Sermon “The Main Thing” based on Matthew 28:16-20

 

A wise old sage said, “Remember the main thing is to remember to keep the main thing, the main thing!” 

 

As Matthew ends his gospel in chapter 28 he clarifies the “main thing” for his disciples. He tells what they are to be about now that he is leaving. (read verse?)

 

Jesus had spent three years teaching his disciples and showing them how God’s kingdom worked.  He showed them in word and deed how to bring God’s love and Good News to all people, not just the Jews but also the Gentiles.  And now He is about to leave and entrust the mission He had started to these 11 guys.  And he wants to make it as clear as possible what they are to be about in carrying out the mission He has given to Him.

 

If you remember the Blues Brothers movie, (I know it is hard to believe I am bringing  that up in a sermon), Jake and Ellwood Blues, played by John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, were on a mission to keep the Catholic orphanage they were raised in open, as it owed $5,000 in taxes.  So they decide to reunite the Blues Brothers Band and go on tour to raise the money.  In recruiting the members Jake and Ellwood Blue announce “We’re on a mission from God!”  (picture)

 

Before Jesus goes back to heaven He has sends these 11 guys on a mission from God.  And it is the same mission I believe we are on today.  There is no clearer verse for me personally than this one, in defining my job description as a pastor. 

 

As we formed our mission and purpose statement, it was really the Great Commission re-worded in modern parlance.  We could have just said our Mission and Purpose statement is the Great Commission.  But Know, Grow, and Show is a little catchier don’t you think?  And it rhymes.

 

Seriously, to know is to come into that relationship and be baptized in all that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  To grow  is to be taught all that he commanded and to learn how to apply that to everyday living.  And to show is to then take what we have learned and express it in word and deed to world so they might experience the same Good News. 

 

Then our specific calling is to equip everyone to pass on this Good News to the Next Generation, so that Great Commission doesn’t stop with us, but our kids get it and make disciples out of their friends. 

 

I was at the Reveal Seminar last week at the Crossings Church in Costa Mesa, a big non-denominational church right off the 405.  And our 3 pastors went to a breakfast before the actual seminar started.  The head of the Willow Creek Association, which has several thousand churches, spoke.  He shared a very emotional story about how he and son got taken out by the tide in the ocean in Mexico. And how he thought they were both going to die and the only thing he could do was get his son to shore. 

He talked about how he would have likely died unless others helped him to swim sideways instead of straight in. When he reached the beach he collapsed. It was very emotional, I was crying (but that’s easy to produce lately).  His point is how we need others to help us reach our destination.

 

Later he mentioned one of the guys on staff in the Young Adults ministry at Willow Creek. The guy’s name was Jon Bodin, who discipled a friend of mine, who discipled me in 1987.  It brought back so many memories.  I felt compelled to share with one of the other leaders that I got my call from Willow Creek to go to seminary in 1991. And how this eventually led me back to the Lutheran church.  I just wanted him to know just how many other churches have been affected by what has happened over the years at Willow. 

 

I’m sure you could say the same about the influence of say Saddleback, Mariner’s or Rock Harbor churches.  But here is the key point.  I wasn’t discipled by Bill Hybels (the Senior Pastor).  I was discipled by Jim Guth (a life insurance salesman with Northwestern Mutual that was my first job out of college in 1986), who was discipled by Jon Bodin, who was probably discipled by Bill Hybels.  Make sense. 

 

Similarly, we can all trace our faith back to one of these first 11 disciples, who Jesus chose and commissioned to, “Go and make disciples of all nations!”  If those guys had said, “Sounds great but we have others things to do”, or yeah “We’ll get to it!”.  Guess what!  We wouldn’t be here today. 

 

The church started with each of these guys taking Jesus’ words and going and making other disciples, who made other disciples, just like I am called here to make disciples here in at Good Shepherd in Northwood.  

 

Since the word “disciple” is not a word that is used all that often, what exactly does it mean?  The simplest definition would be ‘student” or “learner”.  Specifically in those days men followed teachers and spent their lives adhering to their messages. Their hope was to become like their teacher.

 

There were disciples of John the Baptist, disciples of the Pharisees, disciples of others teachers like Plato.  Jesus teaches this process in Luke 6:40 when he states, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.”

 

So when you are a disciple of someone you are training to be like them. 

 

Paul picks up on this in Romans 8:29-30 when he says (I’m going to use the Message because I love the nuances this translation picks up on) “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.”

 

This is what we mean when we say to become “Christ-like”, or “to be conformed to His “image”.  We become who we were meant to be in Christ, as we are baptized and then obey all that He has commanded us to do.

 

This is so crucial because as important as it is to go to church by itself it does not make one a disciple of Jesus Christ.  As Nicky Gumbel says on the Alpha course, “Going to church doesn’t make someone a Christian anymore than going to MacDonald’s makes one a cheeseburger.”  A little crass I know but work with me.

 

Dallas Willard, one of my favorite writers has written a lot on this subject.  He wrote a great book called “The Spirit of Disciplines”, where he discusses tools to help us become disciples, of called spiritual disciplines.  When he sees the American church, he says that instead of seeing the Great Commission being fulfilled, he sometimes thinks we have followed the “Great Omission”, because we have forgotten to teach all that Jesus has commanded. 

 

Sometimes we can get more interested in attendance, membership, or giving, and forget the main thing is baptize and teach people to obey all that Jesus commanded.

 

And that brings up an important point.  I am not saying we need to try harder and be better people.  Being baptized means to be immersed!  We baptize infants so that from the start our kids will be immersed with the grace of God through the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

 

We can’t become like Christ without the power and presence of God.  God created us, Jesus saved us and forgave us, and as we have been discovering the Holy Spirit empowers us to be the people we were meant to be.  We need all of God to become all that we were meant to be.  As Jesus said in John 15:5, “Apart from me you can do nothing” 

 

Finally and this is probably my favorite part of the passage, Jesus promises us that as we are about the Great Commission, “He is with us until the end of the age.”  We are not just on a mission from God, we are on a Co-Mission with God.  We can be sure that as we stick to the “Main Thing”, we don’t go it alone. 

 

Sometimes it not what you do, but who you do it with.  As I look out upon this church every Sunday, I thank God that I get to do it with you.  I often say to Francheska, “Isn’t this such a great bunch of people at our church.” 

 

That is why I am so glad we are starting to do some other activities to get to know each other.  As we come to know God and each other together, grow in His love together, and show it to the world, we know God is with us until the end of the age.  We are on a mission from God! 

 

I’ll try to remember to keep the main thing the main thing, will you help me!  Amen.