GREAT COMMISSION (2)
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The Great Commission – Sermon 3
Matthew 28.18-20
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The first message in this sermon series about the Great Commission we talked about how the first step that every Christian takes is what it says in verse 19 and 20. We become a disciple and then we get baptized to show everyone what has happened in our life and who our life belongs to…and then we learn what Jesus commanded of us.
The most important command Jesus gave us is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.
We talked about when you love God with your all - as the first command teaches us - that everything else falls into place. And when you love God with your all, then you will automatically have a burden for your neighbor which is anyone you encounter.
When we love God with our all, we get a glimpse of how much He loves us and we get that burden that the Holy Spirit has naturally instilled in us.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
says “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.”
So the Holy Spirit has many different purposes and He helps us do many different things, but the way Jesus describes it is….Powerful and that POWER now within enables us to witness.
Jesus is literally saying His last words to them and He tells them that the Spirit is going to empower them, and once they have received that power, Jesus said you will become my witnesses, basically all over the world…and then He ascended into heaven!
So I would say it’s pretty important if it is the last thing He tells them. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came, what did Peter and the 11 do? Let’s read what it says.
Acts 2:1-15 1When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. 3 They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. 4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues,[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.
Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.
They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.
Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven.
When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language?
Parthians, Medes, Elamites; those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts),
Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.”
They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
But some sneered and said, “They’re drunk on new wine.”
Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words.
For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning.
5 Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. 6 When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
7 They were astounded and amazed, saying,[b] “Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites; those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.”
12 They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But some sneered and said, “They’re drunk on new wine.”
Peter’s Sermon
14 Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning.”
So the Holy spirit filled them and the first thing that happened was they witnessed to every different nationality in every different language that was there just like Jesus said.
The gospel is for every race, every creed…and you see it right here, the very first thing the Holy Spirit does is causes the people in the Upper Room, that had been praying, to speak in tongues or different languages that they didn’t speak…but the Holy Spirit came on them immediately enabling them to witness to many different races of people.
So this tells us that we can’t go out and witness on our own. We have to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide our life to lead us through the day and He (the Holy Spirit) will prompt us to witness to people. We can’t do it in our power that’s why everything we do in our relationship with Jesus involves us dying out to ourselves, and dying to our carnal, worldly wants and needs and then following Jesus and obeying His plans for us.
The first thing Jesus says to Peter and a couple of the other disciples to be is found in Matthew 4:19
“Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”
where Jesus tells them, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men!!”
So the very first thing Jesus said to them is ‘Follow Me’ and by following Me, by giving your life in salvation, you then will become a fisher of men.
The result of following Me is many different things, but once you come to Me…broken, hurt, addicted, lost, blind and bound…you get redeemed, loved mended, 2020 sight and the chains that have had you bound for years and years are now broken. And you now aren’t just physically free, but you are spiritually free and you now have that same Holy Spirit living in you !
Now that you’re a follower of Jesus and you have experienced the freedom and redemption that comes along, you can’t keep this kind of happiness to yourself. You can’t keep this kind of joy to yourself.
So when Jesus told them to follow Me and I’ll make you fishers of men, He was saying if you give Me your life and you allow Me to be your Savior, and then you go deeper and allow Me to be your Lord, then you won’t be able to notbe a fisher of men, because you will want to tell everyone about the soul saving…miracle working…chain-breaking…life-changing…radical-loving…joy-giving Jesus Christ, son of the Most High God you serve!
So let’s take a deeper look at what He means by “Follow Me”. We have touched on it a little bit. Luke 9:23 I like the way the New Living Translation says it: “If any of you want to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, ad follow Me!”
Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
So we have to become Christ-centered, notself-centered. We have to give up our ways and replace our ways with God’s ways. We have to pick up our cross, which means death, we have to Die To Self Daily…look to Christ daily…read the Word daily…pray to God through Jesus daily…and yield to the Holy Spirit daily…and then you are following Jesus!
And once you are following Jesus, filling yourself with the Word, Prayer, and the Spirit daily, you can’t help but be a fisher of people. And when you treat your discipleship as a daily walk with Jesus, instead of a Sunday morning religious ritual, the Holy Spirit will not only guide you on who to witness to, but He will speak through you giving you the right words to say.
Luke 12:12 says, [and this is Jesus talking], “For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said.”
Now in this Christians got persecuted. So don’t think I’m using this completely out of its context because yes the Holy Spirit also teaches us in that very hour or moment what we should say. So not only does the Holy Spirit speak through us telling us what to say, but He enables us to be bold in how we say it.
Also God’s Word tells us that it won’t return void. Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my Word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing which I sent it.”
so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
So when we follow Jesus we become full of the Holy Spirit making us fishers of men and then the Holy Spirit speaks through us a word from God that will not return void, and we also see that when we speak God’s word, it has something to accomplish and it has a purpose!
I took that to mean that if God has placed us in a position to witness to someone then, we also have a purpose and something to accomplish and our purpose is to be obedient disciples of Jesus Christ so that we can accomplish the Great Commission.
See the Great Commission is for every Christian. The first thing Jesus said was Follow Me and I’ll make you Fishers Of Men, but what that means is die to self daily, fix your eyes on God’s will, and you will see your life change in so many different ways. And once the life transformation is well underway then you will become a fisher of men.
Being a fisher of men is a result of the follow Me part! So that was the first thing Jesus said to a couple of the disciples.
Now let’s take a look at the last thing Jesus said before ascending into heaven as Luke records in Acts 1:8. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
So a natural result of receiving the power of the Holy Spirit was that they would be witnesses of Jesus all over the world! It wasn’t even like He’s saying it as a command, it’s a simple statement of fact; when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be witnesses of Me.
He said shall be, meaning the power you get will cause you to be my witness. We talked about it earlier. The day of Pentecost when they received the power they immediately stood up and witnessed, preaching the gospel for every nationality that was there, whether they knew that language or not, they spoke it and 3,000 people got saved and baptized that day.
So Church the first thing Jesus said to several of His disciples was devote yourself to Me and you will become fishers of men. You will have a burden for other’s souls and then the last thing Jesus says before He is taken up into heaven is “I’m going to send you the Holy Spirit to help you and to empower you and a result of that power is that you shall be My (Jesus) witnesses all over the world!”
Church 64% of churches in the two countries didn’t see a salvation, 3,200 churches in 365 days did not convert one person and what I’m seeing here from my studies and spending time in the Word with the Lord is that being filled with the Holy Spirit empowers us to be a witness for Jesus Christ. It implants a burden in us that causes us to love our neighbor and want to help them - not just get to heaven - but to live with Jesus through life!
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
tells us the Lord doesn’t want any to perish but that all should reach repentance! The Lord commissioned us and equipped us with the Holy Spirit so that none should perish. So that all would be as fortunate as you and me.
Lastly when we witness and someone gives their life to Jesus, it is the power and grace of God at work.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
It is the power of God at work in us as we witness and it is the power of God at work in the one being witnessed to, drawing them to God at the same time!
It is an honor to be used by God and it is an honor to be drawn by God which all Christians are drawn to God and Church we must take the Great Commission seriously and we should be and have to be burdened for lost people’s souls and we have to work on our relationship with Jesus daily so that we are full of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit so that we shall be a witness!