By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at Life BPC 8am & 10:45am Service, 2013-12-15

Text: Matthew 28:18-20

It is interesting to study the last words that people spoke before they left this world. There are many things we can learn from them. There is even a book entitled, “Famous Last Words.” A person’s last words sometimes reveal some deep philosophical insights that have been distilled out of a lifetime’s experience. For example, when Queen Elizabeth I was about to expire, her last words were: “All my possessions for a moment of time.”

Last words sometimes inspire us to take up the challenge for following an exemplary life. For example, Joseph Addison said on his death bed, “See in what peace a Christian can die.” And Thomas Becket, just before he was martyred in England said, “I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.” Some of the finest last words spoken by men have brought glory to God, like the words of James Wolfe, a godly British general, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Quebec. He said,“Now God be praised, I will die in peace.”

This morning we are going to learn from the famous last words of our Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. These words were spoken after Jesus had died on the cross, and had risen from the dead. Knowing that He would soon ascend up to heaven, Jesus met His disciples on top of a mountain in Galilee, and there He gave them these important words which are now known as ‘the Great Commission.’ Matthew Henry called it, “the great charter of Christ’s kingdom in the world” through which He sent His disciples out as His ambassadors and gave them their credentials.

But the Great Commission was not meant only for those first disciples of Jesus. Its universal scope as found in the words ‘all nations’ and ‘unto the end of the world’ shows that it is also the mission of all believers in every place and in every age of history. The Great Commission therefore defines the mission of the Church. Long before business corporations and organisations started having mission statements, Jesus already gave the Church this mission statement, and it hasn’t changed in the last 2,000 years. And therefore it is meant to be our mission as well. The question we need to ask then is: Are we fulfilling the Great Commission that Jesus gave to us? And more importantly, how can we fulfil it?

To answer the question, let us turn to the passage in Matthew 28:18-20. As we consider this passage carefully, we will discover three things that we need to do in order to fulfill the Great Commission. Firstly, we must

I. Be Convinced of the Full Authority of Jesus

This is found in the words that Jesus said in v.18 – “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” The word ‘power’ here means authority. Isn’t this something that is highly sought after by men in this world, especially by ambitious power-hungry men? Many battles have been fought and are still being fought by men to gain power over people and to take control over nations. But unlike them, Jesus never fought His way to the top. He did not gain power by usurping it from others, leading protest marches or forcing others into submission. How did He gain it? By submitting Himself to be crucified, to die the most cruel death on the cross for sinners. Jesus obtained power by giving Himself completely, by pouring out His life willingly to redeem sinners.

All power is now rightfully placed in His hands because He has humbled Himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross! For this reason, “God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a namewhich is above every name, That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11) Can you see now how all power in heaven and in earth is given to our Lord Jesus?

That glorious moment when Jesus rose from the dead marks the turning point in God’s redemption plan. From that moment onwards Jesus exercised full authority in all things: He alone has the right to rule over all things without exception, the right to judge all things without exception, and the right to requireobedience and submission from all things without exception. And so the resurrected Christ rightly proclaims,“All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” But how does this all-encompassing authority of Jesus then become the basis of the Great Commission? In at least three ways...

Firstly, it is because of His authority that we are to go and teach all nations. Since we are Christ’s disciples we are under His authority. We receive our marching orders from Him, and so wherever He sends us, we must go without the least hesitation. To be reluctant to go or refuse to go is rebel against His authority. You may have noticed that over the past few Sundays the Lordship of Christ has been mentioned in our sermons many times and also in some articles in our church weekly.

You have been reminded that Jesus wants you to deny self, take up your cross and follow Him faithfully. I trust that you are convinced by now that Jesus must be your Lord and Master. And if He is truly your Lord, then you must obey His orders, and that includes His Great Commission.

The second way in which Christ’s authority is the basis for the Great Commission, is that it gives us maximum confidence that our efforts will not be in vain. Since all things in heaven and earth are under His authority, nothing can stop His work from progressing. His authority ensures that there will be adequate protection and timely provision for every work that He directs us to do. Christ will exercise His control of all things to make them work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

We come now to the third way in which Christ’s authority is the basis for the Great Commission. His authority over all things requires people of all nations to become His disciples. It gives Him the right to be their Lord and master. However, although He has the right to be their Lord and master, His lordship is not yet established in their lives. They must first hear the Gospel of salvation, and receive Him as their own Saviour and Lord. Then, as they yield their wills to obey Him, His lordship will be fully established in their lives. Our role is therefore to go to them and make them His disciples. And that is the actual meaning of the word ‘teach’ in v.19. It means ‘to make disciples.’ This leads us to consider the second thing we need in order to fulfil the Great Commission:

II. Be Committed to Follow the Commands of Jesus

The main command in His commission is to go and make disciples of all nations. The word ‘nations’ here refers to all the ethnic groups of the world, including Jews and Gentiles. This would be extremely difficult for those first disciples of Christ because they were all Jews. To obey the Lord’s command they would have to overcome their Jewish aversion of Gentiles. From young they were taught that the Gentiles have no part in their covenant with God, and so they must have minimal contact with them – not even to share a meal with them. Those first disciples of Jesus would feel most comfortable to make disciples of their own Jewish people. This was exactly what they did at first, as recorded in the first 7 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. Although they were making many disciples, their efforts were confined only to their own people. They were not following the Lord’s command to teach all nations!

So the Lord had to do something quite drastic to make them follow it. He sent a very strong persecution to drive them out of their homeland and bring them into close contact with Gentiles. This is described in Acts 8:1,4 – “And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles… Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” Some Jewish disciples, like Philip went to Samaria and brought the Gospel to the Samaritans. Other disciples brought the Gospel to Antioch (Acts 11:20) where the first Gentile church was formed. By the end of the book of Acts, the Gospel had reached the city of Rome. But with each new place where the Gospel went, new challenges were faced. This is because of the different culture, customs and languages of the people there.

This is still true today. If you have ever tried to share the Gospel with others, you would realise that sometimes it can be immensely difficult to make them understand you. The easiest people to evangelize are those who are just like you, because they speak your language, have the same background and lifestyle as you – e.g. Your own colleagues. But when you attempt to reach someone of a different age group, or speaks a different language, you would have problems telling him the Gospel. Then if you were to go a step further and reach out to someone who is even more different from you, e.g. a migrant worker from India, you will see that besides the language barrier, you have to overcome a cultural and social barrier as well.

This is the greatest challenge of fulfilling the Great Commission – How to reach out to people who are different from us ethnically, socially or culturally. The barriers may take the form of language, traditions, concepts, habits and beliefs that make it difficult for us to communicate the Gospel to them. And there is no way we can overcome these barriers unless we are willing to go out of our comfort zone. We may even have to change our lifestyle to identify with them and become accepted by them (As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22 – “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”) This makes proclaiming the gospel to them a much longer process than it would take to reach a people who are not different from us. And those who give their lives fully to do this for those who are unreached with the Gospel are called missionaries.

Do you know that that there are actually more missionaries in the world today than ever before? According to recent mission statistics there are now over 400,000 missionaries in the world. However out of these, only about 10,000 (or 2.5%) are bringing the Gospel to people who never had any access to the Gospel. There are about 7,000 ethnic groups that are still unreached and have never heard of Christ. And these make up almost 40% of the world. Each ethnic group has its own unique culture, language, and traditions. And many of these cannot be reached unless there are missionaries who will go to them.

But because of the immense challenges of bringing the gospel to them, very few are willing to go. Missionaries also face other challenges, like dealing with loneliness, getting proper food and health care for themselves and their families, coping with a difficult life that has few of the comforts and conveniences that we are so used to. All these can easily discourage many from going to the mission field. But since the Lord Jesus Christ has given the command for us to go and make disciples of all nations, shouldn’t we overcome these barriers and not be content to remain within our comfort zones? Who then will go? Will you go and make disciples of all nations? Perhaps the Lord may call some who are here to serve Him fulltime. We must pray that the Lord will raise up missionaries from our own midst.

But even if you are not called to serve as a missionary in a foreign country, you can still fulfill the Great Commission without having to leave our shores. There is a vast mission field right here. It comes from the fact that there are now 1½ million foreigners in Singapore for work or study. And they have been in the news last week. I am sure you must have heard about the riot in Little India, and you were probably shocked at how such awful violence and destruction could happen here. A Commission of Inquiry has been appointed to find the underlying cause of the riot. Some think it was due to a potent combination of large crowds and alcohol. Others believe that there may be hidden grievances about their working and living conditions. Actually God’s Word has already identified the underlying cause of their behaviour. It is the sinful heart that is found in every one of us.

The truth is that we Singaporeans are just as sinful as they are. The difference is, our sinfulness is expressed in other ways (e.g. prejudice, hypocrisy, slander, and covetousness). And it is only by God’s undeserved grace that we have been saved from our sins and have not done the same things they did at Little India. This means that they are no different from us. They need the Gospel of Christ as much as we did. And as Christ has delivered us from sin, He will also be merciful to deliver them when they turn from their sins and become His disciples.

So let us consider this: If we do our best to bring foreigners to Christ and make them His disciples while they are here, then after they have completed their contracts or studies they will bring the Gospel back to their homeland and will make disciples of their own countrymen.

For instance, in July this year, we started to partner with another church to reach out to the migrant workers at Soon Lee Road – by conducting free medical screening and English lessons for them. This lasted for 14 weeks and it has proven to be an effective way to bring souls to Christ, including many from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, India and China. Out of this we now have a Bible study fellowship for Chinese migrant workers every Sunday evening with at least five workers who are faithfully attending. One of them has already asked for baptism. Isn’t it exciting to see the fruits of the Gospel? Besides that, we are also glad for the fruits that are coming from our other ministries and mission stations, e.g. the Life Children’s Club in Yishun and the Girls’ Brigade in Sembawang, as well as our present mission work in Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.

But let us not think that we have done our part. We have not done enough! We still have a long, long way to go to fulfill the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus. There are untold millions who are still untold. So much work still needs to be done in making disciples of all nations both here and abroad. What is keeping us from doing it? The fields are white already to harvest. What is it that prevents us from mobilizing all our resources to go out there and reap the Lord’s harvest?

The limiting factor is commitment. We have about a thousand members here in Life Church. If every single one of us is totally committed to Christ, and committed enough to follow His commands to go out of our comfort zone in His strength, bring sinners to Him, make sure that they get baptized and that they are taught to obey all that He has commanded us, what do you think will happen? The world will soon be turned upside down! That’s the impact we can expect if there is no lack of commitment. I am not exaggerating. I am serious. Do you want to know what basis I have for saying this? It is the record in the book of Acts of how the disciples of the early church turned the world of their time upside down, even though they were so few in number and were faced with the most daunting challenges a church could ever face. How did this happen? There is no doubt that they were deeply committed to follow the commands that Christ had given them. How about us? Are we as committed as we ought to be?

In 1886, Dr John Pemberton, an American pharmacist, concocted a new non-alcoholic beverage in a three-legged brass kettle in his backyard in Atlanta, Georgia. Since its main ingredients were Coca leaves and Kola nuts it was named Coca-Cola. Today it dominates the world soft-drink market. Surveys have revealed that 97% of the world has heard of Coca-Cola, 72% of the world has seen a bottle or can of Coca-Cola and 51% of the world has tasted Coca-Cola. Today more than one billion drinks are consumed every day. How did this happen? Well, years ago, the Coca-Cola Company made a commitment that everyone on this planet would have a taste of their soft drink, and so they went all out to market it aggressively. Dearly beloved, if men can commit themselves to make a carbonated soft drink known to the world, can we not commit ourselves to make our wonderful Saviour known to the world? If we are all as committed to Christ as we should be, if we have tasted the sweet blessedness of knowing Him as our Lord and Saviour, can we not make a commitment that everyone on this planet would be able to taste this blessedness that is found only in Him?

Let us prayerfully examine our commitment to follow the commands of Christ as given in His Great Commission. And as we do that, let us also consider if we all share the same vision and mission as a church. What is our vision and mission? You will find it printed at the top of our church weekly: “To build a church family that is committed to making disciples through Salvation, Sanctification and Service.” This statement is actually derived from the Great Commission.

It involves work in three areas – Salvation, Sanctification and Service. The first area, which is Salvation, is derived from His command to baptize believers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. You must do all that you can to bring people to salvation in Christ wherever He has placed you. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to witness and pray that God will provide opportunities for you to share the Gospel. And when the opportunity comes, make full use of it to press home the urgency to be saved from sin and eternal death. And when they are saved, bring them to church where they may be prepared through catechism to proclaim their faith in Christ publicly through water baptism.

All that is only the beginning of discipleship. You need to guide them now in the second area, which isSanctification. This comes from Christ’s command to teach them to observe all things that He has commanded us. Every new believer must be taught systematically how to grow spiritually by cultivating the disciplines of reading God’s Word and praying to Him regularly. And this process of sanctification should ultimately make him love God with all his heart, soul and mind, and love his neighbor as himself – these are the two greatest commandments that Christ has given, as we learned in last week’s sermon. And this love for God and for man will then lead him on to the third area of discipleship, which is Service. He must now learn to obey the Lord’s command to make disciples, and to use his spiritual gifts and talents to lead others to salvation in Christ, and to guide them in their sanctification process. Thus the discipleship process is a cycle that keeps on going and growing more and more disciples of Christ.

Our church vision is for every one of us to be involved in this process. How good it would be if we can all becommitted to make disciples through Salvation, Sanctification and Service. But will we personally commit ourselves to do this? Commitment is the key requirement to realizing this vision, and more importantly, to fulfill the Great Commission. Let us be committed to follow the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as we do this, let us also …

III. Be Comforted by the Faithful Promise of Jesus

This is the 3rd thing we need to do in order to fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus gave this faithful promise at the end of v.20, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” This promise has been permanently enshrined in the name Emmanuel, which means “God with us,” a name of great significance that Jesus was given at His birth (Matthew 1:23). We will be reminded of this again when we celebrate Christmas in 10 days’ time. “Emmanuel: The Lord is with us!”

We need to have Lord Jesus with us, if we are to accomplish His Great Commission, for without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). He is the One we must constantly rely on to provide all the wisdom and all the strength we need for His work of making disciples, and all the patience and joy we need to keep doing it faithfully. As long as we have Jesus with us, we have nothing to fear. Though the path of service in which He leads us may be filled with the most distressing trials and awful difficulties, we have nothing to fear as long as our Lord Jesus is with us.

David Livingston was a world-renowned missionary by the time he returned to Scotland in 1896 to address the students at Glasgow University. He had spent 16 years in the service of God in Africa. As he stood before those young men and women, the tremendous price exacted of Livingston was plain to see. He had suffered more than 27 illnesses, leaving his body emaciated and ravaged. One arm hung useless at his side, the result of being mangled by a lion. The core of his message to those young people was: “Would you like me to tell you what supported me through all the years of exile among a people whose language I could not understand and whose attitude toward me was always uncertain and often hostile? It was this, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." On these words I staked everything, and they never failed.”

What Christ promised to His disciples on that mountain top 2,000 years ago was experienced by Livingstone in Africa. The presence of God which Livingston experienced can be experienced by you today. The blessed companionship of Jesus Christ belongs to every believer who obeys Him. Jesus has promised to always be with those who fulfill His Great Commission. The word ‘always’ in v.20 literally means ‘all the days’: Days of strength as well as days of weakness. Days of success as well as days of failure, joy-affliction, health-sickness, laughter-sadness, wealth-poverty, and youth-old age.

Remember, the Lord Jesus will be with you all the days of your life. Therefore you are not alone! He promised, “Lo I am with you always, even unto the very end to the world.” As this promise sustained David Livingston, it can also sustain you. The question you need to answer now is this: Will you obey the Lord’s call to fulfill the Great Commission? This morning we have seen three things that you need to do this: (1) You must be convinced of the full authority of Jesus; (2) You must be committed to follow the commands of Jesus, and (3) You must be comforted by the faithful promise of Jesus. May the words of our closing hymn help all of us now to respond to the Lord’s call to fulfill His Great Commission.

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