The Way Forward

The Way Forward

Matthew 28:16-20

March 3, 2019 • Mount Pleasant UMC

This week, I deleted the Facebook and Twitter apps from my iPad and hid the app on my phone. I didn’t delete my account, but I felt the need, as General Conference wound down, to distance myself from social media for a while. Monday evening, as the first round of decisions from General Conference came in, the way that Christian people (of all theological stripes) were treating each other online really broke my heart. As most of you know, our denomination’s General Conference met this last week in St. Louis to try to find “a way forward” in the matter of human sexuality, a topic we have been arguing about for 47 years. Decisions were made, accusations were hurled, and in reality, we are pretty much the same place we were a week ago. On Monday evening, as the rancor was ramping up online, I emailed a friend of mine and asked, “When did disagreement become equated with hate? When did standards become equated with exclusion?” It seems that even we in the church, like most of the rest of the country, have lost he art of communication. We’ve lost the ability to talk to one another, to listen to one another, and to find ways to disagree without blaming one another. Make no mistake—though we spent millions of dollars, a lot of time and energy and asked delegates to basically give up a week of their lives, the argument isn’t over. I fully anticipate it will come up again next year in Minneapolis during the regularly scheduled General Conference.

In the midst of all of this turmoil, the thing that has kept me going has been staying focused on our mission. No matter what the earthy church does or what manmade boards or agencies decide, nothing will deter Christ’s church from pursuing Christ’s mission. And so, this morning, in the aftermath of General Conference, I want us to remember some of the most important words Jesus shared with us and with his disciples. So come with me to a mountain in Galilee as Jesus gathers his disciples together in the days after the resurrection. The disciples have been in Jerusalem, and Jesus, at some point, has asked them to meet him on a mountain in Galilee. Important things happen on mountains, especially in Matthew’s Gospel, but I have a feeling that more important than the destination is the journey. I think Jesus wanted to get them out of the city, out of the place where all the events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection happened. They needed a journey. From Jerusalem to Galilee would take them at least a week (Card, Matthew: The Gospel of Identity, pg. 250), and that’s if they were hurrying. So it’s perhaps as much as ten days after the resurrection when they arrive at the mountain. They needed that time to clear their heads, to be ready for what was to come next.

So he calls them to a mountain (28:16). Now, no one knows which mountain around Galilee, and there are several candidates. Not that it matters, but my choice is Mount Arbel. Some of you have been there with me, and you remember how it looks out over the beautiful Sea of Galilee. From its summit you can see most everywhere Jesus and the disciples would have worked in their three years together. To me, it makes sense that Jesus would have called them to that place, to remind them of everything they have done together, and then to tell them, in effect, “What we did together, out there, now it’s your turn. Now you’re going to do it. You’re going to carry on my ministry.”

Let’s hear Jesus’ words again: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (28:18-20). Jesus is transferring his authority to the disciples. Everything he has been about is now the responsibility of those eleven, and it’s been handed down through the centuries to us. It’s hard to see in the English translation, but there is only one verb here, and it’s a command. That command is “make disciples.” The other three words look like verbs in the English, but they are actually words that describe how we do what we’ve been commanded to do. In other words, “going,” “baptizing” and “teaching” are all a part of “making disciples.” In fact, I believe they are the three essential steps in disciple making and in accomplishing our mission: making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world (cf. Carson, “Matthew,” Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 8, pg. 595; Wilkins, NIV Application Commentary: Matthew, pg. 952).

Now, if we’re going to make them, we ought to know what a disciple is. The word simply means a “follower” or a “learner” (Augsburger, Communicator’s Commentary: Matthew, pg. 330), and in the first century it was said that a disciple of a rabbi or teacher would be one who followed so closely that the dust kicked up by the rabbi’s feet would get all over them. A disciple is someone who follows closely, who takes upon themselves the teaching of their rabbi, their master, and believes it to be authoritative. A disciple is one who is completely shaped by the teaching or instruction of their master. Now, obviously, putting that kind of trust or faith into a human rabbi or teacher or pastor can be dangerous, but I bet you can think of people who have shaped you, whose life has influenced you in such a way that you act or react like they do without even thinking about it. It might be a parent, or a beloved teacher or coach. And that’s okay, if we do it cautiously, knowing that the other person is fallible and prone to make mistakes. But Jesus is no mere human being. He is the Son of God. He told us that if we know him, we know the Father (John 14:7). He is the only one who is truly worthy to claim the title “master.” We can trust his words. We can emulate his life without fear. C. S. Lewis said the whole purpose of the church was to make people into little Christs: “If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time” (cf. Mere Christianity). We are called to make disciples—not copies of ourselves but people being formed in the image of Jesus.

So Jesus gives three movements, the first of which is go. It would not do these disciples any good to just stay on the mountain; the ones who needed Jesus were in the cities and town below that they could see from the top. Jesus told them to “go,” to get down off the mountain and find those who needed to become disciples. And yet, a bit later, they are on top of another mountain back near Jerusalem, and there they see Jesus leave for the final time. When he does, they stand there looking up toward the skies. I picture them standing there with their mouths hanging open, gaping at the sky, and an angel has to tell them to get moving (cf. Acts 1:1-11). Did you get the message the first time? “Go!” Jesus says. If you’re going to make disciples, you have to move.

In a lot of ways, we can relate to those disciples. It’s much easier for us to sit here, on the “mountain,” and expect people to come to us. We have excellent programs, wonderful ministries and great opportunities. Surely, we think, if they want to know more about Jesus, they will come to us. And that may have been true fifty or sixty years ago; it was still somewhat true even thirty years ago. You could put up a church building and people would come. You could hold an event and people would come, all on their own. But that is no longer the case. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the culture we live in is not exactly friendly toward those of Christian faith. If you claim to believe in God or if you believe such a thing as truth exists, you can quickly be made fun of or accused of “hate speech” or being a “bigot” because of what you believe. But the good news is that there is tremendous opportunity out there. There is a mission field in the neighborhood right around you. Today, Jesus’ call to “go” is a call to live faithfully in a hostile world. The call to “go” is a call to be intentional about getting to know people who are not disciples and showing them through your life and words what an authentic follower of Jesus looks like. The call to “go” is to live out our mission each and every day, each and every moment. Jesus says, “Go!”

The second movement in this commission is to baptize. Baptism, for the Christian, is the act of initiation, the sacrament of beginnings. Baptism doesn’t make a person into a disciple; it’s not a magic act. Rather, it’s a symbol that you belong to Jesus. We say it’s an “outward sign of an inward grace,” it’s something done on the outside that demonstrates something happening inside you. In the context of this commission, it’s a reminder that we’re called to invite people to meet Jesus. This command to baptize is a command to invite people in, to welcome them to a place where they can, indeed, encounter Jesus. I think of the woman at the well in John 4. You may remember her story, that she was shamed by the people in the city and came to the well at noon, when no one else was around. On one particular day, Jesus was waiting for her, and she encountered his life-giving power in a profound way. Then, in a part of the story we don’t often get to, she does there what Jesus commands here. She “goes” back to the city, and she invites people to come meet Jesus. She tells them, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:29). As we go, we encourage, invite, welcome people to come with us, perhaps to church but even moreso to come with us on our own journey of getting to know Jesus. We invite them to encounter him, and believe that as they come to know Jesus, their own journey will lead to repentance and actual baptism. Jesus says, “Go…baptize…”

And teach. Once those who need Jesus have been found and invited to come along on the journey, they will need to know what it means to follow Jesus, to be a disciple. “Teach” in Jesus’ command reminds us of the need to help people grow up in the faith. We teach others to obey everything Jesus has commanded us. We help them learn what it means to live like Jesus taught us. That’s why we’ve been focusing these last couple of months on discipleship in the Sunday morning classes. It’s one way we’re trying to teach others to obey Jesus’ commands. It all boils down, though, to what he said on his last night with his disciples: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). Earlier that same week, Jesus had summarized all of his teaching and God’s law in this way: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38; cf. Mark 10:29-31). We teach others to obey Jesus’ commands, and Jesus’ command is to love.

Now, and I cannot say this strongly enough, this is not the mushy, sentimental, feeling-oriented stuff that passes for “love” today. This is love that welcomes all but also takes sin seriously. It does not ignore or overlook breaks in relationships, whether that takes place between people and God or person and person. This is the kind of love that loves us enough to take us as we are but loves us too much to leave us as we are. It is a love that calls us to repentance, challenges to be better than we think we can be. Too often today, we use Jesus’ call to love as an excuse or a reason to overlook someone’s sinful behavior. We pull out Jesus’ command, “Do not judge” (Matthew 7:1), and use it as an excuse to overlook brokenness and sin, to live and act as if it’s okay. But that’s not love. That’s sentimentality, “cheap grace.” Jesus took sin seriously enough that he died on the cross to pay the price for our sin, for our brokenness. We must take it seriously, as well. Look at it this way. It is not love to let our child touch a hot stove just because they want to. The loving response in that situation is to yell, “Stop!” It’s not a loving response to let someone walk out in front of an oncoming car or bus. We attempt to stop them because they are going to hurt themselves. The loving response is not to just say “okay” to whatever someone wants to do. Sometimes—many times—love has to be “tough,” even though that’s hard for us.

Go…baptize…teach. That’s how we make disciples, and then those who are taught go back out and the cycle begins again. We are never done making disciples. We are never finished with the task Jesus gave us until he returns. And in the world we live in, we have to continue to seek out new ways to reach people who need him, to make a difference in their lives, to share the love of Christ in unique ways. So this morning, I want to share about a new project we are moving forward with that will both build upon and expand our outreach to the special needs community in Terre Haute.

VIDEO & INTERVIEW: Jess and the “Friendship House”

One way I know that this project is from God is that it scares me to death. It’s a huge undertaking, and it’s not something we can do in our own strength. But I'm challenged by the words of Jamie Buckingham, a pastor and author who died in 1992. He once said we should “attempt something so big, that unless God intervenes, it's bound to fail.” This certainly falls into that category, and so did the mission Jesus gave those disciples on top of that mountain in Galliee. Jesus knows that this commission seems like an impossible task. He knows that the opposition is fierce; he’s told these disciples they will face imprisonment and possibly even death because of their faith (cf. Luke 21:12-19). And in the face of all that, into their future he speaks this word: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (28:20). At the very beginning of the Gospel, Matthew reminded his readers of one of Jesus’ most important names, a name given to him centuries before he was born when the prophet Isaiah spoke of a virgin conceiving and giving birth to a child who would be called “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (1:22-23). Now, at the end of the Gospel, Jesus becomes what his name promised. He is Immanuel. He will be with his followers as they seek to carry out his final command. “I am with you. Wherever you go, whatever you do, when you go and when you invite and when you teach, I am with you and I will continue to be with you until the end of the world, until time is no more.” His name is Immanuel. He is with us, right here, in this place, and over there, in that place, at your rising and at your sleeping, in your work and in your leisure, in your speaking and in your silence. He is with you, and because of his presence, you can do this. You can go…baptize…teach. You can make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.