Our text this morning is very familiar from the last section of Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 28, beginning at verse 16, known as the Great Commission. Hear then the word of the Lord. 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, 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. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age. I remember growing up in churches where we had go into all the world and preach the gospel and blazoned at the front of the church and was on banners at missions conferences. I remember the first time I was really struck by the fact that that's not actually how the Great Commission begins. It doesn't begin with go. Now, that's where I naturally turn to. I'm an impulsive person. I'm the kind of guy who runs an errand to the bank to drop off the check and comes back after pulling out of the parking lot to a grinning wife who is standing there with a check. In fact, I've lost almost all domestic contracts since our marriage. They're farmed out to others who actually know how to repair things properly. Get her done, my wife thinks, is our family slogan. or at least mine no matter how you do it just make sure it's done just do it and there's a tendency in a lot of our circles as Christians well we just need to get it done half of the Christian world is a get it done part of the church let's just get out there let's tell the world sometimes there's confusion about what to tell the world What we're hearing a lot from a lot of very energetic and zealous people is that we're the gospel. Or we need to get out there and transform the world into the kingdom of Christ. A whole lot of things that aren't actually commanded in Scripture or means that are not given to us in Scripture. But there's zeal. There's a tremendous zeal to get it out there, but it's a kind of impulsiveness. Let's just get it done. Go into all the world. On the other hand, there can be a kind of, well, I don't know what the opposite of impulsiveness would be, maybe passivity, where we say, well, what would we say to a Christian, to a non-Christian, if we ever met one? We sometimes argue, you know, in reformed circles. We can get up a good argument for over many decades on what we would say to a non-Christian if we ever talked to one. That's why D.L. Moody said in the 19th century, I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it. And so how do we bring these things together? How do we avoid impulsiveness on one hand and passivity on the other? How do we avoid what many are calling mission creep? where we move away from the mission that Jesus Christ gave us here in the Great Commission. And I think it's really by going back to these very, very, very basic words of our Lord at the end of His earthly ministry. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That's how the Great Commission begins. It doesn't begin with a command to us. It begins with an announcement from God. Jesus, God incarnate, says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That means from the outset is that we're not the gospel. We're not the redeemers. We're not the ones who are building the kingdom. Jesus says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. God is the original missionary. God is the one who is on these sending missions. The Father so loved the world that He sent the Son. And then Jesus in the upper room told His disciples that He would go to the Father and He and the Father would send the Spirit who would equip us. And then He told His disciples, go to the upper room where I told you I would send the Spirit. Go to the upper room where I will fulfill that promise and wait until the Holy Spirit comes and he will endow you with power to be my disciples and to make disciples in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. As the Father has sent me, Jesus says, so I send you. God is the original missionary. God isn't just sort of sitting up there in his everlasting Sabbath glory waiting to see what we will do with this kingdom. He's pursuing it. The Father, with his two hands, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is building a kingdom for himself. Our mission is very different from God's mission. God is the Savior. Salvation is of the Lord. We're not saviors. We hear a lot of loose language in Christian circles today, especially in missions. about our being co-redeemers with Christ or extending the incarnation of Jesus as if He has no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet. But poor Jesus, He did His part and now it's up to us to come through. It's up to us to win the game. But our mission is different from God's. We don't elect, redeem, or regenerate. I don't know about you, but that frees me up quite a bit to share the gospel with people, to know that I have absolutely nothing to do with their election, I have nothing to do with their redemption, I have nothing to do with their regeneration. Bringing the gospel through which people are drawn into a living union with Jesus Christ, but they're not the people I've chosen. Pray that they're the people God has chosen. Whom he has redeemed and whom he is drawing to himself. And so we come not to give people an instruction list, not to give people an opportunity to buy into a great program. We come to people with an announcement. People who are burdened. People who are tired. People who have lost their jobs. People who have lost their families in some tragic cases. People who are lying on death's door. People who don't know where to turn. People whose husband or wife just left them. People whose families aren't turning out the way that they had planned. We come to people not with a good plan and a good life coach to help them with it. We come with an announcement. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus. He's the King. Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died. And look, behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and hell. It's so hard for us, even as Christians, not to slip into thinking that someone else holds the keys of death and hell. The invisible hand of the market seems to hold the keys of death and hell for a lot of people. Medical technology, hospitals seem to hold the keys of death and hell. They really don't. They can help us prolong our temporal lives, but we're all going to die. Jesus holds the keys of death and hell. Our ultimate enemy is vanquished. First of all, all authority. He says, all authority has been given to me. You see this especially throughout John's Gospel. First of all, in chapter 1, where he says that to all who believed he gave the authority to become the children of God who were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Even believing in Christ is part of that victory that Christ accomplished at the cross. He won for us that faith at the cross. In John's Gospel, the following chapters roll out the implications of this authority that has been given to Jesus. In chapter 6, Jesus says, I came not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me. That of everyone he has given me to save, I will lose not one of them, but raise them up at the last day. Or then in chapter 10 where he says, I give my life for the sheep and not one of them shall perish and no one will be able to snatch them out of my hand. Or chapter 17 when he prays that high priestly prayer before he goes to the cross. You gave me authority over all flesh. You gave me authority over all flesh so that I may give eternal life to those whom you have given me. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours and you gave them to me. Jesus did not come to make salvation possible and then give us the action plan. Jesus saved his people from their sins. That's why it's good news, not good advice, not good instructions. It's an announcement. It's something that we bring to the world. Something has been accomplished in history that is of decisive significance. Not something for us to bring about, but something for us to hear and receive and embrace and tell others about. Now, of course, in conversion we repent and we believe the gospel. God doesn't believe for us. And yet, all of these passages clearly teach that not only did Christ secure our redemption at the cross, but he also secured our faith at the cross. The Holy Spirit, in due course, in due season, draws all of those whom the Father has chosen, all of those for whom Christ died, to the feet of the Son through the proclamation of this holy gospel. Faith is a gift. Faith is a gift. It's not something that we can manufacture by gimmicks. By parades, by cute tricks, it's something that comes as a gift through the hearing of the gospel, which to the world is foolishness. Because all authority in heaven and on earth is given to Jesus Christ, we're sent into the world with confidence that this mission will be accomplished. Because Christ accomplished his mission, our mission, which is qualitatively different from his, will also receive success. It's ensured. It's for certain. And that's why Paul could preach the gospel to Lydia. And we read in Acts 16, 14, the Lord opened Lydia's heart to receive the things that were spoken by Paul. What a liberating thing that is. How freeing when we're engaged in conversations with non-Christians. Or when missionaries are on the mission field. Well, we're all missionaries on the mission field. How liberating, how freeing that is. In our home with our own children. Not to be anxious. Fulfill our responsibilities, our covenantal responsibilities, but nevertheless not to be anxious. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus. He said, I have the keys of death and hell. Don't worry. All authority. But he adds all authority in heaven and on earth. Now, this is pregnant for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it meant a lot to Romans who were very happy to have religions claiming authority for everything in heaven. They didn't really care that much about heaven, frankly. As long as Caesar could have earth. That's the important thing. The gods could be in their heavens and doodle or whatever the gods do in the heavens. As long as Caesar is Lord of the earth. It's a very dangerous thing. Sometimes we forget how dangerous it is. We come into church and we say, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Savior, Jesus is Redeemer, Jesus is the Son of God, and we think that we don't have the police beating down the door and corralling us and putting us in stocks. The Christians did because those were titles for Caesar. Lord of heaven and earth. Ruler of the nations. Savior of the world. These are all titles that belonged to Caesar. So it really meant something of great conflict when the Christians said this. This is why they were dipped up to their necks in wax and lit in Nero's garden as candles. To the Jews, it meant a replay of the Old Testament. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to me. And up to this point, it was confusing. Even John the Baptist sent disciples to Jesus midway in Jesus' ministry as he's sitting in prison about to be beheaded and says, ask Jesus one question. Did I baptize the wrong guy? No. Is he the one, or should we look for another? John the Baptist, matter of fact, just ask it. I remember when I baptized my cousin, he came and I said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And I said, God's judgment is at the threshold. I baptize with water, but one is coming after me who will baptize with the Spirit and with fire. And John expected that baptism with the Spirit and with fire, heaven and hell, judgment to come within his lifetime. All would happen at the same time. There would be the resurrection of the dead, the end of Roman occupation, and a restoration of all of the blessings of the Old Covenant theocracy. Even greater than the Old Covenant theocracy, but certainly the blessings of that theocracy. The Pharisees just saw it simply as a replay. Just hit rewind and do Sinai all over again. Only this time, Israel standing at Mount Sinai saying, okay, this time, all this we will really, really, really, really, really, really do. Now we really mean it. This time we'll really pull it off and we'll keep all the hoi polloi, all the low people, all the people with difficulties, physical and spiritual ailments, all of the riffraff we'll keep out of the temple precincts even. They won't even come near so that the holiness of God will prevail in the temple and then Messiah can come by our good works. And Jesus says, you don't understand why I've come. I have not come to get rid of the Romans. I have come to take away your sins. You have something greater here than your temporal difficulties, your temporal oppression, as great as it is. All people, Jews and Gentiles, are under sin, and I have come for a worldwide feast, a worldwide festival, where the nations are going to stream to me instead of the temple. I am the temple, and in me they will find forgiveness. And they didn't get that until Jesus rose from the dead and he explained how he was the fulfillment of all of those Old Testament passages. He was not coming as a new David to just replay the Old Covenant theocracy. He was the point that all of those shadows, mere shadows, pointed to. He's the sacrifice. He's the temple. He's the incarnate law and he's the incarnate gospel. He's the prophet, priest, and king. He's the sanctuary of God. He is the holy of holies. And he offers forgiveness directly in his name, directly bypassing the temple, which infuriates the religious leaders to the point where now they want to crucify him. Who is this who blasphemes? Who thinks that he has the authority to forgive sins? No one has that authority but God. And so the exodus that Jesus was accomplishing was different, greater than the exodus that he accomplished when he led Israel from Egypt through the Red Sea. That was just a type. That was a preview of coming attractions. That was pointing to something greater. But now the disciples, after Jesus rose and after Jesus explained to him how he was the fulfillment of those prophecies, they now understood this isn't just the exodus of the nation of Israel. This is the exodus from sin and darkness for all the nations of the world. But they hadn't yet rethought the conquest. See, this is the two big turning points in Israel's history are exodus and conquest. Freed from bondage to Egypt, they were now to conquer God's land of Palestine, drive the nations out, and institute the theocracy that God established at Mount Sinai. A holy people, a holy nation. So now they had to rethink the Exodus. Okay, the Exodus is God hanging on a cross. Not exactly the Cecil B. DeMille version of Moses leading the people through the Red Sea to cheers. It's a little different than we thought. But what about the conquest? So now they're thinking Jesus is Joshua. They're getting that right. Jesus is Joshua. And right when Jesus accomplishes these things and Jesus teaches them about the kingdom, he's about to leave. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You accomplished our redemption. The exodus is past. But what about the conquest? How do you fulfill the conquest if you leave? Joshua didn't leave after the battle of Jericho. Why are you leaving us now? And so the last question, the last question the disciples asked Jesus. See, they're so different from us. If I had one last question to ask Jesus before the ascension, It would be something stupid. It would be like, do dogs go to heaven? Or will we really be playing harps for that long? Or, you know, what's it like up there? You know, sort of a National Geographic feature. And that's not the question that the disciples were asking because they actually knew the biblical plot line better than I do. They had a good question in mind. They said, now is it the time that you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And yet it showed that they weren't really getting the point. They understood the exodus, Christ's death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins. They understood that now. But the conquest surely meant, okay, now you did that, which is good, but the really important thing is the political, social restoration of the world and driving those Romans out for Pete's sake. And Jesus simply answers, it's not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority, but 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 ends of the earth. Wow, that's a pretty big campaign. And we were thinking about just sort of just cleansing this sliver of real estate in Palestine, just having this to ourselves with no foreigners. That's what we were kind of hoping for. No, no, no, no. Just as the exodus is greater, the conquest is greater. I'm talking about the whole world, but it's not the way you think. It's not going to happen by lopping off the heads of the infidels, as was commanded in the Old Testament. Jesus says, you have heard it said. Hate your enemies, I tell you. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The Father and the Son send the Spirit. The triune God sends the disciples out on this mission from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. He also says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It's been given to me. It's important that we understand here it's not just that he has it because he's God. because he assumed our flesh in order to perform what was necessary in order to earn this position and authority. He has accomplished as a faithful son everything that the Father had called him to do. And so now he can really say, glorify me for I have accomplished everything you gave me to do, as he does in John 17. It's not just because he's God, but because he's the faithful and victorious last Adam, the true human who accomplishes everything that his father gave him, as Paul says in Philippians 2, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He accomplished it. And because he accomplished it, he is Lord. He has given all authority in heaven and on earth, not just because he's God. He has given that authority as man. He has given that authority as our elder brother because he has truly conquered sin and death in our own flesh. So we're not redeeming anything. He has accomplished redemption. We're not extending Pentecost. The Spirit has come. It has happened. And now that Holy Spirit, poured out on all flesh, on all nations, is planting seeds throughout the world, the Gospel, and we are reaping the effects of the Spirit's inauguration of that building program as He makes us living stones in a global sanctuary. And then we read, therefore go. Therefore, go. Do you see what a difference this makes? If we start with, go, go do this. Here's something we have to accomplish. We have to build the kingdom. We have to redeem the world. We're co-redeemers. We have to accomplish this. We have to do all these things in order to make heaven on earth. If we have to do all of these things, we're just in complete despair. that's what leads to mission creep but if we start where Jesus starts wait, back up talk about me and what I've done not you and what you're going to do let's start with me and what I've done I have conquered death and hell I have all authority in heaven and on earth the sinner doesn't have all authority in heaven and on earth He or she cannot, by free will, lock me out. Preachers don't have that kind of authority. Nations don't have that kind of authority. But I do. I'm Jesus Christ. I was dead and now I'm alive and I have all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go into all the world. Preach the gospel, baptize, and teach them to observe everything I've commanded you. Three things. The mission statement includes three things. It's as easy as the mission statement for Otis Elevator. The mission statement for Otis Elevator is moving people vertically. This is very basic, but it's so hard for us to stay on point with because it's not about our cleverness. It's not about what we can do, what we can build, what we can achieve. It's about delivering the goods that He has already achieved, that He has already accomplished. Just passing out the gifts at Christmas. We're the little elves. That's what we're called to do. It's a mission that's deep. Making disciples, not just converts. Go, therefore, and make disciples. It's easy to make converts. It's very difficult to make disciples. It takes a lifetime. And it's wide to make disciples of all nations. It's really difficult. As Peter put that together in his Pentecost sermon and said, the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And that's what's hard. In one sense, it's kind of easy to focus on one of those tasks. It's easy, as we see in the church today, for a lot of our Christian brothers and sisters to be so zealous and impulsive about getting out there going and telling that their children aren't in church, much less their grandchildren. That intergenerational unity and bond of covenantal cohesion is breaking apart. According to many statistics, over half of those raised in evangelical churches are unchurched by their sophomore year in college. But they're going to those who are far off. What about to those who are near? What are we doing in our own homes, in our own churches? Or we can err on the other side and just focus on for you and your children without the additional clause and to those who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And you see, he's even chosen the strategic plan for this mission statement that fits the message itself. It's all by grace. God is delivering His goods through the mission of the church and therefore He's picked preaching. Why preaching? Preaching is announcing. You're just announcing. You're telling people what has happened. Why baptism? You don't baptize yourself. You are baptized. You're a recipient. The Lord's Supper, we talk about receiving the Lord's Supper. We're recipients. Do you know there's not one verse in the Bible that I've been able to find that commands us to build the kingdom of God? Instead, we have Jesus saying, fear not, little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Or in Hebrews, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us worship God with reverence and awe. And so the mission fits the message. And the first signs at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit had come were Peter's sermon, preaching Christ from the Old Testament, and the people crying out, what must we do to be saved? And Peter said, be baptized for the remission of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And throughout Acts we find this pattern. And we see how the Great Commission plays out on the ground in Acts 2, verse 42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Here in Acts 2, as in the Great Commission, the strategic plan is simple. Three things. Word, sacrament, and discipline. Does it sound familiar? The marks of the church. The marks of the church are the mission of the church. And the mission of the church is to bear the marks of the church, to preach the gospel, to baptize and also to administer the Lord's Supper and to teach them to observe everything that I have commanded you. Word, sacrament, and discipline. Some people divide those things today and say, well, you know, there are some churches that are just maintenance churches. They just believe that the church is a place where certain things happen, like preaching and sacrament. But we believe the church is a people who do certain things. And see, this is the dichotomy, the false choice we have to get over in the church today as we think about God's great vision for this world. We have to stop thinking in terms of making a choice between one or the other because the church is called to do both. The church is both a people and a place. But the church has to first of all be a place, and this is very important, the church has to first of all be a place where disciples are made before it can be a people who are disciples in the world. Jesus said during his ministry, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. And he said that the strong man is bound. That's what Jesus accomplished in his ministry. Jesus accomplished this in his earthly ministry. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him. And right now Satan is chained so that the gospel may go around the world. Let's take advantage of it. This is a great moment. The devil is chained. All authority in heaven and earth belongs to Christ. Therefore, let's go. What are we waiting for? Many of you remember, I'll close with this, many of you remember what I've only read about and probably remember it up and close, D-Day. When finally there was a gasp, this is over, where the back of the Nazis was broken. And there was no possibility of recovery for the Wormach. And yet, that job was finished, but there was more yet to do, liberating the prison camps. And now, people my age see the footage of Allied armies liberating prison camps, and you just weep. It's hard to imagine what it would have been like to actually live during that time. But brothers and sisters, that's exactly the era in which we live now on a much grander scale. Christ has now given us the keys not of redemption, the keys not of death and hell, but the keys of the kingdom to go unlock the prison doors, to announce the gospel. What a wonderful privilege that is to go to the death camps and liberate those prisoners to give them a good bath, a good meal, clothes, the robes of righteousness. To care for them, to nurse them back to health so that they too can go out and tell others that the war has ended. CNN has its own headlines. We just celebrated a very important headline again, 10th anniversary of September 11th. That was a very important date in our national history, I will admit. But it pales in comparison, meaning no disrespect to those who died and their families. That event in world history, that event pales in significance to what Christ accomplished. That date was the most significant date in history. September 11th didn't change everything. It kind of reinforced the tragic humdrum reality of living in a fallen world. 33 AD changed everything. When outside the center city of Jerusalem, the second person of the Holy Trinity in our flesh hung on a cross and said, it is finished. And now, all that's left for us is to celebrate. Christ is crucified. Christ is raised. Christ will come again. And until he comes again, he says in that last sentence of the Great Commission that we also often don't quote, And lo, I am with you by my spirit and word. I am with you, even to the end of the age. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that even before time began, you had purposed in your own heart to give the Son a people and to send Him on a mission to save us. And that even then, the Holy Spirit too covenanted with you and the Son to draw us into a communion of saints united to the Son, justified, sanctified, one day glorified. Father, help us to hear this good news not simply as something that is good for us, but as that good news for the world, that wonderful hope that our trust is not in Caesars or invisible hands of markets, or in our ability to prolong life or to make that life more fruitful and sustainable. As important as all of those things are, Father, but that we are ultimately in your hands and that our only comfort in life and in death is that we belong to you. Out of that comfort, Father, send us out into a world that desperately needs to hear this message, we pray. as you have sent your Son and your Spirit. So now, equipped with your Spirit, send us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.