Matthew 28:16-20

Transcript (Auto-generated)

This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

So the reading is from Matthew 20 816 20.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising 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. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

This is the word of God.

Good morning, everybody. I always get a bit nervous when the person coming up to read starts checking what the reading is, because I'm worried that I'm going to have to change what my talk is at the last minute. So thank you that we agreed, Ed. I appreciate that.

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Chris. I'm one of the church family here at All Saints, one of many Chris's. So if you see a guy you don't know what their name is, guess Chris, you'll probably be okay. Just a helpful tip for anybody who might be new. We've been through quite a journey on the past few weeks, though, as we've gone from Exodus and coming to Easter, and we've thought about lots of different things at church.

We've come through kind of that difficult journey of the jewish people that we saw in Exodus, of people who struggle to understand what God's commands are, what he's asking from them, and really, really understand that they need him. They just can't quite put the two together with some of the difficulties they had in approaching God. We looked at the complications in actually approaching a God who is holy. We looked at the tabernacle, we looked at the priestly robes and all the ceremony and all the pomp that was required for the people to approach God. Then we came onto Easter, and as we were kind of going from Exodus to Easter, we were tempted to leap forward a bit and look into Hebrews and see all these shadows and types that were in the Old Testament, look forward and see what Jesus was bringing Easter.

And we managed to rein ourselves in a little bit. But then we came to Easter last week and we saw the fulfilment of all God's designs in the past. Jesus coming down as man, ultimately going to that cross at Easter and being raised again on the third day, that full and final revelation of God to man. And we ended last week with a okay and that. So what of course, was what does it mean for me that Jesus died and rose again?

And we thought about our saviour, our personal saviour, the one that makes it possible for us as individuals to know our God in heaven. This week we're going to look a little bit wider at a different. So what? What does it mean that Jesus came and died and rose again for the world? And we're going to look at Jesus as king and we're going to look at the instructions of the king.

So we're going to look at this claim of Jesus that all authority is his. That was in our reading. And we're going to look at this mission that Jesus gives to the disciples to go and make more disciples. But before we do that, I've got a little quiz for you so we can have the next slide, please, Ben. So that's not me, by the way, does anybody know who this is, this picture on the screen?

I'd be quite impressed if you do, but there might be somebody who just gets it.

Is it the key? Yes, it is. It's Prince Charles when he was a baby. Well done, Clare. Yeah.

Looks a bit more like this these days. Yeah. But we've got to have a quick quiz about authority, a quick quiz about the king. I'm hoping this isn't going to get too controversial, so just, you know, keep it nice. We're going to just think about the king and what he can actually do, what his powers are.

So first of all, an easy one, can the king form.

Yes, yes, yes. Okay. So we're in a situation in our country and by convention under our constitution, that when a leader wins a general election, he's invited to the palace and the king then invites him to him or her to form a government. So, yes, in a sense, he is a form of government, one for the younger ones. Can the king, if you're at school, can the king tell your school what they're allowed to teach you?

Anybody, any of the little ones? Do you think the king can tell the schools what to teach you? Yeah. Do you think he can? No.

No, you're right, you can't. He hasn't got any power over our education system. What about laws? Approve laws that the government makes? Yes.

Yes. In fact, he has to do that. That's just formality these days because the last time that it wasn't given was 1708, apparently. So it's been a little while since the king or queen actually refused to give the royal assent to new laws. Okay, can the king tell a government what to do?

Some yeses some nos. No, he can't. The king is to remain politically neutral, so can't tell a government what to do.

Declare war and peace.

Can a king declare when we're at war? When we're in a time of peace? Any guesses? Hmm, hmm. Yes, he can, in fact.

So historically has been able to declare war and peace because historically it was the king or queen who maintained the army and the navy. Now it's only done on ministerial advice. King Charles shouldn't be going off and just declaring war wherever he feels like it. At least I hope that's not what he's doing. I mean, it doesn't look like this is a really tricky one and maybe this is one that the younger ones might be able to guess.

Can the king speak Welsh?

He can. He can speak Welsh. The only word I know in Welsh is from meh, and it's the word for microwave, which she tells me is bibbidi pong. I don't know if that's true, but that's the only welsh word I think I know. Okay, last one.

Can the king tell all of us as his subjects, what to do?

No. Some nods, some people not sure? No. No. The king can't tell us what to any decrees or edicts that affect us.

So ultimately, Charles is king and he has some authority in certain areas and he certainly reigns as king, but he doesn't rule our country, his authority is limited and what he does is simply ceremonial.

I think the next slide is a blanket. Ah, no, it's that. Okay, fantastic. When we think about this phrase, do I keep going off? It sounds like I keep going off.

It's very distracting. Let me just cheque on.

I'll just give it another go now. I think I'm plugged in. Okay, let's see how that goes. So Jesus claims in our reading this, after this afternoon, this morning, that all authority in heaven on earth has been given to him. Jesus claims kingship in our reading today.

But what does that really mean? So all throughout the gospel of Matthew that this reading is taken from, in all of Jesus preaching, the kingdom of heaven features heavily. Jesus is describing a process where God, throughout history, throughout his work in the world, is putting events together in such a way that through Jesus, he's going to start acting as king and as lord in the world. God is manifesting his being, his kingdom in the world, in what Jesus does. And this is embodied in Jesus as king.

The theme of kingdom is one that we can trace throughout the whole Bible. We can start back with Abraham in Genesis. We have the seeds of a nation and a kingdom being established, we can follow through to David, that great king of Israel, in two Samuel. And these are all ideas of kingdom that are shadows in scripture of what is to come. They're types of this kind of kingdom that God is going to establish.

And the ultimate meaning of kingdom in Matthew is that after, after thousands of years of prophecy, after thousands of years of wondering and suffering and expectation, God is finally coming and making his kingdom known on earth in a now and not yet way, in what Jesus does. The kingdom is established in Jesus, but it's not fully realised. But the kingdom is being marked out in what Jesus does. So this eternal, universal kingdom that's in God's plan is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this theme that's established in scripture of this coming kingdom comes to fruition in Jesus the Messiah.

And that's what this claim is that Jesus is making in verse 18. In our reading, in our reading we've got a summary of all the major themes of Matthew. Okay? We've got this idea of kingdom and authority, of divine sovereignty. We've got this idea of the nature of discipleship.

We've got the universal scope of the christian faith, the importance of doing the will of God, and the promise of Christ's presence with his followers throughout everything they might experience in life. The verses that we read this morning, they're often called the great commission. And they're called the great commission because we have Jesus here identifying himself as king and setting forth his mission for his disciples as they go out into the world. The one who is sending his church out is the one who's established his church. The king is the head of the church and he's telling his disciples, you've received a message of saving grace.

You've received a message of extravagant love. And I want you to go out and tell others about this love. The one who stands supreme over the whole universe is the same one who has a personal relationship with us and the one who is sending us forth to show other people what his kingdom is like. And what is the kingdom of Jesus like?

The kingdom that Jesus preached is a kingdom of the heart. Yes, it's a real kingdom. Yes, Jesus is a real king. But the kingdom that Jesus is establishing is principally a spiritual one, and it's got to be a matter of the heart before it can be anything else. What the kingdom of Jesus looks like is what he outlines in the sermon on the mount.

It's a kingdom that doesn't reflect the kingdoms of the world. It's a kingdom that doesn't reflect the values of the world. It's a kingdom that reflects the extravagant love of God, the great mercy of God, the justice of God, and God reaching out to mankind. It's a kingdom that's different to all the kingdoms in the world. It's centred on love and relationship with God.

It's the kingdom that answers the question of so what that we asked last week. Jesus in the sermon on the mount paints this wonderful picture of what the kingdom of God and the people within it will look like in terms of their morals, their values and the way they live. It's all about patterns and rhythms. It's all about looking to God, receiving his love and showing that love to the world. Seeing God's justice and showing that to the world.

Seeing God's mercy and showing that in the world, by the way that we live. It's about that way of being a subject in the kingdom, being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of that being an integral part of the christian existence. That's what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God. That's what the kingdom of God looks like.

That's the kingdom that this king heads up. So I'm going to pause there and I'm going to hand back to Claire. And then in a short few moments, we'll come back and think about the next part.

So if I was to ask you about some really important news that happened last weekend, would you be able to tell me what it was?

Anybody's not. It's not a question. Any important news? No. Should we just pack up and go home?

Was there some important news last weekend? Maybe. Anybody? Easter? Yeah, maybe.

That was kind of important. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's nice.

What I was thinking of, though, I was actually thinking of some different news that happened that actually happened last weekend. Not news that we remembered last weekend. There's some really important news that came out last weekend. Does anybody know what it might be? Okay, next slide, please.

Ben. Bit of a clue.

Next slide, please, Ben. Clue number two. Clue number three.

None of you have heard about this? One of two of you might. But I'd be really surprised if anybody had heard of this really important news that came out last week, because I work in it. And what happened last weekend was breaking news about a really advanced cyber attack that nearly would have wrecked the entire Internet. It would have exposed information across the whole Internet.

And it was advanced. It had been planned for years. It was all coming together. And it was found accidentally by a Microsoft developer who was doing something else, found a problem, did some digging and uncovered this whole nest. Exploits that have been going on for years.

And in a few months time, it would have found its way to the Internet and wrecked the Internet. There'd been no more netflix. There would have been no more Disney plus no more playing games. It would all have just fallen apart because of this exploit. And nobody's heard of it.

Nobody's heard of it, which I find really interesting because none of us know how we're supposed to react to this. None of us know any new about any actions that we might take to mitigate it or anything like that, because nobody is talking about this really important news. Hold that thought. I'm going to need some volunteers. Now, I could do with, say, five of our young people, if they would like to come out and help me with a little demonstration.

Yeah, come on then. Yeah, come on. I could do with three more, if we can get three more. Anybody else? Yeah.

Yeah, come on.

Oh, fantastic. We've got those. Brilliant. Okay, so can we stand in a line here? Stand in line.

Slowly, slowly. Yep. Great stuff. Okay, now what we're going to do is I'm going to whisper something to you, and it's an action. And then what I want you to do is turn around and whisper to the next person so that they know what you know.

And then you'll turn around and whisper to the next person and tell them the action. And then you'll turn around to the next person and the next person until we get to the end. Okay. And once you've all whispered all the way down the line, we're going to see if everybody knows what this action is. Okay.

Do you think we can do that? Are we confident it's going to get to the end? Yeah. Brilliant. Okay, fantastic.

Okay, so I'm just gonna. Otherwise this is gonna ruin it.

Okay. Right then, on three. Okay, everybody do what you think you heard. Okay, are you still confident? Yeah.

Okay. Okay, 1230. Yeah. Well, we got two. Two of and the rest followed.

Brilliant. There we go. Absolutely flawless. Thank you very much. Up to the air?

Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you very much. Okay, you go sit down now. Thank you.

Okay, fantastic. Thank you for all my helpers. We kind of sort of got, got there.

So a couple of simple illustrations there.

If you don't hear the news, then you can't do anything about it. Okay. But if you do hear the news, then that can spread one to another and people can replicate the actions down, sort of down the line. And even the ones that didn't get the message, saw that something was going on and actually joined in, which maybe there's a message in that itself. But we have this picture of Jesus as king and the kind of kingdom that he's leading.

And in the passage that we read, he's speaking to those who are already assumed to be members of the kingdom. He's speaking to his disciples. And they've been brought into the kingdom in the same way as us, not by anything but that they've done or anything that they have or anything that they are, other than they've put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. They've been given a righteousness that is not their own, just as we have when we put our faith and our trust in him. So can we go just pop up the next slide there, Ben.

Thank you. So Jesus says to his disciples, to those gathered around him, his followers, those who are already in the kingdom, he says, God and make disciples of all nations. And the force there is on the discipling the going is just necessitated. The force of the Greek is to make disciples. Okay?

And what that means is that as Jesus is saying that and he's addressing his disciples, we who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we who are part of his kingdom, been spoken to as well. He's addressing his disciples in the gospel, sure, but he's also addressing us as a church today. He gives specific tasks to his people as king. And as they were to go as we go, then we are to disciple by baptising and teaching. Jesus says in the rest of that verse, they were to go and take the message of Jesus.

Not a message that they'd put together, but take the message of Jesus, take the evidence of his kingdom by the way they were living, and make more disciples by going out with it. And that's the same challenge, the same message, the same commission that Jesus gives us today. Now, the work of Jesus is summed up by some scholars in a single word, in a word, solidarity. And the idea of this is that Jesus was both God and man. He was fully God and he was fully human.

And so he had solidarity with man, but also solidarity with God. He was the only one who could bring the two together. And we can't develop that idea fully here. We just don't have the time for a start. But it speaks to a real and a dynamic relationship that Jesus is establishing between God and man.

And we see this in the way that Jesus talks about the relationship to God and Jesus with his disciples in the upper room when he talks about a vine. Paul uses the metaphor of a body to describe the vital and living relationship that the church has with Christ as its head. And the task that's been given to all that follow Jesus is the one that's on this screen. Go and develop other people. Go and bring other people into the kingdom.

Go and bring other people into this vital dynamic and live in relationship with the one who is the head of the body, the one who is the king of the kingdom, the one who is the saviour of all this phrase. Make disciples.

We could spend hours talking about that itself. Huge volumes have been written about what is meant by discipleship and even about the significance of what comes later baptising and teaching in our reading this morning. But the takeaway is that Jesus commission isn't primarily about evangelism. It's not primarily about evangelism. It's not primarily about getting people saved.

Now, don't mishear me. That's important, getting people to understand that they're in need of a living saviour to come to know God, to be saved from all the wrong things in their lives, that's important. But what's more important is all life, discipleship. Not just getting people saved, not just getting people over the line, but actually helping people to develop a full life as Jesus would have it. A life that is, a life that God had designed for them from ages past.

The focus of Jesus instruction is the lifelong process of bringing people to faith, then nurturing them in the will of God, helping them to be people who follow him, who conform to his likeness, who are people who live out kingdom values in their lives.

So let's just pause for a second and draw a few threads together. We felt this morning about Jesus as king and the kind of kingdom that is. It's one that rejects the values of the world and the assumptions that come with being part of the world. And it focused instead on the upside down values that Jesus espouses in the sermon on the mount. It's a kingdom that focuses on the love of God, his extravagant and indestructible.

It's a kingdom that followers are brought into. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who put their faith and the trust in him are brought into this kingdom, into a vital and organic relationship with the king. And that means that they begin to embody the values of the kingdom into which they've been brought and lived them out in their lives. They become a little foretaste of heaven in the place that they are. The command of Jesus to his disciples here is to replicate that.

Bring more and more people into this community, into this relationship, bring more people into the kingdom. Just like the game we played earlier. The idea is to pass on the message and see that replicated over and over. To see other people start to embody those values of the kingdoms. Come to know Christ, to be more conformed to his likeness day by day.

And that's got amazing significance. That song we heard a moment ago, that's how you change the world. Well, that is how you change the world. And what an amazing change that would be if we in our lives here in Totley could go out and really change the people around us, see a real and a living change in our community. Because as we go out and live out those kingdom values, as we seek to bring more and more people to Christ, as we seek to see more and more people discipled, and then living out those kingdom values, that would make an amazing impact on our community here in Totley, but also in wider society, as we see more and more people becoming faithful members of the kingdom.

And so this morning, our rightful response is to praise God, to be thankful that Jesus is our king. To pour out our praise with thanksgiving. That he is the one who was with God at the beginning and yet was willing to come down from heaven to earth, to die, to rise again, to be given all power and authority, to head up the church. And that we've been brought into his kingdom by what he's done. When we put our faith and our trust in him.

And our response when we go out the door should be to live out those kingdom values. To live the kind of life that Jesus would want us to live. That Jesus modelled in what he did here on earth and what he spoke about, as he spoke about his kingdom and its values, we should be encouraged to live as members of his kingdom in vital relationship with him and the world around us. And as we go out that door, we know the end of our reading there. That he will be with us, working in us and through us, if we allow it.

Should we just pray?

Our Lord God and heavenly Father, we fall down before you. And we are so thankful that we can think of this message of Easter, we can sing Hallelujah, Christ is risen. And we can know that personally. We can know the value of that in our own lives. We can know all that we have because of that.

We can be joyful and thankful for the living relationship that we have with you, our God. And as we fill our hearts with those thoughts, as we lift our voices in song and praise may we also be encouraged to be ever more conformed to the likeness of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be encouraged to go out to those around us, in our places of work, in our schools, in our homes, and live out those kingdom values. Show forth that love of God for a broken and a needy world. Lord God, we just ask all these things in and through the precious and worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.