Church Mission
4 – Go and ‘MAKE’ Disciples
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
The House of Faith Church | www.PS127.org | www.TruthDigest.org
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SERMON TIMELINE
· Introduction
Part 2: Where do we Begin?
o Part 3: The Disciples
o Part 4: Go and ‘Make’ Disciples
INTRODUCTION
Today is Sunday. March 26th, 2023
We began this series a few weeks ago to dig into the fundamental mission of the local church. So often, when the bible speaks of the church, whether speaking of the local congregation of believers or the Body of Christ, encompassing all the servants of Jesus, the imagery of farming is often used. Sharing the Good News spoken of by Jesus as a “seed” being sown. Followers are referred to as flocks of sheep. Even the symbolism of fishing is used for gathering people into the church.
One may suppose this is because the Lord was working with archaic man, and ideas such as farming and fishing, shepherding, etc., were easier concepts for them to grasp.
I believe it was for another reason. I think it was because fishing, farming, and shepherding were teaching points about how to gather, sow, and reap a great harvest for the Lord.
These are instructions for how the Body of Christ is to operate and carry out the Great Commission instructions in Matthew 28. We are to gather the people and bring them in, the net cast into the waters. We are to sow the seed of God’s Word and help the followers to grow in understanding and relationship with the Lord, thus, making disciples of them.
Today we will look at how we are to fulfill the Great Commission of Matthew 28 and BE the people the Lord has not only called us to be but created us to be.
Let’s Look at the Great Commission Once More Before Moving Forward
SCRIPTURE READING (Legacy Standard Bible)
Matthew 28:16-20 “But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 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 keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
TODAY'S MESSAGE
The first assumption we must make before doing the Great Commission is that WE are indeed disciples. Disciples are who the Lord instructs. He is our Lord because we are His servants. If we are not indeed His disciples, “doing” things commanded in scripture is nothing more than a feeble attempt to gain forgiveness and favor from God through works. Which we know does not save.
Luke 5:1-11
“Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing at the edge of the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, and the fishermen, having gotten out of them, were washing their nets.
And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat.
And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we labored all night and caught nothing, but at Your word, I will let down the nets.”
And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish. And their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.
But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken, and James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon, were also likewise amazed.
And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.”
And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.”
I. WE MUST FIRST GATHER THE MASSES
a. Put out into the deep water, and let down your net
i. Notice the order of what took place in Luke 5
1. Jesus taught with Simon present
2. When Jesus was done, He instructed Simon
3. “Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”
ii. Jesus was demonstrating what was about to take place in His ministry over the next 3 ½ years.
iii. He would teach to many in the presence of men like Simon, whom the Lord had chosen to be with Him (in the boat)
iv. When the Lord was done, He would give instruction to the ones with Him
v. They would obey His command and gather many into the boat with them
vi. This is the allegory of Jesus making disciples of those in the boat with Him. After the Lord was finished (John 19:28-30), those in the boat (the disciples) would cast out their nets and begin to be fishers of men.
1. John 19:28-30 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished, in order to finish the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”
b. Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!
i. And how do those Jesus called (Simon) respond?
ii. “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
1. Mark 2:16-17 “And when the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they were saying to His disciples, “He is eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners!” And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “Those who are healthy do not have need for a physician, but only those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
2. Simon. That is the reason Jesus called you.
3. Simon “confesses” to the Lord right here.
c. “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men”
i. After we hear the call of the Lord and answer it, confessing we are sinners, we then, do what He tells us.
ii. Are you casting out your nets?
II. THERE IS MORE THAN ONE MASTER FISHING FOR MEN
a. Jesus is not the only one actively catching men
i. Just before Paul writes in 2 Timothy about the last days and how difficult they will be in Chapter 3, he speaks in Chapter 2 about true and false converts.
1. 2 Timothy 2:16-18 “But avoid godless and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their word will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.”
ii. Paul goes on to talk about standing firm in your faith and sharing the Truth with others.
iii. But then Paul says this in 2 Timothy 2:25b-26 “…God may give them repentance leading to the full knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”
iv. When we go to gather with our nets, we may also be gathering those who have been in the devil's snare, being held captive there to do the devil's will.
1. The Greek word for the devil here is Diabolos. The same term is used in the verses where Jesus was tempted in the wilderness in Matthew 4.
2. Instead of a net to catch disciples who will serve the Lord, Satan uses a “snare” to “trap” people to do his will.
b. Our chore is greater, but so is our Master
i. Because it is more difficult to catch with a net than a snare (trap)
ii. However, the point the Lord made in Luke 5 is, He will call you, He will tell you where to go, and you will catch.
c. Once caught and brought in, we may begin
i. When our nets are filled, we return to shore
ii. In other words, we got out with our nets and bring them into Church
iii. This is where they will be taught to obey all that Christ commanded
iv. This is why I feel so strongly about teaching sermons rather than feel-good fluff-n-stuff
1. No one matures spiritually with a motivational speech
2. Suppose we fail to understand, through teaching the coming Judgment, why we fall short. In that case, why we need Jesus and Salvation, and how Salvation can only come through Him, we will be ineffective with our nets.
III. WE BEGIN CREATING DISCIPLES AFTER WE BRING THEM IN
a. In our attempts to bring them in, we sow seeds for others
i. When we are out casting nets, some will “get away.”
ii. But the Lord told the disciples that it’s OK because some of us gather a harvest from where others have sown, and there will be others who gather the harvest from our sowing.
iii. John 4:35-38 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. “Even now he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
iv. We may harvest what others have sown, or in our attempts to gather with our net, we may be sowing for others to reap.
v. Truly a win-win when sharing the Gospel of Christ
b. Once they are here, we begin to teach all the Lord's commands
i. Matthew 13 Jesus tells us the parable of the Sower.
1. When we teach the Word to others, some fall upon the rocks, some are eaten by birds, some spring up quickly but die because they do not have much soil, and some wither away because they are scorched by the sun and have no roots.
ii. But some fall on good soil and yield crops
iii. Not everything we sow will produce
1. But the Lord tells us there may be fruit we never see
2. We may plant, and another may harvest
3. We may harvest what another has sown
4. But as the Lord says in John 4 “…he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together…”
c. There is no shortcut to making Disciples
i. We must cast out our nets
ii. We must sow the seed of the Good News
1. The Truth of scripture
2. The promise of a coming judgment
3. The laws which make us all guilty
4. And the Salvation which is only found in Christ Jesus
iii. We are laborers, servants who desire to please our Master
As Disciples, we Begin by Casting out our Nets
The Lord says about sowing the seed of Truth
Matthew 13:24-30
“He presented another parable to them, saying,
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
“The servants of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
“And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’
The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’
“But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Jesus tells us there will be servants among false converts. But do not worry.
On Judgment day, the first judgment will be on the tares, all those who did not confess, repent and serve the Lord.
The wheat, those who are His servants, will be gathered into His storehouse.
CONCLUSION
Being faithful servants to our Lord and Master means actually serving Him. If you do not “serve” the Lord, you are not His servant. So we, as His disciples, must listen to His command and instruction to be Good and Faithful servants.
Disciples “go” where the Lord tells them.
Disciples worship Him, even when we have doubts and fear.
The next step is to cast out our nets and bring in the masses.
They may not be keepers. They may not become disciples. They may not return. But for the disciple doing the Will of our Father and following the command of Christ Jesus, it is a win-win situation.
In the best-case scenario, we bring people in who become disciples and join us in our mission. Worst case, we sow the seed, and another may come along to reap a harvest from what we have sown, and we can both rejoice.
Will some never surrender to the Lord? Unfortunately, yes. However, we are not judged by what others do or do not do, just by what we did when we had the opportunity to.
We are good and faithful servants when we obey the Lord’s commands, not by whether or not we witness the results we believe should occur. Our obedience to the Gospel is rewarded by Christ Jesus, not the results.
Remember Luke 4:28-30 “And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things, and they stood up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the edge of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went on His way.”
Jesus, The Word made flesh when sharing the Word with religious leaders did not bear fruit. So instead, they tried to throw Him off a cliff.
But the Lord remained obedient to the Father, though no fruit was produced.
Do not judge your obedience by the fruit it may or may not bear. It is for the Holy Spirit and God the Father to decide those things. We share the Gospel in obedience and are rewarded for building our treasures in heaven.
Next week: Getting our Nets and Casting into the Deep
NEXT WEEK
Part 5 – Get your nets
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