The Command of Christ

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This is a sermon that was given April 3, 2016 at Wayside Community Church. It is based on verses found in Matthew 28; Mark 16 and Acts 1. Christ has given all disciples a command or mandate to go and make more disciples.

Written Excerpts:

Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJV) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Introduction:

Clarence Jordan … founder of the interracial Koinonia farm in Americus, Georgia, was getting a red-carpet tour of another minister's church. With pride the minister pointed to the rich, imported pews and luxurious decoration. As they stepped outside, darkness was falling, and a spotlight shone on a huge cross atop the steeple. "That cross alone cost us ten thousand dollars," the minister said with a satisfied smile. "You got cheated," said Jordan. "Times were when Christians could get them for free."   (Michael Jinkins, http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/d/discipleship.htm)

A few weeks ago I began to talk to you about the idea of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I remember reading a quote to you from (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship) “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

We also talked about the fact that Jesus isn’t looking for people to be spectators who cheer for Him like the crowd in a sports arena.  

but looking for dedicated followers who will seriously seek to live like He lived and teach others to do the same, so that…

His Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

We have talked about the call of Jesus, which includes the call to discipleship; to be a follower rather than a fan.

We have talked about what it means to be a follower/disciple.

·     It involves denying self

·     It involves taking up the cross

·     It involves following

Those three things are meant to be a lifestyle; a lifetime of learning and putting into practice. They never are completed or finished until we cross over from earth to glory.

Today, I want to talk to you about the command of Christ. We will begin by referring to a few different passages of Scripture that speak about Christ’s commands.

Then we will look more closely at one specific command that further explains what Christ has in mind for every disciple.

I.    Obedience is expected of a disciple.

Luke 6:46 (NKJV) "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?

Matthew 7:21 (NKJV) "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

A committed follower of Jesus Christ is someone who obeys the commands of the Master.

This is not a slavish, legalistic, commitment to a list of rules, but neither is it a half-hearted, non-interested, hit and miss treatment of the Lord’s deepest desires and intentions for His people.

John 14:21-24 (NKJV) ²¹ He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." ²² Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" ²³ Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. ²⁴ He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

II.  Christ has given plenty of commands.

It truly takes a lifetime of learning and studying to understand all the commands (direct & implied) that God has given to His children and followers.

One Example: John 13:34 (NKJV) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

As I said, there are many commands of Christ in the Bible that we should be learning and we should be trying our best to obey and follow.

There is one specific command that I want to zero in on for the rest of the message today.

III.   Make Disciples

Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJV) ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

“Go” – aorist participle; “having gone”

“Make disciples” (teach all nations) – (primary verb; imperative) teach people to become followers / students / imitators / disciples

“all nations” – ἔθνη; nations; peoples; Gentiles; a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus (Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT)

“Baptizing” – present participle;

“Teaching” – present participle; different & more common word than “make disciples”

Baptizing and teaching are never-ending, on-going facets of work while engaged in “making disciples.”

It is better to train ten people than to do the work of ten people. But it is harder.  (D.L. Moody, http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/d/discipleship.htm)

Command vs. Mandate

We’ve been referring to this verse in Matthew as a command of Jesus.

Last year when I attended the class called, Perspectives on World Christian Movement, at GCC, one of the lecturers shared this thought:

A command – given to a specific individual(s) and it can be completed/fulfilled individually.

A mandate – given generationally and it can only be completed/fulfilled corporately.

I think far too many people read this passage at the end of Matthew’s gospel and understand it as a command that was given specifically to the 12 disciples.

As such, they never conclude that we are expected to carry out the command as Christians in the 21^st century.

However, the command was not intended to be completed by the 12 disciples/apostles only. Yes, they were expected to start it and be engaged in it. But they weren’t expected to complete it.

Therefore, it is more than a command – it is a mandate. It is a commission for generation after generation of disciples to keep making more and more disciples until all the nations are reached; until there are dedicated followers of Jesus in every nation and group of people in the world.

Look at: Acts 14:21 (NKJV) And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,

Jesus does expect us to preach the gospel.

Jesus does expect us to minister to the poor, the hungry, the sick, etc.

Jesus does expect us to resist evil and promote righteousness in the society.

But, we can do all those things without really obeying the mandate; without really completing the commission. We are all charged with the responsibility of becoming disciples of Jesus ourselves, and then teach others to become disciples.

1 Corinthians 11:1 (KJV) Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.     (NIV) Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Conclusion

I have been in fulltime Christian ministry for about 37 years.

I have tried to Preach the gospel; Minister to the poor, the hungry and the sick; Stand up for righteousness in the culture, But… I don’t know that I have deliberately and successfully discipled one person. I’ve led many people to faith in Christ. But I haven’t intentionally trained any of them one-on-one, and nurtured them until they were steadfast in the faith and in the process of discipling other people to follow Christ.

If we are going to truly be disciples/followers of Jesus, we need to take seriously the mandate to “go and teach all people” i.e. teach them to be real disciples of Jesus.

If our church is going to be a positive force for the kingdom of God in the future, we need to take seriously the mandate to teach people to be real disciples of Jesus.

Otherwise, we’ll be what I described a couple of Sundays ago – a crowd (stadium) of people who are big fans of Jesus, and we come to church fairly regularly to cheer for Jesus, but…

We aren’t really interested in learning everything we can about Him and His will for our lives. We aren’t really interested in letting Him transform us and take complete control of us. aren’t really interested in investing our time and energy into the lives of others in order to help them to become committed followers of Jesus.

I want to be obedient to this mandate. I asking this morning for 2 or 3 men who are willing to meet with me on a weekly basis and work through a disciple-making curriculum with the intention of learning how you can duplicate the process with others in the future.

I am also interested in finding 2-3 other men or women who feel convicted as I do and you would like to get started in teaching one or two others how to become disciples of Jesus.