The Full Picture of "The Great Commission" - Dr. Jeff Hubing

I'm actually going to speak from a very well known passage today. Matthew 28 verses 16 through 20. A lot of us know this passage as the great commission. Of course, it is a commission, but sometimes I wonder if we understand fully the nature of the commission. So I want to speak about it today.

So if you will have a a a opportunity to turn to that passage and let's just stand together as we read God's word today. Matthew 28, I'm gonna begin in verse 16. It says, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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 all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Lord, we ask today that your word would become a lamp for our feet, a light for our path. That it would be nourishment to our soul. That it would be food.

That it would be bread, oh God. That your word would be our bread. It would cause us to have energy and strength. It would cause us to have wisdom and power so that we can go ahead and do your will from the heart both here and around the world. We bless you, Lord, in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen. You may be seated. This is the great commission. We've we've, come to know this passage as something of a of a charge that Jesus gives his 11 apostles and, of course, by extension, becomes a kind of charge that is embraced by the church.

God's people in every generation. Now I want you to see, however, that this charge is something that Jesus has prepared these guys for during the last three years of their lives. All this time they've spent with him. Right? And, and, all this time he has been preparing them for what's about to happen even though they didn't really know it.

Now, sometimes I'll go to different churches and different groups and I'll just I'll ask, what do you think was the number one topic that Jesus taught about during his life in ministry? And, the reason I'm asking this question is is because it's very important. It's really it's related to this passage right here. But, sometimes I'll go around and I'll ask, I I won't put you on the spot today. But, I'll ask, what's the number one subject that Jesus talked about?

And, someone will raise their hands and and they'll say, being born again. And I said, well, you know, being born again is very important. It's obviously foundational. To be reborn by the spirit is necessary. John three teaches us.

You see it on the signs if you watch American football games or something. You know, people are holding John three sixteen because that passage speaks to us about being born again. I'll say, yes. It's it's very important being born again. Can you name another passage besides John three where Jesus talks about that?

Most people can. I mean, he does talk about being born again, but it's by far not the number one thing that he talks about. And I'll say, it's not being born again. And then so I say, well, what about love? It's gotta be love.

Right? I mean, Jesus, you know, he he has to be Love has to be the number one thing, the most common thing that he talks about. And I said, well, he does talk about love. You know, he echoes the the, the commandment. He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

He does talk about that. He says, love your neighbor as yourself. He does mention that on a couple occasions. Are there are there other times you can remember Jesus talking about love, teaching about that? Not too many times.

Oh, good. Love is important. It's very important. And later on in the New Testament, we find other passages about this, but it's definitely not the number one topic that Jesus teaches. And, you know, we we go through a whole list.

What about forgiveness? Yes? Forgiveness? He says, you know, if you don't forgive others, you know, you won't be forgiven. Matthew six.

We pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who's, our debtors. We we talk about that. There's a parable about a a guy who asked to be forgiven a great debt from his master, but then he doesn't forgive somebody else and so he has to go into the to prison until he can pay off the last penny. That's a common theme, but it's not the most common theme. Actually, the the thing that Jesus speaks about more than any other thing in the gospels is called the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God. It is it is what links everything together for Jesus. And if you read Matthew, and if you read Mark, and you read Luke, you'll see this, that the Kingdom of God is the thing that he is most frequently speaking about. Most of his parables are meant to illustrate the Kingdom of God. In fact, some of them he even starts by saying, the kingdom of God is like and then he'll tell you a story.

And the point of the story is to reveal the nature of God's kingdom. Now God's kingdom as Jesus reveals it is not necessarily like we think of a kingdom today. Does anybody know any kingdoms that still remain on the planet? There's not a lot left, but there are some. Can you name a kingdom?

Yes? Sorry? United Kingdom. Right. Now, that's we kind of wink at that, don't we?

Because the although the queen is is revered, she doesn't really have any political power. Because The United Kingdom is now a parliamentary democracy and so they they have elections and there's a prime minister and all that. But technically, there's still a kingdom. Nobody knows what the, you know, the royalty actually does other than posing for pictures and whatnot. But it's still technically a kingdom.

There are there might be a couple more. Does anybody remember another one? He has my kingdom. Jordan is a is technically a kingdom. That's right.

Anybody know another one? Right next door to Jordan. Iran is not a kingdom. Saudi Arabia. Who knew that one?

That's another kingdom. There are a few kingdoms left. Most are not kingdoms anymore. There there are a few I think Thailand is also technically a kingdom, believe it or not. But, and the king just died, last year of Thailand, in case you were wondering.

I I we have a missionary friend that lives there. That's why I know about Thailand. But other than that, I wouldn't have known that. So kingdoms when we think of a kingdom, we think of today, we think of a a political organization. Right?

We think of someone in charge. We think of a standing army. We think of borders that are patrolled and protected, we think of some kind of governmental body, that submits to the king and that does his bidding. The thing about Jesus kingdom, however, is something that he mentions in in the gospel of John. He says, you know what?

My kingdom is not of this world. Now that was after he got arrested, and they were putting him on trial. And it was the Pilate who asked him, you know, aren't you gonna so he's kinda kinda saying, listen, you say they says you're the they say you're the king of the Jews. But Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my followers would fight for it.

His kingdom is of a different kind. It is a kingdom. It is a rule. It is an exercise of authority and power, but it does not depend on a specific geographical territory. It is not equated with a specific governmental organization on the planet right now.

It's not like that. It's a kingdom that can penetrate even the darkest of places. Do you wanna know where the where where the church is growing in its most rapid rate in our world today? Anybody have any idea? China is one place?

Do you know another? Believe it or not, Iran. And, you know, and and these are two places where it's really technically illegal to to call people to embrace faith in Jesus name if they were not technically raised Christian. In other words, if if the government knows you as a Muslim or the government knows you as a a member of the communist party, you can't technically convert. You can't become a Christian.

And yet, the church is growing leaps and bounds in these places where it is forbidden. That ought to tell us something. His kingdom is not of this world. It means it's that doesn't play by the same rules. The kingdom of God can be demonstrated and present even in places where we think other people are in charge.

That's an important truth to remember. Because whether you're standing on State Street in Downtown Chicago or whether you're at one of the refugee camps, just refugee camps just outside of Erbil, Jesus is king, period. And it doesn't matter where we find ourselves. What we realize is his authority and his reign is present wherever we go. So when you see Jesus in the gospels talking about God's kingdom, and he's saying this is the number one thing.

By the way, even when we talk about being born again, if you read that carefully in John three, the point of being born again is to see the kingdom. Yeah, he's talking to Nicodemus. He's saying, teacher, we know you're from God. No one could do the signs you're doing if you weren't from God. And then, Jesus seemingly out of nowhere says, I tell you the truth.

Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom. And then a little bit later on, he says, unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom. The point is the kingdom. Being born again is the means by which the kingdom becomes accessible to us. So, you think about that.

Sometimes we think being born again is our life goal. That's it. As if it's a ticket to heaven or something. Oh, I got born again. Oh, got my heavenly ticket.

Now, I can just go ahead and do whatever I want until I die and then and then No. Being born again is the beginning. Just like a human life. You don't say when a baby's born. Oh, baby's born.

That's it. When when a baby's born, you don't go to the baby shower and say, oh, congratulations. It's the baby. Now, what are you gonna do with it? It's born.

I guess that's it. No. You when a baby is born, you raise the child. You have to spend all those years listen. I have four children.

You have to spend all those years changing diapers and wiping slobber off of their face. And, when they spill food on everyone, milk goes all over. You spend those years because you're raising children. The goal is not just to have a child, it's to raise one. So that at a certain point, that child becomes capable of doing the same thing.

Reproducing his or her own family. Being born again is for the purpose of entering or seeing God's kingdom. And then what happens once you see it? What happens once you enter it? Well, you gotta learn the rules of the kingdom.

You gotta learn how to be a citizen of this new kingdom. Anybody naturalized or become an American citizen after living somewhere else? A few people? Okay, so you understand like when you when you become a citizen of America they make you learn certain things. Now I've never be I didn't have to do that, I was born here.

My wife, however, was naturalized after having been born in India and so you have to learn you have to take a test. Isn't that right? Like about American history or the constitution or something like this and now that you live in a new place, now that you live here, you learn about the laws, you learn about the rules. You learn about, well, if I wanna get my driver's license, here's what I have to do. I have to learn how to operate a vehicle on the roads, and I have to learn about all these things.

You know what you have to do? Also, you have to adapt to a new culture. Don't you? Because not everything works here the way it worked in some other part of the world. Man, I've been to India three times.

Things do not work here like they work there. There are vast differences in the way the culture works in India versus the way the culture works. I mean, everything has changed. You gotta you have to adjust. So I want you to think about these things, guys.

Jesus talks about the kingdom. He calls people to enter that reign of God, the rule of God. And then he expects that once you enter that kingdom, you start to familiarize yourself with how it works and what it means to be a part of that kingdom, what it means to not only submit to the rules, but to actually be an expression of the culture. The value system of that kingdom. Alright.

You're all like, at this point, what does this have to do with Matthew 28? Well, I'm glad you asked. That let's go back to the passage now. Let's think about this. Given what I've been saying about the kingdom needing to enter, becoming citizens, getting adjusted, learning the culture.

Here's what Jesus says to his 11 disciples. Now, again, Judas Iscariot had gone off and hung himself. That's why there's only 11 and not 12. Judas was replaced in acts one by a dude named Matthias. So if you wanna read about that, you can.

But at this point, there's just the 11 and he comes to them after his resurrection from the dead. That's not a normal thing. I don't know if you realize this. It's really never happened before. He's the only one.

Not just came back to life in his normal way, but resurrected me and completely transformed. He's still a man, but he's a little bit different. So he comes to them and he tells them after the resurrection, beginning in Matthew 28, he says, go tell the disciples, meet me in Galilee. So they walk the whatever it is six fifty some miles 60 miles I think to Galilee and when they get there, they find him on the top of the mountain and he he's alive from the dead. None of them expected the cross.

They didn't really get it when he lost his life, but now everything's becoming clear. Oh, he's showing that not only is he the king of Israel, but he's king over everything, including death. You know, when someone shows their king over life and death, that's a pretty important qualification. Wouldn't you say? That is what qualifies somebody to rule the world.

When they prove that death can't stop them. And he's now alive from the dead. I mean, they've been with him for three years. He's been teaching them. They've been having meals together.

They're spending all this time together. And now he's alive. And they're about to ask him, now what? Okay. You you went to the cross, you died for the sin of the world, you're alive.

Now what? Because here's what they, you know, it seems like they might have thought this. When you read acts one, which is kind of a parallel a little bit to this. In acts one, they ask him, so, now are you gonna restore the kingdom to Israel? Meaning, now are you gonna come and sit on the throne in Jerusalem and rule the world?

Now? I mean, you said you weren't gonna do that before but, okay. Are you ready to do that now? Well, he says, no. It's in acts one, he says, it's not for you to know the times and the seasons that have been fixed by the father and his own authority.

However, in acts one, he gives him a certain kind of commission. He says, you will you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. In Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth. So that's one kind of commission. This commission is a another way of stating that.

It's not exactly the same, but it's quite similar. Here, after they worship him, even though there was some doubt apparently, cause they had never seen a resurrected man before. Maybe we should give him a little break on that. But here's a restor So there's a little doubt, but they're worshiping him. And in the context of that worship, Jesus lays out the agenda.

Here's your commission. Verse 18. All authority in heaven and earth is given to me. That's how it starts. Well, what does that language remind you of?

It should remind you of the words kingdom of God. You know Jesus came and he humbled himself the scriptures say as a man he he humbled he was he did not consider his equality with God something to hold on to to cling to to grasp he humbled himself on purpose Even to the the nature of a slave, even to the point of death, on a cross. So there was a certain sense in which you could say, well, he doesn't look like a king to me. Look at him. You know, he's being beaten.

He's being he's being his beard's being pulled out. They mock him. They hang him on a piece of wood. That doesn't look very royal. Now, all the while he was the king.

And he's actually giving us a a a grid for what royalty looks like. It looks like humble service. But now after he served exactly the way he should have, he's completely obeyed the father. Now he's alive. And now he comes to them saying, okay.

All authority on heaven and earth is mine now. Therefore, you go. You're like, well, how do we do that? Because you're the one with the authority. What about us?

Well, yeah, but you gotta think about it like this. If someone of great authority gives you a job to do, do you understand that that authority stands behind what you're doing? Yeah. When someone comes to our city on behalf of president whoever, Trump or in the past Obama or whoever, when they come to our city and they're sent by the president, guess whose authority they carry to do whatever the president told them to do? His.

Jesus is saying, the authority that I talked to you about, the authority that I mentioned when I taught you all about the kingdom, that's both that's now mine. There's no limit. And in acts one, we see him ascend to the right hand of the father, the place of rain. I've got the authority now. Now because I'm because I am stepping into this place of authority as a royal son, as a king, I am giving you a responsibility.

So this is a royal commission from the king of kings to these 11 dudes who don't really know what's going on, but they're about to step into something that has been prepared for them since the beginning of time, if you can believe that. And so Jesus looks at them and says, I lack no authority now. So all you have to do is submit to me. You don't have to worry about opposition. You just have to worry about what I'm saying.

So he says, all authority is mine. The kingdom, I've stepped into this place through resurrection where there aren't any more limits. Now go. It's actually, participle if you're an English major. The word is going.

In other words, as you go or while you're going, here's what you do. You make disciples of all nations. Now, here's what I find compelling about this commission. Sometimes this commission is read and we hear it as, a call to evangelistic preaching. And and we we think to ourselves, what Jesus is saying is go preach the gospel.

And there are actually places in the Bible where he tells his disciples to do that. And, of course, we know that preaching the gospel is necessary, but it's not the full picture. It's not enough just to preach the gospel. He says, make disciples. Oh.

See, that's different. And please, I'm not trying to minimize the role of an evangelist or preaching at all, but but in a way, it's not that hard to preach the gospel. Do you know what I'm saying? What I mean is it's not super difficult for someone to get up behind the I mean maybe if you have a fear of public speaking or something like that. But let's say you deal with that.

It's not super hard to stand up somewhere and proclaim the message of the gospel. You can do that. Lots of people can do that. And you can you can do it anywhere, actually. You can go on the street corner and do it.

You can go to a local park and do it. You can be in a house or a building like this, and you can do that. You can preach the gospel. And in a way, you can go somewhere and you can preach the gospel, and then you could be like, job job well done. And I'm not, again, I'm not trying to minimize that at all.

If if God calls us to preach, we should preach. I preach. I do that. But that's not precisely the commission. Now preaching might be a part of it, but it's not all of it.

He said make disciples. Make he he literally says, disciple all the nations. Disciple. Make disciples. What is a disciple?

Well, I tell you this. There's only one real good way to find out what Jesus means by that, and it's to and it's to consider the way that he did it. How did Jesus make disciples? I mean, based on some of our churches and, you know, that that are existing today, and that I've I've even been a part of my life, you would think this is the method for making disciples. As if Jesus would have come to the 12 guys.

You know, he would say, okay, guys. Sunday morning, we're gonna meet up. I want you to meet me at the synagogue, and, we'll go from there. So Sunday morning, he shows up. They come to the it would have been Saturday for him.

Right? Sabbath. It would have been so they come to the everybody comes together, the 12 guys. He says, okay, guys. Let me give you an hour long pep talk.

And then he gives them a talk. And he says, oh, time's up. God bless you guys. Meet me back here next Saturday. And then Jesus leaves and the disciples go back to their lives.

You would think that's the way Jesus must have made disciples. Because that's the way so many of our churches operate. I don't quite understand that. Jesus didn't make disciples by telling people to come to a meeting every so often. Jesus made disciples by inviting people into his life, by spending time with them, by going places with them, by eating meals with them, Sometimes staying in the same home with them, sleeping overnight, going on trips, traveling.

I'm not I'm not saying we shouldn't have meetings. It's fine. The the it's right. It's good for us to meet together. It's good for us to sing and worship and pray, and even be encouraged by a speaker or something like that.

But guys, it can't stop there. That is one small fragment of the call to make disciples, which has to involve the whole of our lives, the sphere of our activity. I find it fascinating watching this in the life of Jesus. Like one of the first things he said, what did he say to these guys when he called them? What were his two what were the command?

Follow me. Now listen. Maybe you're not maybe you're okay. Maybe you're one of those free spirits. You're like, oh, okay.

I'll come follow you. I don't care. You know, maybe you're like that. I'm not like that. I wanna know, well, how long am I gonna follow you for?

Where are we going? What are we gonna do? What's gonna happen once we get there? Then what? I'm the kinda guy that's like, I would you please lay out a schedule for me?

So I know the expectations. So I know what when's my free time. When when I have to be there and when I can be doing the things that I wanna do. You know what Jesus did not do? He did not do that.

He said, follow me. They had to basically choose to reorient their lives around him. I don't know if there's a rough if there's a helpful parallel for that or not, but the closest thing is having an infant. I know in my life. When you have an infant, your whole life is reorganized around that child.

Because that child has no logic. It cannot be reasoned with. When the child's screaming, because it it has to, you know, it has a full diaper or something. You can't say, well, listen, you're just in a few minutes. We'll go.

They're they're they don't care. They're not processing anything. Now, Jesus is not like an infant. I'm not talking about that. But I'm saying that the idea of having to completely change your lifestyle, your ways, completely change that around so that now everything takes on a new point, a new center of orientation.

That's what he called them to. Follow me. Where are you going? How long will it take? What about that?

He didn't give them any of that information. He just said follow me and they had to decide. And that meant if he went out of town, they were going out of town. If he moved his base of operations to Capernaum from Nazareth, then they were moving to Capernaum. If he was going to Jerusalem for the feast, then they were going to Jerusalem for the feast.

If if he went into Gentile territory, God forbid. Yes. He did that. If he went into Gentile territory, guess what? They were going in there too.

There was no, like, negotiating that. Jesus said, go and make disciples. You can't make disciples from a pulpit, guys. I promise. You know what you can make from a pulpit?

You can make good listeners. You can make people who take notes and learn information. But the kingdom is not just about what you know and the information you have. It's about this the kind of life you live. And that has to be generated when people interact with you.

It's not enough to just write a book. Here's how to follow Jesus. You know what? People need to follow him with you. Jesus is showing the disciples how he related to God.

Is you see brought them into that. He brought them into his relationship with his father. So that they could see it. They could observe it. They could watch him.

How does he deal with tax collectors? What does he say to sinners? How about hookers and prostitutes? What does he say to the to the religious people? How does he handle it when people come and they're they're repentant?

What does he do when they're not repentant? How does he pray for the sick? What about when a demon comes up? What does he do then? And they got they got a personal window on God in the flesh.

It's pretty awesome. Make disciples. Listen. I wanna give you a one word kind of summary of when Jesus is saying make disciples, what is he asking them to make? My one word summary is family.

This is what he's after. His disciples became for him a family, a nucleus of people into which he invested himself. He transferred his own value system and culture, and then he wanted them to carry that on to the next generation. It's family. Mark three.

Let's look there for a minute. Mark three is an amazing passage of scripture. It shows you all at once the disconnect that was there with Jesus' natural family and the intimacy he was building with the disciples. So in Mark three verse 20, it says, Jesus went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him for they were saying, he's out of his mind.

Now in this context, his family means his natural family. Mary and his brothers and sisters and all that. They came to get him. They were like, he's lost it. Now, in a way, this is just a good Jewish mother.

Right? You should eat. You know, I mean, there there's no everybody's mom wants them to eat. Here, Jesus is all caught up in this ministry. He's not even eating.

So, oh, you should eat. You know, Jesus. Yeshua. You should eat. You know, whatever it was, they did not understand his mindset.

So they went to get him, pull him out, and restore him to his senses. Think about that. The only one on the planet who's fully sane, and they think he's out of his mind. It's amazing. So they come to get him.

Now skipping down a little bit, here's what happened. Verse 31. His mother and brother his mother and his brothers came. And standing outside, they sent to him and they called him. From outside the house, they're calling him.

A crowd was sitting around him and they said, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you. They're seeking you. And he answered them, who are my mother and my brothers? And looking around at those who sat about him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and my sister and my mother.

Jesus' grid for discipleship was family. This is what he did with these guys. They ate together. They walked together. They prayed together.

They wept together. They went to weddings together. You guys remember that one? John two? In in Cana, they went to a wedding together.

Doesn't say the disciples were invited. Jesus invited. He just brought them. Unless you complain, and you know, I know you might complain, oh, there's just too many guests now. Well, I'll just provide extra wine.

It'll be fine. You know what? He brought the disciples to the wedding. They traveled with him. They when when he established a base of operations, they live with him.

Who does that? Families do that. Families live together. Families share meals together. Families travel together.

This is the culture he was developing, a family, a group of people who identified with each other in such a way that those ties, those relationships were closer than anybody else on the planet. That's why Jesus told them, if you don't hate your mother, your father, your own life, you can't you can't have any part of me. You can't be my disciple. It's not possible. There is an order here.

Things have to be reorganized around Jesus and his headship. He's the leader of this family, and these disciples become brothers and sisters of his. And he relates to them like that. You can't have disciples without family. That relational intimacy, that that unity that is formed.

Are you still in Mark three? Go back a few verses. Look look at Jesus' strategy for making disciples even. I'm looking now about verse. 13 now now when he called them just think about this, He went up on a mountain.

Luke tells us he spent the night in prayer on a mountain. He went up on a mountain. He prayed, and then he appointed 12 whom he also named apostles. And what did he appoint them to do? First thing, that they might be with him.

Just the first responsibility of the disciple is to be with him. That's what he did. And then he could send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. But the first things are first. There's no preaching ministry without personal intimacy.

There's no casting out demons without personal fellowship. There's no mission without family. Guys, when the kingdom of God touches the ground, it looks like family on mission. That's what it looks like. And if you lose one or of those two elements, the thing's gonna go off the rails relatively quickly.

If you just have the mission, but you don't have relationships, you're gonna have a corporation. You're gonna have a group of business people who are organizing themselves to accomplish goals, but they will have zero in the way of intimacy, relationship, fellowship, genuine love. If you have the family but no mission, then you'll get a cult eventually. Where nobody else is thought of except the people that are right here. But Jesus' strategy was family on mission.

So when he says make disciples, this is what he's saying. He says, build a family just like I did. What did I do with you? I brought you with me. I welcomed you into my life.

Yes, I taught you, but we also sat down for meals. We also went to weddings. We we we did all we did all of these things so that you could understand what it is to be a son of the father, which, by the way, going back to Matthew 28, I want you to think about the thing that he says. He says, make disciples of all the nations. And what comes next?

Baptizing them. Right? Immersing them into what? The name. The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.

Look, Christian baptism certainly relates to repentance. It it certainly relates to a turning away from sin. It it certainly relates to a public identification with Jesus. But I want you to understand, it is also about being adopted into a family. I mean, just think of the language.

Father, son. This is family language. Isn't it? And when you say taking the name of the father, son, and holy spirit, isn't it like I mean, when do you in in America, I don't know if you have this custom where you're from, but in in many, weddings in America, the the woman takes the name of the man. Like, when my wife when she married me, she took my name.

She took my last name. And she it's it's kind of a sign. Like, I'm look, I'm joining myself to your family. Well, in this passage, it's very similar. Baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit.

Now, we we enter a family so much so that we bear the same name as the divine family, if I could put it that way. Now, god it's a the trinity is a mystery. He's three, but he's one. But the way he reveals his threeness is with family language even. He could have said that we we could have, had a trinity that was that was king, servants, and divine power.

And that's how God could have revealed himself. But he didn't, actually. The primary way he said to identify me is father, son, and spirit. God is a family man. That's what he does.

He he generates offspring. When he created Adam and Eve, they became children of his. Even in Romans eight, if you think about this, the destiny of people through the gospel is to be conformed to the image of God's son. And Hebrews talks about him being the firstborn of many children. God himself is pursuing a family.

Baptism is a way of initiating people into God's family. Praise God. That's awesome. It's it's Psalm 68. I think it's Psalm sixty eight five.

It says about Yahweh that he sets the lonely in families. It's his nature to generate this, and it's why he told Adam and Eve to have kids. It's what he wants. He wants a huge human family from every nation under heaven that in their beautiful diversity also bear a common image, likeness that looks like Jesus himself. So what is the commission about?

Number one, it's about making disciples. Disciples constitute a human family, a community of people who now redefine their identity and their center of orientation for their lives. That's why the kingdom of God trumps even blood relationships. That's why allegiance and loyalty to Jesus has to come before allegiance and loyalty to mother, father, brother, sister. He's redefining family.

He's doing it. And we calling us into when he says make disciples he says bring people into this divine family of which you now are the foundation stones I know sometimes we talk about church, and we think of it like a building or something like that. Church is just the human family that is generated through the gospel. Let's keep it simple. And that impacts the way we think.

In America, I grew up saying, let's go to church, and I'll see you at at church. Meet me at the church. And of course, by that we meant the building. But but biblically speaking, that word doesn't mean building. The word that is translated church in English means assembly.

It means gathering. It means congregation of people. That changes. It it would be like if I say, guys, after the after we're done here, I wanna invite you over to see my family. And you're like, okay, cool.

You get in the car and drive, I give you the directions, you plug it into the GPS and you show up. And and you just come outside, get out the cars, you know, on on on the sidewalk. I'm like, okay guys, here's my family. What do you think? I mean, my family is part brick and part siding, aluminum siding.

The family has, four bedrooms. The family has a dining room, a kitchen. The family has a nice living room area. The family has a basement, but it's unfinished. I said, come on.

Let me show you the inside of the family. And we we go in. I said, what do you what do you think of the hardwood floors the family has? Look at look at the the walls. We just painted the walls of the family blue.

What do you think about that? I mean, you'd be like, what is what is wrong with this guy? You think I was crazy? Because I'm not describing to you the family. I'm describing to you the house.

The family is the people that live in the house, not the house. The church is the people that meet in the building. Not the building. The church is the family that's being regenerated through the power of the gospel. That's what it is.

So when he says go and make disciples, he's saying go and build families. Families who are reorganized and realigned. Families who take the name of God, father, son, and holy spirit. Families who then generate a culture, a set of values and priorities that match the values and priorities of heaven. Families that don't just take their orders from their neighbor their neighbors, their ancestors, their, you know, their particular, ethnic background.

That's not gonna be the nature of this family. This family is going to be international. So he says, make disciples of all nations. Everyone's welcome in this family. Nobody's banned.

We we we don't have some ban on Brazilians. No. They're they're all every every nation there's no there's no line. This is one of the major transition points from the the the Jewish scriptures to the new covenant. Right?

Primarily, god was relating to Israel in the Old Testament. They were a chosen people. They carried forth an agenda. They didn't do it very well, which is why there was judgement and there was all kinds of problems. But when Jesus came, he said, I'm making a new covenant.

And this covenant is going to be accessible by everyone under heaven. He blew the doors off of this. See, I mean, he completely opened up the globe to generate family. It's incredible. So it doesn't, I Like, on Tuesday, I'm leaving for Guatemala.

I'm gonna be down there, Guatemala. And I'm gonna be with God's family down there. What do you think about that? Couple months, I'm I'm heading to Romania. I'm gonna be with God's family there.

It doesn't matter. I mean, wherever we go, we find members of this family. And it's amazing. And so make disciples of all nations. This is your commission.

It's for you too. And I want you to understand something. To make a disciple, you may or may not ever stand up and preach in front of people, but you certainly can make a disciple without that. You could sit down at a bench, at a bus stop, and have a conversation that leads to somebody believing that Jesus is king. And then you can say, hey, come over with me.

Let's have dinner. And you could sit them down at your table, introduce them to your mom and dad, or to your friend. And you can start talking about the way your life works. And you can start showing a person how your values look in action. Yeah.

I mean, on Saturdays, every every month, we go and we help out with the homeless over here. We did well, what do you do that for? Well, you know, Jesus taught us. We should love our neighbor as ourself. And we really feel like these people are having a hard time.

So we wanna reach out to them. Oh. Yeah. It's one of our values. One of our family values.

It means we love our neighbors. Or we help people you know, there's a story in the bible. And you get out the bible. And you're like, hey, let me show you something and you take em to Luke 10. And you said, well, there's a there's a parable here about a a traveler, a traveler who gets jumped.

And then there's some religious officials and they come by and they ignore him and they go to the other side of the road and they keep walking. And then there's this one dude that everybody hates. The Samaritan. And he actually goes and helps him. Picks him up.

Takes him to you know, a little inn and and pays for him to be taken care of and says, says, you know what? If it costs anymore, I'll come back next week. That's one of our family values. If there's somebody in our path that needs help, we just help em. That's what we do.

Now, look, you haven't stood up and preach a sermon. You haven't evangelized out in the public parks or in the sidewalks. You know what you're doing though? You're making a disciple. You know why?

Because you're orienting them to the life of family. Family under the authority of Jesus the king. That's what you're doing. This does not have to be super complicated. We don't have to over complicate this.

Everyone in this room is capable of introducing people to the king and starting to develop them as members of the family. You can do that. And here's the here's the awesome thing about this. When Jesus concludes this passage, really, he kind of takes the pressure off of you. He kinda takes the pressure off of us.

You know what? He says baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. I mean, they have access to divine power and supernatural life. They have that. And then he says, teaching them to observe everything I taught you.

Man, that means we don't have to come up with new stuff. We don't have to you know how comedians, they always try to get new material. We don't need new material. We already have the material. That the pressure's off.

You don't have to pretend you know everything. You don't have to be some expert. All you have to be able to do is, you know what? Let's access the scriptures. Let's spend a little time reading and praying.

Let's think about now, obviously, we can benefit from people who've been studying the Bible. We can learn from them. I hope so. I lead a school of ministry for that reason. But listen, just because you don't have some advanced degree in in Greek and Hebrew, doesn't mean you can't make a disciple.

You can orient people to Jesus and his teachings. You can spend time sitting around. You can say, you know what? I don't I don't know what that means. Can I set you free today?

It's okay to say you don't know. You don't have to be an expert on every single thing To be able to say, you know what? Jesus is king. He's good. He laid down his life for me.

And now, he's alive. And I've met him. And he made me a different person. And now, I wanna please him. And so, I'm one of his children.

I'm a child of God and I'm trying to figure out what this family looks like, what our culture should be, and you should do it with me. Come on. That doesn't it's not super complicated. And this way, Jesus says, teaching them to observe, teaching them to keep. This is language used in the Jewish traditional, like the the customs of the elders.

The and it refers like the way to go about living everyday life. And Jesus said, teach them to observe everything I taught you. Keep my traditions. Keep my commitments. Do things the way that I showed you how to do them.

So think about this, guys. The the call to make disciples is not just for professional preachers and evangelists and and all that. It belongs to all of us, because we're all a part of this. And thank God for the preachers and the evangelists and everything else, because they're gonna inspire us. They're gonna they're gonna continue to impart key resources into our lives.

You know, the teachers and the pastors who care for us, and comfort us when we when we mess up, we get it wrong, and encourage us to keep on running hard after Jesus. Those those people have a key role to play, but we're all in this together. The the call to make disciples is given to the family as a whole. And before you know it, you start to realize this. Like, the family becomes both the goal, that is what God's building, and the strategy for helping others.

And when your family is functioning in the right way, it becomes a source of blessing to everybody around you. Likewise, when the church is functioning in the right way, we become a source of blessing. We become a source of power. We become a source of salvation. Not that we save people, but our savior saves people.

And we can help others know about that. So this commission is critical. It maps out for us the way that this should be working. And it integrates everybody into the mission. We don't have to stand by and say, oh, well, you know, it's it's the job of pastor so and so to make disciples or it's the job of No, everybody's apart.

The commission gets extended to every new generation and when you when you start reading the book of acts for instance, you start to see that you know what this is exactly what they did. Acts two after the Holy Spirit was poured out, we read that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, the breaking of bread, the prayers, and the fellowship. Now two of those four things are related relationally to family. Eating meals together, spending time sharing goods. Some people sold properties and gave the money to those who needed it.

Who does that? Families do that. Families rally together. So think it through. This commission is is to generate family.

God's looking for an international people who are lined up under his authority, his kingdom, his reign. And when they start marching together under his leadership, they develop a kind of mutual love and devotion. They develop a kind of sympathy and care for one another that just bubbles out to the world. And people start looking at that like, what is wrong with you guys? How come you're not living the way everybody else is?

How come you give away money rather than hoarding it and saving it up and, you know, protecting it from everybody else. How come you volunteer time? Why do you do that? Look, these things are expressions of our culture and our value system. And when they get repeated over time then people start thinking to themselves, maybe there's something to this message about Jesus.

Because I used to know that dude. He used to be a money hungry, you know, driven, whatever. But now, man, he's he's out here serving. He's out here giving his his life for the poor. He's out here sending money to foreign missionaries.

I mean, what what is he what happened? Sometimes that's all it takes. Somebody asking you a question. What makes you different? And in the end, what makes us different is the last thing, which interestingly was something that was prayed earlier.

I forget by whom. The difference is that Jesus says, I am with you, even to the end of the age. The difference is in that we are his family, his presence is always with us. And there's that means there's nothing we can't do that he's told us to do because he's with us empowering that work to be done. And we don't have to oh, God told us to do it well, but there's no chance of that happening.

No. Actually, there's every chance of that happening, because he's with us. His presence abides within each one and then among us. Like, when we gather together, he's here. He's here now, witnessing our gathering.

That's crazy. He's present. He's not going anywhere. He is the one who's going to guarantee the success of the mission and the growth and development of the family. We're not on our own in this.

He continues to be with us even to the consummation of the age until this age gets to the place that it was destined to get to. There is a mission. There is a move a moving forward of this. And that involves us integrating people from every tongue, every tribe, every nation. Bringing them into this reality of the fatherhood of God.

Identifying them as sons and daughters. Giving them value and a purpose and a place. And now saying, look, this is what we represent. The greatest father ever, Whose son gave us a pattern of how to relate rightly to him by the power of his own presence. His spirit within.

That's pretty awesome. And guys, I don't know about you, but this is what I wanna be about. I want my life to be about this on every level. I want the way I raise kids to reflect this. I I want the way that I I I I do my my work of preaching and teaching to reflect this.

I want the way that I love my wife to reflect this. I I want the way that I go to the park and play with my kids to reflect this. I want the whole thing to be organized under this banner. So that as I'm doing my work and someone comes to believe in Jesus, you know what I have to do in order to make a disciple? I just have to say, hey, just start coming around.

Just start spending time with us. Come and eat dinner with us. Hey. We're going to Walmart. Come along.

Listen. It's not that hard. If you are willing to make space in your life for somebody, you can make a disciple. One of my good friends, he's the guy who who started the work in Iraq. His name is Dave Papavisi.

You might have heard of him. He lived in Chicago his whole life. He he grew up here. He went to Lane Tech High School. He He went to ministry school down in Florida.

Came back and didn't God hadn't called him to do anything else yet, so he just got a job delivering pizzas. So this guy would deliver pizzas and pray, raised his family, had kids. And then he would go out on the streets and and preach the gospel to people. He started a little church. And one guy got born again, and he was like, man, I've never seen anybody do this before.

I don't know what you're doing, but I do you have time to meet with me? Like, a couple times a week and and go over scripture together and stuff like that. And you know what my friend Dave said? Being the godly servant, you know, faithful, sacrificial man of God. You know what he said?

He said, no. I'm sorry. I don't have time. I was like, he said, what? That's I said, look.

I can't. I'm maxed out doing everything I'm supposed to do, but here's what you can do if you want to. He said, I deliver pizzas eight hours a day. If you wanna talk about the Lord, if you wanna go over scripture, you can ride along with me as I deliver pizza. And the guy at first, he was like, what?

But then he was like, okay. So listen. My friend Dave, as he's delivering pizzas all over, you know, Lincoln Park and whatever else, has my friend Frankie sitting on the passenger seat and they're talking and praying and talking and praying for eight hours a day. It's like, he didn't have to start a bible study. He didn't have to start a prayer group.

He just said to this guy, listen. I I am accessible this way. Why don't you come with me? And pretty soon, Frankie started delivering pizzas for the same company. Like, he he discipled them even in that.

Got him a job. And he got to see how Dave handled his job. He got to see how he talked with his boss. He got to see how he dealt with difficult customers. Do you see what I'm saying?

Like, it's it doesn't have to be this thing. Oh, well, you know, we gotta set up this special thing and and make, you know listen. You are living your life in the name of the Lord Jesus. God willing, you are doing things you do for him. I hope you're doing things you do to please him.

And if you are, then all you've gotta do is just open up space in what you're doing for somebody else. And the work of discipleship begins. There may be people in this community that God's putting on your heart right now. Young people, junior high students, high school students, are you in college? Do you have a job?

Are you living for Jesus? Then, there's some skills and some way of life that somebody can benefit from. Open up your passenger seat in your car. I mean, what are you doing where somebody I have a friend who runs a ministry in Chicago. It's called Grip Outreach for Youth.

They emphasize the value. They say never go anywhere alone. I know I came alone today, so I violated the principle. But think about this. Last time I came with Reuben, that's gotta count.

Think about this. What if, whatever you did, whenever possible, you just brought somebody who you were mentoring, or you were pouring into their life, or you were speaking into their their their heart in some way. You're just like, man, if you're going somewhere, you know, on a well, I gotta go do this, run for groceries at Sam's Club because we got a outreach coming up. Well, you just grab somebody. Hey, bro.

What are you doing? Nothing. Get in the car. We're going to Sam's. Why?

It's okay. It'd be cool. And so, as you're driving, man, you're just talking about life. You're just getting to know. What do you do?

So what do you like? You know, what was that? You know, whatever the you're just finding out. And over time, it's like, you know, I had a question. I thought you might.

Like, but that doesn't happen unless you create that relational space. There's not a lot of younger people that are just gonna come up to older people and ask them questions. Number one, it makes them feel dumb. Number two, they think older people don't really get it anyway. And the only way to bridge that gap is just for you to spend time, for you to invest in their life.

You just sit there sometimes. It's painfully awkward. But I guarantee it works over time. Sometimes you just sit in the room with somebody. And what you wanna do is get all up into it.

But you know the Holy Spirit's got his hand on your shoulder, like, shut your mouth. Just be still. And sometimes, that's all it takes. Just be with that person. You don't make family, you know, with with some kind of microwave recipe.

Right? You can't build a family with some kinda shortcut. It's going to take time. But when you take the time to do it right, you have strength. You have courage.

You have unity. You have a you have a family who now is a weapon in the hand of the king. That God can use you. You can reach people. You may never preach a word in your life.

You could be a very effective maker of disciples. Because you know the Lord. And you can be with people, and you can welcome them into your life. This is the mission of the church. It may not look like you thought it should look, but it works when we will do things the way of Jesus.

So I wanna pray for you as we close. I think maybe you're gonna sing a song as, I think Phoebe mentioned that. But I I wanna pray for you and and I want you to really consider what, I mean, what's God saying? When you hear this language of family, when you think about your life, when you think about the people that you are connected to, what would God have you do? Are are are there ways that you can invite people into your world?

Are are there ways that you can develop relationships? Are there ways are there ways where your life can become an example for others? Not just in religious meetings, which, again, is fine, but it can't be everything. Jesus said, teaching them to observe everything I taught you. Observe is an action word.

It talks about how to live, how to how to walk, how to be in the world under the authority of the father. So as I pray, I just want you to just be be mindful. Maybe the Holy Spirit will put a person on your heart. A face comes to mind. A a particular thing you do comes to mind.

And you're like, man, I didn't realize this would be a tool for God. To to help someone, to to connect with somebody, to help them grow in the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we bless you. We thank you, God.

You are so awesome and good. You're the best father we know. There's none like you. You're faithful. You're wise.

You are disciplined and yet free. You know how to pour out joy on people. You know how to bring correction. You know how to how to provide for our needs, and you know, God, how to satisfy our hearts when we long for you. God, I pray for my brothers and sisters today.

You have brought us together as family. You have brought us into the one household of God. And we are grateful for that, even if we don't always show it, or we don't always understand why it's so important. But God, today I pray that this message of this amazing commission, God, we would take it personally. We would receive that that exhortation.

You would show us how to do this. How to be the family you say that we are, how to how to run hard after Jesus Christ together as a unit, how to serve one another in love, how how to humble ourselves for the benefit of others. God, I ask you that in this room, you would raise up makers of disciples. Yes, god. I pray for preachers and evangelists and and apostles and teachers and prophets.

But but I also just pray for godly mothers and fathers in Jesus Christ who are gonna be willing to just bring others in. Wrap their arms around people. Show them the love of God. Show them the way of the king. Teach them how to live this out with courage and faith, God.

Father, if there's anybody here today who thinks this is beyond them, I pray that you'd open up their eyes and their hearts, Lord. Show them, God, you work with whatever. Maybe somebody's thinking, I don't have anything to offer God. If you have a couple pieces of bread and fish, he'll use it and he'll multiply it. Lord, I pray that you would touch these folks today.

Put something in front of their their eyes. Lord, fill their hearts with hope where where they think they've reached the limit. They've reached the end. It's not possible. You say otherwise.

That with you nothing shall be impossible. Pray, God, that you'd breathe on this group by your holy spirit, that you would empower them to become a family on mission, to become people, disciples of of Jesus, who who are identified by a family name and and who know how to keep your commands, to keep your instruction, and to observe all the things you taught us, Lord. Open up the scriptures. May they be a source of life and joy and power to us as we try to figure out how to walk this out. Lord, use us to establish your values, your culture, your character, god.

Lord, there's lost people all around us. I I pray that you just give open doors to us. You open doors no one can close. I I pray that you would make it happen, father. You would bring us into connection, into relationship with people who need you.

People who need to be adopted. People people who need to be re situated into God's family. Help us with this, father. May your blessing and your presence, God, be the the the furnace, the fire at the center of all of it, God. The core may may this be white hot devotion and love for Jesus.

And may that just radiate through us into this dark world for the glory of God. Lord, we thank you. We commit ourselves to you, And we pray that you would glorify your name in us and through us for Jesus' sake. And in his in his name that we pray today. Amen.