Sermon Tone Analysis

ON MISSION FOR GOD   MATTHEW 28:16-20

 

            This morning, we are going to continue our study on the Great Commission given by our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of Matthew’s gospel.

So if you will take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28, while I read again verses 16-20.

Isn’t it great to be able to open the pages of the Bible and know what is on the heart of God?

If God did not give us His Word, then we would never be able to know the mind and heart of God.

But in His grace, He was willing to reveal Himself to us.

Paul talks about this in his first letter to the church at Corinth.

He wrote, “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?

Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).

In other words, the mystery of God which was predestined before the ages was hidden from kings and rulers for our glory.

The crucifixion, who would have thought of that being the means to bring people to everlasting life, yet this, was God’s plan, decree, will, etc. God saw to it that this would happen, in order to redeem mankind from their sins.

As I mentioned last week God in the beginning of the Bible and at the end of the Bible, as well as, all the way through the Bible has been inviting lost men and women to salvation.

So God sent His Son into the world to accomplish this mission, goal or purpose of winning the lost as John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Jesus set out to do what the Father has sent Him to do.

If you will hold your place in Matthew 28 and turn over to John 17, which is known as the High Priestly prayer of Jesus, so that you can see the heart of Christ.

In verse 6, Jesus said, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

Now they have come to know everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believe that You sent Me.”

In other words, Jesus is saying that the twelve know who I am and why I have come to earth.

They know the mission and intent of the heart of God.

They got it.

Now Jesus prays for them beginning in verse 9, “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; they are Yours.”

Jesus asks three things of the Father for His disciples.

First, he asks that the Father keep them in Your name.

Second, Jesus asks that the Father keep them from the evil one.

Third, He asks that the Father sanctify them in truth (keep them pure).

Then down in verse 18, Jesus said, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”

In other words, Jesus says to the Father just as you gave me a mission to glorify you by winning lost men and women, so now I send them on the same mission.

And this is what we have in Matthew 28.

So if you will let us go back to the text and see what it is that the Lord wants us to learn today?

Last week, I mentioned one of five principles that is found in the text.

The first element to fulfilling the Great Commission is to be available.

We don’t have to be the wisest, richest, noblest in order to be on mission on God.

No, we just have to be available.

We have to be ready to serve no matter the duty that God calls us in.

This is what we saw in the disciples.

The Lord said I will meet you in Galilee before and after the resurrection.

Imagine, what would have been of us if the disciples didn’t show up that day.

They were there because Christ told them to be there.

They were commissioned because they were there.

They obeyed because they received the marching orders.

Make yourself available to the Lord with your talents, natural gifts, spiritual gifts, resources, etc.

 

 

WORSHIP

The next attitude that will help us fulfill the Great Commission is worship.

Look if you will at verse 17.

We read “*When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful*.”

Here came the One who had been with them for three years.

He had done many great things in their presence.

For example, He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, mobility to the lame, and cures to their diseases.

He walked on water in their presence, allowed them to catch fish miraculously, fed four and five thousand at one time, and calmed the storm.

He taught with authority unlike the scribes of that day and was able to say only things that God could do like forgive sins.

But when He came that day into their presence it was different.

He came in His glorified body.

This was a glorified body that conquered the grave and broke the chains of death.

It was a glorified body that walked through a wall into a room where the disciples were sitting in Jerusalem.

So when they saw the glorious resurrected body of Christ, Matthew said that the disciples worshiped him.

The word here for worship is proskuneo, which means to do homage in order to express respect.

The word literally means “to kiss towards.”

The disciples bowed before Christ in adoring worship.

In the gospel of Matthew, we find the Magi coming to worship Jesus at His birth as King of the Jews in Matthew 2. In Matthew 4, during the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness, who was seeking Jesus’ worship; but Jesus said, “For it is written, “YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY” (Matthew 4:10).

After the resurrection, you find Mary Magdalene and Mary worshiping at the feet of Jesus.

The disciples had worshiped once earlier, it's referred to one other time that the disciples actually worshiped Him and that was in Matthew 14:33 when He had walked on the water and they knew He had to be the supernatural God Himself who controls the elements.

But now their awe is even greater because He is risen from the dead.

Not only is He a miracle worker but He is the one who has conquered death and they have seen Him and touched Him.

So they know that they are in the presence of God.

They are not worshiping some human dignitary or some earthly king.

They are worshiping the Son of God.

But Matthew goes on to record for us that some were doubtful.

Now what does that mean that some doubted.

The word here in the Greek is used only one other time in the New Testament.

It literally means “to stand in two ways, an uncertainty of which way to take.

In this text carries the idea of hesitation to believe.

Now this does not mean that they were denying the resurrection because the eleven and several others had seen Christ before in one of His other appearances.

So why were they so hesitant to believe?

D. A. Carson wrote, “… may be using this historical reminiscence to stress the fact that Jesus’ resurrection was not an anticipated episode that required only enthusiasm and gullibility to win adherents among Jesus’ followers.

Far from it, they still were hesitant; and their failure to understand his repeated predictions of his resurrection, compounded with their despair after his crucifixion, worked to maintain their hesitancy for some time before they came to full faith.

Jesus’ resurrection did not instantly transform men of little faith and faltering understanding into spiritual giants.”

I believe what God was trying to show us through the words of Matthew the perfection of Christ and the imperfection of those who follow Him.

If someone wanted to give validity to something as miraculously as the resurrection don’t you think that they would have omitted the last statement of verse 17?

But this is where the integrity of Scripture is helpful to us because it paints a real picture about the life of those who follow Christ.

David in Psalm 103:13-14 proclaims, “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

For He Himself knows our frame, He is mindful that we are but dust.”

As you read the Bible some of the great men of the Bible had doubts.

Just look at the life of Abraham when he went down to Egypt and he instructed Sarah his wife to tell them that she was his sister, so that he could save his life.

Also, Sarah doubted when she was 90 years old and an angel told her that she would give birth to a son.

Moses, who is thought of highly by all Jews, doubted he could do the job that God called him to because he stuttered.

Moses told God there is no way the Pharaoh is going to let the people go on account of me.

John the Baptist, who proclaimed in the wilderness that Jesus was the Messiah; later questioned Jesus while in prison with some of his disciples as to whether He was the Expected One or should they wait on someone else.

After the resurrection of Jesus, there were many who had a hard time accepting the fact that He had been raised from the dead.

The disciples refused to believe the report of Jesus resurrection when Mary Magdalene gave it to them.

On Jesus first appearance to the eleven minus Thomas, the Bible says they were frightened and startled thinking they were seeing a spirit.

In the midst of the joy and amazement of that event they still struggled with believing this fact.

Thomas who was not with the other disciples on Jesus first appearance said he would do believe their testimony until he put his finger in the place of the nails and his fist into His side.

Acts 1:3 says, “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

Just imagine being there like these were and seeing and hearing all that they heard, wouldn’t you have trouble believing what was happening.

Yet, I find this encouraging.

I have great hope in light of this truth given by Matthew.

Why?

The reason is that I know myself and the doubts that pop up in my mind from time to time.

You may have doubts, as well.