The Missionary Enterprise - Isaiah 66 & Matthew 28

I am a bit surprised by all of you.  Last week, I expected some congratulatory words, or at the very least, a congregational sigh of relief.  Many of you have now completed your study of the entire book of Isaiah.  Did you realize that?  We started in December of 2009 and ended in May of 2011.  So, you have proven that at least some saints really do persevere.  Congratulations for sitting through more than 50 sermons on Isaiah!  You have now earned an extra helping of dessert today.

But before we say good-bye to our good friend Isaiah, let’s turn there once again and look at the very last verses of chapter 66.  

[15] “For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. [16] For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many.  (Isaiah 66:15-16 ESV)

[22] “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain. [23] From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD.

[24] “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me.  For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” (Isaiah 66:22-24 ESV)

We looked at this last Sunday.  I like verses 22 and 23.  I am very glad they pertain to us whose hope is in the Lord Jesus for our salvation.  I read these verses and take great comfort in them.  And I can read these other verses concerning the judgment of God and be very grateful they don’t pertain to me.  

But all of these verses are here for us to read and consider and meditate upon.  Even the less enjoyable ones.  It is important that we not read these passages, glaze over the more troubling verses, and keep moving because they don’t speak to my situation as a believer.  I’m a Christian, I am no longer condemned by my sin, I am no longer under the wrath and curse of God.  I have been reconciled to God through Christ.  I rejoice that my sins are forgiven and Heaven awaits.

But what about those those other verses?  What about the people of whom those verses speak?  What about those for whom there will be flames of fire, and for whom the worm shall not die?  How should we feel about them?  Is there no need to be concerned?  If the Scriptures are written primarily for the sake of God’s people, how should we as His people read these passages?  How should we respond to them to these declarations of the just judgment of God against His enemies?

Turn with me to another very familiar passage, Matthew 28:18-20.  We’ve read this passage recently also, but I want to meditate upon them with you for a few minutes in light of Isaiah 66.

[16] Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. [17] And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. [18] And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20 ESV)

There is much that can be said about the Great Commission.  This is Jesus’ final command to His disciples, that they should go and make disciples of all the nations.  While love for Christ should be part of our motivation in obeying His word to us, another motivation should be the fact that we have the words of eternal life in the gospel message.  It is by means of the preaching and teaching of this biblical gospel that God delivers His people from their sin, and from His condemnation and eternal judgment.  The dire plight of God’s enemies should motivate us to go and compel them to bow the knee to Jesus.

Recently, three things have happened to Grace Fellowship that are very curious to me.  I see a trend taking place in our midst through these things because there is a common thread in them all.  That thread is evangelism.  

The first thing that has happened is our English as a Second Language classes.  The Lord has shown us a way by which we can minister the gospel to foreign students living here in State College.  That should excite us.  We have in within our grasp the tools and the manpower and the ability to use those tools to reach the world with the gospel from our own doorstep.  And it requires almost no financial investment.  That’s good, because if it did, we probably couldn’t do it.

The second curious occurrence I have observed is our recent decision to begin working in earnest to reach out to the Deaf of Mexico and here in our own church.  It is very exciting to me when I think how the Lord may use that in the days to come.  We’re not talking about simply having an interpreter for Bob and Robert.  In this ASL class, I see the potential for a missions agency that will eventually take the gospel to the Deaf, not just interpret sermons for the Deaf.

The third thing that has taken place in our midst is very peculiar to me.  On Friday I received an email from another pastor in the Keystone Baptist Association.  He asked me if I had ever considered planting a new church in Huntingdon.  I said I had indeed thought about that on numerous occasions, and he said he would like to talk more about it with me.  

Then there was actually a fourth thing that happened.  And it happened for the second time!  At a conference in Lewisburg this week I heard a message on Matthew 28:28-20, the Great Commission.  Same preacher, same message, different location, but with the same notes, for the second time, on the Great Commission.  This is arguably the most potent missions text in the entire Bible.  I greatly enjoyed it the first time I heard it, and I enjoyed it again this week.

So what do these things mean?  If God were trying to get our collective attention, how would He do it?  It seems to me that the Lord may be preparing us for some very, very interesting days ahead.  For over eleven years, we have spent a lot of time studying the Scriptures together.  Now it appears God is starting to move among us to provoke us to spread around the things we’ve learned.  It may be we are standing on the threshold of some significant numerical church growth by means of people being converted, regenerated by the power of God and His gospel.

This week, a very prominent man in the Muslim world met his Maker.  It wasn’t the Maker he was expecting.  On the one hand, God in His providence has removed a remarkably evil terrorist from our midst and we should be grateful for that.  On the other hand, this man was an enemy of God upon whom His burning wrath will be meted out and that fire will never be quenched for all eternity.  And the only hope any man or woman has of avoiding the exact same eternal fate as Osama bin Laden is the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was Jesus Himself who commanded His disciples to go to all the nations with this message: Our only hope of eternal life is Christ.  

I want to look more closely at our passage in Matthew.  As we read it, you will notice there are four universal statements Jesus makes:
[18] And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

[19a] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
[20a] Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
[20b] And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Let’s look at the first one.  Jesus has been given all authority over heaven and earth.  You might ask, “How can the Son of God be given all authority when He already has all authority?”  He is Deity.  So how is it that He can be given?  In what sense is He given all authority?

Look with me at Philippians 2:5-11.

[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11 ESV)

It is as the Son of Man that Jesus has earned all authority.  It is specifically because He humbled Himself and became obedient even to the point of crucifixion that the Father therefore granted Him absolute rulership over all the created universe.  Jesus, through His sinless and perfect life, has won the right as a Human Being to receive all authority from God, and it is this Jesus who says to His disciples in essence, “Go to all the nations with the Gospel, not just to the Jews, because I said so.  I have the authority to send you, and I have the authority to save men and women from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation in all the earth.  I am Lord over all and I command you to go.”
[17:1] When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, [2] since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. (John 17:1-2 ESV)

This was Jesus’ prayer BEFORE He went to the cross.  The Father had granted Him authority over salvation itself, so that He might give eternal life to every single person in any and every place on earth where those whom the Father had given Him dwell.  He not only has the power, but Jesus Christ has all the authority within Himself to save all of His people, all whom the Father had given Him, from their sins.

Since He has this authority to save, He then says to His disciples, “Therefore go.”  Or in other words, “Because I have all authority to save, I command you as my disciples to go and preach the gospel everywhere.  Everywhere.  Not just in Jerusalem, or Judea, or Samaria, but to the entire world.”  There is no such thing in biblical Christianity as respecting the indigenous religions of the peoples of the world as though all religions are equally valid.  “Go everywhere, preach to everyone, and I will save people from everywhere.  Make disciples of all nations.”  

God promised Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him, which is why Jesus said to the disciples in Acts 1:8,

“. . . you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 ESV)

Then we come to the third all: “Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”  We are charged with teaching everything Jesus taught His disciples to do.  All that He commanded them to do.  The one who has all authority over all of Heaven and Earth does not ask people if they want to do something.  He TELLS them what to do.  And He commanded His disciples to teach ALL that He had commanded them.  

This is why we speak of teaching the whole counsel of God.  This is why we insist upon preaching the entire gospel of the Lord Jesus, both the bad news of the Law, as well as the good news of God’s grace.  We are not authorized to pick and choose bible topics to discuss and debate and consider.  Rather, we have a responsibility to our Lord and Master and Savior and King to do everything He commands, and to teach everything He commands to everyone, but especially to believers.  We teach disciples all that He commands.

If the church took this charge from the Lord seriously, it would accomplish the two main goals of Christianity: The evangelization of the world, and the instruction of God’s people to spiritual maturity.  Just imagine what would happen if all believers took seriously the command to teach all disciples everything Jesus has said!  

Finally, in verse 20 we have the reassuring words of Jesus, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Jesus does not simply command His disciples to go into all the world, but also He promises to go with us.  He will never leave us nor forsake us in the primary tasks He’s given us to do.  That encourages us and ensures our success in taking His message to the ends of the earth.  He will provide the grace we need to take it, and the power to make the gospel message effective in saving His chosen race, the spiritual seed of Abraham.

Turn with me quickly to the book of Exodus.  Moses is the spiritual leader of about three million people who are making their way to the Promised Land through the wilderness.  In Exodus chapter 33, we find Moses speaking to the Lord about his role in this huge undertaking:

[12] Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.  Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ [13] Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.  Consider too that this nation is your people.” [14] And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” [15] And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. [16] For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” [17] And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” (Exodus 33:12-17 ESV)

Is this not exactly what Christ has promised to do for us as we go in obedience to His command to preach the gospel to all people?  Does not the Lord’s presence go with us?  And would it not be foolish of us to think we could carry out our small part of reaching the world with the Gospel without Him?  I agree with Moses completely: If your presence will not go with us, do not bring us up from here!  If you don’t go with us, we ain’t goin!  

Every week I get an email report from a man in Dearborn, Michigan.  His name is Tom Bear.1  I may have mentioned his to you in the past.  Every Saturday, he and several other men from his church walk through the predominately Muslim neighborhoods talking with people about how they expect to get to heaven.  I want to read a brief except from his latest report:

Greetings.  Two of us went door to door today. God gave us several opportunities to explain the gospel and the only rejection we sensed was from two dogs.

Souha Muslim lady in her late 40s of Lebanese descent.  She said that she had a few minutes to talk about the way to heaven.  Pat asked her how she thinks she will get to heaven.  She said that getting to heaven was easy.  After probing a little, she said that heaven is attainable through a good life.  Pat said that according to the Bible, we can’t get there that way.  For the next few minutes, Pat tried to explain that because God is perfect in his righteousness, he cannot have any sinful flesh in his presence.  He also talked with her about sin to show that we all have sinned and as a result, we are unacceptable to God.  He then explained that God cannot share his glory with anyone so he cannot allow a person to merit his own salvation.  She heard the entire gospel explained but it seemed, like it often does, that it was not fully gripping her.  I tried to tell it again using more illustrations to get the points across.  I said that one of the main differences between Islam and the Bible is that God cannot simply forgive just because a person asks forgiveness and then tries to live a good life.  I told her that He is merciful but his absolute righteousness prevents him from simply forgiving as Islam teaches.  I said that as a result, if a person dies with their sins, He has no choice but to send him to hell forever because He is holy.  I said, this means, that if you die in your current condition, he has no choice but to send you to hell forever.  As I went on, she interrupted and said while chuckling, “You mean that everyone is going to hell forever?”  

I told her that she is understanding what we have been trying to say.  Then I said that God wants to forgive but he had to make a way to forgive while yet punishing the sins.  I said God made a way of salvation but it required a blood sacrifice.  I asked if she had ever heard John 3:16 and she said no.  I then quoted it very slowly and it spoke right to her question.  Yes, we all deserve to go to hell and are headed there.  But “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  I asked if this all sounded too simple and she understood why I asked the question.  I then explained regeneration to her to show that all who truly believe lose their lives and are given new lives.  We testified that we once lived lives for ourselves but God made us alive and that we now live for him and serve him, not to get to heaven, but because we want to out of hearts of love for him.  She understood this.  I told her that until she is born from above, she will remain in bondage to sin and unable to free herself from it.  She took a GOJ and tract.  Pray that she reads it and that God makes the message come alive in her.1

The One who has all authority has commanded us to go to all the nations, teaching them all the things the Lord has commanded us, and He has promised to be with us as we go, for all of our days, even until the very last one.  

I believe the Lord is telling us it’s time to go.  It is a mission we’ve been called to.  Not a Navy Seals mission to go and take out God’s enemies.  God says, “Vengeance is mine. I will repay.“  God will deal with His enemies.

Our mission is a Search & Rescue mission.  It’s time for Grace Fellowship to move out of our comfort zone and start reaching those people whom He has put within our reach for the sake of their salvation.  They need to hear the good news.  The Lord has given us the tools we need to take it to them.  Whether it is through teaching foreign students English, or training missionaries to use sign language to reach the Deaf in Mexico, or starting a new church over in the next county, God is telling us to go.  And he also says, Behold, I am with you.  Always.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.  My presence will go with you, even to the end of the age.
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1. http://www.stonescryout.info/index.html