Matthew 28:16-20

Good morning, Saylorville Church! And welcome to those of you who are joining us for the first time this morning. We’re glad you’re here. My name is Colton Willey, and I’m the Connections Director here at Saylorville. I’m also the lucky guy that gets to compete with this multi-colored snail for your attention! So lucky me! That being said, it is a real joy to be before you this morning… open up God’s Word, as we finish up the final segment of our M.O.R.E. series. Here at Saylorville Church, our heart, as many of you know, is to see more people, more like Jesus. And, hence, our M.O.R.E. series as an acronym. It shows the steps, almost like a pathway for how someone can Meet Jesus, Obey His call, Reflect His ways and, where we’re at this morning, Engage their world. And again, this is the very final segment of our M.O.R.E acronym, and it shouldn’t surprise us that we’re called to do this. Jesus Himself said,

[John 20:21b] “…as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

Jesus also said that we, the church, are the light of the world,

[Matthew 5:14a, “You are the light of the world.“]

… and we’re called to let our light shine.

[Matthew 5:16b, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”]

But a little confessional before we open up this morning. In all honesty, if I’m being frank, for most of my Christian walk the last couple years I’ve been pretty reluctant to engage my world for the Gospel. If you know me well, you would know that my wife, my beautiful wife, Rachel sitting down here, she’s extremely friendly. One of the friendliest people I know. I mean, she could literally have a conversation with a brick wall! So my engagement when we first got married is based… I would just follow her around the church like a little puppy and just, you know, talk to whoever she talked to. Maybe some of you husbands relate to that. But then the Lord called me into ministry. And I saw the call that I need to not just proclaim Christ, but engage people for Him.

And probably one of the most foundational conversations I had regarding that was with our very own, Pastor Pat. He had me for lunch and we sat across the table from one another, and I just asked him, I was like, “Pastor, like, you know, I desire to get better at this. I desire to engage my community, but how do I do it? Do you have any tips or pointers or advice?” In classic Pastor Pat fashion he just paused, leaned across the table. He said, “Colton, when it comes to engaging your world… just do it!” And I was like, “And?” “And? — You got any other tips? — maybe a little bit actual things I can do?” Just do it. What kind of advice is that? But Friends, I wanna plead with you this morning that that was actually the best advice that he could have given me, because being a Christ follower, it’s not just… it’s not like we just embrace Christ and… it’s not just a life that we embrace, but it’s a life that we share with others. And nowhere is this more evident than in our passage this morning, the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28, verse 16… super famous passage. If you have a Bible, go ahead and go there now. Matthew, chapter 28, verse 16. The very, very end of Jesus’ ministry, and here’s what it says.

Matthew 28:16-20

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 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,

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now, if you’ve been around church for a while, if you’ve been around Saylorville for a while, you would know that this passage is called the Great Commission. It’s Christ’s final command to the church, to you and to me. And as you heard, it’s a command to engage our world for the sake of the Gospel. It’s a command to “make” disciples.

So Saylorville Church my charge to you this morning, when it comes to engaging your world, just do it! But we’re gonna unpack that as we go through it, but before, why don’t we go before the Lord in prayer?

Father God, Lord, You have given us a message to proclaim, the message of reconciliation, Lord, that though we were sinners, though we were dead in our sin, Lord, You’ve made us alive in Christ Jesus, who took our place on the cross. What a glorious message, Lord! I pray that the souls in this room, including my own Lord, that we would take into account this call to engage Your world, that by Your Spirit and the ministry of Your word, Lord, You would equip us to do just that… for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.

So engage your world. Just do it! But what is “it?” Like, what does it actually mean to engage our world? Well, first and foremost, and it’s important to know this. Engaging your world is more than just evangelism and missions. Check out verse 19 in our passage.

[Matthew 28:19, “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…”]

Very famous verse. It’s the core verse of the entire passage, but we often focus on that word “go.” Go, right? And that’s true. We do have to go. There is movement involved; movement to our neighbor, movement to the nations. But that’s not the main verb. The main imperative verb, the main command here is make disciples. As Pastor Jason said, we wanna be Christ followers, not just fans, and listen, if we’re gonna make Christ followers, then that means we have to invest in people long-term. One of my favorite verses is where Jesus kind of gives His mission for coming to earth is in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verse 18. It’s a pretty famous passage as well. Jesus says,

Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed…“

And Christian, if you truly do know the Lord Jesus, has He not done all those things for you spiritually? Right? When you were poor in your sin, when you were spiritually bankrupt, the Lord Jesus came and died in your place. When you were just set captive to your sin and life dominating addictions, He made you a new creation. When you were oppressed by your anxiety and just the burden of constantly having to work our way to show ourselves that we’re important, He relieved you from that, right? These are spiritual things that Jesus did. But He did those physically too, right? When the Lord Jesus Christ walked on this earth, the lame walked with Him. The blind’s eyes were opened. The deaf heard and bread came from heaven and fed the masses of the poor. Why the miracles? Why mercy? Why meet people’s physical needs if our ultimate need as sinners is spiritual revival, to be born again? Why do that? — Because Jesus knew that the Gospel wasn’t just a message to be proclaimed, but to be demonstrated in our lives. Jesus knows that for many people around the world, it’s impossible to accept the Bread of Life, that is, Jesus, if there’s no bread in our stomach.

A couple years ago, my wife Rachel and I, we served in the Heart for Des Moines Ministry, one of our ministries here at church, and we served the homeless community. And I’ll never forget an interaction that we had during one of our outings. We were going down this railway and we put out all the food, all the supplies, and this homeless camp just came out of the woodwork! They just literally came out of the forest. And as they were gathering the food, as we were having plate conversation, one of them actually came up to Rachel and said, “Why are you doing this?” — Like, ‘What do you get out of this? Why even bother wasting your time with us?’ — to which Rachel, without skipping a beat, (I was super proud of her!) she said, “Well listen, the Lord Jesus came to me when I was spiritually poor. He showed me mercy when I didn’t deserve it, and I just want to show that mercy to you.” And then just a couple minutes later, we got the whole crowd together and we literally just prayed in a giant circle! I remember it clear as day! Friends, the point is when you meet the physical needs of someone suffering, that acts as a bridge to their spiritual needs.

So do you want to engage your world? Then you have to showcase a consistent message. Remember, we’re in the business of making disciples of Jesus, and what happened to Jesus? He loved people. He had mercy. He was crucified for our sins. So Christian, if we are to live a life crucified to the world, we must be willing to give the things of the world to those who don’t have them. — And yes, I’m talking about money. I’m talking about resources. Now, praise God, this church is an extremely generous church, but that’s not all. We don’t just give our treasure to a hurting world, we give our time, we give our talents, all in the case of making more people more like Jesus.

So I just ask you this morning, What does this look like for you? Maybe it’s as simple as walking down that hallway after this message and finding someone that’s by themselves that you don’t recognize and just talking to them. Maybe it’s as simple as inviting someone that you know is lonely, someone that you know doesn’t have a community to your summer group, or maybe it looks like serving in our Heart for Des Moines Ministry, serving the people that are ostracized, that are broken, that are hurting in this world for the sake of King Jesus. First John says,

1 John 2:6, “… whoever says he abides in him [Jesus] ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.”

So listen, many of us, and I’ve done this too, many of us ‘talk the talk,’ but are you willing to ‘walk the walk?’ Engaging our world is more than just evangelism and missions. But listen, it’s never less than that. It’s never less than that. In Matthew 28, look again, it’s in verse 20. Jesus says,

Matthew 28:20, “… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

In order to make disciples, we have to teach them to observe the things that Jesus taught. So there is a message that we have to actually speak. Romans chapter 1 verse 16 says, Paul writes,

Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”

So listen to this. This is super important! Proclamation, that is, speaking out the Gospel, proclamation without demonstration, a consistent life, proclamation without demonstration is inconsistent, but demonstration without proclamation is ineffective. You wanna know what my engagement looked like most of my life, what my evangelism looked like? I’d just be super nice to people. I’d try to serve them. I’d try to give them compliments. I’d try to love on them, and I just kind of expected that someday they’d come up to me and say, ‘Wow, you sure are nice to me! Would you please tell me about Jesus Christ?’ That’s not gonna happen! Paul told us in Romans chapter 10,

Romans 10:14, “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?”

How are they to believe in Him whom they’ve never heard? Some of you might be how I used to be and can still be sometimes. You’re so busy being nice that you’re not being truthful. Friends, you gotta hear this. Listen! Just being nice without actually telling someone the Gospel ultimately is not nice. It’s not loving ’cause their ultimate need is to have their sins forgiven, to be reconciled to their maker. Tim Chester puts it very bluntly. He says,

“We need to say without embarrassment that it’s better if someone is converted, but remains poor, than if he becomes healthy and wealthy, but remains unconverted.” Tim Chester

So Christians, we must demonstrate the Gospel with our actions. We must proclaim the Gospel with our words. But finally, we do all of that in our own individual spheres of influence. A really good parallel verse to Matthew 28, our Great Commission, is actually in the book of Acts, a couple books later. Acts, chapter 1 verse 8. And it’s kind of in the same context. Jesus is getting ready to ascend to heaven, but He says this to his disciples, and listen carefully. He says,

[Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”]

‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the world.’ Did you catch it? Jesus gives us an ever increasing scope of Gospel engagement. The point is that the church, us Christians that are following after Jesus, we have one mission, make disciples, but that mission is accomplished on many fronts. And listen, you gotta hear this. We need soldiers on every single front. Listen, we need missionaries. We do. And some of you are going all in to that. You’re following after the Send fund. Praise the Lord! We need missionaries. We need ministers. We need people that are gonna equip the saints for the work of the ministry. — But we also need managers. We need math teachers. We need maintenance men, and we need moms.

You know what stage of life I’m in right now? Rachel’s 18 or Rachel… wow, Rachel‘s not 18 months old! Winnery, our daughter, is 18 months old, and she’s full on toddler stage right now. She even gets a whiff of the word no… melt down! Just loses her mind! Climb’s up on the chair just to jump off of it. Why not? — But Rachel’s engaging her world. See, every morning when we have breakfast, we have this little baby Bible, it’s like one line on the page, and we’ll read that to Winnery, and it’s hilarious! She’s getting something out of it! I don’t know what it is, but whenever she walks around our house, if she finds any book, she’ll point out and say, “Bible?” “Bible?” Right now she thinks every book’s the Bible, right? — Which, I mean, is a pretty good book to start off on! Right? Parents, Dad or Mom, please hear this, especially if you stay at home. Never, never downplay your ministry! Listen, we’re always looking to expand to the next stage. Of course we are. We’re always looking to go out and go to our neighbors, but we need Gospel engagement in the nursery just as much as we need it to go to the nations. Both are important! Whatever you do, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

[1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.“]

Being a Christ follower is deeply personal, but, listen, it’s never private. It’s never private. Wherever we are, at home, abroad, at the workplace, we demonstrate the Gospel with our lives and we proclaim the Gospel with our mouths. So that’s what it is. That’s Gospel engagement. But why? Maybe some of you are like me and you’re reluctant, and this is hard for you, and you’re uncomfortable and it’s kind of awkward. Why? Well, look at our text again. Matthew chapter 28. Jesus says,

Matthew 28:18-19

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Go therefore…”

All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me so go. Friends, this is a command from the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a command. J. Hudson Taylor, one of the fathers of modern day missions, he puts it this way.

“The great commission is not an option to be considered. It’s a command to be obeyed.”

J. Hudson Taylor

And that’s true. But I wanna plead with you this morning, that’s not all. That’s not all the great commission is. Okay? One of my favorite verses, probably my life verse, is John 10:10.

John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.“

‘The thief comes to kill and destroy.’ But Jesus says, ‘But I have come that you might have life and have it in abundance.’

A couple months ago, last summer, I got this little knick knack here as a reminder of what I’m supposed to be about. You can see it’s just a [miniature] fishing rod, right? — And it’s kind of playing onto the Gospels. Christians are called to be fishers of men. It’s a great gift! But as I looked closer at it, I noticed something. Not only is it a fishing rod. It’s also a lighter! (audience laughing)

Now listen, don’t miss the implication of that picture. Listen, the Great Commission, it is a command to be obeyed, but it’s also for your good. It’s part of living the abundant life that Jesus promises you, ’cause friends, when you fish for men and women, you’re not just looking to put a flame in their heart, maybe. (Now it doesn’t work. And that’s right) You’re not just looking to put a flame in their heart. It also puts a flame in your heart. It does! Pastor’s advice was spot on. It was spot on. Just do it! — Because, listen, the best way to learn to engage your world, it’s not in books. It’s not just by listening to all the podcasts. It’s not by watching YouTube. You can listen to a thousand sermons. But unless you just do it, you’ll never learn it. And when you do, when you invest in people’s actual lives for the sake of the Gospel, you’re gonna see the power of the Gospel. You’re gonna see what Jesus does in a broken heart. You’re gonna see people born again, and you’re gonna be reinvigorated in your faith.

Last summer, my wife, Rachel and I were doing a Bible study with a good friend of ours, a woman. And at that time, I was pretty low in my faith walk. I felt very distant from Christ, very distant from God. I felt like I was just going through the motions. I started to doubt a lot. I even started to doubt my own salvation. And as we were doing this Bible study with this dear woman, she asked, “Well, how can I know that I’m gonna be saved forever? Like, does Jesus hold on to me?” She asked that question, and we just… the Spirit of God led us to John chapter 10, verse 28 and 29, where Jesus Christ says,

John 10:27-29

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.“

The very thing that I was proclaiming to this new believer, God proclaimed to me! Listen, Gospel engagement, when you just, when you work for the sake of the Gospel, that’s the crucible through which your head knowledge becomes your heart knowledge. Perhaps no verse is better at explaining this than Philemon. There’s a book that’s not on a lot of coffee cups! Philemon chapter one, verse six. This is a great verse. I would encourage you to memorize it. Here’s what it says.

Philemon 1:6, “… and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.“

What’s Paul saying here? Have you ever wondered, or maybe you felt this way? — Have you ever felt plateaued in your faith? You ever felt like you’re just going through the motions? Have you ever been just all in your head and you’re just constantly doubting, you’re struggling and you’re really struggling to just walk with Jesus? Maybe you’re there right now. Friends, if you want intimacy with Christ again then you must go with Him to your neighbors, to your fellow Christians and to the world. Christ came to seek and save the lost.

[Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”]

And if you are to know Him, you must go with Him. Now listen, there’s nothing wrong with study. There’s nothing wrong with learning. There’s nothing wrong with being prepared. I used to be a teacher. Okay? I’m all for that stuff. But listen, for a long time, I was paralyzed in my Gospel engagement, because I thought that I had to be more mature, more knowledgeable before I engaged. You ever felt that way? But Jim Putnam puts it best and I love this line! He says,

“When someone tells me they are spiritually mature I ask them, ‘Who are you discipling?’ — And if they tell me ‘No one,’ then I’m going to question whether they’re spiritually mature, because spiritually mature people make disciples.” Jim Putnam

So friends, who are you discipling? Are you discipling anyone? Notice verse 16 in our text…

[Matthew 28:16, “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.”]

Jesus didn’t give the Great Commission to the masses. He didn’t give it to the 500 disciples. He gave it to 11 apostles, a small group, a small group of men who were willing to engage their world. Here’s the point. Christian maturity is not measured by education. Christian maturity is measured by engagement in your own sphere wherever you’re at. Listen, if you have a kid, a little kid that knows four verses and they share the Gospel on the playground, biblically they’re more mature than the lifelong theologian who knows all the theology: Calvinism, sublapsarianism, predestination, but they never engage. Which one are you?

And I want to plead this with you. This is so important, not just for us, but it’s important for the church. It’s important for this church. It’s been my joy to come to Saylorville Church for 11 years of my life, and because of my role here, I talk to a lot of visitors, a lot of visitors. — And every visitor says usually the same thing I said when I first walk through those doors. ‘This church is alive!’ — Why? — Because we engage. Engagement doesn’t just bring maturity. Engagement brings unity. Friends, churches that don’t engage their world, they become disengaged. And disengaged churches become combative, and combative churches die. But not here.

You know, I love the ministry of God’s word. I love hearing the sermons. I love worshiping with the band, — But this has become like my new favorite thing on Sundays. When we’re all worshiping during this, (maybe this is weird, but I’m going to share it anyway!) when we’re all worshiping on Sundays, you know what’s my favorite thing to do? I love just looking around at all the Saylorville saints. I love seeing the guy who used to be an alcoholic and he’s praising Jesus. I love looking at the woman who miscarried a couple months ago and she’s praising Jesus. I love looking at the guy who was just enslaved to anxiety and he’s praising Jesus. And you know what happens? In my heart, it screams out, Christ is real, And He’s alive, and he’s powerful, and he’s working, And you know what that does? It makes me want to see more people, more like Jesus! So if you walk away with anything today, walk away with this. The Great Commission is a command, but it’s also a joy. It’s a joy! It’s a joy to walk with Jesus, to see Him for who He truly is, and to see how He wants to save and seek the lost.

So Saylorville Church, engage your world. Just do it! And when you do, remember. You can only do it through His power. Look at Matthew, chapter 28, verse 20. This is like the most encouraging verse in this passage. Jesus says,

Matthew 28:20, “… And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

“I’m with you always.” When we do this, Jesus goes with us. But for the longest time, you know what verse I relate to the most? Verse 17.

Matthew 28:17,”And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.“

“Some doubted.” Is that you? — Because it’s been me for years. You know what I doubted? I felt like it was my responsibility to save someone, and I was terrified of the fear of failure. What if I delivered the Gospel wrong? What if I didn’t give the right argument? What if they just didn’t like my personality, which could definitely happen? Do you relate to that? Friends, listen. If you want to engage your world, it’s so important that you accept this fundamental truth. Salvation belongs to the Lord, not you! Remember, we go with Jesus. We can’t do anything without Him. It’s impossible! It’s not your eloquence. It’s not your education. It’s not your personality. It’s Him. It’s the Savior. And I had to learn this. When you You put the responsibility for someone’s eternal soul on you, you are going to be so burdened. You’re going to be despondent because, listen, most people will reject us. Most people will reject the Gospel. Small is the gate that leads to life and few find it.

[Matthew 7:14, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”]

Some of the first people I’d ever shared the Gospel with, I’ve had great conversations of them. I’ve shed tears with them. We’ve had great joys with them, and some of them, friends, have walked away. I’ve sent text, after text, after text, and they never respond… and it hurts! But I want you to know that’s not failure. Not engaging, not trying, not moving… that’s failure. But if we just accept, Christian, that our role is to just faithfully engage wherever we’re at, to demonstrate the Gospel with our life, and to demonstrate it, or to proclaim it with our words, we can just let God be God. And there’s freedom that knowing that whatever happens, despite the results, God’s given glory. So go in His power.

But also, were called to engage with His people, with the Church. Look at verse 16.

[Matthew 28:16, “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.“]

Now it wasn’t the masses that received the Gospel, but it also wasn’t just one person. You know, it wasn’t just Peter that got the Great Commission… luckily, right? — Because Peter’s always doing crazy things. It was a group. And friends, we receive the Great Commission as a group as well. This is one of the biggest realizations I’ve had in the last couple years. Gospel engagement is a team sport. It’s a team sport. You guys remember Pastor Jason’s sermon a couple weeks ago about not being a fan? In that sermon was a young man who had never been to Saylorville Church in his life, and so I connected with him. The next day, on Monday, I just laid out the whole Gospel to him. I went from Genesis to Revelation. I mean, I gave him the whole enchilada…. And then I went home. And then my good friend, Bob Sweeney, met with him on Tuesday and led him to Jesus! He just straight-up poached it from me, right? But here’s the point. That’s the problem. See, I used to feel that way. ‘That’s my person to lead to Jesus!’ But listen, there’s no place for competition in Gospel engagement. There’s no need for a Lone Ranger evangelist, because we want to make disciples of Christ not Colton, not ourselves, and that takes teamwork. So go with His people.

And finally, engage for His purpose. And what is that purpose? Why are we here? Why seek to make more people more like Jesus? Where all this is heading? It’s heading back to the beginning. Back to the beginning. Remember the gospel of John in the fourth chapter? —The woman at the well? If you’re honest, you can probably relate to her. She met Jesus… broken. Her sin had just encapsulated her life. She felt unwanted. She felt undeserving. She felt like she could never connect again with God. And then God came to her! Jesus revealed that He was the Messiah. He promised to give her Living Water, the same Living Water, Christian, that you’re drinking from right now. Can you remember what she did? In her joy, she went to her town and she said,

[John 4:29] “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did…“

‘Come and see this man who told me everything I ever did!’ Come and see. Why do we engage our world to help more people meet Jesus. You’ve got to hear this. It’s all about Jesus. We don’t engage for us, for our glory. We engage for Him. We love our neighbors, because He first loved us.

[1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.“]

And when the world rejects you, and it will reject you, keep in mind it’s not rejecting you ultimately. It’s rejecting Him. So go… for His purpose.

Of course, you can’t engage your world if you don’t reflect Christ’s ways, and you can’t reflect Christ’s ways unless you obey His call. And you can’t obey Christ’s call if you’ve never met Him. So I’m pleading with you, and you know who you are. Have you met Him? Have you met the lover of your soul? Have you met the Savior of the world? Have you met Jesus? Do you know Him personally and does your life show it?

2,000 years ago the God of the universe, the Creator of space and time and matter and everything that’s ever existed, ever will exist, looked down on a broken world. He looked down on you. And even though in your sin you deserved death, you deserved hell, you deserved separation from Him forever, in His everlasting love He engaged you. He engaged us. Romans chapter 6 verse 23 says,

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus, the Son of God is that gift! It’s just God’s gift to you, and all you need to do is accept it! Accept the gift of God, believe that Jesus lived the life that you can’t live, believe that Jesus took your place on the cross. He took your punishment and believe that He rose again in victory, and He, by your faith, will raise you again as well. We can only go to our world for Jesus when we realize that He came into our world for us. So Saylorville Church, engage your world. Do it for your own sake. Do it for our sake. Do it for His glory. But ultimately, just do it! [Music]