What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 8

Matthew 28:16-20.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday March 6, 2022.

We will finish our series today talking about sharing Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.

Everything that we do as a Christian should revolve around the worship of God.  It is a whole-life worship that demonstrates the worth and value of God when we CONNECT to Jesus and his people through an authentic relationship.  We also demonstrate His worth and value when we GROW spiritually through intentionally becoming like Jesus.  Again, we demonstrate His worth and value when we SERVE selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that God has given us.  Lastly, we demonstrate His worth when we SHARE Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.

Last week, we saw the passion side of sharing Jesus with others.  How could I not share Jesus, and who could keep me silent when he has set me free from a life of begging and being spiritually lame, like the man at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3.  No one was going to shut that man up short of putting him in prison and executing him, and then his death would witness even more loudly!

Today, we will look at the command and duty side of sharing Jesus.  Passion is not always enough to keep us sharing Christ.  We can get angry, wounded, or hurt.  In those moments when passion is low, the command of Christ is there to challenge our flesh.  I may not feel like it, but the Lord has given me a command, and I do not want to disappoint my Lord.

Let’s look at our passage.

Jesus uses his authority to give us a command

We talked about this last week, but we should always keep in mind the Daniel 7 passage where God judges the empires of the world, and yet, he then gives the kingdoms of the world to a Son of Man character who represents Jesus.  This Son of Man receives comes to the Ancient of Days riding on the clouds of heaven.  This imagery helps us see why Jesus purposefully used this title of himself.  Yes, it is a phrase that can essentially mean a human.  However, this phrase also had a connotation that reflected a mystery human who can ride the clouds like Yahweh, and will rule over the nations.  Many of the Jews understood this character as the Messiah.  We must never let this pompous, bloviating world take our eyes off of the fact that Jesus is the King of heaven and earth, and we will be judged on whether or not we were faithful to him.

All of that is to say that Jesus has left us with a purpose and a Great Mission, which is also called the Great Commission.  As we connect, grow, and serve, we are enabled to reach those who do not know Jesus with the Good News.

He could rapture us up to heaven the second that we believe, but that is not how God operates.  There is a spiritual battle for the souls of people happening on this earth.  Jesus shows us that God is not standing by silent.  We never become more like him than when we rise up to fight those principalities that hold humans in bondage through their own sinfulness (how sick the evil one is!).

It is easy to make the focus in this passage to be on the word “go,” but to do so is to miss the main point.  The main verb is “make disciples,” and it is modified by a phrase that explains just who we are to disciple, “all nations.”  Just so we are not confused, ask yourself who the subject of this command is.  Yes, it is his disciples, but not just those back then.  Jesus was to be with us to the end of the age, and therefore the mission is ongoing to the end of the age.  Since those original disciples are no longer with us, it is clear that Jesus intends this mission to be passed down from one generation of disciples to the next.

So, what does it mean to make disciples?  To make a disciple starts with being a disciple yourself.  We must become students of Jesus who are being transformed by the life and word of Christ.  This is the foundation of sharing the bad news and the Good News with others.  God’s Word is our powerful weapon because it is truth, and it is spiritual power energized by God’s Holy Spirit.  In essence, becoming a disciple of Jesus is another way of saying that we have connected to him as our Teacher and to his other disciples.  This means that we are a community of people who study and learn of Jesus.  Be must not become something other than that.

Jesus did not tell them to only reach other Jews, or any particular race, culture, etc.  The Gospel is to be taken to every nation as the Holy Spirit leads us.  We disciple those who respond to the drawing of the Holy Spirit no matter what their background, their sin, or their culture.  Not everyone fulfills the same task however.  There is a Sending, Giving, and Going aspect to this Mission.  Those who Go need a group behind them that are Sending them by continually praying and providing a support system.  Yet, we should be careful of drawing to strong of a distinction between those three aspects.  Technically, we are all called to go, but not always to go across the world to a completely different culture.  We should all be a prayer support for other Christians who are sharing Christ even if a person is a missionary. Can a missionary support another missionary in prayer and funds as needed?  Of course, they can!  So, we need to keep our eye on making disciples whether that is around the world or across the street.  All of us are working together in order to make disciples around the world.

Now, let’s look at the going component.  Going is necessary as I have already alluded.  We have to become a people who are learning to go to others.  I have to learn to step outside of myself, my comfort zone, in order to share Jesus with others.  Acts 1:8 gives us a picture of concentric circles moving out from Jerusalem.  “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

All of us go, just like our Lord who left the great halls of heaven in order to go to earth and battle for our souls.  We must be led by the Holy Spirit to go out from a life that is only focused on ourselves.  However, it takes greater sacrifice to reach the opposite side of the world.  Thus, God calls some people to be missionaries.  They will have to travel to areas in which they do not know the customs, and the language.  They will have much to learn.  They will need supporters back home who will pray for them and give money to support them.  Yes, this can become a racket if we let it.  Thus, believers at every part of this must become a people of prayer responding to the Holy Spirit.  We see this in the New Testament as many supported Paul in his evangelistic endeavors so that he could take the Gospel into the area of what we call Turkey today, and onto the European continent through Greece.

Another phrase that Jesus adds is that we are to baptize those who become disciples.  Jesus has them continue this practice as a symbol or sign that a person has joined the community of the disciples of Jesus.

There are some who become overly worked up over what is said when a person is baptized.  This is not a mystical ritual that must be done just right in order to “work.”  Rather, it is the response of a person’s soul to the Spirit of God.  This is what makes it effective.  Jesus emphasizes that disciples are being baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Yet, in other places it doesn’t use this “formula,” as some call it.  As I have said, I do not believe that Jesus is giving us a “formula.”  To connect to the Father is to connect to the Son and the Holy Spirit.  To respond to one is to respond to the others.  Yet, this process of becoming a disciple is operated by each of them in different ways.

Jesus then emphasizes that they are to teach the newer disciples.  This connects to the earlier make disciples, but it is more explicit.  We don’t just hand a bible to new believers and leave them on their own.  The older disciples are to teach the newer disciples, not in a sense of being between them and Jesus.  The Spirit of Christ is the ultimate teacher, but Jesus wants the mature disciples to come alongside of the immature.

One might ask, “Isn’t the Word of God and the Holy Spirit sufficient?”  Sure, they are completely enough for any disciple, but it is not a question of sufficiency.  God has provided a community that new believers enter, and He also gives a command through the Lord Jesus for us to help each other.  Thus, we surrender to the will of God rather than lecture Him on the theoretical sufficiency of the Word and the Spirit.  All disciples need to keep their eyes upon Jesus and learn from him as he uses others to teach us.

Just like God is teaching us to battle the spiritual forces arrayed against His people and those who are lost, so He is teaching us to become spiritual parents that help His new children mature spiritually.  Spiritual maturity can be defined as simply learning to obey the commands of Christ through an intimate relationship with Jesus.  Thus, I can be a follower of Jesus for over 30 years and still be infantile spiritually.  Of course, it is not possible to be the essence of maturity in one day, but some grow into maturity much faster than others.  Of course, we should restrain ourselves from judgments in this area because we cannot see the heart, and some who appear mature may not be what they seem under pressure.

One last thought on this teaching issue is that you don’t need an official title or position to do it.  We are all supposed to become like Christ who was a teacher.  Thus, we are all to teach even while we are students to those whom God brings to us.  No human teacher has ever arrived.  They are still learning themselves.  In fact, I believe that you never learn more about Christ than when you are trying to teach others, that is if your heart is open to the Holy Spirit.

Well, that’s the mission.  It is still the mission of Christians today, whether you have been saved for decades or days.  Yet, Jesus ends this with the encouragement that he will be with us even to the end of the age.  He has not left us alone. This is more than a human saying that they are thinking of us.  Jesus is present with us today as if he was standing here in our church, or sitting there right beside you.  When you are in the most difficult place, remember that Jesus is with you.  He will give you the words; he will give you passion; he will give you wisdom, strength and courage! 

The enemy is raging against God’s people in our society today- all over the world in fact.  Yet, until God calls us home, He is not finished yet, and so, neither are we.  Let’s go forward with our Joshua, who is Jesus, and know that he will be with us no matter what we face.  Then we will connect lost sinners to the abundant life that can only be found in King Jesus!

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What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 7

Acts 4:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday February 27, 2022.

We continue looking at this question of what does God really want from me.  We have talked about Connecting to Jesus and his followers, Growing to be like Jesus, and Serving one another like Jesus served us. 

Now, we turn our attention to our final purpose, and that has to do with Sharing Jesus with those who do not know him.  Again, we do so to connect them to Christ, and as an outflow of our living connection to Christ.  It is a part of our spiritual growth when we share the good news about Jesus with others.  Also, we are serving people who are spiritually lost when we do this.  Yet, it is unique enough to deserve its own place as another purpose that God has for us.

We should share Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.  Some of those people barely know anything about Jesus, and they often have misconceptions about him.  Others will say that they are Christian, but they are clueless about what that really means.  This wide range of people who are spiritually lost is very diverse, and the believer needs to be led by the Holy Spirit in sharing Christ with each one.  No one tactic will “work” with them all.

Sharing Jesus involves more than a message, or a downloading of information.  The message of who Jesus is, what he has done, and what he is going to do, has ramifications for every person on this planet.  They really do need to know the information.  However, we are more than people with information.  We have come into relationship with the one who is presently changing us.  Thus, we share a message and the powerful effect of having Jesus in our lives.  In short, we share Jesus himself with them in a spiritual way that they will not understand at first.

Of course, this needs to be a passionate endeavor.  If I am truly in relationship with Christ, then I am will be challenged to connect, grow, serve, and finally share Jesus, by the Spirit of God working within me.  This is the work of God’s Spirit stirring us up to do the good works that God has prepared for us to do!

Let’s look at our passage in Acts 4.

The controversy of proclaiming Jesus

It is understandable that it would be controversial to publicly proclaim that the leaders of Israel had unjustly executed Jesus.  However, Peter and John are not just crying out publicly for justice against an unjust government.  At its core, Christianity is a call for all men everywhere to repent, be they an individual who has a low position within society, or be they part of a criminal cabal that rules a nation (even the whole earth).

Let’s dig a little deeper into the background of our passage.

This event happens about seven weeks after the crucifixion of Jesus.  Peter and John had been preaching under the large portico called Solomon’s Colonnade.  It is sometimes called a porch, but it wasn’t attached to any building.  It was a series of columns with a roof that gave covered access to the courts surrounding the temple.  This preaching was giving a stir itself as many started to believe them.

Acts 3 records an event that shocked the temple crowds.  There was a man who had been lame since birth.  People would bring him to one of the gates at the temple compound so that he could beg for alms.  Of course, this would be a target rich environment because the people are generally coming there for spiritual reasons.  This man would have been a regular fixture that everyone would recognize.  “Oh, that’s that blind man who begs by Gate Beautiful.” 

This man is begging for money when Peter says to him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  Peter then took him by the hand and the man was able to stand up, start walking, and even started leaping and running.  This is a miracle on many levels.  It caused such a stir and a crowd that Peter tells the crowd that this is done by the power of Jesus of Nazareth, and that they need to repent and believe on him.  Simultaneously, the commotion draws the attention of those in charge of the temple.  Peter and John are arrested and held overnight.

In a sense, the foundational human authority on this planet begins within each one of us.  You have authority over what you think, say, and do.  Peter had faced the truth about Jesus, and the truth about his own failure to stand with him.  The failure in that moment represented a greater failure of Peter to love God with his whole being.  Only such a person can then call others to face the truth about their own actions in the face of what God has decreed.  Without Christ, we are all rebels against the Creator-King of the Universe.  The Gospel is at once a sword into our heart, and a cure for our sickness.

This message of repentance sends a ripple up through the authority structures of this world, and challenges every authority (not just Israel).  You must bow the knee to Jesus, or perish as his enemy.  Verse twelve is a valuable statement of truth.  “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  This is an unyielding decree of God the Father, and the world chafes at it from the high and mighty to the low and powerless.  The reality of Jesus ruffles everyone!

We can focus on the miraculous healing of the lame man.  However, operating in the power of the Holy Spirit is more than doing miracles of healing.  Peter’s ability to challenge the people and the leaders with the blazing truth of God is itself a miracle.  His public declaration of the truth about Jesus was directly empowered by the Holy Spirit.  This is how we should operate in all that we do for Christ.  Parents must pray that God will empower them to speak and teach their children the truth of God in a powerful and God-led way.

Being responsible for a child can be intimidating in and of itself, but the challenges become greater as we scope out to where Peter finds himself that day, in front of the national leaders of Israel.  For the believer, however, this should be no different.  When you have grown spiritually to depend upon the Holy Spirit for whatever you face, then in that moment, you become like David when he faced Goliath.  He had already faced lions and bears by himself in the field.  God has prepared you for whatever moment you face, but you will still need to rely upon the power and direction of the Holy Spirit.  Whether you witness to a person on the street, or speak before Congress, the Lord will be there to help you in that moment.

The corrupt leaders of Acts 4 want to know by what authority Peter and John are doing what they are doing.  Who gives us the authority and power to call all people everywhere to repent, to call the great powers of the earth to yield and repent?  Yes, it is Jesus, but it is not us using Jesus as a poster child for holding governments accountable, or speaking truth to power.  It is me bowing the knee to the Lord of heaven and earth.  It is me agreeing with God the Father that I am guilty of a capital crime against heaven, and yet also rejoicing that He has given terms of pardon in the person and work of Jesus. 

We are all like that lame man of Acts 3 who suddenly finds that he can walk after 40 years of begging.  He was walking and leaping and praising God!  Who could shut him up?

God the Father has overruled all corrupt authorities, starting with myself.  Jesus is the Anointed King that He has installed over all authorities in heaven and on earth.  All people everywhere are under a death sentence until they flee to Jesus for shelter.  Each Christian is a person who has been set free from death by the grace of Jesus!  How can we keep silent, and who can shut us up?

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The Waiting King

Psalm 110:1; Ephesians 1:19-22; Hebrews 2:5-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 12, 2021.

We know that we are told to be patient and trust that God is waiting for the right time in order to bring this present age to an end, and to bring in the promised Kingdom Age.  Of course, this is not a waiting of inactivity.  Instead, we live our life in order to glorify God, regardless what we face, and we testify to others about the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yet, we rarely think about the fact that God has not asked us to do anything that He is not doing Himself.  Today, we are going to look at the reality that our Lord Jesus is also patiently waiting, and yet not inactive.

Let’s get into our first passage.

The now, but not yet, kingdom

Psalm 110 is a Messianic Psalm that prophesies about the coming Kingdom of Messiah.  It is quoted three unique times in the New Testament.  The first is by Jesus himself during the week leading up to the crucifixion (Matthew 22:44, and in the other synoptic Gospels).

On one hand, Jesus is pointing out this psalm to the religious leaders to silence their badgering of him.  The rabbis generally saw this psalm as messianic, but there were some cryptic aspects to it.  The Messiah is of the line of David, the ultimate Son of David who would come and restore the kingdom of God.  However, verse one has David calling the Messiah, “my Lord.”  If the Messiah is David’s offspring, in what way can he be David’s Lord?  Before we jump in with some suggestions, we should understand that the culture in the Near East was not like ours.  This would hit the religious teachers as a difficult puzzle.  There is something about this Son of David that would be so unique that David recognized him as greater than himself.  David literally says, “Yahweh [Jehovah] says to my Lord…”

The Apostle Peter also points to this verse during his sermon at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:34).  There he points out that this is what has happened with Jesus.  He was victorious over the grave, but the Father has decreed that he is to sit at His right hand.  Of course, Peter also points out that Jesus isn’t just sitting there twiddling his thumbs.  He was directly responsible for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon God’s remnant people.

The writer of Hebrews also points to this verse in Hebrews 1:13. The emphasis there is that God does not minister to angels, or serve them.  Rather, angels minister on His behalf to us.

All of these passages, point out the concept of a kingdom that was initiated in the first century after Christ’s resurrection, and yet had an aspect that wasn’t yet.  These verses picture God the Father having the Messiah sit at His right hand until his enemies are made his footstool. 

The ascension of Jesus was clearly preached as a fulfillment of this prophecy.  Where is Jesus?  He is at the right hand of the Father.  This implies a picture of participation in the rule of the Father.

One should not miss the use of the word “until” in this verse.  This sitting and waiting of the Messiah will not last forever.  This makes the phrase following “until” very important.

The phrase is until “I make your enemies your footstool.” (NKJV and ESV).  This almost sounds like Jesus does nothing and it is the Father who “makes” the enemies of Jesus his footstool.  However, there is more going on with this verb than can be seen in the translation.  I would point out that Revelation 19 does not picture Jesus setting still and the Father subduing his enemies.  Jesus clearly participates in this.  So, what about this phrase?

First, the verb is a continuous thing that is future to its writing.  It points to a time when God will be making the enemies of Christ to be under his feet.  Second of all, the verb can also mean to make in the sense of appointing or decreeing.  As we are going to see, there are ways that the enemies of Christ are already under his feet, and ways that they are not.  These can fit nicely with the sense that there is both a decreeing that happens and an enforcing of the decree.  Thus, there are ways in which this is “now, but not yet.”

There does develop a confusion over just when this “enforced” aspect of the kingdom would occur within the Church.  The early Church understood that they had spiritually joined the Kingdom of God, but that the enforcement of all things under Jesus, would not occur until he returned.  They saw themselves as warning others of a coming kingdom that they could spiritually join ahead of time by faith in Jesus.  It wasn’t until the A.D. 300’s that this began to change.  First of all, the emperor Constantine issued an edict of toleration in A.D. 313.  This gave to Christians the protection of the empire and shut down much of their persecution.  By the time we get to the 390’s, things have changed.  The emperor Theodosius was a Christian and was making paganism and its rituals a capital crime.  Historians often point to this vast change of the Roman empire as a separate kingdom (Byzantine Kingdom).  However, that is somewhat special pleading.

Over the next century, Bishop Augustine and others fueled a reinterpretation of the kingdom to fit with what they saw happening on the ground.  They still held to the believe that Jesus would come back, but now they understood the kingdom to have been handed over to the Church as Christ’s representative.  Jesus would rule over it spiritually from heaven instead of in person on earth.  The Church would march forth and bring all the enemies of Christ under the feet of Jesus in the name of the Father.  We are now at the end of 1600 years of the Church wrestling with how to make that happen. (Note: not all Christian groups adopted this modified view of the Kingdom, nor hold to it today, but it is widely prevalent). 

The patience of our Lord

Just as Christians have been called to be patient, we must see that Christ is being patient too.  We can be guilty of thinking of patience as something only we humans have to do.  God is not just choosing patience.  His nature is patient, where ours is not.  It is God’s patience with a lost world, with sinners, that we must emulate.  Similarly, the Messiah is put in a now, but not yet, situation that calls for patience.  Surely, after Jesus is resurrected, it would be the time to attack and take over the kingdom.  Yet, the Father says, “Sit at my right hand until…”  This is contra our human nature.

Let’s walk through several New Testament passages in order to get a handle on this and perhaps also unravel some of the confusion.

Ephesians 1:19-22 seems to be clear that everything is already under Christ’s feet in the 1^st Century A.D.  Verse 22 says that God “put all things under His feet…”  The Greek word used for “put” is a verb that often means “put” in the sense of appointing.  All things in heaven and on earth have been given a station that is under the feet of Christ.  Clearly not all things are choosing to submit to that “setting,” or appointing by God.

This all makes sense as early Christians were persecuted to the point of being fed to lions for Rome’s pleasure.  They were rejecting the rule of Christ.  Neither Rome nor the majority of the world came under it even in the sense of being forced into that position.  Yet, it is taught and believed in the first century that Jesus has a position that is above all powers and authority.

Now, let’s look at Hebrews 2:5-10.  This passage is a little long, but verse 5 obviously states that the time of subjection to Christ is in the “world to come.”  The Church Age had begun.  Christians were proclaiming this appointment by God the Father of His Son to the place of a cosmic Emperor.  This gave/gives room to people to choose allegiance or not without being forced.  Yet, the “until” would eventually come to an end.  Jesus would not stay in heaven forever.

In fact, verse 8 even recognizes that what is promised, and what we are seeing in this age, are at odds with each other.  “We do not see all things under his feet.”  This reminds us that part of the patience of our Lord begins with the incarnation, his suffering as a man, and now his patient waiting in heaven.  Our Savior Lord ahs not asked us to do anything that he isn’t doing himself.

So, verse 10 ends making the point that it is fitting for a suffering people to have a suffering savior.  No matter how hard you have it, it has always been hard for our Lord Jesus.  He is not absent, but is our fearless captain leading us through the suffering, the waiting, and into the joyful reward that lies on the others side.

Another passage that is important is 1 Corinthians 15:26. All of these passages have Jesus in the heavens waiting.  However, in 1 Corinthians 15:26, we are told that “the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”  This is actually pictured in Revelation 20:14, “then death and hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire.”  It is not the Church’s job to put death and hades into the Lake of Fire, but that is the path that some have put themselves on.  Notice that at least the completion of the enemies being both appointed and made to be under the feet of Christ is after his second coming.

This brings us back to today.  If God grants repentance to a large number of our society, then our nation will see great political change.  However, there is a tension here.  We can be tempted to see favorable events as a sign from God to “force” the issue of the dominion of Christ.  God help us to become like Him, patient and yet quick to glorify God in what we do and speak, rather than trying to force the world into subjection to Christ.  That day is coming, but it is not this day.

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The Great Commission

John 20:21-22; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:18-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty on January 24, 2021.

Last week, we talked about the importance of making the good confession to the world around us.  In short, it is a declaration of our faith in Jesus and his teachings.  We stand with him.

Today, we are going to recognize that this confession and testimony that we should give about Jesus is part of a larger task, or commission, that Christ has given us.

Let’s look at our passage.

John’s Gospel

We will look at each of the Gospel’s version of the Great Commission.  They all highlight various things.  Ultimately, Jesus had been crucified and resurrected.  Over the course of 40 days, he appeared to them in order to prove the reality of the resurrection before he ascended into heaven, and to leave the apostles and his Church, that they would help build, with a task, a mission.  Thus, we speak of Christ commissioning his Church and call it the Great Commission.

John emphasizes sending.  We have been sent by Jesus as he was sent by God the Father.  We are sent for a purpose, to do what he tells us to do.  This is not a cultural thing.  Jesus is not trying to spread first century AD Israelite culture all around the world, much less white culture.  It is beyond culture.  In fact, if we must use the term, it is the spread of heaven’s culture.  All cultures are found wanting in the face of the Gospel and its obligation upon us all.  Christians must never confuse the Gospel with their own native culture.  Yes, some cultures have been impacted by Christianity more than others, but still, we are not representing our country, but rather Jesus and The Father.

John also shows Jesus breathing on his disciples and telling them to receive the Holy Spirit.  The receiving is emphasized, but it is not explained why.  We will save this for later.

Jesus also says that they, and we, will be a conduit to the forgiveness of sins for others.  This statement sounds like the apostles can keep some people from being forgiven, but that is a misreading.  Only Jesus can forgive sins, and thereby also refuse to forgive sins.  However, we are sent by Jesus as his ambassadors with his words.  We will be the representative of Jesus to those that we meet.  We don’t create forgiveness or deny it to those who desire it.  Rather, we announce it according to God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit’s wisdom.  Like the prophets of old, we can speak to people because of the authority of the Word of Jesus.  We can confidently tell people how to be forgiven of their sins, and how they cannot be forgiven.  The emphasis is not on their inherent ability, but in the function, they serve in being sent by Christ.

Mark’s Gospel

Mark focuses on our proclaiming the Gospel, or good news.  The NKJV uses the word “preach,” but the connotations of this word would be better translated as proclaim.  It is not about standing behind a pulpit in a church, but about sharing the Good News with anyone anywhere.  Mark’s gospel also emphasizes the scope of this mission, “all the world.”

A second aspect that we see here is the fact that powerful signs would follow Christ’s representatives.  Jesus doesn’t command them to do powerful signs.  Rather, the signs would follow them, and the signs listed are not an exhaustive list.  As God’s people commit themselves to this task of proclaiming the Gospel, signs would follow them.  Signs are not the focus, nor our job to make happen.  Our job is to be faithful to the task of sharing the Good News with people.

I will take a moment to clear up the passage about taking up serpents, due to the fact that some Christians believe they should prove their faith in Jesus by handling poisonous snakes.  Jesus is not talking about a means of proving your faith to onlookers, and neither is he talking about a test that all believers must do.  The best example of what Jesus is talking about happened to the Apostle Paul on the Island of Malta in Acts 28.  He was a prisoner on a ship going to Rome.  The ship was wrecked by a storm and they all jumped ship and swam to nearby Malta.  The natives met them on the shore and people began foraging for wood along the shore to build a fire and warm up the soaked men.  While gathering a bundle of sticks to throw on the fire, the apostle Paul was bitten by a viper on the hand and he shook it off into the fire.  The Bible tells us that the natives saw the viper hanging from Paul’s hand and figured that he would die, and that it was a punishment for some evil that he had done.  Over time, it became clear that Paul was not harmed by the poison.  This opened the people up greatly to hearing the Gospel.  The point is not invulnerability of believers to poison, but that these kinds of signs would follow them as a whole as they took the Gospel to the nations.  We too should expect that amazing things will happen from time to time as we are faithful to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Luke’s Gospel

In Luke, we have some of the content of the Gospel described.  First, Jesus had to do all of the things that he did.  They had been prophesied in Scripture, and they were functionally important for the saving of people.  Jesus lived a perfect life, and perfectly revealed the Father’s love by dying in our place, and being resurrected as proof that his sacrifice on our behalf was accepted.  It is also proof that he has the power to resurrect us at the last day.

For those who believe the message about who Jesus is and what he has done for us, repentance from sin is in order.  Those who believe and repent of their sins will have their sins remitted from them.  Luke also records that this is for all nations, not just one people group.

Lastly, Luke also records that they were to wait for the Promise from the Father to come upon them and empower them before going out to accomplish this commission.  The Promise from the Father is talking about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon all of God’s people, instead of just a select few.  This is a task that is not intended to be done only by our power, strength, and abilities.  God Himself will work through us and assist us by His Holy Spirit.  Thus, we are not to hang back in fear, nor are we to rush forward in self-confidence.  We are to be a people who are led by the Holy Spirit, and empowered by Him.

This should remind us of Acts chapter 1 verse 8.  The book of Acts is technically Luke’s second volume.  It is not a second Gospel, but rather describes the apostles doing what Jesus told them to do.  We could think of Luke’s Gospel as the good news of what Jesus did, and his second volume as the good news that the apostles faithfully walked in his footsteps.  Another way to look at these to books is to see Luke as the acts of Jesus and the book of Acts as the acts of his apostles. 

Regardless, verse 8 emphasizes why we are to wait for the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit would help us do.  The Holy Spirit would fill their whole being and enable them to be witnesses of Christ everywhere.  They would be empowered by God Himself.  A person cannot believe the Gospel without the influence of the Holy Spirit in their life.  He is the one who convicts us of the judgment that hangs over our head.  The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit takes up residence or dwells inside of those who believe on Jesus and repent of their sins.  However, we are to also open up our hearts and minds to Him through prayer so that He can fill our whole inner being.  This is not a one-time thing, but a daily empowering experience that we can have to help us in our battle against sin, and our task to proclaim the Gospel.

Matthew’s Gospel

John emphasized our being sent, but in Matthew we are shown why that is so important.  Jesus has authorized us to go to all nations and call them to repentance and faith in him.  What gives Christians the right to tell Romans that the idols they serve are lies and they need to repent?  We could ask the same question today.  Multiculturalism has some good to it.  It reminds us that we should not look down upon styles of life simply because they are different from our own.  However, Christianity is not supposed to be a cultural oppression. 

The Spirit of God started with Israel and challenged the sin in their culture.  It then moved to all other cultures.  We are authorized by the God who made and loves all people.  All of our cultures were, and still are, full of sin and ignorance.  Satan wants to make people feel that they are doing something wrong when they tell people that God commands all people everywhere to repent of their sins and believe on Jesus.  We must not give into this persuasion.

Next, we are to disciple those who believe by teaching them the commands of Jesus.  The disciple is a student who is learning to become like their master teacher.  Another image that is used in the Bible is that we are children of God.  God’s people are a family that baby Christians are born into.  We help the spiritually young to grow up and become more like our heavenly Father, which has been perfectly imaged to us by Jesus.

Lastly, Jesus tells us that he will be with us even to the end of the age.  How important it is to know that Jesus is still with us through the Spirit of God that is within us.  He hasn’t forgotten us no matter how difficult it may get at times.  We must hold onto this promise.

The Conclusion

When we put all of these things together, we end up with a lot of powerful concepts, so I have broken this up into two statements.

First, we have been authorized and sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel to all nations that only He can forgive and remove their sins because of his life, death, and resurrection.

Second, we are to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, which will have powerful signs as we teach people the commands of Jesus.

All of this emphasizes the task and purpose that Jesus has given us, and so it is missing an important component found elsewhere.  God so loved the world that He sent His One and Only Son that whoever believes on him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  God’s love for you, for me, and for those lost in this world, could not sit by as we destroyed ourselves through sin.  The love of God and the demonstration of its depth by Jesus on the cross are the foundation of a relationship that we can have with our Lord and invite others to join.  This is the Great Commission.

Great Comm audio