Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church—traditional services—7/29/01 

by Gregory S. Kaurin, associate pastor for spiritual care and development

 

Text: Matthew 28:19-20, & Colossians 2:6-15—

                                                    

The Sermon--

Therefore

 

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What an enormous challenge in those gospel verses, isn't it? -- "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."  What a challenge!

This Great Commission: “commission” means “sent with.”  And a “commission” can mean that you are sent with a mission or message, or that you are sent alongside someone else.  It’s a challenge, but it’s a commanded challenge.  It is not offered or suggested.  It is commanded.

How can we obey? …when it’s so huge?  One pastor said that it seems like a parent who tells her child to paint the house, but tells him to do it “without a ladder…and using only this little toothbrush.” 

The challenge, or I should be clear, the commandment, of this commission is dropped in our lap.  We are to take the great richness of being adopted into the family of God, his heavenly children, and we are to share that with others, drawing them in so that they, too, can become brothers and sisters in faith.  One of us.  One with us.  Commissioned.  Sent with.

Before I go on, I want to be clear with what we are sent to others.

 

The basics are there in our second lesson from Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  Look again: “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him.  Don’t let yourselves get distracted by the words and minds and elemental powers of the world.”

Paul wasn’t saying, “Stop thinking and exploring.”  He was saying, “Stay rooted in and trust this basic message: You were buried with Christ in your baptism; you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.  And just when you might have been judged guilty and dead for your sins, God made you alive; God forgave us all our trespasses; God erased the record that stood against us; God set this record aside; God nailed it to the cross.”

Do you hear all the past tenses in that passage?  “Forgave,” “erased,” “set aside,” “nailed.”  Paul described what God did for us.  That is how we tell others.  What God did for them.

 

Listen again: we are taking the great richness of being adopted into the family of God.  We are his heavenly children!  This commission is inviting others to share in what we believe, to share in what we have, to tell others what God is already offering them. 

In our gospel lesson, Jesus was telling the disciples, “It is finished…it has been accomplished: Therefore, go, and tell everyone.  Make disciples.”

Our Mission Statement at Messiah Lutheran Church puts it this way:  “In response to God’s love…”  (And every one of these words means something.)  “In response to God’s love [therefore], we are called to lead all to Christ.”

Not only did Jesus commission us.  We have commissioned ourselves.  It’s huge; I almost couldn’t believe the willingness we all showed in adopting this Statement, and that demanding first response: “We are called to lead all to Christ.”

 

Do we actually hear that?  Or, do we still have all our old convenient selective hearing?

 

“Jimmy, take out the garbage.” 

…No response.

“Jimmy, take out the garbage.”

…[silence]

“Jimmy, would you like some dessert?”

“Sure, coming, mom.”

“Take out the garbage first.”

“…What?”

 

Selective hearing: 

 

God says: “Worship me.”

“Okay, sure God.  At least every convenient Sunday, we’ll be there God, and even some un-convenient ones!”

 

“Help others.”

“Okay, God, we’ll be nice.  And especially when it’s obvious and safe, we’ll lend others a helping hand.”

 

“Share your possessions.”

“…Ummm… Okay, God.  We’ll share—maybe a tenth, like you say, or maybe 5, or 2.8 percent.  And, we’ll help out with church programs.  We’ll paint, or maybe chaperone a youth event.  And for every potluck, God, you can count on my 3-bean salad!”

 

“Tell others.”

…[silence]

“Tell others.”

“…Huh?  Oh, …were you talking to us, God?”

 

“Go and make disciples.”  Was he talking to us?  “In response to God’s love, we are called”—not some other church community—but us, you and me, right here at Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA.  We have a call from a God.  And God promises that he has and will provide us with all that we need to answer it.

 

I want to remind you of the disciple named Andrew. He was a typical, hardworking Jew.  John the Baptist introduced Andrew to Jesus.  After spending the day with Jesus, by nightfall, Andrew was hooked.

Do you know what Andrew's reaction was?  The Bible tells us, "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon Peter and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah.’"

And Simon Peter became one of the greatest leaders of the disciples, one from whom the leaders of the Church catholic claim their spiritual lineage.  The Keys, the Rock of the Church, all came because this fellow, Andrew, told someone else about this great treasure that had fallen into his lap. 

And he did it without fancy speech.  He didn't have 10-week course in evangelism. He had no brochures or devotional booklets in his pocket.  He didn’t wear the right shirt and tie, or knock on the right doors. 

He was just excited, and wanted his friend and brother to know.  In answer to our human and widespread deep spiritual longing.  Here was the one who could fill it.  Here was Jesus.  All Andrew did was say, "Simon, you've got to see him."  Jesus took care of the rest.

 

 Philip.  The disciple Philip, Jesus pointed his finger at him and said, "I want you.  Follow me."  No resistance.  Philip followed him.  In time, Philip became one of the leading teachers and preachers of the ancient church. 

This past week, our Vacation Bible Scholars learned how Philip taught and led an Ethiopian eunuch to Baptism and faith in Christ. 

But much earlier, just after Jesus had called him, Philip ran to find his friend Nathanael.  "Nate, you gotta come. The Prophet. We've found the Prophet. Right here, Jesus of Nazareth." After some coaxing, a touch of Jesus’ miracles, and Nathanael was on his knees.  Philip spoke up and told Nathanael, but it was Christ who confronted and changed him.

Jesus, while he sat by a well, once spoke to a Samaritan woman, a woman who had gone through a string of relationships.  Five husbands had ditched her, and the man with whom she was now, couldn't even be bothered to marry her.  She was an item used and discarded time and again by the boys in town.  Jesus reached out to her with compassion and hope, broke every social rule in the way he spent time and spoke with her.

What was her response?  She forgot why she came to the well, left her water jug, and told her friends, "You've got to come and see this man. He's incredible. Could He be THE answer for our lives?"

 

Do you see the pattern in these stories?  It's the basic—and it’s the whole—secret to the growth of the Christian Church.  It’s the true secret for real growth in any and every Christian congregation.   True growth: People meet Jesus.  Bam! Their lives are changed.  They rise up and bring others.  Bam! Their lives are also changed.  And then they bring others.

 

Speaking of Vacation Bible School.  Do you know who the greatest evangelizers in the world are?  Do you know who invite and bring more people to church and church events more often than anyone else?  Our children!

Take a lesson from the children of our church.  And they do it without fancy speech.  They don’t take 10-week courses in evangelism.   They have no brochures or devotional booklets in their pockets.  A number of times this past week, a Bible schooler came up to me with excitement, “Pastor Greg, Pastor Greg, I’m bringing my friend with me tomorrow!”  Better than any of us, they hear and respond to God’s call to lead others to Christ!

 

Spreading the Word.  How do we do it?  Another pastor was preaching about the commission, and he said it this way, “We spread the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and leave the results to God.”

Spread the gospel – And leave the results to God.  Just like in the Bible, those who brought their friends to Jesus didn't have to force them to change their lives. They just brought them. Jesus took over from there.

Leave the results to God.  The idea that we live, speak and interact in a web, is much older than any www.whosawhatsits.com!  Many have realized that, with all the people we meet, speak to, see, brush by, and glance at, we live on a web of influence where what we do and say can affect others in ways we never intended or dreamed. 

Things that you have said and done have probably affected people you’ve never even met.  Like a spider web: strum one little strand and the whole web quivers.

When you mention your church, or your faith, to others, you cannot know how God will use it.  We would worry ourselves silly about how to invite, what words to use, whether we might offend them, what their reaction might be.  You cannot know the exact formula, or perfect words and inflections.  It’s a whole lot easier—and less formal—than we make it out to be.  Invite.  Invite them to a social event, a Bible study, something. 

…Say something.  And then, relax.  Let it go with a whispered internal prayer.  Trust that in that moment, on your breath is the Holy Spirit, and he is a whole lot bigger and more effective than you are.

Spread the gospel. And leave the results to God.

 

Remember Jesus' words in Matthew 28?  Yes, He gives the command – “Go and make disciples.”  But he begins by saying, “Therefore.”

Contained in that “therefore” is the greatest assurance.  Jesus Christ said that all authority had been handed to him.  Raised from the dead, this Christ was Lord of Death and Life.  Baptized into his name, we were buried by his death and raised by his victory. Forgiveness is ours.  Death was conquered.  Our death, my death, your death is conquered.  And the entire kingdom is ours, all because he said so when he said: “Therefore.”

 

This incredible treasure is plopped into your lap; you are adopted into the family of God forever.  Therefore, therefore, tell it, share it.  No fear.  He says he’s with us to the end.  Therefore, no fear.  Amen.

 

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