“Reporting for Duty” – Matthew 28:16-20

Do you ever watch the news? I’m all in favor of keeping up with what is going on in the world but lately I can’t recommend watching the news at all. You may be better off being ignorant. What I have noticed is that everyone is so angry nowadays. Everybody is mad at somebody about something.

The big news in the past couple of weeks is how children are being separated from their parents at the border when people try to cross illegally. I have seen the most passionate hatred, mainly toward President Trump, that I have ever seen in public because of this. Now, whatever your views and whatever your political leanings; whatever is true and whatever the media is saying or not saying, I have a hard time believing that some people are as upset about this as they say they are when Planned Parenthood kills more babies in a week than we have on the border separated from their parents and nobody is mad about that.

But people are mad and in this issue they have found some “righteous indignation” to cling to and it makes them feel good about themselves to be so mad. “It’s about the children!” they scream with their faces turning blue from rage. Have you ever noticed how good it feels to be mad, especially when you just know you are right and the other person is wrong? That’s like eating a fine meal. It goes down so good. It’s so tasty until you realize that what you are feasting on is your own peace and joy.

But this is not the only issue that people are mad about. In fact, they are mad about everything. Tear down the monuments! They cause racism. Tear down the bathroom signs! They cause gender insecurity. Tear down the church! They don’t love gay people. It used to be that people could agree to disagree with each other. Now, if you don’t agree with me, I want you and everything you stand for to be torn down.

Do you ever wonder why people are so mad? Well, if you step back and look at it biblically, I believe you will be able to see it. I was thinking about this the other day and I thought the Book of Proverbs would probably say something about this. So I turned there and started reading in chapter 18 and saw in verse 3, one sentence that explained it all.  Proverbs 18:3 says, “When wickedness comes, so does contempt.” That’s it right there. That’s the root problem. That’s the cause of all this anger. Contempt is a mix of disgust and anger and doesn’t that perfectly describe the outrage that everybody in the news has today?

They are angry because they have made bad choices - wickedness - in their own lives but if they were to be honest and say, “I am so angry at myself!” they would look stupid. So they find something else to be angry at and take it out on that cause or that problem. Their own wickedness has caused horrible problems in their lives but instead of changing their lifestyle, they get mad at other people with different lifestyles and blame them for all their problems.

I have some friends that are gay and they know that I love them; I have told them and shown them that I love them but when they ask my opinion and I tell them what scripture plainly says about that lifestyle, they get outraged and tell me that I obviously hate them. That’s frustrating for all of us.

But, thankfully, I have the solution. It’s not some clever, political agenda that I came up with. It’s nothing that congress needs to vote one. It doesn’t require a bunch of signatures or marching or picketing. In fact, it’s not new. It’s not complicated and you would expect the pastor of an evangelical church to say this.

It is what the little boy said in Sunday School one day. His teacher was showing the class a picture of a squirrel and she asked them what it was. The little boy said, “Well, it’s brown and it has a long, bushy tail and it’s eating an acorn and looks for all the world like a squirrel but since I know this is Sunday School, the answer has to be Jesus!”

He is right. The answer to the problem of this out-of-control anger in the world today is Jesus and that is where you come in. We just graduated from Battle Strategy Training last week in our preparation for battle against Satan and that concluded our preparation. We, as a church, are as prepared as anybody and more prepared than most because we have studied Satan’s playbook and we have seen how and where and when he likes to attack and what we can do to stand up against those attacks.

We have learned the basics in Boot Camp, learned how to put on our armor in Combat Training, we have studied what Satan has done in the past and what he’s doing in the world today and now it is time to receive our marching orders. So far, up to this point, we have learned basically how not to get killed in combat but that is not how an army wins the battle. You don’t defeat the enemy huddled up in the foxhole at 1301 North Main Street in Lake Bridgeport.

The importance of the foxhole can’t be overestimated but that is not where we stay. It’s not where we live. Well, it’s not where YOU live. 😊 But, at some point, we get our orders from the Commander and we go fight the battle. So, what are those orders? Well, the Commander knows what kind of shape this world is in and our orders are to take back what the enemy has stolen.

If you want to get mad at something, get mad at the thought of our friends and neighbors and families that are fighting and losing the battle to drugs and alcohol and sex addiction all around us. It ought to make you furious to think that some of the people that you deal with every day at work, at home or school or the store are falling for the lies of Satan, trying in vain to get more and more stuff to make them happy or trying to get more and more high or trying to get more and more people to love them but it never satisfies. That ought to make you irate. That ought to make you say, “Not on my watch! What can I do to help the people; my family; my kids and grandkids not have to fight and lose those battles?”

Well, let’s see what our orders are in Matthew 28:18-20. Yes, you recognize that passage. It is the Great Commission. We have studied it several times before and I don’t guarantee that we won’t study it again several more times this year. We might ought to at least discuss it every week. It is that important and it is that neglected. If a soldier in the army was given a direct order by his commanding officer but failed to carry out that order, what do you think would happen? Would he get promoted? Would the CO tell him how proud he was of him and give him shiny medals?

Maybe today that is why you are struggling in what you are going through. Maybe you have a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus and yet God has not blessed you like He could. One reason for that might be because you have received your orders but you have failed to carry them out. Let’s look at those orders right now in Matthew 28:18-20.

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I have a friend named Bud Elkins who was in the US Army Air Corps which became the US Air Force in World War II. Bud was the navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortress which was the main big bomber of the day. He had some incredible stories of flying mission after mission into enemy territory and dropping bombs on military and strategic targets.

Bud told me that one time they were given the order to fly from somewhere in North Africa up to Germany and drop some bombs on a certain ball-bearing plant, if I remember right. That would have been an acceptable and understandable order except for one thing. The B-17 had a flight range of something like 2000 miles and the target was about 1500 miles away – one way. That wouldn’t leave them with enough fuel to make the return trip.

Bud said everybody on the crew knew what their range was and what the mission was and do you know what they did? They didn’t talk about it. They just suited up. They got on the plane. They taxied to the end of the runway and just as they were about to take off on what surely would have been a suicide mission, they got word from headquarters that the weather was too bad over the target and the mission was aborted. He said the exact same thing happened to them twice. That’s the “Greatest Generation” for you, right there. Twice they were not just prepared but expecting to give their lives for the greater good of their nation because an order was given.

In the Great Commission, we, like the first disciples are given an order. Jesus first gives His credentials as Commander, as if anybody needed them. He said that all authority has been given to Him in Heaven and on earth. He is the sovereign leader; the one in control of everything going on in Heaven and on earth. Scripture tells us over and over again not to be afraid. Why? Because God is sovereign and has given control of everything going on in the universe to His Son, Jesus.

So, based on the authority of the one who is in control, our command is to go and make disciples. Well, what is a disciple? First, notice that Jesus doesn’t tell us to go and make church members. He doesn’t even say to go and make Christians. He sure doesn’t say to go and make people better; help them to not cuss so much and quit watching R rated movies and follow a bunch of rules and collect a bunch of money so you can buy a $54 million-dollar jet to help you do it better.

He said that we are to go and make disciples and a disciple, as we have talked about before, is simply one who has learned something from Jesus and then tells somebody else what they have learned. When someone has authority, there is no arguing with that.  And if Jesus has authority over all things then it shouldn’t matter what He tells us to do, where He tells us to go, or what He tells us to say, we can be obedient without any fear of the consequences.  It’s what the first church depended on.  It’s what gave Paul the power to stand up and preach.  It’s what gave Stephen the strength to forgive his attackers.  It’s how Peter slept in prison the night before he was supposed to be tried and probably killed.  If Jesus is in control, what do we have to worry about? 

And the authority of Jesus is what this church depends on just like the first church.  I love the fact that it was this church’s idea to take the church to the Lake Road RV Park down the road when we found out that most of them couldn’t come to us for any number of reasons.  We have done it several times and we never know who is going to show up or what is going to happen or how we are going to be treated but I saw faith in this church; faith in the authority of Jesus Christ that allowed you to do what you were supposed to do, go where you were supposed to go and say what you were supposed to say!

And whether you thought about it or not, you were doing your part at that time to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus in this Gospel.  When Jesus says to “Go and make disciples…” it literally means, “as you go, make disciples”.  As you go, go intentionally.  As you go to the grocery store, as you go to the gas station, as you go to Dos Chiles after church today, be intentional about telling others what you know. 

Tell others about what Jesus has done in your life.  You don’t have to be an evangelist or a missionary to tell that.  Telling that makes you an evangelist and a missionary.  When Jesus gave this order to His disciples, it was the end of His bodily, earthly ministry.  But it was the beginning of ours.  We don’t do it to work our way to Heaven.  We do it because the One who died and was raised again tells us to. 

We do it because we want other people to have what we have and to not live in anger and shame and guilt and disobedience and wickedness that leads to contempt. We do it so our children and grandchildren won’t have to grow up with the same anger and pain and all the issues we see on the news today. I’m reminded again of what I heard a famous atheist say. Penn Jillette once said that somebody tried to witness to him about Jesus. He said he knew it was all bunk, but he appreciated the guy trying. He said if that is what you truly believe; if that is your honest belief about how somebody can have eternal life in Heaven then how bad do you have to hate somebody NOT to tell them? That is from an avowed atheist.

What is it that is keeping you from giving your 2-3 minute testimony to your neighbor, your friend or your loved one? You don’t have to know everything. You just have to know that it says in John 14:6 that “Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man gets to the Father but through Me.”

But look at how Jesus ends this command.  The One who lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death and then became the victor over death tells us that wherever we go, whatever we do, whatever we say, He is with us.  The One who is in authority; the One who defeated Satan and conquered death; the One who deserved to cry out, “Tetelestai! It is finished” is with us.

Do you know Him today?  Do you have a relationship with Him?  I’m not asking if you are a church member or who your family is or what you have done, good or bad.  None of that matters. I’m asking if you have believed that Jesus is God and that He can take away all the guilt and shame of your sin just by asking Him into your life to be Lord of your life. Do that right now as the music plays.