Sermon: The FCC Mission (Matthew 28:18-20): Pastor Tito Dizon

Folsom Community Church's mission is to give the people of Folsom & It’s adjacent communities the best opportunity to know Jesus, grow in Him &  make Him known. 

Famous Last Words –   Matthew 28:18-20  New Living Translation (NLT)

For two thousand years the words that Jesus said to his disciples that day have been read and memorized and pondered and applied and obeyed and discussed by Christians of every group, sect, organization and denomination. Matthew 28:18-20. This is the story of the famous last words of Jesus Christ.

If you’re familiar with your Bible you know that the words are called the Great Commission.

¹⁸ Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,^[a] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

These words are important to us for three reasons.

1^st , they are the last words of Jesus.

Last words are always important. When a loved one dies, one of our questions is, Did he or she have any last words? We all realize that the last words that people say represent that which is closest to their heart. So these words are important because they are the last words of Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew’s gospel.

2^nd ,because they explain what the followers of Jesus Christ are to do

In the long period between his first coming and his second coming. Jesus knew it would be a long time before he would come back.

Just before he departed for heaven, he gave them these last words which are the marching orders of the Christian church. These verses describe what you and I are to be doing during that long period of waiting.

 

3^rd , because they apply without exception to all Christians at all times, in all places, in every possible situation.

4X  times he uses “all” or some form of the word “all.” Notice verse 18, “All authority has been given to me.” Verse 19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” Verse 20, “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I will be with you always.” That’s very clear, isn’t it? All authority, all nations, everything, always.

The words of Jesus Christ have a permanent and enduring and universal validity for you and for me.

 
Now in these three verses we find three great things.
1. A great claim.
2.A  great commission.
3. A great promise.

1. A Great Claim. 18        ’All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He has not only all power, he has all authority in heaven and on earth. It means that Jesus Christ has all the authority that God has. In heaven he has authority over the angels. He has authority over men and nations. He even has all the authority under the earth. -Over Satan and the devil. And over all the demons and over all the forces of darkness.

Jesus Christ has that kind of authority that he is able to give the commission to the church to go to the ends of the earth.  When we read this passage we tend to pass over verse 18 and just get to verse 19—the marching orders of the church. But verse 19 makes no sense without verse 18.

It is because he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords that he can send his followers to all the nations with the gospel. It is because of who he is and what he has accomplished that we can take his gospel to every nation and know that we will be protected as we do so. It is because he has all authority that he can send us &t we can dare to go.

That is the great claim that Jesus makes here. The claim worth considering in these uncertain days. All authority has been given to him.

2. A Great Commission 19-20a

Verses 19-20a say, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

This is the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. What we are to do   “ …make disciples….” In the original Greek, there is only one verb. That’s important because you could read this and it might seem as if there are two or three or maybe four verbs. It’s translated with two words in English: make disciples. The other three words are participles. What is translated as “go” is really “going.” Baptizing is a participle. Teaching is a participle. They’re all dependant on the action of the verb—make disciples.

Jesus in his last message to his followers, in his famous last words, as he was about to bid farewell to them forever, said, “Gentlemen, after I am gone I want you to do one thing and one thing above everything else. I want you to make disciples.” Or you could say,  “ disciple the nations.”

What does this word disciple mean?  It’s a word from the classroom.  It means to be a learner. A disciple is someone who is a learner from someone else. To be a disciple is to be a follower of someone else. And to make disciples is to go out and convert somebody who is an (unbeliever) or bystander into an active follower.

This is what the church of Jesus Christ is to be about. We are to be about making disciples of other men and women, turning them into followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is to be the central task of the Christian church.

If We Don’t Go They Won’t Come. We make a big mistake as a church if we believe the world is to come to us. We make a big mistake if we think we can convert the world just by staying here and being good. It will never, never, never happen.

We think if we just dress up and make the service look nice enough people will come running to join us. It’s not true. 

 

It’s so easy to think that because we’ve got a beautiful sanctuary and beautiful buildings and because we’ve got a large church and a large staff and a large budget that we can just show up and that’s enough. Just being here is not enough.

We are called by Jesus Christ to go out from this place into the world and make disciples of all the nations.  That is the great purpose for which this church is in existence today. And that is what we are to be doing. It is the standing orders of the gospel. We are to go and make disciples.

We are to be a disciple-making church. We are to be disciple-making Christians. That is what we are to do.

2. Where we are to do it

Jesus said, “therefore go and make disciples of all nations" The Greek word translated “nations” is ethne. We get from it the English word ethnic, a word often used to describe the various people groups that dot the Sacramento area. When we read nations we think political boundaries. We think of Iraq or Kuwait or Thailand or Bolivia or Venezuela or Brazil. But that’s not what Jesus means when he talks about nations.

He means the ethnic groups of the world. The people groups. The language groups. The racial groups of the world. He means that his church is to be a church going out to all people groups of the world and all language group and all racial groups of the world.

We draw from this fact 2 simple conclusions.

 

1. When Jesus said to his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” he was indicating that Christianity from the first was to be a world religion. That was a shocking thing for his disciples to contemplate.  These were eleven Jewish men who had been raised in Orthodox Jewish homes.

You know what he’s saying? “Men, I want you to give up your prejudice. I want you to give up your small vision. I want you to get over your ethnocentrism. I want you to get over your small world and I want you to cross over racial boundaries and I want you to cross over ethnic boundaries. I want you to cross over color, religious, language,  geographic boundaries. I want you to take my gospel to the ends of the earth.”

2. It means that Jesus Christ from the very beginning was meant by God to be the Savior of the whole world. Not just of Americans. Not just of the Jews. Not just of the Gentiles. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the entire world. Do you know what else that means? That means that his church is to be representative of the vast variety of people in the world. In his church there are to be blacks and whites, rich and poor, young and old. People from the upper class and people from the lower class. That’s the real rainbow coalition.

3. How we are to do it

This comes from the three participles Jesus used.  Number one is going.  Number two is baptizing.  Number three is teaching.  We are to do those three things. That is how we make disciples.

By going, and sharing the gospel.  By baptizing—bringing them into the family of God and the Christian church. By teaching them everything Jesus has taught us.

Now, let me give you three words for this. Going is invitation. Baptizing is initiation and teaching is indoctri-nation.  You know what indoctrination is, don’t you? It’s taking your doctrine and putting it into somebody.  You teach it to them. You impart it to them.

We are to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the whole wide world.  With everybody we can find. We are to bring them into the church.  We are to baptize them and then… we are to teach them everything Jesus has taught us,  whatever they need to know in order to follow Jesus Christ effectively.

Please understand some-thing. It is never the purpose of the Christian church merely to get more church members. God forbid that our purpose would to be merely to get more church members.

 

It is never the purpose of the Christian church to produce merely intellectualized Christians. It is never the purpose of the Christian church to produce passive pew sitters and casual onlookers.

4. What the result is supposed to be

So that brings me to the fourth thing that I find in this Great Commission.  We find out the result is supposed to be a spiritual multiplication. The result is to be a church full of spiritual multipliers. A church full of people who can reproduce themselves. And so it is that we win one and we teach one and baptize one and we bring them into the church and we equip them and send them back out.

And he brings his friends in and he wins them and he teaches them and he sends them out and they win their friends and they come in and he teaches them and we send them out. So it’s an unending cycle of spiritual reproduction.

The real mark of the health of the church is not the size of the budget, the size of the staff, the beauty of the choir, the glory of the music, the wonder of the architecture, or any of the worldly measures we like to use.

The real mark of the church in Jesus’ eyes is a church that is 100 percent dedicated to fulfilling the Great Commission. That’s a good standard for evaluating all our ministries. Are they somehow involved in the disciple-making process.

 If our ministries are not doing that, we ought to change them or adjust them to bring them back into line with what Jesus was talking about two thousand years ago.

 3. The Great Promise 20b

 “Surely I will be with you always to the very end of the age.”

We need this reminder. We may face war in Afghanistan. But Jesus said, “I am with you always.” Some of us face the loss of a job. Some of us face financial setbacks. Some of us face a marriage with apparently unsolvable problems. Some of us face sickness among our friends and family members. Some of us are scared to death about what tomorrow holds.

But Jesus said, “I am with you always.”

As you go, as you make disciples, as you follow Jesus Christ through history, we have this promise.  “I am with you for all time to the end of time no matter what situation you find yourself in.”

Conclusion :

If this is the Great Commission of Jesus Christ, then this ought to be our great commission as well. If this is what was uppermost on Jesus’ mind, then this is what ought to be uppermost on our minds. If this is what Jesus’ heart was beating for at the end of his ministry, then this is what our heart ought to be beating for. Here is the bottom line:  If Jesus were to come back today, what do you think he would say to you?

“Jim, go and make disciples.” “Betty, go and make disciples.”  Or How many have you discipled? This is what was on Jesus’ heart at the end of his ministry on the earth. This is what he would say if he could speak to us today.I want to ask you a question. If this is so important, what are you doing about it?

Now, please, don’t  say, “Pastor , I don’t want to be a missionary.”We don’t  mean that. I am saying that what was most important to Jesus must become most important to us. And lesser things must be swept away in the light of this great purpose.

That which was top priority for Jesus Christ must become top priority for us. We must become Great Commission Christians whose hearts are sold out 100 per cent to being a discipler and bringing as many people with us as we possibly can.

His last words must become our first words.

Application:

Where should we begin? I have two things to suggest to you.  First, we need to get back and rediscover the heart of Jesus Christ. One reason we’ve drifted away from what Jesus said is because we’re far away from knowing Jesus and where his heart really is. I want to challenge each one of you to begin today to read through the four gospels this year. Not just academically. Not just for head knowledge. Not just so you can check off the boxes. But so, that when you are done you will come closer to understanding the heartbeat of our Lord.

Second, we need to become personally involved in disciple-making. Take out a 3 x 5 card and write down the names of three people that you would like to see come into the Kingdom of God during 2012-13. Then ask the Lord Jesus to give you opportunities to reach them sometime this year with the gospel. Let that be the beginning of your Great Commission prayer list.

What a difference it would make this year if we dedicated ourselves to knowing Jesus Christ better until we knew him so well that the things that broke his heart would break our hearts as well.

What a difference it would make if the things that motivated him motivated us. If that happened, we would see the world as he saw it and our hearts would be moved to go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations.

God grant that we should become——Great Commission Christians who are fully dedicated to building a Great Commission church.

 O Lord, we have heard these words so often that we hardly hear them at all. Forgive us for taking so lightly what you take so seriously. You have told us what is first on your heart. When you said, “Go and make disciples,” you were talking to us, not to someone else. Now may we do something about it, and not leave the task to others. Amen.

Adapted from the message of : Ray Pritchard   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon: The Man/Woman God Uses (Nehemiah 1): Pastor Tito Dizon

[This semon was preached on September 16, 2012 at Folsom Community Church by Pastor Tito Dizon]

Introduction

We have a Shortage of right Leaders- emphasis on the right character, not skill, both in Government and Private Sector. Election time again here & in the Phil’s. (people are wary whom to vote, why? Personal interest or countries interest). Even in the Church (Churches w/o Pastors, Pastors w/o churches, Elders, Deacons etc.).
There is Leadership Crisis. But will God use/choose you/ me? When he needed one…such is the context of Nehemiah. This afternoon, we will look up a person whom God had used to bring change in His people, spiritually and in nation building.

As we study the qualities of leadership in his life, I think any project you give him, will be successful. It is because he got the qualities of right leadership.  The same thing with us, no matter what God gives us to build or promote, if we have qualities like this person, we will never be afraid, but will have confidence to pursue the task.

Generally, if we got the right Leadership- The rest will follow. So what are the qualities … We can find in Nehemiah …in Becoming A Leader God Uses

2 Chronicles 36:17-20

17: He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged.
19: They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.
20:He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

Country in trouble, more than the USA, Phil’s. In 586 BC Babylonians take Judah captive, King Nebuchadnezzar. Then in 539 Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylon. In 538 Return of the Jews to Judea begins, almost after 50yrs. Finally, in 536 Temple is rebuilt-515. Then in 464 Artaxerxes 1 reigns in Persia, in 458 Ezra leads group of returnees and then finally in 444 Nehemiah leads a group of returnees , 146 years from Captivity

Nehemiah 1 :1-3   

1 These are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah.In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa.
 ² Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.
³ They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”

 -in great trouble and disgrace. What does this mean? Trouble- great distress- means misery and calamity, Disgrace- reproach- The Jews were being criticized and slandered by people who were enemies of the faith

- The walls and gates were in disrepair. Walls mean little in most present day cities, but in Nehemiah's day they were essential. These walls represented power, protection, and beauty to the city of the Jews. They offered safety from raids and symbolized strength and peace.

This was disturbing news, and rebuilding those walls became Nehemiah's burden.

What is your burden? What do you think God wants  you to do? To be a witness to the community? To help change the city? to help change our country?

Problems of the Community: Drinking, Crime rate, High unemployment, Corruption

Complete the sentence: What this church needs are …. What this community needs are… Our schools are are really in bad shape. We ought to …. If I were with the government I would…

There’s a lot of need  around us. Its easy to analyze, scrutinize, and talk about problems in this world… But we really need people who will not just discuss a situation, but will do something about it… We cannot stay neutral? Like our country, we will go bankrupt.

 

Here in Nehemiah, we can see qualities that God is looking for in a leader He can use to rebuild the ruined lives of the people and the broken walls and gates of Jerusalem. In the same way, before God use you & me, He is looking for some qualities.

What are they? What can we learn?

 
1.v.2b He was a man of compassion.
God is looking for those who are "other-centered"- Looking out for the interest of others. Look at the second half of verse 2:

2b  I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah inquired of the plight of God’s people and place v2. Why would he ask if not for concern? He was not contented with his situation. He had a good spot: he was living in the citadel. The citadel or fortified royal palace, was built on an acropolis. It was the winter residence for the monarchs of Persia.

He was living a comfortable and wealthy position in Persia. High pay n lots of benefits.

But he was not complacent. Nehemiah was questioning what was near his heart - the welfare of his people and God’s chosen land. Nehemiah was concerned about Jerusalem because  it was the Jew’s holy city. As Judah’s capital, it represented Jewish national identity. Nehemiah loved his homeland even though he had lived his whole life in Babylon.

When he heard of the sorry state of God’s people, the Jewish remnant and Jerusalem, and the ruined condition of the wall of Jews, he knew it reflected badly on God’s name.

Application: Are you looking out for the interests of others? Hard to find those guys nowadays. This is a gimme society…give me this, give me that…benefits for me. If I don’t get anything from it I’m out…

Volunteer: good spirit…better to give than to receive… actually we benefit

The second character quality of Nehemiah that we can copy is that he was a man of prayer.

 

2.v.4 He was a man of prayer.

⁴ When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.

Nehemiah responded to the problems with prayer.  Instead of rushing in to petition to the king for help, however, Nehemiah first took his petitions to the King of kings. Are you praying? weeping, mourning, fasting? You can't sleep unless you do something.

What makes you cry? Just read the papers and you will cry. Storms, floods, crimes. Walk on the streets of downtown, you will see families living in sidewalks, prostitution, people on drugs etc.

Prayer is still God’s mighty force in solving problems today. Mainly because of the person behind our prayers. 

Thirdly, Nehemiah knows the person behind prayer

3.vv.5-6aHe Knows God

⁵ Then I said, “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands,

⁶ listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel.

a.O Lord- Neh called on God by using His covenant name, the name God himself revealed to the Jews in Exodus 6:6-9: Yahweh

This title is similar to our use of the phrase “in Jesus name”- No other Name, not Allah, not Budha, not 1000 Gods of the Romans and the Greeks, not the Million Gods of the Hindus

b. God of heaven- This title is frequently used in OT. Nehemiah acknowledged God’s government of the world, including His sovereignty over the pagan king who was over him,  the Jewish people, and the city of Jerusalem.

c. Great and awesome God- mighty, powerful, omniscient, omnipresent, Creator of the Universe

d. God who keeps his covenant of love (and mercy NKJ) with those who love and obey Him. This refers to God’s promise to love the descendant of Abraham. See Deuteronomy 7:7-9.

e. God who listens & sees : Let your ear be attentive, eyes open to hear 

Application: How well do you/we know God? Can you approach God in this way? Personal, Confident. How do you know Him? Spend Time with him, get to know him.  

4.He was a humble, repentant man. 6b- 7

6...I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned!

⁷ We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.

6b Repentance- Confessed sin, Did not blame or point finger on others. Acknowledges unworthiness, Disobedience

7 We- Neh included himself among the sinful people.

 

Commands, decrees(statutes) and laws (ordinances)- these words describe the totality of God’s law. 10 Commandments- Love God, No other God, Honor Parents, lie, steal, adultery  covet neighbors goods.adultery and sometimes kill them.

Application: Have you confessed your failure, ancestors, the countries failure. Are we broken people? We should also repent & try to sin no more. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart

 

5. He knows God’s Word and His promises.8-9a

Notice that Nehemiah claimed God’s promises, and recalled his power. He couldn't do that unless he knew what God had done previously, as written down in the Bible.

⁸ “Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations.

⁹ But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’

¹⁰ “The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants.

8-Remember- Nehemiah reminded God of what he himself had said, "I will scatter you" (Lev.26:27-45, Deut. 30:1-5). Nehemiah himself was born in Persia, a distant nation, because of God’s fulfillment of his promise.

9 bring to the place…Nehemiah held God to His covenant to return Israel to the land.

10 by your great strength. Your strong (mighty) hand- associated w/ God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

Nehemiah was able to quote these verses verbatim because he knows God’s word. 

Application: Why are we not giving up on our country? Because of God and His Promises. Do we know the promises of God’s word, and claim it for His work. How many of them we know?

6.v11  He was available

¹¹ O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you.

Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me.” In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.

He pleaded to God to grant him success in getting favor in the presence of the king. Nehemiah requested permission to return to Jerusalem, rebuild the wall, and restore the community.

He was available in spite of his background- Cupbearer. He was the trusted cupbearer who ensured the safety and quality of the king’s food and drink. There were many compelling reasons for him to stay where he was, but he asked for permission to do God’s work.

He said:  I was cupbearer to the king.

1. To remind us of his helplessness.

2. To remind us that with God nothing is impossible.

Nehemiah saw a problem and was distressed. Instead of complaining or wallowing in self pity and grief, he took action. Each of us is unique and capable of serving no matter what our position. We can use our present position to serve God. Are we praying to God that He will use us.

Application: Are we available or so busy; Not willing to sacrifice the convenience or comfortable life we are living in

Summary

There are many things that God wants to do through you and me. 

Ex. Throughout Christian history, men and women with deep love for others have been used to transform the face of society. Prison Condition: John Howard and Elizabeth Fry. Slavery: Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce. Industrial revolution appalling conditions in factories- Women and children’s condition: Lord Shafstbury. Orphaned Children: George Mueller

I wonder if He will choose me and you to do it. Let us be like Nehemiah. He knows how to look at the interests of others-Compassionate, Knows God, Humble-Penitent, Knows His Word, Available

What  can we do? Start being faithful & responsible even in the little things that God is giving us to serve. 

Why did God use him?   God’s GRACE! And doing his responsibility. He prepared himself. When God calls…are we ready? 

Here’s a possible ending of Neh life. 

Epitaph 1: (Tombstone): Here lies Nehemiah, Cupbearer to the King of Persia, Artaxerxes

Epitaph 2: Here lies Nehemiah, Rebuilder of the City of God

How do you want to be remembered? By your vocation only or as a servant of God?