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Introduction
Disciple: The Art of Following Jesus
“Evangelism: The Disciple’s DNA”
**Note** The presentation must be one of “opportunity” not warning.
Introduction
Our church has before it today a weighty decision.
Probably the most weighty decision that this church has faced since its beginning over 80 years ago.
The decision is so weighty that—before we make the decision—we must know what is the right question.
Asking the wrong question will not lead to the right answer.
So—when faced with a such a weighty decision—what is the correct question for a church to ask?
Well, I would say that we could formulate the question into two questions.
But these two questions are actually the same question.
First, we might ask “What would be the will of the Lord in this situation?”
Second, we could ask “How can we best fulfill the Great Commission?”
But those are not two different questions.
They are the same question.
What would the Lord have us do?
He would have us fulfill the Great Commission.
So whether we ask the first question or the second question, we are asking the same question.
More simply: “How can we get the gospel of Jesus Christ before the most people possible?”
There are many other noble goals that come before the church.
Sometimes our greatest desire is unity.
We can know if unity is our primary goal when our first question when faced with a big decision is “Who will it upset?
Who will get angry?”
Sometimes our greatest goal is familiarity.
When familiarity is our primary goal, we are more interested in our history than we are in our future.
The Israelites were so interested in familiarity that they would have rather lived in the slavery of Egypt rather than to go into the Promised Land.
The result of their confused priority was the death of a generation in the Wilderness of Wandering.
Sometimes our greatest goal is comfort.
When this is our greatest goal, we make decisions primarily by “what will it cost?
Not only financially, but personally?
Will it cause me to change my routine?
Will it cause me to adjust my schedule?”
None of these are—in of themselves—bad things.
But when good things replace the best thing, then the good becomes the enemy of the best.
The best thing is ALWAYS “Will Jesus Christ be honored through my participation in the Great Commission?”
Where this becomes secondary, the Gospel becomes minimized.
When the Gospel is minimized, it will become sacrificed.
It will be sacrificed on the altar of an idealized (and false) history.
It will be sacrificed on the altar of personal preferences.
It will be sacrificed on the altar of selfishness.
Jesus’s warning to the church of Ephesus, when they left their first love, was that they would be blown out like a candle in a hurricane.
In other words, churches that ignore the importance of the Gospel will eventually die.
Our primary goal must ALWAYS be our participation with Jesus in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
Indeed, the Great Commission should be part of the DNA of what it means to be a Christian.
So, what is the Great Commission?
Read Text
Exegesis
Your participation in the GC is directly related to your recognition of Jesus’s authority.
Jesus said in verse 18 that all authority—whether it is in heaven or in earth—has been given to Jesus.
To say that Jesus has “authority” is not saying that Jesus is kind of a leadership guru who knows what he is talking about.
Follow His counsel and things will turn out better.
Jesus is saying that He alone has the final word for how we are to conduct ourselves and to how we are to spend our lives.
The word that is used for “authority” means that Jesus is absolutely free to make whatever demands He wants to make.
He is not constrained by anything.
He is not controlled by anything.
He has absolute freedom.
He freely chooses through His love for you and His love for the lost to make your life a significant and valid contribution to the movement of the Kingdom of God.
As you participate in the Great Commission, your life has value and purpose to eternity.
Jesus says that the Father has given all authority over to Him.
The question is whether or not we recognize the authority of Jesus.
If you want to know whether or not you recognize authority, you must examine what is the final factor that determines the decisions that you make and the life that you live.
According to the Bible, you recognition of Jesus’s authority in your life is whether or not you are participating in the Great Commission.
By claiming to have “all authority,” Jesus is claiming the two things: First, He is claiming the right to give the “marching orders” to His followers.
This is Jesus’s authority over His people.
He is announcing that He is our authority and we are His subjects.
A Kingdom requires two things: a king and a people.
He is the King.
We are the people.
Not only is Jesus claiming to have authority over His followers, but, second, He is claiming to have authority over the accomplishment of the goal: namely, the making of disciples.
The first claim of authority gives Jesus the right to demand of us what He will.
The second claim means that Jesus will give us the means to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish.
He affirms this in verse 20 when He says “I am with you always.”
In other words—we have great confidence that whatever Jesus demands from us, He accomplishes for us and through us!
Now, what exactly is the goal?
Jesus tells us the goal in verse 19: Make disciples.
If you hear nothing else that I say, please hear this: the church exists for the sole purpose of making disciples.
The church’s purpose is to see people come to know the Lord.
If the church fails to make disciples, the church cannot be considered a church.
It may be considered a community organization.
It may be considered a club.
It may be considered a group of friends.
But it cannot be considered a church.
Churches actively engage in fulfilling the Great Commission.
Churches have no higher calling from God than to see that people come to Jesus Christ.
Our seriousness in engaging in that responsibility reveals what we truly believer about people, about Hell, and about Jesus.
Let me speak very frankly.
If we are unwilling to do whatever it takes to make disciples, then we should take “church” off of our sign and start selling sandwiches and coffee for we are NOT doing what God has called us to do.
What is our method for making disciples?
First, it is baptizing them in the one name of the triune God.
The visible and public evidence of a person’s conversion is emulated through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our identification with Him through baptism.
Second, it is teaching the entire counsel of God.
Not soft-selling.
Not sacrificing truth at the expense of popularity.
Not adding to the Word of God and not taking away from the Word of God.
But simply repeating and applying God’s holy word.
When do we do this?
“As you go.”
In other words, fulfilling the Great Commission is not something that you put on the schedule.
It IS the schedule.
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