“Where To Invest” – Unbelievers – Matt. 28:18-20

When you hear the phrase “Back in the good old days”, what do you think of?  Mayberry?  Barney Fife?  Cruising in your ’57 Chevy with your steady girl, listening to Chuck Berry?  What about when you hear “Back in the good old days at church”?  What do you think of then?  Do you think of being at the church 4-5 days a week for something and twice on Sundays for sure?  Don’t be late for Training Union!

For some of us who grew up in the church, it doesn’t seem like that long ago that we had something to do at the church almost every day and that wasn’t all good but it wasn’t all bad either.  Today, most folks only come on Sunday mornings and they don’t even join the church.  They just attend sometimes.  Not Sunday School, of course, because that starts too early, but the average person comes to worship 1-2 a month, checks that box and, depending on what they get out of it, maybe they will come again pretty soon.

Have I stepped on your toes yet?  Give me a few minutes and I will.  Yea, it’s gonna be one of those kind of messages.  But seriously, when you look back 20, 30, 40 years or for Speedy, considerably longer, you can see the level of morality and spirituality of our country and our homes has decreased with the level of church attendance.  Now, since we live in what the Bible calls the last days, we can expect this to happen.  We can expect people to be lovers of money and self and not of the church.  (2 Timothy 3:2)

But just because we can expect it, does that mean we have to accept it?  Does that mean we are off the hook; that we don’t have to try as hard as we used to?  Absolutely not!  In fact, we are going to have to continue to ratchet our efforts up and try even harder, not for our sakes and for the sake of this church but for the sake of our community, our country and our children and grandchildren.

Back in the good old days of the church, a revival would be scheduled for a week but then the Holy Spirit would break out and it would turn into two weeks or even three weeks and people would be getting saved left and right and that had to be some fun times in which to minister.  Well, it’s harder now for any number of reasons and we don’t see that kind of thing happen as often anymore so we can either just write it off as the times we live in or we can do even more and work even harder than they used to.

If you are not willing to do that then we can all expect and accept that this country, our community and the lives of our children will be less and less blessed by God.  I don’t see any way that it can turn out any differently because we are still responsible for making disciples just like they were 50 years ago, 100 years ago or 2000 years ago and since Sovereign God has no “Plan B” for spreading the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ other than using us, then we don’t have any excuse.

Hey, did I tell you I was going to buy a new car?  I am.  Some of you know I have been saving my money and I’m finally going to buy that new Corvette I’ve been talking about for so long.  You believe me, right?  Good.  Yes, I’m going to buy a 2017 Corvette ZL1 in Adrenaline Red and I can’t wait.  It’s gonna be great.  The first thing I’m going to do is, of course, take it home and put it on jack stands and take the wheels off.  I don’t want them to get flat spots on them from sitting there.  I’ll never actually drive it because that would be dangerous.  All that power!

I’ll sit in it a lot, I’m sure, and listen to the premium Bose 9 speaker stereo system while sitting in those Carerra leather GT Bucket seats.  It’s gonna be great!  I’ll talk about it a lot.  Have my picture made sitting in it.  Put ’em on Facebook.  Probably join a Corvette-owner’s club and go to all the meetings (if they’re close enough since I’ll have to ride my bicycle).  I can’t wait!

What’s wrong with this picture?  Yes, lots of things but mainly I’m not using a Corvette for what it is intended.  It is of no real use.  It would be a lot wasted on something with a lot of potential but nothing is really happening.  It’s a waste of time, energy and a lot of money.  Sort of like a church that doesn’t make disciples.  We can come and sit and sing and have a good time and play games and go to meetings and talk about the good old days.  That would be fun but it is not what a church is intended to do nor will there be eternal rewards for it.

If you want to do what a church is supposed to do and have eternal rewards for doing it then let’s turn to Matthew 28:18-20 and let’s read what Jesus said we should be doing.  As we continue our look at how to invest our time, talent and treasure in ways that will bring eternal dividends, let’s read what the Author and Builder of the church wants the church to do.  The Bridegroom says His bride should be busy and so He gives us, His bride, the church, a Great Commission as one of the last things He said while on this earth physically.

The very last part of Matthew says, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ 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, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

That’s pretty plain, isn’t it?  Uncomfortably plain, if you ask me.  I guess you could make the argument that Jesus was telling this to His friends a bunch of years ago and that it doesn’t specifically apply to us but the problem is that there are too many other verses that back this up as being something that applies to every one of us. 

Romans 10 – “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”  Oh, wait that’s only for preachers, right?  Ezekiel 3 – “Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.”  But that’s Old Testament and it doesn’t really count, right?  1 Peter 3 – “Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”  Luke 24 - “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

We all know we are supposed to witness for Jesus but almost none of us do it like we should.  I want us to all see a couple of things from this passage that will hopefully encourage you in your witness.  First, notice what Jesus says about it first.  He says all authority on Heaven and on earth has been given him.  What’s that mean?  It means He is in control.

All through the book of Matthew, Jesus shows us His authority.  In chapter 4 He has authority over Satan.  In chapter 7 He shows authority in His teaching.  In 8 He shows authority in healing.  In 9 He has authority to forgive sins.  In 10 He delegates that authority to His disciples.  He still has all of that authority even today for us.  When someone has real authority, it demands obedience.

When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?"
"Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person."
"But I'm starved," the governor said.
"Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer."
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around.
"Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state."
"Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister." Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, pp. 5-6.

Real authority demands real obedience and Jesus had the authority over everything when He was on earth physically and He still does today and when He says to go and make disciples then what are you going to tell Him?  Are you going to tell Him that, yes, you read the Great Commission but you didn’t know He really meant you?  Are you going to tell Him you didn’t have the opportunity?  You were scared?  You didn’t know what to say?  You were busy?

Are you going to tell Him that you weren’t quite sure if He had the authority to protect you or give you the words?  That’s dangerous business.  I think I would rather crash and burn trying but failing to lead someone to Christ than to have to try to explain why I didn’t.  We are not going by our own authority.  We don’t have any.  Jesus said that He has all authority so just go.

Now let’s look at this word “go”.  Look at verse 19.  We have talked about this before but since I am the language professor that I am, I want you to see something.  Okay, I got it from my commentaries and actually this kind of stuff usually just gets on my nerves but this is not just interesting but vital to our understanding of what Jesus was saying.

Verse 19 starts by saying, “Therefore go…”  The Greek verb translated “go” is actually not a command but a present participle.  It means “as you go” or “when you go”.  I heard the supposedly true story of the barber who was trying to do better about witnessing to people and so he decided to strike up a conversation with a man who came in for a shave.  He got him all lathered up and as he came at him with the straight razor, asked him, “So, are you ready to meet your God?”  The guy took off running with shaving cream still on his face.

There are some ways to do it that are better than others but the guy was actually doing just what Jesus said to do.  As we go; as we work; as we play; as we travel we are to focus on making disciples.  Now, remember what we said a disciple is.  A disciple is one who learns from Jesus and then teaches and encourages others with what they have learned.  So, you can’t really call yourself a disciple unless you are making disciples.

I worked for the State Comptroller for 6 years and my job was to collect state taxes.  That was what I was paid to do and as a collector, my job was thoroughly scrutinized.  They kept meticulous statistics on how much time I spent in the field, how many contacts I made, how many phone calls, how many miles traveled, what I said, how I said it and everything else.  But do you know what they did not keep track of?  There was no record anywhere of how much money I collected.  Nobody knew.

That was my job.  That was why I was hired and what I was paid to do but nobody kept track of it.  I asked my supervisor one time why that was and she said, “Oh, no.  We don’t do that. Because somebody might take offense if they found out somebody else collected more than they did.”  Somebody might get their feelings hurt.

While that sounds ridiculous and is another example of what’s wrong with government, it’s not really any different in the church.  What is the main thing we are supposed to do as a church?  Jesus said, “As you go, make disciples.”  Well, how many disciples have you made?  I probably don’t want to answer that question any more than you do but it’s time we started asking ourselves, if not each other, what the hold-up is?

Now, let me give you some good news.  Don’t worry.  The toe-stomping is pretty much over for most of us.  I want to encourage you this morning by telling you what it is that Jesus is really wanting us to do and say.  The good news is that it’s not really that hard.  Yes, we are called to go into all the world and that includes places like Nicaragua or Mexico or that far-off country of Oklahoma but the message we are to give them is really pretty simple.

Let me put it this way.  When you accepted Jesus and started your walk as a disciple, was it because you had a thorough understanding of propitiation?  Was it because you understood predestination and the role of free will that you became a Christian?  Maybe it was when you finally memorized the whole Bible that you finally asked Jesus into your life to be Lord and Savior.  Is that right?  I doubt it.  No, that’s not what made you decide to follow Jesus and that is not what we have to teach people for them to become disciples either.

In Acts chapter 4 we have a great picture of the first church doing what Jesus said to do and we see that they were blessed in this life and the next.  In Acts 4:32-33 it says, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. ³³ With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all."

Did you hear what the apostles were testifying about?  “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”  They didn’t have to explain everything.  Nobody said anything about dinosaurs or what Satan’s last name is or if all dogs go to Heaven.  You don’t have to know everything to tell what you know.  In fact, even if you do know everything, you don’t have to tell it.

The Apostle Paul was a great theologian.  He was extremely well educated in the scriptures and could explain better than anybody else any question one might have.  But I want you to look at what he says in Acts 20.  Here Paul is telling his friends in Ephesus that he is going to have to leave them.  He has started this church but feels the need to go back to Israel and listen what he tells them.

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. ²³ I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. ²⁴ However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

Did you hear that?  Paul’s whole message was just the good news of God’s grace.  We talked a lot about God’s grace last week.  What is grace?  Grace is God not giving us what we deserve.  We deserve Hell for being sinners but through Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, we can be co-heirs with Jesus to every good thing Heaven has to offer!  How much do you love grace?  How bad do you have to hate your neighbor not to tell them about it?

You don’t even have to understand everything about God’s grace.  I sure don’t.  All you have to know is how it has affected you in your life and then tell that, briefly and succinctly, to your neighbor as you go.  Do you remember that verse?  1 Peter 3:15 – “Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”  Are you prepared?

*Brian and Cindy give testimonies*

That’s what Jesus what telling us all to do.  Be ready, anytime, anywhere to tell somebody, as you go to the store or to Nicaragua, or wherever, about the grace of God in your life.  So…what happens when somebody says, “I want that.  I want what you have.  I want to go to Heaven but I don’t know how”?

Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.”

That’s bad news but I have good news.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Maybe you need to do that today.  Believing in Him is more than just acknowledging that He lived.  It means putting all your faith and trust and hope in Him.  It means repenting of your sins – turning away from them – and asking for forgiveness.