscent of Daniel’s vision.
13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
In understanding this aspect of the Son of Man, we recognize this as a title that Jesus often used of himself. Considering this title, the Lexham Bible dictionary states.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary The Influence of Daniel 7
The phrase “one like a son of man,” denotes a human-looking figure who is given privileges normally reserved for God: authority, glory, sovereign power, the worship of men of every language, and an eternal kingdom (Dan 7:14).
Jesus is the only one this title gets ascribed to. And the one who carries this title we can see from Matthew summing up what Daniel said, that all that is in heaven and on earth has been given to him.
This understanding is foundational to the Christian faith. Jesus is fully God and fully man. We cannot understand this. We cannot imagine what this might be like. Regarding this nature of Jesus, J.I. Packer states,
“Here are two mysteries for the price of one — the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus. . . . Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.”
The charge to us is to understand what this means for us. This means that the God of the universe, the almighty Yahweh, showed up in human form, adding to himself the human experience. In doing this he humbled himself to the point of a traitors death. But in his death he paved way for you to be reconciled unto him. He died in your place. The God of the universe, the one who knew you before you were formed. The one that knows the number of hairs on your head. The one that continues to call you to him even when you cannot hear. He died for you. He could not imagine heaven without you, so he made a way for you to be there with him.
And when we understand this, we see him in his glory as holy, holy, holy. We can then sense our filthiness in light of his holiness. And if we repent and confess him as Lord, we will experience his cleansing. And what did we discover? When we go through this what are we to do next? Offer ourselves to his service. But how? What are we to do?
That brings us to our next point.
The King’s Command
The King’s Command
If you noticed in Daniel’s prophecy it stated that the one like a son of man would rule over an everlasting kingdom that consisted of people from all nations and languages. Matthew continuing to show how Jesus is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy records Jesus’ words prior to his ascension.
Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)
19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Within this command we see a few points that we need to consider. Remember that we have established that Jesus is not speaking to a mixed group of believers and unbelievers here. All that are in attendance are Christians. From this we can understand that this charge of “go therefore and make” is to the Christian body. The charge to “go therefore” carries with it the sense to go away or to leave from where you know are. The idea behind this is that you are not to stay put, but to go out.
But what are we to go out and do? We are to go and make disciples. What we need to understand is that multiplication of those who live for God has always been one of God’s desires. Many of God’s covenants with man carry this type of pattern in it.
With Adam it was to be fruitful and multiply.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
To Abraham it was the promise of many offsprings.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
To Moses it was if you keep God’s word you will multiply.
3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
See this element of multiplication within the Scriptures we need to understand that God has determined to work in tandem with man for this to happen. God has asked his children to be the ones that go and cause the multiplication to happen. That is what he has charged us with. But who are we to go to?
Matthew 28:19 (ESV)
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations
The term used here for nations is ethos and it most often gets translated as nations, but it means people or people groups. The idea here is that this message, this command is not just for one people. Matthew talking to ethnic Jews wanted them to understand that this message is for Gentiles as well. Or for anyone who wasn’t Jew. Ethnic or racial barriers were a big deal int he first century. In our culture today while we do see some ethnic separation between people groups, the bigger separations are social or even political. We tend to want to engage with others that are like minded. We tend to separate ourselves into like groups. See the Gospel is not bound to one social or political group. And Jesus’ command is for us to go to all people or people groups. To not let the separation of ideas or heritages prevent the sharing of the Gospel. This is a message for all people everywhere. But what are we to go and do?
As we are sharing the good news we are to,
Matthew 28:19 (ESV)
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Now we understand this as the command for individuals to go through the physical act of baptism once they have professed their faith. But I believe there is another understanding we need to take away from this as well. And that is the message that we take to the nations. We tend to correlate the message we are to take to the nations is all that Jesus has commanded us from the next verse of this passage. Yet, I think most of us would agree that there are some commands in Scripture that if we go trying to teach those commands to unbelievers they will reject the Gospel rather than embrace it. Now I do not want you to mis understand me here. I do not want you to think that I am trying to water down Jesus’ commands for the sake of unbelievers. Rather I want us to look at this passage and see if there is a guide here for how to evangelize and edify built into it.
Let’s keep looking at this part of verse 19. First and foremost yes, I agree that Scripture teaches that when some one has claimed Jesus as their Savior they need to go through the physical act of Baptism. But I think there is a key here to evangelism that we often miss. Baptism is a transliterated word. Meaning we have adopted it from another language and how we understand it may not be what the original language meant it as. Our word baptism comes from the Greek word baptizo which means to immerse. We looked at this a couple weeks ago when looking at the baptism of the Spirit. We saw as an example the record of a sunken ship being baptized, it was overwhelmed or flooded by the water.
This baptism or immersion is to take place in the name of or rather in the personhood of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. See the key here for evangelism is the immersion into the personhood or character of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Through this immersion what is conveyed is what each one of these persons has or will do for the one who places their faith in Jesus.
By being immersed in God the Father, a person should come to understand that the Father is calling to them, wanting to make them a new creation. Just as in the days of Noah, God the Father is wanting to wash them clean of all their wickedness. By being immersed in God the Son a person should come to know that the Son, through his death and resurrection, was the means by which that cleansing came. That the Creator thought it worthwhile to sacrifice himself for the creation. By being immersed in the God the Spirit a person can come to know the seal of God which testifies to this knew life and empowers the individual to live for God.
See with evangelism the point is to help unbelievers come to know what God has done for them and will continue to do for them. When an unbeliever has come to this understanding and they believe in the heart and confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, then immediately they should be physically baptized for as R.T. France states by doing this the new believers makes,
Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary (v. Jesus Alive and Sovereign (28:16–20))
“[A] commitment to (in the name is literally ‘into the name’, implying entrance into an allegiance) the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (all three of whom, interestingly, were involved in the event of Jesus’ own baptism).”
Physical baptism is the sign that you have come to this understanding. And at the moment that physical baptism is completed then the next part of Jesus’ command starts.
Matthew 28:20 (ESV)
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
This is now discipleship. This is now edification. This is now inspiring and equipping others to continue in their walk with Christ. This is now the process of doing life together as a family all looking to our heavenly Father’s instruction for how to live.
When we look deeper at this passage of the Great Commission, we see a whole life model set out before us. We see each of the three purposes of the Church present. Exalt Jesus, evangelize the lost, and edify the saints. All three are present. Worship God, help the lost to know what God has done for them. Train up the saints to pursue holiness. Yet, many churches tend to have break downs when it comes to this model. If they are evangelizing, they are communicating the wrong message. They have their emphasis on the teaching all that I have commanded, rather than the immersion into the person of God. If they do get someone to come to the understanding of what God has done, they do not press making the commitment through physical baptism. If they do get them to make the commitment, they tend to drop the ball of teaching all that Jesus commanded.
See this is the aspect we need to understand of the relationship between evangelism and edification. Evangelism leads up to the point of commitment. The moment a new believer comes up out of the water, edification starts. There should be no gap. New believers tend to be so eager to learn about God and his ways. They are at a point of being ready to start to do the work to really pursue after God. Yet, when the church fails them by not starting the edification process right away they tend to grow callused. They tend to be like a broken bone that has started to heal in a wrong position that has to be broken again to be set right. They tend to lose their zeal, because they have been let down.
Looking at this process it may seem overwhelming. It may seem like that is a lot of work, helping a person come to understand what God has done for them, getting them through making a commitment, and then doing life with them as they grow and learn about all of Jesus’ ways. You’re right it is a lot, especially if we try to do it in our own strength. So there are a couple things we need to understand.
First, yes it is hard. Yes it is emotionally taxing. You will face doubt, fear, worry, and probably even anger in the process. Yet, there is no greater work or better reward then leading someone to the feet of Jesus.
Second not each one of us need to do the whole process on our own. God gifts us in different ways so that we can help each other along the way.
The last one brings us to our final point.
The Assurance of the King
The Assurance of the King
While there are many brothers and sisters who can surround you, who can help you through this process, our ultimate assurance is that our King is with us always.
Matthew 28:20 (ESV)
I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
What peace this ought to bring us. Not only has the King called us. Not only has he done this great work in our lives rescuing us, transforming us, and equipping us. Not only has he given us a purpose and a mission. But he has promised to be with us always to the end of the age. And the thing is he does not promise like man promises. He does not make promises that he cannot keep. We have established that Jesus is coeternal and coequal with God. But what we also need to understand is that he is not a separate God. As Christians we do not serve 3 gods, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We serve one God who has three distinct essences that are all equally God. And the best way to describe them is by the name that was revealed to us in the Scriptures, Yahweh. When we went through our lamenting series last summer we looked at how his name means that he is the keeper of his promises. You can trust him.
END IN PRAYER