And all of the D groups and Awanas and the youth group that
is going on and all of the grief share and disciple veterans.
But you guys get the best group.
Right?
And so we are glad you are here.
Lots going on at our church and we are just really glad that
everybody is here.
If it's your first time or first time in a long time, we always
ask those who would like to fill out a guest card and that
you can fill out a guest card in front of you and seat back
pocket in front of you.
We want to know who you are and thanks for coming.
Sunday, hey, by the way, this is for the three or four men that
are here.
This is a public service announcement.
Mother's day is Sunday.
So you need to get something for your mother.
And if you are inclined to think, that means I don't have to get
my wife because she is not my mother.
You are wrong.
You have to get something for your wife.
Okay?
So just be safe, play it safe, go ahead and get something for
your wife even if she is not your mother, she is A mother.
And don't get her something stupid.
Get her something nice.
Okay?
So I see no guys writing that down at all.
Didn't even put a note in your phone.
Okay.
So anyway, that will be Sunday.
Kids are, we have kids singing and all the kids and teenagers will
be singing with the choir.
We are going to be in Psalm 139.
It's going to be a great time.
And so we would love to invite you back for Sunday.
And then in a couple weeks after that, Memorial Day, all the moms,
by the way, on Sunday will get a gift.
So make sure you come.
If you like chocolate, you will really like the gift.
If you don't like chocolate, give me your gift.
Also, Memorial Day coming and we are going to honor our military
that are giving their lives for the country.
And then we are also going to have on that Sunday night the
annual dads versus teens basketball, dads versus teenage boys.
We are not like dunking on girls.
That's not going to be good.
But anyway, that will be on that Sunday night.
It will be a lot of fun.
And so we are excited for summer coming.
Who is excited for summer coming?
I am so excited for summer coming.
We have camps and vacation Bible school.
We sent out a postcard for vacation Bible school this last
week and we already have 30 people signed up for VBS.
And it's a month and a half away.
That's pretty cool.
A bunch more kids signed up.
And it will be really, really good.
So lots going on around here.
And we are going to be talking about the life of Jesus and
here's what I want you to do.
I know this may feel a little bit weird for those of you who are
introverted.
And I know that you are going to be talking about the life of
Jesus and the life of Jesus.
And I know that you are going to be talking about the life of
Jesus and the life of Jesus.
And I know this may feel a little bit weird for those of you
who are introverted.
But we are going to be friendly anyway.
What is something that you like to share and something that you
do not like to share?
Something you like to share.
Something you don't like to share.
And then tell somebody around you.
You don't have to get up and walk around.
But tell somebody around you.
Something you like to share.
Something you don't like to share.
What do you like to share?
Nothing.
What do you like?
Do you like to share anything, Mom?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
What do you like to share?
There you go.
All right.
Does anybody want to share what there is ironically.
Does anybody like to share?
Who wants to tell me what you like to share?
Ted.
Oh, okay.
Dude, he is going to crank it out on Mother's Day.
I am telling you.
That was good.
Ted.
All right.
I like that.
Yeah, his points are going up.
Anybody else what do you like to share?
Yeah.
It's all bad after that.
Yeah.
Anybody what do you like to share?
Dave Fawcett.
I like to share Jesus.
It's like you are thinking about what I am going to talk about
tonight.
What else?
I am going to tell you what I like to share and what I don't
like to share.
I like to share.
I am going to tell you what I like to share and what I don't
like to share.
I really like to share a meal with somebody.
Go share a meal.
Go sit down and eat.
I really like doing that.
I also hate sharing a meal with somebody.
You get what I am saying?
I like them having theirs and me having mine, right?
But when my parents, did your parents ever do this to you?
Like we are going to go through McDonald's and you guys can
split.
You know, you can have it with your parents.
You can have a burger but you are going to split a coke.
Did you ever split a coke with your family?
We were poor enough that my parents were like, instead of
two smalls, we will get one medium and you share, right?
And we were, you are probably thinking, you don't look like
you shared a lot of coax.
You look like you drank a lot of coax.
So yeah, I like to share a meal but I don't like to share a meal
because here is the other thing that happens.
My brother would always take more.
Are you with me?
Always.
And even if we like split it, he would always take the bigger
hat.
Yeah, it's awful.
Okay, what is something you don't like to share?
TJ?
I am still wondering what you are doing.
TJ, that's awesome, man.
Yeah, you are very honest.
No, he doesn't.
He doesn't want to share it.
I get it.
Okay, anything you don't like to share.
What else?
Ms. Debbie.
Chocolate.
Okay.
We are on the same page.
That's good.
Yeah.
What do you think?
Oh, I like this.
She said, Ms.
Samson says she doesn't like to share her age.
A lot of ladies.
I don't think it's been in my mind.
I don't like it.
What are you saying about gentry?
I just said I didn't think it meant anything to you.
We are like creating fights back here.
Yes.
I am still wondering what you are doing.
Oh, yes.
She says she will share her age but not her weight.
I am with you.
I understand that.
I am with you.
That is no go for me, too.
I am every bit of 150 pounds.
That's what I am.
Every bit of it.
Anyway.
And Sam.
I have to be honest.
I am being recorded.
Sharing has different connotations.
Even today maybe than it did 20 years ago.
I am not sure if you are watching this.
I am not sure.
I am just saying like and share.
If you ever watch YouTube, smash that like button.
And subscribe and share.
What that can mean is send this link to other people.
That kind of thing.
It used to be that sharing meant you were with somebody.
You could share a sandwich.
You could share some news.
Paige said she likes to share good news but she doesn't love to
share bad news with people.
They say don't shoot the messenger.
That's why we don't necessarily like that.
If we are enjoying a meal we share it.
If we take a good picture, we share it.
I remember the first time that there was a time when I had, I
can't remember if it was my child or somebody at one of my friends
kids.
But we had, it had been a while and we had one of those
disposable cameras.
Remember disposable cameras?
You take the picture and you remember that.
And I remember being with, this was like right after the digital
cameras had come out.
And I remember being shocked because I took a picture with one
of those disposable cameras of one of my, it was a kid.
It was like a little toddler.
And I took the picture and then they walked over and they wanted
to see the picture.
And it was a disposable camera.
I couldn't show them the picture.
And I remember seeing the picture.
Does that seem like a long time ago?
We had the picture right away.
We used to go wait and get the pictures and find out half of them
were bad.
They were just dumb pictures.
Anyway, did you ever take a camera and take a picture of
yourself?
Did you ever do that?
That's nothing to do with the lesson.
Sharing though, sometimes people share too much.
And I don't care what you had for lunch.
And I don't need to see a picture of what your cat is wearing.
You're buying outfits for them or whatever.
So some people share too much.
But today, if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in Christ,
one of the things that we're supposed to do, one of the things
that we're called to do is to share Christ.
And when I say share Christ, I'm talking about communicate with
people about Jesus Christ.
This was what Jesus kind of, this was the end of Jesus'
mission.
This was the end of his discipleship with his disciples.
He had poured into them for three years or more.
He loved them.
He cared for them.
He had taught them.
He had exemplified what ministry looked like to them.
And then at the end, he said, your job is to go out and share
the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.
And because they did that, who did that with others,
who did that with others, somehow the gospel got to you.
And if it hadn't got to you yet, it will get to you tonight.
Because I want to share what Jesus did for you on the cross
and what he wants you to do in sharing him with others.
We've been in this series called, it's all about Jesus.
And we've talked about the ministry of Jesus.
And the...
Weird.
Serious sharing with me.
I don't know what's going on there.
We've talked about the ministry of Jesus.
We've talked about the person of Jesus.
We've talked about the crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection
of Jesus.
Tonight we're going to talk about the mission of Jesus.
And here's the big idea of the lesson.
The truth about Jesus is too big and too important to keep to
ourselves.
The story of Jesus, the truth about Jesus Christ is too big
and too important to keep to ourselves.
I want to talk about three factors in our sharing about
Jesus Christ.
Here's the first one.
The first one is the evidence we are to engage.
Now this is what we're going to see.
We're going to see these factors in the life of Jesus.
This is after he resurrects from the dead.
Now you may be asking me.
For some of you it's not a surprise.
For some maybe it may feel like a surprise.
You may ask the question, do you believe that Jesus Christ
actually physically, bodily, supernaturally rose from the
dead?
And I'm not crazy.
I actually believe that.
I actually believe that he was dead and that he rose from the
dead.
And literally today I was on the way listening to, I like to
listen to a lot of stuff.
I listen all the time to things.
There was a guy named Richard Dawkins, Richard Dawkins is a
well-known atheist.
He calls himself a Christian atheist here lately.
He talked about that.
That's a whole other conversation.
But as an atheist he says he's more Christian than anything
else.
But that's a whole other topic.
If you want to talk about it, we'll have some coffee and talk
about that.
But he was talking to, he was writing, he was doing an open
letter essentially and reading it on his podcast to another lady
who has recently converted to Christianity.
And this was basically his message to her.
You are way too smart to actually believe what you say you now
believe.
You are way too smart to believe that there's a God who created
everything and you are way too smart to believe that God became a
man and rose from the dead.
As if if you believe that you are dumb, right?
He's essentially saying I know you, you are an intelligent woman,
why would you say you believe that?
There's lots of reasons we can believe it.
Not all facts do you learn or can you know the same way.
Meaning there are some things that are repeatable and testable.
That's what we call the study of science.
In science you do experimentation.
And you can, if you looked under a microscope at a particular
element in 1973 and then you look at that same element under a
microscope in 2024, it will be the same.
It will be the same.
Historical information is not like that.
History is not like that.
You can't have a repeatable George Washington.
There was only one George Washington.
So you can't do an experiment to find out who the first president
was because that's not something you learn by experimentation.
That's something you learn by evidence and you learn it by
historical fact.
Does that make sense?
So it doesn't necessarily mean that no matter how far back you go,
the further back it is that you can't prove it.
Now there may be less evidence out there to prove something.
Certain notable figures may have not a lot of things written down,
things you can find out about them.
But we can find out a whole lot about Jesus.
And we can know a lot about him.
Now there was evidence that the disciples got that they were
supposed to engage with.
And this is what we are going to find out in Luke chapter 24.
If you have your Bible, Luke chapter 24, look at verse 44.
Here's what it says.
Actually we are going to go back, not to 44.
Let's go back all the way to verse 36.
Luke 24, 36.
Here's what it says.
I will get there.
The real skills are slow here.
It says, and as they thus spake, now it's always good to kind of
know, what are we talking about?
Where are we, who is they?
Well if you look in chapter 24, here we go, verse 36.
And as they thus spake.
Now this is the disciples.
And it says it back in verse, let's go back to verse 31.
Their eyes were open.
Verse 32.
And they said, one another did not our heart burn within us.
While they talked with us by the way and opened us to the
scriptures and rose the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and
returned to Jerusalem and returned to Jerusalem.
And they said, the Lord is risen indeed.
Let me catch you up to where we are.
There were two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus.
If you go back to verse 13, it starts the story about these two
guys, they are going on the road to Emmaus.
And Jesus shows up next to them and begins to walk with them.
And they don't know that it is Jesus.
And Jesus, they start saying, what are you guys talking about?
They tell them, haven't you heard about what is going on in
Jerusalem and they begin to explain all of these things to
them.
They explain what their friends are saying about Jesus rising
from the dead and they don't know if they can believe it.
And he says in verse 25.
Jesus says, why are you so slow of hearts to believe all that the
prophets have spoken?
This is Jesus talking.
They don't know it is Jesus.
And they are telling him about this claim that Jesus has
resurrected and how they are having a hard time believing it.
Jesus says, why are you so slow of hearts to believe all that the
prophets have spoken?
And in the Old Testament where they wrote what would happen in
the future, they spoke about Jesus' death and his resurrection.
And he is saying, why is it so hard for you to believe that?
Verse 26.
ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into
his glory.
And then it says in verse 27.
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded under
them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.
Now when you read in verse number 27, beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, who, what is he talking about with Moses?
He is talking about the first five books of the Bible.
Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
And when you sit, when the expression, Moses and the prophets
is an expression that basically is saying he took the Old Testament,
the scriptures that they had at that time, and he walked through
the Old Testament telling them about the Messiah and how the
Messiah was supposed to die and rise again.
That's literally what he's talking about.
All the things concerning himself.
Now you might say, did he really as they walk on the road go through
every verse in the Old Testament?
I think what he did was he went into some parts in Moses and
some parts, you know, you could go to Exodus with the Passover
Lamb, you could go to Psalm chapter 22 and what happened there.
You could go to Isaiah chapter 53 and what happened there.
And he's going to specific spots to show them in the scripture
from memory what the Old Testament says pointing to his
Messiah ship, his death, his burial and his resurrection.
And what I want to say to us is this, that there are reasons to believe
that Jesus actually rose from the dead.
One of them is it was predicted and then it happened.
It was predicted and it happened.
He goes on.
So when it gets to, when you get to verse 36, what you find out is
they finally, they get to a place they're eating, these two guys
on the road to Emmaus, Jesus opens their eyes, they realize it's
him and then he vanishes.
Okay, that's what happens in verse number 31.
Their eyes were open and they knew him and he vanished out of
their sight.
Verse 30, so then they go to Jerusalem, they go to the 11 who
were gathered together and they say, hey, it's true, we saw it.
Verse 34, the Lord has risen indeed and had to appear to Simon
and they told what things were done in the way and how he was
made known of them and breaking a bread.
And as they thus spake, here it is, verse 36, Jesus himself stood
in the midst of them and said unto them, peace be unto you.
This is the same kind of thing that is said if you look in all
the New Testament and even into the Old Testament, every time an
angel appears to somebody, what do angels say when they show up?
Angels showed up to Mary and he says, fear not, Mary, don't be
afraid, why?
Because if there's nobody in front of you and all of a sudden
they're in front of you, who agrees that would be kind of
scary, right?
And so he wasn't there and all of a sudden he was there and he
goes, I'm sure what they did was...
Now why would they be startled?
One thing would be because he was stood in front of them, another
thing was, he was dead!
And now he's alive!
Now, if you saw somebody that was dead become alive, what would
be something you might think?
What would be one way to explain what you're seeing?
Who thinks that somebody might say he's a ghost, right?
That could be something somebody would say, you've heard of that
stuff?
Anybody here ever go in the Haunted Mansion down at Disney?
You have no idea what I'm talking about.
You bunch of Ohioans have never been to...
Have you been to Disney World?
The Haunted Mansion, you see those like...
You guys don't want to participate, yeah.
You might think that somebody is down everywhere.
You might think, oh, this is a ghost.
Now, verse 37, they were terrified and affrighted and
suppose that they had seen a spirit.
You see it there?
They're worried.
And he said unto them, why are ye troubled and why do your thoughts
arise in your hearts?
Behold my hands and my feet that it is myself.
Why is he showing them his hands and his feet?
What had happened to him?
The scars were there.
Hey, look, it's me.
I got a piercing.
A couple of them, right?
For a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have.
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his
feet and while they yet believed not for joy and wondered,
he said unto them, have ye hear any meat?
Meat there, meat is not just necessarily protein.
It's also, it's any food.
So he's literally saying, now I love that verse, in verse 41,
you see that they believe not for joy.
What does that expression mean?
You want to take a stab at it?
Right.
I think that expression is saying they're trying to comprehend
this as good news.
I agree with you.
I just think, I think what I believe what it's saying is, it's
like, have you ever seen something that's too good to be true?
That's, it caught your lying eyes, right?
It's like, he's here.
He's really alive.
This is really him.
They're excited, right?
They're pumped.
And so then he asks, have you any meat?
Why do you think he wants to eat in front of them?
Spirits don't eat.
Yeah.
Spirits don't eat.
He's asking, hey, you have any food?
And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of a hunting
fish.
And he took it and ate it before them.
That's pretty sweet.
So he is giving them evidence.
He didn't just resurrect.
He resurrected and stayed around.
And in his resurrected body, which apparently can just show up
into walls and appear in places, he actually takes the, how cool
would it be, I know I said this before, but how amazing would it
be to do a Bible study with Jesus in his resurrected body,
taking you through the Old Testament and showing how the
Old Testament points to him.
Who thinks that would be such a cool thing to do?
And that's literally what he's doing.
There's evidence of his body.
There's evidence as he's eating.
There's evidence in his appearing.
There's evidence in the scripture.
And this is exactly what he does.
It says in verse after he eats, verse 40, 40, said unto them,
these are the words which I have spoken into you while I was
yet with you.
What does that mean?
Yeah, I predicted this.
What you're seeing is what I told you.
You had a hard time believing it.
I told you, no man takes my life from me.
I lay it down so that I could pick it up, take it up again.
That's exactly the kind of thing he told me, told them that he
would do.
And he's saying, listen, this is exactly what I told you.
And it's exactly what the prophet said, that all things must
be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the
prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.
Then open he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures.
That is amazing.
That's what he did.
So now here's something I want to show you.
And I'm going a little bit off script.
I didn't write down the verses.
But if you have your Bibles, go to Acts.
And I'm looking for Acts chapter number one and look down
in verse 15.
And in those days, this is, okay, so in my Bible, I have a red
letter edition.
Do you have a red letter edition Bible?
Okay.
The words of Jesus are in red, right?
When it's very obviously Jesus, it's in red.
And if you look at the book of John, just a couple of pages
before, there's red on every page, right?
Because Jesus is there, this is the story of Jesus.
When you look at the book of Acts, there's red on the first
chapter and then there's very little red going on.
Later on there is a couple of times where somebody is quoting
Jesus and that's how that is.
But in the book of Acts you have Jesus right at the beginning
because the book of Acts is Acts of the Apostles.
And you see Jesus and now they are actually going out and
helping to propagate and expand the church.
That's what they are doing.
Jesus had these 12 disciples.
One of the 12 disciples that he had was Judas.
Judas was the one that betrayed him.
They weren't the only disciples but there were definitely
apostles that were named those 12 apostles.
So in verse number 15 of chapter one it says, and in those
verses Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said,
the number of names together were about 120.
So where he's talking in this upper room is where it is,
there's 120 that are there.
And he says, men and brother in the scripture must needs have
been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David
spake concerning Judas which was guided them that took Jesus
for he was numbered with us and had attained part of this
ministry.
Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and
failing headlong he burst the thunder in the midst and all his
bells gushed out and it was known to all that dwellers in
Jerusalem and so much as the field is called in their proper
tongue, asal dama which is to say the field of blood.
So what is he saying?
Hey, one of these who was a disciple betrayed Jesus and
committed suicide.
And now there's not 12 disciples, there's 11.
And this was predicted by the Holy Ghost through David, King David,
talked about that this would happen.
It's written in the book of Psalms verse 20, let his habitation
be desiplit and let no man dwell therein and his bishop
rick let another take.
Wherefore of these men which have accompanied with us all the
time, here's the point I'm trying to make, verse 21,
wherefore of these men which have accompanied with us all the
time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from
the baptism of John under that same day that he was taken up
from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his
what?
Resurrection.
So what Peter's saying is Jesus ordained 12, the Holy Spirit
said that there would be 12, like that would be part of this
group.
And part of what we're supposed to be is people who proclaim
from the time of Jesus' baptism his death, his burial, his
resurrection and even his ascension back to the Father, we
need people to be, we need one more person to be an official
apostle.
And the official is one who is sent for what?
Sent with eyewitness testimony that what Jesus did and what is
what he did.
So that's what they did.
They appointed two.
This literally is the definition of an apostle.
Someone who saw, literally there's the qualifications.
Verse 23, they appointed two Joseph called Bersabbas, whose
name is Jesus and they prayed and said, God, which knows the hearts
of all men show whether these two have chosen, that he may take
part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by
transgression fell and that he might go to his own place.
And they gave their lots and fell on Matthias and numbered with
the 11 apostles.
What's my point?
My point is this.
In a very specific way, Jesus Christ, his whole ministry, his
death, his burial, his resurrection, they had seen his body,
they had been at the Bible study, they knew who Jesus was.
And what's amazing is, then they went out and proclaimed that
evidence that they knew to the whole world.
To the point that all of them by tradition we understand and
we have several reasons to believe this, there's even some
biblical evidence, all of them but one died.
And they died, I mean all of them died.
All of them, 11 of them died a martyr's death.
They were killed for what they said they believed.
And so they had evidence and we have some of that same evidence.
People don't die for a lie.
And so they died because they claimed I saw them dead and I
saw them alive and you can't help, you can't get me to stop
talking about Jesus.
They had evidence that they were to engage.
We have evidence to believe what we believe and to proclaim to
others.
Here's the second thing, the second factor, okay?
Number two, there was an evangelism they were to execute.
Not enough that they had the evidence, it was time for them to
share the evidence.
Look at Luke chapter 26 verse 46.
It started verse 45, they opened and he there are
standing that they might understand the scriptures and he
said to them, thus it is written.
And thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the
dead the third day.
That's the event, that's what happened.
Why did it happen, right?
Why did it happen?
Verse 47, and that repentance and remission of sin, what's
remission of sins?
What does remission mean?
Repentance is turning from your sin, changing the way you
believe, changing your perspective on your sin to the way
God does.
So you're right on that, Doran.
Remission is pardon, it's forgiveness.
What's the point of Jesus' death, bone resurrection?
It's so that there can be forgiveness of sin.
That's the point.
When I'm doing ministry, sometimes parents will come to me
and they want me to share the gospel, share Jesus with their
child, or they'll come to me and say, how do I know my kids
have been talking about salvation, how do I know when
they're saved?
One of the biggest things that I think is an indication on
whether a kid really truly understands salvation in the
gospel where they can actually comprehend it, is when you ask
them, why do you want to be saved?
Right?
If they say, I want to be saved because I want to go to
heaven, hey, who agrees, that's a good thing.
It's not bad, that's a good thing.
What do you need to be saved from?
I want to be saved so I can go to heaven.
Unless they can actually explain or understand their own
sinfulness that our sin keeps us from God, that our sin must be
punished, right?
They don't have an understanding of what salvation really is all
about.
And so you don't want to just say it, look at somebody and go,
hey, do you want to go to heaven?
Pray this prayer.
That's a bad plan because what do I need to be saved from?
This is what it's saying here.
What is the point of the gospel?
It's so that our sin could be forgiven.
And there's repentance and remission of sins that is preached
in His name, I love this next phrase, among all nations.
This isn't just for Jews.
This is for people in Ohio.
This is for us in the world.
In 2024.
This is for us Gentiles.
It's for everybody.
It started there, it says in verse 47, beginning at Jerusalem
and he says to them, and ye are witnesses of these things.
So what's the mission?
What's the evangelism to engage in?
What's the evidence to engage in and the evangelism to execute?
To go proclaim Jesus to those who have never heard Him or those
who do not believe in Him so that they will believe.
So that their sins could be forgiven.
Here's the last part, this is really cool.
There's an empowerment that they're to expect.
Number three, empowerment they're to expect.
Look at verse 49.
And behold, he says, I sin the promise of my Father upon you,
but tear ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with
power from on high, and he led them out as far as Bethany and
lifted up his hands and blessed them and came to pass them while
he blessed them and carried them to heaven.
And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great
joy and they were continually in the temple praising and
blessing God.
I want you, when you go, you're not going to go by yourself.
You're going to go and the Holy Spirit is going to live inside
of you.
And the Holy Spirit is going to guide you and direct you.
The author of the book of the Old Testament was going to be used
by these, this author was going to entwell these men.
And then they were going to write so many of them, not all of
them, but so many of them were going to write what became the
scriptures, what was the scriptures when they wrote it,
and then we get to have that same thing.
The truth of the matter is when we share, there's evidence that
we're supposed to engage in.
There is evangelism that we're supposed to execute.
And there's an empowerment.
We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
What I'm talking about tonight without actually using the
phrase is the term, the great commission.
This is the great commission.
It's named in every gospel and it's named in the book of Acts.
It's pointed to in the Old Testament and pointed back to all
the way through the epistles and even in Revelation.
What is the great commission?
Well, we read the one in Luke.
The great commission in Luke is this.
You're going to be my witnesses of the fact that I was dead,
buried and risen again.
And you're going to be witnesses of that, sharing that to every
nation.
That's the great commission there.
If you go back to Matthew 28, Matthew, this is the one in
Matthew 28, it's the very end of the message of the book of
Matthew.
He says, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth, go
you there for and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things I've commanded you and allow them with
you always even unto the end of the world.
This was the mission he sent them on to go share the gospel
with everybody.
And so here's four commands I want to share with you.
Just the very end here.
Four truths about Jesus that were commanded to go and tell.
Number one, this is four things about the command.
Number one, Jesus' command is not negotiable.
Okay.
Meaning if you know Christ as your Savior, God never intended
for you to optionally, like I get saved, cool, but whether or
not I share that with other people, that's optional.
Right?
This is not an, if you're saved, to follow Jesus is to be a
fisherman.
When Jesus called the disciples, he says, this is like part of
hate.
You become one of my disciples.
You follow me, follow me and I'll make you to become
fishers of men.
To follow Jesus is to fish.
What, did anybody come on Saturday to Don Henley's
funeral?
You guys were there?
That was amazing.
That was incredible.
Aren't you glad to have known him?
I'm so glad to know.
Don Henley, those of you who may not know, was a member of our
church up until two Fridays ago when he went home to be at the
Lord.
And so many of you were there.
Like there are people, we had a testimony.
I could have, we could have kept going for another hour.
People standing up, hey, this guy over here, is that right
between Gentry and Kathy right here?
In 1984, I was a drunk guy walking down the road and Don
Henley stopped and picked me up, took me to where I needed to go,
made sure I was safe.
And then he started talking to me all the time.
I think he even said something about getting him a job or
something.
And from 1984, and then 1989 is when he got saved.
And I know Jesus today because Don Henley shared the gospel with
me.
And there's a lady that stood up over here.
I knew Cassandra, but Don told me about the gospel.
I got saved.
And how cool is that?
And I don't want my funeral to be like that.
Right?
And to think that when he gets to heaven, there are probably people
there that he got to lead to Christ.
I want there to be a welcoming committee when I get to heaven.
Not because of me, but because that's what God has called us to
do.
So this command is not like, this isn't the great suggestion.
It's the great commission.
Go make disciples of all nations.
So it's not negotiable.
Number two, the commandment is not restrictive.
It's not restrictive.
What do I mean?
It's an inclusive command.
Who are we supposed to share the gospel with?
Everybody.
Everybody you can.
All nations.
And if you look at Matthew 28, we go out under his authority.
We're going to go out under his authority to all nations.
So it's not restrictive.
It's for everybody.
Here's another one.
It's not negotiable.
It's not restrictive.
Number three, it's not complicated.
It's not complicated.
We're supposed to go.
We're supposed to share.
There's a sense in which in the passage that going is implied
in Matthew 28, it's almost got the sense of as you go, make
disciples of all nations.
And this is like a lifestyle thing that we do.
When I say lifestyle, there was this thing years ago and people
still kind of push it sometime today.
This lifestyle of angelism.
I'm just going to go and I'm never going to bring Jesus up.
I'm just going to be nice and hope that people ask me about it.
Now, I think you should be nice.
And I think you should live differently if you're a Christian.
But you can't keep your mouth shut.
You got to actually talk about Jesus.
And you have to know the gospel.
There is no getting saved without knowing the gospel.
Does that make sense?
This is what we're supposed to do.
And so, but it needs to be a part of who we are and part of our
lifestyle.
It's not complicated.
We go, we share, and we bring others along the road of following
Jesus.
And then last thing, last part, Jesus' command is not alone.
Jesus commands us with authority and then sends us on mission,
but he also promises his presence.
He literally says, teach them to observe all things I've commanded
you and lo, I'm with you all the way, even unto the end of the
world.
We don't do this by ourselves.
We don't do it alone.
God's with us.
So, here's my challenge.
Two groups of people potentially here tonight.
There's two groups of people in every room, potentially.
One is people who have never taken that step of faith to actually
believe the truth about Jesus.
Jesus Christ's claim was that he was God.
He claimed to be God.
He didn't claim to just be a prophet or to just be a good teacher.
Just to be an exceptional human being, somebody who was really a
neat guy, he claimed to be God.
And he said that he and the father were one.
Like it was a claim to deity.
And so, he claimed to be God.
He's either lying or he's crazy, a lunatic, or he is the Lord that
he said he was.
Those are your options.
So, he did that.
And then he said, I'm going to die.
When I die, I'm going to die for your sins.
And then I'm going to resurrect.
I'm going to get up out of the grave.
And he said, well, that's hard to believe it almost never happens.
Exactly.
That's the point.
If resurrection happened all the time, he said hey, you should
believe in Jesus, he resurrected.
So did my cousin Larry.
If it happened all the time, it wouldn't be a sign.
What it was is a showing of the approval of God that the sacrifice
that Jesus made for our sins was exactly, was approved by God
and exactly what should have happened.
And so, if you're here tonight, the Bible says that our sin
separates us from God.
That the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And he says as many as received him, and then gave he power to
become the sons and daughters of God.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
Not the painting Jesus.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
This is the gospel.
And if you've never, it's one thing to believe that, to believe
that it happened or to think of it as a historical reality.
But if I were to ask you why are you going to heaven, why are
your sins forgiven?
It didn't just happen because you heard about it, you have to
put your trust in it.
Bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
We do the calling, he does the saving.
The prayer doesn't save you.
It's your trust in Christ that God responds to and takes your
sin and gives you Jesus' righteousness.
That's the gospel.
If you're here and you've never heard the gospel before and
never responded to it and you don't believe it, it's time for
you to believe.
It's time for you to believe.
And once you believe, call on the name of the Lord, the next
step is baptism and discipleship.
That's what you do.
That's what we want to help you do.
There's another group of people in here, I know there's some of
these people in here tonight.
And if you know Christ the Savior, you have been put on a
mission.
And the mission is there are people all around you that do not
know Jesus Christ the Savior.
They have not become obedient to the gospel.
And the Great Commission isn't just for an elite group of
Navy SEAL Christians.
It's not just for the pastor.
It's not just for the deacons.
It's not just for the Sunday school teachers.
Although if our pastors and deacons and Sunday school
teachers aren't sharing the gospel with people, we're in
trouble.
Right?
It's for everyone that knows Jesus to share that with others.
Not as like, oh, we're so much better.
We're going to make the world like us.
Are you kidding?
We are messed up.
We are flawed.
But so are they.
This is about them understanding the gospel and knowing for
sure that if they were to die, they go to heaven.
We must share.
If we don't, eternity could be at stake.
I believe that with all my heart.
Would you buy our closing eyes with me?
I've gone way too long tonight.
We're going to take some time here in just a minute to pray for
our prayer requests.
But let's pray to end this session.
God, I love you so much.
I thank you for your word.
I thank you for all that it means to us.
I thank you for Jesus Christ, his death, his burial, his
resurrection for our sins according to the scriptures.
Help us not to be silent.
Would you put a fire in our hearts for this gospel that burns
and melts the lead in our feet to go and make disciples of all
nations?
God, if there's someone here tonight that doesn't know USA
Bureau, would you provoke them to call on you to ask you to pay
for their sin and asking you to save them?
I pray that they do that.
They wouldn't stop.
They wouldn't hesitate.
They do that now.
They believe in your son for salvation.
I love you and I thank you for how you do that.
God, I pray that in the coming days we see more and more people
come to know you as Savior and to follow you in obedience.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.