Reaching the World

The reason we are left here is in order that we might make disciples of all the nations. That is our God-given priority as a church. Jesus came, the Bible says, to seek and save the lost, and we have the same task to seek and bring salvation to the lost.

Have you ever realized that there is an amazing privilege Christians have today that they won't have in heaven? I'm talking about evangelism, giving people the gospel, fulfilling what is known as the Great Commission. No believer is excused from this calling. As Charles Spurgeon said, if there be anything about which the Christian church cannot tolerate lukewarmness, it is the matter of sending the gospel to a dying world. That said, let me urge you to stay here on grace to you as John MacArthur shows you the necessary ingredients for effective evangelism. Today's lesson, Reaching the World, can help prepare you for a gospel conversation with a coworker, a neighbor, or a member of your family.

All of this is practical stuff. So with that, here is John. Turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 28. This text is common to us, familiarly known as the Great Commission. Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 through 20, and I want us to revisit it, perhaps view it with a fresh look. Beginning in verse 16 of Matthew 28, what the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.

And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. That amazing and clear and familiar portion of Scripture reaffirms to us the primary responsibility of Christians in the world. I know that we enjoy Christian fellowship and it is rich and rewarding, but it is not our primary responsibility. I know that we are called to praise and worship and that, too, is rich and enriching, but that is not our primary responsibility. I know we are called to learn the Word of God, to teach that we might understand better the Scripture, but that as good as it is, as vital as it is, is not our primary responsibility. Our primary responsibility is summed up in one verb here in this passage in verse 19, make disciples.

And then the breadth of it, of all the nations. That is the primary reason the church is here. If we were saved for fellowship, then we would be taken to heaven where fellowship is perfect. If we were saved for praise and worship, we would be taken to heaven where praise and worship is unhindered and perfect. If we were saved for the sake of teaching and training and knowledge and wisdom, we should be taken to heaven where knowledge is perfect. The reason we are left here is in order that we might make disciples of all the nations. That is our God-given priority as a church. Jesus came, the Bible says, to seek and save the lost and we have the same task to seek and bring salvation to the lost. This is what it means to make disciples.

The verb is mathetusate. It simply means to make a disciple, to make a learner, to make a follower of Jesus Christ. That's what we are to do. The Bible indicates we are commanded to do it.

This is one of those commands. The Bible also indicates in Acts 1.8 that we are equipped to do it. After the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall be witnesses. Having received the Spirit at conversion, we therefore have the resource for witnessing. Teaching and ministry and fellowship and worship and all of that is important, but the primary goal is not to do something with the saints, but to do something for the lost.

That is everyone's task. And we understand that and we know that, but it's easy to lose sight of that. We get so enamored and so involved in spiritual ministry and in Christian fellowship and Christian relationships and so busy in church activities and service that we lose touch with the needs of lost people. Sometimes even our theology accommodates us a little bit and we assume that because the elect are the elect and the Lord will never close the kingdom down on earth until the elect are all in, that we have less responsibility to be faithful to this commission. All of these things must be set aside. We must find ourselves obedient to this command.

Now the question that I simply direct to you and believe this text answers is this question. What is necessary to make me effective in reaching the world? What is necessary to make me effective in making disciples of all nations? What are the ingredients?

What are the qualifications? What are the motivating forces? What are the dynamics in my life that will cause me to fulfill the Lord's command? There are five of them in this text. And I believe in great measure they sum up all of the necessary ingredients and qualifications for effective evangelism.

In the text they are explicit and implicit. One way or another it seems to me that they appear here and for our instruction. Five keys to making disciples. Five keys that we must have if we are to fulfill this priority.

Number one, let's write down the word availability, availability. I think everything starts at this particular point. And this is somewhat implicit if you'll note in verse 16. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated.

Now at this point it doesn't take somebody who is necessarily deep in the Greek language to understand that when Jesus said, meet me in a mountain in Galilee, some people showed up. It also seems to me that that's where any kind of effective ministry starts. It starts with showing up. It starts with being initially available. Somebody said the greatest ability is availability.

There's a sense in which that is true because no matter what other ability you might have if you're not available, the other ability is not of any consequence. Everything starts with being there. Everything starts with showing up. So somewhere on a hillside in Galilee, a hillside unknown to us, a large crowd of disciples gathered together with the eleven who are no longer the twelve because of the defection of Judas to be meeting with the Lord at a prescribed time and place designated by Him. The crowd was believers with all their weaknesses, with all their questions, with all their confusion, with all their fear, with all their bewilderment about how it was that Jesus wound up dying on a cross. And now they are ready to have their first sight of Christ.

For apart from the women and the disciples, those in Galilee very likely had no occasion to have seen Him before this. And so some of their confusion and questioning will, they pray and hope, be resolved in this meeting. In some open field, in some secluded place, far from the crowds of Jerusalem and the threat, they gather together to meet with the risen Christ.

And let me just draw out of that the very obvious reality that nothing happens except to those who are available to have it happen. In Isaiah in chapter 6 verse 8 said, here am I, send me. He was reiterating the point of availability which is the starting point of any effective service to Christ. They were there. They wanted to see the living Christ. There was enough desire in their hearts to follow Him, to bring them there. And because they were there, they were privileged with His presence, His promise and His great commission. They were little people and they submitted themselves to this designated time and place with the desire to be with Christ.

There are some big people, you know, who think they're big with their own puny plans and their own agendas, who never bother to show up with the redeemed and consequently they miss the momentous events and settle for the trivia of human life. I suppose at some point it's fair to say that fulfilling the mission duty of your life to make disciples of other people begins with meeting the Lord at the appointed place in the Word, in prayer, and in the assembly of the redeemed, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as some do, and much the more as you see the day approaching. You're never going to have any kind of impact on the world unless you are willing to set aside that designated time and place to be in the presence of the living Christ with His people, in His Word, in communing prayer with Him. I tend to think that many people never bother to go to the lost because they can't even bother to get together with the saved. They never have much to say to those that are without Christ because they have very little to say to Christ Himself. You have to ask yourself about your availability because I am convinced that those people who are most effective in making disciples are doing that because there is an overflow of privileged communion with the living Christ. They choose to be in the Word, they choose to be in prayer, they choose to be in the assembly of the redeemed and out of that kind of fellowship with the presence of the living Christ comes impetus to carry out His cause. There's a second feature that I think flows out of this text, verses 17 and 18.

Let's say the second word here that gives us a quality, a necessary ingredient for effective disciple making is the word worship...worship. It says in verse 17, and when they saw Him, they worshiped proskuneo. It means they prostrated themselves in adoring worship. They worshiped Him.

That is the right response and I'm sure if you had been there, if I had been there that day, seeing the resurrected Christ would have been such an overwhelming experience that we also would have fallen on our faces prostrate in adoring wonder as we saw the vision of the resurrected Lord. They worshiped Him. They were in awe of Him. They already loved Him. They already trusted Him. They had already affirmed their praise to Him and now it was consummate as they saw Him in His resurrected glorified form.

What would you notice, please? This is really consistent with Matthew's emphasis. If you go back to the very beginning at the first chapter or two of Matthew's gospel as he introduces the coming of Christ and His birth, he is very careful to point out that wise men came and worshiped Him. And here as he consummates his gospel, he is very concerned to point up again that he was worshiped. Back in chapter 28, verse 9, he talked about the fact that even before this there were those who expressed worship to him as they took hold of his feet. The one who came to be worshiped is worshiped. He was to be worshiped.

He was worshiped when he had accomplished redemption by the sacrifice of himself and appeared to his people. Would you notice, please, however, that at the end of verse 17 it says, "...but some were doubtful, some doubted." Now somebody might say, why did they add that? Why does Matthew say that?

You don't have to say that. Doesn't that plant the seed in somebody's mind who is skeptical of Scripture that says, I don't know if I can really believe that and if you think that's strange for me, then realize that there were some people there that day who saw Christ supposedly after His resurrection and they doubted too. Doesn't it seem an unnecessary addendum that might give some justification for someone's unbelief today?

Why does that have to be said? The answer is very simply because it was true. The Bible always has transparent honesty. The biblical writer is never caught up in some human effort to convince people of the resurrection by contrived and selective reporting. The biblical writer is not into selective evidence gathering.

They just record the facts, the truth, and the truth is some were doubtful. Not surprising. Not surprising. They weren't used to seeing resurrected beings. They had their doubts because that's part of fallenness. That's part of human sinful nature. And they had not here to foreseen the resurrected Christ.

They had heard that He had risen. Furthermore, and this might seem a rather crass thing to say, but it is true, I would dare say that I might be little more than a fog this morning for many of you if you didn't have glasses. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought that up until the invention of glasses a great mass of the population saw a fuzzy world? And here you have probably five hundred people on a hillside. Maybe the sun was bright.

It usually is in that part of the world. Jesus was a little bit far off. And I'm not going to describe His glorified form to you, but it must have had some kind of presence that was to one degree or another a bit unrealistic or unlike what they had been familiar with. And here they are trying to focus their unaided eyes on this somewhat distant figure and trying to focus their weak faith on the reality of the risen Christ. I don't believe it was wicked doubt which chooses to reject evidence. I don't believe it was foolish doubt which chooses not to consider evidence. I believe it was virtuous doubt that just needs more evidence. And Jesus did an interesting thing. Verse 18, it says, And Jesus approaching spoke with them.

Isn't that interesting? Why do you think He did that? I think it was to give them more evidence. What did He say to Thomas in the upper room? You want to know who I am?

Do what? See my scars. That's plenty of evidence. Jesus approaching them, the Greek text says. They just weren't sure that it was really the Lord because they hadn't seen Him before. Only the eleven and the women had.

This is the first time for them. And this is not something that happens every day. So Jesus came nearer and nearer to erase the doubt. Whatever it was about His resurrection glory, it didn't change the fact that He could be recognized by those who had seen Him before His death.

And so they saw His beauty, that unfading beauty, that appearance so mild and yet so almighty, so entirely human and yet divine, so mild and yet so powerful, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the conqueror of death and hell, and yet the Lamb of God with the marks of the slaughter upon Him. They saw Him and I'm sure after He came near, they found themselves ashamed and joined those who worshiped. To worship is to acknowledge deity, to acknowledge majesty, to acknowledge sovereignty, to acknowledge glory. That is essential, I believe, in the life of one who would be a disciple maker because I am convinced that it is only when you are consumed with love and adoring praise to Christ that you literally are controlled by that. You do not evangelize in a vacuum. It comes out of a worshiping heart. If I really love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, then His cause is my passion, right?

What I love consumes me. But there are those people who are not worshiping as they should. Their worship is thin and shallow. Their worship is infrequent, sporadic. They say they love Christ, but it is not a cultivated, deep, intimate, communing love that elicits an ongoing, unending praise and worship from their heart. And as a result, motivating them to do His work and to champion His cause and to preach His message is well nigh impossible because the truth of the matter is they are rather occupied with their own agenda. To the one who, like John the Baptist, says, He must increase and I must decrease, making disciples becomes the priority of life.

Where is your heart? If your heart is set on Christ, then Christ is all. Christ is all. His kingdom is all. His cause is all. His purpose is all you live for.

In order to make disciples then, you have to start with availability and you have to proceed to worship. There is a third word. Let's write this one down. It flows out of the text, submission...submission.

We could even use the word participation. Verse 18, when He did finally get next to them, He said, "...all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." This is a far-reaching statement that just staggers my thoughts, reaches beyond my ability to conceive.

But let me at least get in touch with it. When Matthew began this gospel, he introduced Jesus as King. He gave His royal lineage and had a group of Oriental king makers acknowledge Him as King. He began with the fact that He was King and King means sovereign.

And now as He ends His gospel, it's the same thing. "...all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth," which is another way to say He's King. King over all kings, sovereign over all sovereigns, He is in charge, absolutely in charge.

So, we then are called to submit and to participate in His kingdom. Look at the word authority for just a moment, exousia. It could be translated permission. It is sometimes translated privilege, sometimes right, sometimes power, sometimes as here authority. But I think the simplest definition is this, complete freedom of action, complete freedom of action.

Now think about that. If you think about it long enough, you'll see that that's a rather comprehensive definition. Nothing causes His action. He is completely free to cause it Himself. Nothing hinders His action. It is complete freedom of action.

Nothing contributes to His action. It is complete freedom of action. That is authority.

You act independently of any other person or influence. Now this particular authority is not authority like a great conqueror gets when he conquers a nation and on the basis of what he has done, he is the authority. This is authority based innately on who he is, not on what he has done in the truest, purest sense.

He is God. And it is the authority that innately belongs to deity. But it is authority though innately belonging to deity which has been reaffirmed by what he has accomplished on the cross and through the resurrection. Thus, as one who is the conquering hero and one who is innately God, he has complete freedom of action. He has freedom to do exactly what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, with what he wants to whomever he wants.

Would you please notice if that is not enough? It says all authority, all authority, no exceptions, total sovereign right to rule. It has been given to him by God.

It says, has been given to me. Ephesians 1, Philippians 2, Colossians 1 are just samples of Scriptures which indicate that God has given authority to Christ. The statement then is intended to establish who is in charge. He is King. He is authority.

We submit to that authority. We participate in the unfolding of His kingly purpose. He is Lord. He is sovereign authority over heaven and earth, and that means all of us. Praise His grace to you with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. He is currently looking at how to evangelize effectively, how to communicate what it means to follow Jesus Christ. The title of his lesson today from Matthew chapter 28, Reaching the World. You know, John, we frequently point out that during this time of year, there's a greater openness to biblical truth. There are people out there who are willing to hear about Christ who maybe in other seasons wouldn't be that open. So we're grateful to be looking at important subjects like the Great Commission, which was your focus today. We're also grateful for opportunities to help our listeners use their Christmas gift-giving to make a spiritual difference in the lives of their loved ones. Yeah, this is the one time people expect a gift, so you might as well give them something that's going to transform their lives.

And I would just mention a few things. First of all, a book called One Faithful Life. Some of you already have One Perfect Life, which is the harmony of the Gospels and gives the full story of the life of Christ. One Faithful Life is a harmony of all that the New Testament has written about the life and letters of the Apostle Paul. It's an incredible look, blending together the story of Paul from the book of Acts with the letters that he wrote, combining them into a single chronological narrative, which is One Faithful Life, the life of Paul. And there are some select notes from the Study Bible that help you as you go through reading it. It's 500 pages, but it's the life of Paul from Scripture.

Great insights. When you put everything together in chronological order, you really do see him for who he is. And then secondly, as we near the beginning of the new year, a reminder of Drawing Near. That's a daily devotional, 365 devotions, one for every day of the year. And unlike most devotionals that touch on a different topic every day, Drawing Near takes you through entire passages of Scripture, often just a verse or two in a day. So Drawing Near breaks Scripture down, provides practical application.

You will enjoy drawing near. And then, as always, a mention for Christmas of the MacArthur Study Bible in the New American Standard, the New King James or the ESV. The Study Bible has 25,000 footnotes explaining the Scripture. And again, we're still holding on to the 25 percent discount of any edition of the MacArthur Study Bible if you order by December 23rd, so place your order today.

Yes, friend, I want to make sure you heard that last part. All MacArthur Study Bibles are 25 percent off the normal price, and you can still get all of these items before Christmas. Our customer service team will help you find the right shipping option. To pick up one Faithful Life, Drawing Near, or the MacArthur Study Bible, contact us today. Call us toll-free at 800-55-GRACE. You'll reach our customer service staff Monday through Friday, 730 a.m. to 4 o'clock p.m. Pacific Time. Again, just call our toll-free number, 800-55-GRACE. You have a number of binding options to choose from with the MacArthur Study Bible, including premium goatskin.

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Or order online, and again, be sure to choose Second Day Shipping. Our web address is gty.org. And while you're at gty.org, take advantage of the thousands of free resources available. You can read daily devotionals by John, you can listen to previous episodes of this broadcast, you can read practical articles on the Grace to You blog. You'll also have free access to more than 3,500 of John's sermons, including those from his recent series, God's Own Defense of Scripture.

All that is at our website gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for joining us today and be here tomorrow when John looks at how you can evangelize with boldness and clarity. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.