OPENING REMARKS

Well it's it's really good to be with you. my name's Josh, one of the pastors here and excited to spend this time with you today and I do hope you can join us afterwards for the picnic. It'll be a fun time and I did bring a change of clothes. There's a chance that I might end up in the dunk tank as well, but we'll see. Yeah, it's for the kids. It's for the kids. If you give give generously and yeah, today's offering I was kidding, but it's exciting to spend time in God's word, so let's get to that. if you have your Bibles, let's open up to not Genesis today, but to the book of Matthew today.

So as Rosalie and Abram said, if you open your Bible up in half in the middle, you'll probably get the Psalms. Then half again you'll probably find Matthew. So Matthew chapter twenty eight is where we're gonna be.

PRIOR WEEK RECAP

And last Sunday we talked in Genesis chapter twelve about a man named Abram and God's call in his life, to leave his former life, and to live a life that trusts and follows God. And we asked the question: what does it mean to be a Christian? Just kind of that basic, what does it mean to be a Christian? And we're gonna actually just continue that thought this morning as just a quick detour from Genesis. We'll be back in Genesis next week.

So Matthew 28, we're gonna be looking at the last several verses of that chapter. But what does it mean to be a Christian? As we talked about last week, we live in a really interesting time, a really interesting culture, a really interesting country. When there's a lot of people who claim to be Christians, but I would probably argue are not following Christ. one of the stats that I shared last week was how many people in our country self identify as Christians. And here's one of the stat sources on the screen for us. This is a poll that was taken an average from 2020 to 2024 asking the question, what is your religious preference? And 69% of Americans identify as Christian. Now we wouldn't say that every single thing in that list would qualify as Christian, , but you can see how many people, when asked, would say I'm a Christian. there's also a big age gap in this. This is interesting as well. Next slide. That that 80% of those seventy-four and older identify as Christian, and it's a younger percentage in young adults. Although God is still at work and faithful, these numbers will probably change a little bit over the next couple of decades as our population ages.

And I shared last week about the humorous, kind of sad story though, of when we first moved back to Michigan and we're driving down Hall Road and saw a bumper sticker that said honk if you love Jesus. So we honked and thought this is gonna be great, and they gave us the the one-finger salute, the the middle finger salute, and we were just like, Well, welcome to Michigan, right? This is this is how we do this. But you guys can understand you guys can understand that frustration and that challenge of not everyone who wears a cross around their neck is really committed to Christ. And the problem that this creates is twofold. It creates a group of people that in some way, shape, or form think that they're heading down the right path when in fact they may not be. They think that by claiming to be Christian or identifying as Christian that somehow that may make them saved, but that doesn't isn't what makes a person saved. And then the other problem that this creates is that this really gives a bad name and reputation to the name of Christ, doesn't it? To have people who claim the name of Christ, but then aren't actually saved and born again or made alive by Christ, it really hurts the cause of Christ.

INTRODUCTION

So what does it really mean to be a Christian? What does it really mean to be a Christian? And in today's passage that we're going to study at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, we're going to learn about this basic call that Jesus gives to every single person who's a follower of Christ and how that relates to our lives. So if you guys would, let's stand together in honor of the reading of God's word, and these verses will be on the screen for us as well, but Matthew chapter twenty-eight, verses sixteen through twenty. Hear the word of the Lord.

SCRIPTURE READING - MATTHEW 28:16-20 ESV

"Now the eleven 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.”

PRAYER FOR THE MESSAGE

And if you would if you join me in prayer. God, thank you again for this moment. And I pray that we'd be willing to just pause and quiet ourselves. each person that's here, just go ahead and take a moment to just be quiet before God. This holy creator God even angels bow to and worship. What should our response be? God please humble us before you this morning. Please give us eyes of faith. Help us see eternal realities. God help us to praise you and to worship you. Thank you so much for this time. We can't thank you enough for your mercy and grace toward us. Please be with each person, minister to each heart. God, I'm so glad. I'm so thankful for each person that's here or maybe watching online. They're very precious to you. So God please teach us now and work in our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

MESSAGE

You can be seated. So as Rosalie and Abram reminded us, the Bible's divided into two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament begins with four books of the Bible that are called the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And these are four eyewitness accounts from different eyewitnesses who witnessed the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And at the end of the book of Matthew, this is already after Jesus' amazing perfect life. This is after all the miracles. This is after his brutal crucifixion on the cross. And it's also after his miraculous resurrection. And so Jesus tells his disciples, the eleven who are still with him, to go to Galilee and to meet him there at a certain place. So Jesus meets them there and he gives them this what we call the great commission. He gives his final instructions to his disciples before he then ascends back to heaven and then sends the Holy Spirit.

You guys know, right, that a person's last words are really important. Now, all of Jesus' words are really important. But if someone's gonna give last words, we need to pay attention to what those last instructions are. So Jesus gives these instructions to his disciples, and there's just a couple of quick observations about what we see, what from what we read. I love the fact that Jesus appears to them. I don't want us to take that for granted, but I I love the heart of God that God desires to reveal himself to his people. That God desires to make himself known. And other people may argue differently, but that's what the Bible teaches us, that God desires to make himself known. And then it says that some doubted. I personally am encouraged by that.

If you look at what it says in verse 17:

“And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.”

But Jesus still gives them instructions anyway. He still calls them to follow him, he still commissions them anyway, and that's encouraging to me. There are times when I doubt. And I'm grateful that God has mercy and grace toward doubters. And then Jesus commissions them. It's known again as the great commission that he gives them this commission to go and to make disciples. He commissions them to go and share the good news. And basically the way this is arranged is as you are going, as you are going about your life, you are called to share the good news.

So one of the things that drives me, that I've shared a number of times, is the thought in my mind of sitting on or lying on my deathbed and looking back over my life. That I don't want to have any regrets. I don't mean like in a YOLO kind of way, all right? I mean like in a god-honoring, Christ-centered way. I don't want to look back at my life and and realize that I've wasted my life I want to get every ounce that I can squeeze every ounce that I can in serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's a man by the name of John Piper. He wrote a book called Don't Waste Your Life. This is a must-read. If you haven't read Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. Put it on your list. But he said this in his book. He said:

“Remember, you have one life, that's all. You were made for God. Don't waste it. Again, this connects with what we talked about last week: that that the gospel of the good news is not meant to simply culminate in your get out of jail free card, but that God then commissions you or gives you a purpose to serve him with your life.”

Another man that lived this way, his name was C.T. Studd. Again, favorite name ever. C.T. Stud. He was on track to be a professional cricketer And he famously said this in a poem that he wrote. He said:

“Only one life 'twill soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.”

See, this is the call of a Christian. That Christianity is not simply a get out of jail free card, but it is a I live my life for Jesus because he gave his life for me. And then this commission that he gives is for all nations. This message is to go to the ends of the earth By which we must be saved. That's the message. So I want to talk for just a few moments, a couple basic things from this passage. What does it mean to be a Christian?

So, number one, to be a Christian means that you're on mission. To be on mission. Christians are on mission. Look at verse 19.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”

So what are we on mission to do as Christians? We're on mission to make to spread the word, to make disciples. The word disciple in this text is from the Greek word mathe teo. You're like, oh, that's what I thought it was. I was pretty sure that's what it was. I was thinking that. it means learner, it means disciple, it means to be a follower of another's doctrine. I I found this definition, this expanded definition, really helpful from the complete word study dictionary. Don't get bogged down in the weeds of these different Greek words, but just pay attention to the definition. So matheteo must be distinguished from the verb matheo or math monthano, like of course, which simply means to learn without any attachment to the teacher who teaches.

So you can learn things from somebody with no attachment or connection to that teacher at all. Make sense? But then the definition of disciple is further than that. So Mateo means not only to learn but to become attached to one's teacher and to become his follower in doctrine and conduct of life. That's what disciple means. That you not only learn good things from Jesus, but that you follow Jesus. It's what it means to be a Christian or a disciple.

There's another great book I'd recommend by Kyle Eidelman called Not a Fan. The subtitle is What Does It Mean to Really Follow Jesus? And in his book, he uses this perfect illustration that there's a difference between being a fan of someone and being a follower of someone. Now I know that that term those terms get confusing in our day and age when we say like I have X number of followers on social media.

Anyway. But if I could ask, Kyle, would you mind coming up real quick? You sat in the hot seat this morning. Come on up. Come on up. Give Kyle a hand. Yeah, hop up. Alright, so this is what you get for sitting in the front row, right? But you'll get a fifty evident bucks later on, we'll give that to you. But we'll pr print that thing like it's paper. But anyway, not sure if that's the right phrase. So just pretend for a second like you're a fan of me. Which I'm sure you are. Like I'm sure, you know, like why wouldn't you be a fan of mine? But so so he can be a fan of mine and he can just say, like, yeah, I think Josh is a great guy and you know I'm on board. Like I'm team Josh, like I'm a fan of his. And so you just stay over there for a second. So I could be over here and he could be you know, like waving to me. You go ahead and wave to me real quick. Hey, how's it going? How's it going? and he can be my my fan, right? A fan of mine. And this is the way that many people treat Jesus. That I'm a fan of his. He taught good things, like awesome. I'm team Jesus. Like I'm a fan of his. They might even wear a cross on their necklace and then you know around the neck, or they might claim to be a Christian, but it's a completely different thing to be a follower of someone.

So this is gonna get weird, but you just follow stay like right by me, okay? So like no matter where I go, like Okay, okay. Alright, I just wanna make sure. Just wanna make sure Okay, that was that was my fault. I made that really weird, but anyway. So I felt like I was being chased by somebody. but that's what it means to be a disciple, to be a Christian, is that we literally follow Jesus. That we listen to his teaching, we you know live our lives based on his patterns and rhythms and the way that he lived his life. That's what that's the difference between being a fan and being a follower.

Okay, you good go ahead and have a seat. Thank you. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you. That's what it means to be a Christian. I'm a follower of Jesus. The word Christian, you may know this, the word Christian means little Christ. And it was first used as a derogatory term for those who were following Jesus. We find this in Acts 11, 25 to 26 on the screen. It says:

“So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”

So they were making fun of them. Oh, you're just a little Christ. I was like, yeah, that's right. That's what I'm trying to do. Awesome. And then we find later on that that that term, that that name or that, that description became a badge of honor. And 1 Peter 4:16 says:

“Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name."

So I can understand that in some ways we might not want to identify as Christian because of the bad reputation that those who claim to be Christians that aren't living like Christ. But Christian is a biblical term. And so we want to define it biblically and not abandon it. So I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm a disciple. I am a Christian. And you're not only called to be a disciple as a follower of Jesus, but you're also called to make disciples. So God, I love this. God not only gives you salvation through Jesus Christ, but then he calls you and invites you as a follower of Christ to be on mission for him to share the good news. Isn't that awesome? I just think that's amazing.

So in that same book, John Piper also said this:

“The greatest cause in the world is joyfully rescuing people from hell, meeting their earthly needs, and making them glad in God, and doing it with a kind, serious pleasure that makes Christ look like the treasure that he is.”

Isn't that awesome? It's a great thing. God has called us as Christians not just to claim the name of Christ, but to dedicate, give our lives to live on mission for Christ. Amen, church.

Alright, number two. Number two is that Christians are baptized. Christians are baptized. Look at verse 19 again.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”

What's the very next thing? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So I don't know if you've considered it this way before or not, but Jesus commands baptism for those who are his followers. If you're a follower of Jesus, you are to demonstrate your faith through baptism. And baptism isn't just something that you do if you're a super Christian, as if there was a category called super Christian. Baptism is for all of those who have been made alive in Jesus Christ. That's important we understand baptism doesn't save you, it doesn't save a person, but it is the first response when someone puts their faith and trust in Christ.

So let me just tell you my quick story. I grew up in a Christian home in the booming metropolis of Port Huron, Michigan. And loved it there. Grew up as a pastor's kid, was at church a lot. Our church had a gymnasium, so as often as I could, I was running around the gym playing basketball and everything that I could. That's one of the perks of being a pastor's kid. I remember hearing the good news, hearing the gospel from the time I was really little. And by the time I was around five, I felt the conviction of my own sin and I remember praying with my mom to ask God to forgive me of my sin and to invite Jesus to come and make his home in my heart. And I remember praying that, I remember having this overwhelming sense of peace and joy that my sins had been cleansed, like we sang earlier, that paid in full, that Jesus had done that in my life. And but I was terrified to be up in front of people. And so baptism was the furthest thing from what I wanted to do. And I was waiting, I felt like God would at some point part the skies like that moment we all want for want for you know from God that the angels would sing and I would know Josh this is your sign you should get baptized. But it was only through going through a baptism class, that I realized that I have my sign.

It's verse 19. Jesus said:

“Baptize them.”

Jesus commands believers to be baptized. So I didn't need you know angels singing. I may have wanted that. I didn't need to get to a certain place where I was perfect, quote unquote, in my relationship with God. That that right away, as soon as a person gives their life to Christ, they should be In Acts chapter 18, verse 8 says, And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. Believe and be baptized. Baptism symbolizes your union with Christ. It represents your new life in Jesus. It represents cleansing from sins. Jesus commanded it.

And so out of obedience to him, so it took me until age 19 before I finally said, all right, I I should do this. I should be baptized. And it was a really cool thing. My dad was the one who baptized me. side note, he's coming here to preach in a couple weeks. I'm excited. Got my dad to come. It's been a while, so I don't get applause when you I I'm pre I Hey guys, guess what? I'm preaching next Sunday. Yeah, okay, okay, there we go. You guys are all fans of mine, that's awesome. So oh man. But it was a really cool thing, and just so glad. But God calls or Jesus commands those who are followers of Christ, those who are Christians, to be baptized.

And sometimes we're good at coming up with all sorts of excuses not to be baptized. There's all kinds of reasons why people maybe you don't want to be up in front of people. Maybe it's embarrassing. Maybe you don't feel ready, quote unquote, to be baptized, but I want to encourage you to press through all those excuses. There's nothing like obeying Christ.

it just so happens we have a baptism class coming up August seventeenth here at the church from six thirty until eight. And I would encourage you if you have questions about baptism, if you have not been baptized, to sign up for that class and to learn more about what we believe about baptism and what it means to take that step. We will help you. We want to remove every obstacle that might prevent you from being obedient to God in this step. And us, we want to encourage you to do that. Don't wait until you're 19 or 59 or whatever it is that you would go ahead and do that today.

So if you're a believer and you've not been baptized according to Scripture, then you are in disobedience to God. My question is: are you okay with that? And I hope that if you're truly alive in Christ, that you're not okay with that, that that causes some some dissonance in your life, that you would seek to please the Lord by being obedient to that call to proclaim your faith publicly through baptism.

Then lastly, number three. So we see Christians are on mission. Number two, Christians are baptized, and number three, Christians obey Jesus. Look at verse 20:

“Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you, and behold, I'm with you to the very end of the age.”

So teaching them to observe. Some translations say teaching them to obey. So part of the job and responsibility of the church is to teach, and part of the responsibility of disciples or Christians is to learn and not just learn, but to put into practice what you're learning. them to observe or teaching them to keep or teaching them to obey. What this tells us is that being a follower of Jesus Christ isn't just about believing things, it's also about demonstrating your faith through obedience. True belief is shown in behavior. The good news is that even the ability to obey is the help of the Holy Spirit as well. And I just want to encourage you that there's great joy in obedience. That's spoken like a true dad, right? Like a true pastor, hopefully.

Another book that I'll commend to you is this little book. it's by Thomas Chalmers called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. I'll just tell you the brief cliff notes point of the book. Have you ever I guess I'll start this way, have you ever tried to fight against sin by just simply saying, don't do that, right? Like we know that we shouldn't do some things, but what he argues in the book, which I think is very true, is that as you follow Christ, and as God makes you alive by His Spirit, He begins to give you a new heart and new desire, so that your desire is no longer for that sin, but you have a greater desire which is for Jesus. So that what should happen is that ultimately your love for Christ should outweigh or outpace your desire to sin. Does this make sense? So that's no longer about like don't do that, don't do that because that's not going to last for very long, but it's about I I don't want to disappoint Jesus I don't want to. I want to live to glorify God and that's a greater desire of mine than the desire that my flesh has to do this thing. So that's what he argues in his book. And there isn't even greater joy when you choose to follow Christ in obedience. I hope you can I hope you know that feeling. I hope you know what that's like. To know that you're feeling nudged to be obedient to God in some way, and your flesh is like, I don't want to do it, but then you obey. There is great joy in obedience to know that God is good and his commands are good, and he has good, perfect love towards you. When you choose to obey because you love him, there's great joy in that.

So let me ask you a couple questions. Are you living on mission for Christ? If you claim the name of Christ, are you living on mission for Christ? Second question: if you're a Christian, have you been baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ. And then number three, are you walking in obedience to Christ in all things? Are you walking in obedience to Christ in all things? This is what it means to be a Christian. You're on mission, you've been baptized, and you're obedient to Christ. it's ironic to me that people claim to be Christians, but yet don't desire to obey Christ. It doesn't make any sense.

When I was growing up, I had a friend who had a really dry sense of humor and he told me a joke one time that has always stuck with me. I just think it's ironic or paradoxical, but he said, you know, in America, we drive on parkways and we park on driveways. Just think about that for a moment. You're welcome. And he said on Labor Day, everybody takes the day off. Nobody works anyway. along those same lines, I think it's hilarious that the outdoor mall has valet parking. Now just bear with me for a minute. If you do that, more power to you. That's there's no judgment. But I just think it's hilarious that people are like, well, I don't want to walk that far from my car to the stores, but then they walk around outside. Anyway, I just think it's really funny. Again, if you're do that, go for it. That's great. But it to me it's very paradoxical, it's very ironic for somebody to say, yes, I am a follower of Christ and that they don't actually follow Christ. It doesn't make any sense.

So when I was in grade school, probably somewhere between third and fifth grade. well in third grade, my teacher saw me in the back of the classroom squinting really hard to see the board. And she said, I think you might need glasses. So in third grade, I became a glasses wearer. This is a picture of me from rough did I hear somebody go aw? Yeah. I don't know. This is a picture of me from roughly that era. And so one day in the hallway we were all lined up for something and there’s another boy in line and we started getting into a little bit of a tussle and I don't know what we were arguing over maybe like our place in line or something and this was gonna come to blows so we were kind of standing toe to toe and we you know started fighting a little bit and he he said the line he said I would never hit somebody with glasses on. You know, he's a man of character, right? He's like I have principles, I have principles. And so I had that dramatic moment when I grabbed the side of my glasses and like what now? You know, like anyway, that's how I remember it. That's how I remember it, but and basically saying, you know, let's remove that obstacle. What are you gonna do? And long story short, we did not fight. I was like, no, but no, we're not gonna fight, we're not gonna fight. But I remember I just remember that moment, that feeling of that moment of decision. Right? That moment of decision. I'm either going to back down or I'm going to stay on my ground.

Some of us, I think, as it relates to our relationship with Christ or the idea that we might be a Christian, you need to make a decision in your faith. And your walk with Christ. It's time for you to decide. It's time for you to either be all in or not be in at all. Are you a Christian? It's time for some of you to drive that stake again. It's time for some of you to get back on track and get walking again with the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, we don't want to get to the end of our lives and look back and realize like we've that we've wasted it. It's time to go all in again for Christ. And what God promises or what Jesus promises is not that life will be easier, but he does promise that it will be infinitely better. I wish he'd promise that it'd be easier. I'll be honest with you. But he doesn't promise that, but he does promise it will be infinitely better. And then I don't know if you guys caught it, but that very last part of verse 20. This promise is so precious to us. And it should be. Jesus said:

“And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

It doesn't get any better than that promise right there. Let's pray.

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, I thank you for these few moments to just be re reflecting on your word and what it tells us, and I thank you for your word as a true north and as the truth. I thank you that your word is living and active. I thank you that, Holy Spirit, that you are at work in our hearts. And you know where each person has maybe gone off track and gotten casual or cold hearted in their relationship with you, God. I pray that you would draw all of us back, as we sang earlier, that worship would turn into revival, that we would be fully committed to Jesus. Not just fans, but fully committed followers of Christ. God, for those who need to take steps, I pray that you'd give them courage and boldness to be obedient by faith. God, for those who don't know you as their Lord and Savior, I pray that you'd be bringing in a realization that you are our only hope and you are our hope. God thank you for giving Jesus, thank you for giving your life for us. For making payment on the cross for our sins. Thank you that we are saved by grace through faith. That in Christ we are washed clean. We are made whole. We are given great riches in glory. God, please be with us in the days of our lives when we know that they're not easy. Keep our eyes fixed on you. Continue to fill us with your joy and your peace, and thank you for the promise that you will never leave us or forsake us. You will be with us always to the very end of the age. Thank you for the gift and the promise of your Holy Spirit, the comfort and reassurance of brothers and sisters in Christ and a mission to live for. God help us all to see that we have something to live for. And I pray God that you continue to do your work. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.