Sunday 08 • 18 • 19

Church planting resident here, and I'm always thankful that I get a chance to open God's word—not to hear me speak, because frankly, I hate to listen to myself. But God's word is authoritative, and I want to speak from His word. This morning, we're going to talk about a subject that is really and rapidly impacting and changing my life, and we're going to do it from two scriptures: Matthew 28:18 through 20, and then Acts 1:8. It should be in your bulletin.

Let's start with Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20:

Jesus came near and said to them, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age." — Matthew 28:18-20

Now Acts 1:8:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." — Acts 1:8

A Call to Something Greater

John Scully remembers the first time he met Steve Jobs, who was the cofounder of a new company called Apple. John Scully was the CEO of Pepsi. Steve Jobs was looking for a new CEO for Apple, and he interviewed about twenty people, but he was not pleased with the interviews. So he reached out to John Scully, who agreed to meet him in California.

Five months later, Steve Jobs offered him the job of CEO, but Scully turned it down. Now, I don't know much about the life of Steve Jobs, but it seems like he's a guy who does not take no, especially when he wants to go after something. So he had a conversation with Scully where he said these words: "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?"

Today, we know the impact that companies like Apple and Microsoft and many others have had on the world. It's cool to be a part of something much bigger than yourself.

When I was growing up, I had absolutely no vision for the rest of the world. It was about me, myself, and I—AKA De La Soul. Some of you may get that later. I wanted to be a part of something where, when I stopped, I would be remembered. I just wanted people to know I existed and that I was a part of that.

But God, in His infinite wisdom, does something amazing to change the world. He calls us—a community of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ—into His work of changing the world. He uses His church to be the conduit for global impact. How will churches impact the world? Through church planting. Let me be more specific: churches planting churches.

The Commission and the Power

Remember what Jesus said to the apostles in Acts chapter one. Jesus tells them He's about to go back to be with the Father, and He tells the disciples, "Look, y'all need to wait a minute because what I have called you to, you need power. You can't do this in your own strength because you're going to be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

In Matthew 28, He tells them, "Because I have all authority, I now commission you to do something: make disciples of all nations."

Work in Our Region

When I think about this, being new to this area, I realize that we have work to do here in Wake County. So many people are moving here daily, and if we accommodated the people that are moving here every day, we could plant a church every day to accommodate those who are moving here.

Then I thought about what Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans chapter 15, verse 23. Paul is telling the Romans, "Look, I've been trying to get to you, but I've been hindered." And then in verse 23, he says something interesting that I think we can gloss over when we read Romans. He says that in the area he was in, "I no longer have any work to do in these regions."

What is he talking about? It seems that Paul is referring to the fact that he has been about God's work, and that area was saturated with gospel nutrition. It was time for him to go somewhere else and do some work. He did not have any work to do in that region.

So I think about us: Do we have work to do in this region? Is there room for us to work? Do you feel the weight of that? I'm telling you, I feel this weight heavily. Do you feel the weight of responsibility as a church to impact those whom God is sending here? In your community, at the grocery store, at the restaurant—this global nature of this mission.

Steve Timmis says in his book, Multiplying Churches, that it is the Holy Spirit that creates missionaries. When he regenerates a person with the life of Jesus, saving them, the Holy Spirit has then created a missionary. If you are here this morning and you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, as he has revealed in scripture, you are a missionary. You are a missionary. It does not matter if you go over there or you're hired by a company to go overseas for long term or short term. No, you are a missionary, which means you—I have work to do. Now that we have been saved, we have a new ambition and this ambition is shaped by the gospel's ambition. And what is the gospel's ambition?

Listen to what God's word says in the book of Habakkuk, that many of us would just pass right over. Habakkuk chapter two, verse 14. The prophet writes:

For the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the Lord's glory as the waters cover the sea. — Habakkuk 2:14

The earth will be filled with the knowledge of God's glory as the waters cover the sea. How was this done today? Primarily through church planting. God's mission strategy for the world is church planting. Churches planting churches.

So this morning, as we talk about this idea and this concept of church planting from Matthew 28, but also looking at Acts—because we cannot understand church planting without considering the book of Acts where there are churches being planted—but primarily using Matthew 28 as the launching pad, I want us to see first the power of Jesus in Matthew 28:18. The power of Jesus.

Now, y'all are going to hear me do something that I normally don't do, and that's alliterate. Like, I don't come up with all this snazzy stuff, but today we're going to major on these Ps. So we're going to talk about the power of Jesus in verse 18. Secondly, I want us to see the program of Jesus in Matthew 28, verse 19. And finally, I want us to see the presence of Jesus in verse 20. The power of Jesus, the program of Jesus, and the presence of Jesus.

This morning, we just want to talk about church planting, and before going further, let's ask God's help by his Spirit. Let's pray.

Father, my prayer for us this morning is that we would feel the weight of this call of reaching the world through church planting, but also that we will be comforted by the fact that we are not left to do this on our own strength, because it's impossible. Lord, give us hearts to seek to obey you and ask ourselves what role are you calling us to play in this idea of church planting. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We do pray in Jesus's name. Amen.

The Power of Jesus

Let's look at verse 18 in Matthew 28 and the power of Jesus. Jesus says this:

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. — Matthew 28:18

See, in Jesus' earthly life, he was in a very different situation than he was in his risen state. In his earthly life, man, Jesus didn't have any money. He didn't have resources. He went about healing, right? He did great works, but it also lets us know that Jesus had these 12 disciples who followed him, who wanted to be like him. But where did these disciples come from?

He found some of them in an area called The Triangle. Sounds familiar? He found them in an area around Galilee made up of three small towns or cities called Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Corazin. This was an area where Jesus did a lot of his ministry. Now, people in the Triangle were characterized by something. They were characterized by being passionate about God. They were characterized by being passionate about their way of life and they were passionate about the book—they were passionate about the word of God. Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Philip were from this area. They were the disciples who were surrounded by a community of people who loved God and his word, and Jesus would call these young men to come and follow him so that he would make them fishers of men.

Now, it's interesting to me that my wife and I have moved to an area called The Triangle. About almost two years ago, I was with my friend John Fouche and we went and met Elliot Grudem at Brew, where my life was radically imploded because now as Elliot was talking about Wake County—of which we had no idea—and the amount of people moving here, and then thinking about the fact that, wait a minute, you got NC State, Duke, Chapel Hill, and all these other colleges mixed in. All we understood was that God is sending the nations to this area.

And I began to think: What would it look like if churches in this area were all about the business of impacting those God is sending? Because here is how we have to see it. I believe we have to see those that God is sending. They're coming from every nation on the planet, it seems like. Some of them may go back home. Maybe they live in a place or they're from a place where there's no gospel witness.

What does it look like for us to engage as a church, as churches in this area to impact and walk with those who may go back home? Gospel witness back on that land. See, even if we never go to that country, we can be used by God to influence that person who would then be used to impact that place, similar to the Ethiopian eunuch.

God, I believe, is sending the nations to the Triangle. And it is important for us to get on God's agenda and get in his playbook in planting churches because of the way we could potentially impact them. See, the disciples of Jesus followed him for three years, saw his works, his death, and resurrection. Now he's in an exalted state with a new status, and Jesus says in verse 18, "All exusia, all authority has been given me in heaven and on earth." The limitations that apply to his incarnation no longer apply to him. He now has supreme authority.

Now, what's interesting to me is that Daniel, the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament, saw this hundreds of years before Jesus came because he said this in Daniel chapter seven, verses thirteen and fourteen:

I continued watching in the night visions and suddenly, one like a son of man was coming in the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. He was given dominion and glory and the kingdom so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed. — Daniel 7:13-14

This is Jesus who has all this—dominion and glory and kingdom. He has all authority. God bestowed universal authority upon Jesus, and Jesus's authority passes to his community, his church. Why? Because he is the head of the church. Colossians 1:18 says it this way:

He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that he might come to have first place in everything. — Colossians 1:18

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul lets the believers know that Jesus is God's instrument of reconciliation in the world. Then he says the church is Jesus' instrument of reconciliation in the world. Because of Christ's authority, he uses the body of Christ to impact the world, and how is this done? By church planting, because Jesus has the authority to do this.

The Voice That Moves Us

Growing up, there were a lot of very important voices in my life. Obviously, it's going to be Mom, right? You gotta obey Mom. You can't go rogue in my house. And then you have my grandparents, but as a boy, I was pondering this—if I had to look at whose voice was very strong, it was a woman that we called "Other Mama" or Clara Roberts. All four foot ten, long hair. You look at her and you would think that she's gentle and soft, but I can tell you one thing: ain't nothing soft about this sister. Because when she opened her mouth, it's like the earth moved.

And this is how it played out. We would go up there in the summers. I'm from an area that's pretty country, right? Well, the city of Mobile, but we would drive to a country area and she had land that was farmed. I ain't talking about like a little garden. We're talking about twenty acres of field peas and potatoes and corn, and we used to have to get up before the sun got good, out there working.

But in the mornings, we all slept in these feather beds, and it felt like those beds had been there since the seventeen sixties. We slept in these beds and they would suck you in, and you're laying there, and my grandmother, the "Other Mama," would say, "You better not get up." But then you would hear her shuffling around in the kitchen, and then all of a sudden, you start smelling stuff. Oh my goodness. Biscuits made from scratch. Eggs frying. Pot of grits just going to work. And then you start smelling that glorified pork—that bacon and sausage. And then you awaken to it and you want to get up but you can't move because she said, "Do not move." It was only until she said, "Get up, come eat," that we got out of bed and went and had a feast—had a feast because it was good.

Now, her voice was certainly important in my life. But the voice that moves me emphatically is the voice of God in his Word. Often I ponder this: we treat the Great Commission that we have here in Matthew 28:18-20 as the great suggestion. God, sometimes we treat him like his Word does not move us to action because we are busy. We have other things to do. We are not really concerned about what God wants to do with us. We're concerned about making sure everything in our world is comfortable or that we have all that we need.

But Jesus Christ, on the authority given him by the Father, is ordering us to be about his work, and this work is for global impact. We are here this morning at Christ the King.

I want to tell you my brothers and sisters, we are gathering to be equipped because God is trying to use us to reach this area. And He wants to do it through the planting of churches. That's why I'm thankful for the leadership here that's looking to plant 10 churches in twenty years. That goal freaks me out because that's big, but we got a God that's bigger. We have to be about His work.

The Program of Jesus

The second thing I want us to see in '19 is the program of Jesus. Notice what Jesus says here. He says:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." — Matthew 28:18-20

After Jesus let His disciples know that He has all authority, He commissioned them to His work and He says to them, make disciples of all nations. Just as Jesus sent out the disciples on mission, He is also sending us out on mission.

See, prior to this, Jesus told the disciples in His earthly ministry not to go to the Gentiles but to go only to the house of Israel proclaiming the kingdom to Israel. But now, in His risen state, He tells them to go and make disciples.

Now, the New Testament was written in Greek and the main verb of this passage is make disciples. Many people think that the main verb is "go." No, the main verb is make disciples, and that word is Mathatusa. Now, how do you make disciples? You make disciples by going, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Spirit, and teaching them to observe. But the main verb is make disciples, and this means to turn someone into something. What do we turn the people into? A disciple. So, what is a disciple? A disciple is a learner and a follower of Jesus wholeheartedly committed to Him.

So let me pause and say this. If you're a follower of Jesus, you are a disciple. You are a disciple. And the job of a disciple is to be exactly what the rabbi is. Now, the disciples whom Jesus called to be with Him did not follow Him for information. We got notebooks for days and when people give us information, we write down everything that we hear. If you're like me, you'll write it down and won't open it again. It's set on the shelf somewhere. The disciples didn't follow Jesus to get information. They followed Jesus to be exactly what He is.

Jesus would say it this way in Luke chapter six verse 40:

"A disciple is not above his teacher but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." — Luke 6:40

So now Jesus being raised from the dead and headed back to the Father tells these disciples who wanted to be just like Him—because Jesus made disciples—He says, now, you go and make disciples, not just of Jews but of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave them a worldwide scope for this mission.

And when you read the book of Acts, you will see that the church initially struggled with this because they only wanted to huddle around Jerusalem and Judea and talk to Jews only. It's comfortable for us to just be around our own folk. That's easy for us because we understand. But to go to someone that we don't understand or know or that we have made a caricature of, that's difficult.

But then something happened, right? They ended up going to other people. Why? Because persecution broke out. But this is beautiful. Even as persecution broke out, they went to other areas opening their mouths, sharing the gospel. See, persecution doesn't stop the gospel from growing among God's people. It is bearing fruit all over the world just as Jesus said it would. God through the church is using us to establish places where God rules and where God walks in mercy.

In Acts chapter 11 verses twenty-five and twenty-six, Luke writes this:

"Then he went to Tarsus to search for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, they met with the church and taught large numbers. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch." — Acts 11:25-26

See again, up to this point in the book of Acts, the church was just dealing with Jews only. But now, they proclaim the gospel to non-Jews in Antioch and the result of their evangelism was a church was planted. A church was planted. The text does not say how it was formed but it was clearly formed.

See, the text doesn't tell us that they had a formal fundraising strategy or that they had an online presence with social media allowing everyone to know when they would launch the church. Now, I'm not railing on those things because I will use the online social media and having a fundraising strategy. But what is evident is that the Holy Spirit was at work in this church. And He is also at work with us using us to go out evangelizing and making disciples. And He using us would do the same thing that He did with the people in the book of Acts.

See, this has always been God's heart. To gather people together to form a community of God's people.

Now, what's interesting is when you get to Acts chapter 13, this church that was planted has diverse leadership. You see it. You got leadership of guys from Africa and others. So this is a diverse church and this leadership sent out two of their best: Saul, who is Paul, and Barnabas. I think we need to have that same heart. What's comfortable for us is just getting to a place where we're comfortable and want to stay there. But I will encourage you, CTK. Don't allow comfort to stop you from being about God's work. God may be calling you to go out. It may be new and it may be scary. Trust me, I feel it. But he is calling us to go out because he wants to set up more outposts in this area where he will be made much of and so that people will come to know him.

So when we read the book of Acts, we see that Paul made disciples and planted churches. One of his disciples was Timothy who pastored the church in Ephesus. You and I are sitting here today because Paul, Barnabas, the apostles, other unnamed men and women went out sharing their faith, making disciples, and planting churches. Church history shows us that people didn't just seek out to live a comfortable life. They wanted to be about the work of God in the earth to see his fame made known throughout the earth.

Now, many of us here have taken cruises, right? I've taken one. I don't care if I go on another one. But you know what a cruise is like, right? They're going to make sure your life is easy on a cruise ship. Oh my goodness. They're going to have food for days. Eat all you want. They're going to have all kinds of shows. You can go see this show, you can go to that show. You can go upstairs and play shuffleboard and swim, play some basketball, get you some dessert. Just for however long you're on this boat, the world literally is your oyster and the people working on the boat are going to make sure you have the best experience possible.

But a cruise ship is very different from a battleship. On a battleship, you don't have comfort. On a battleship, you're getting your hands dirty. You may be mopping the deck, you may be cleaning the bathroom. But everyone on the battleship is preparing for war. In the church today, what kind of field do we have? Is it a cruise ship field where you get everything you want? Or does it have a battleship feel? Like, we don't have comfortable chairs or we don't have all of the—well, I praise God for the coffee because I needed it this morning—but all of these things that make it comfortable for us, right? Does it feel like a battleship?

And so when I look at scripture, I realize that we are in a spirit battle and there's a lot of battle language in the text. In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus says this to the disciples:

I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. — Matthew 16:18

See, that's battle language. Ephesians chapter six, Paul writes to the Ephesians, he says:

Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. — Ephesians 6:11

Battle language. And then in Revelation 19, I think we have a great story and I'm thankful that Revelation is at the end. I may not understand everything in Revelation, but I do know this: we win because of Jesus. And John says this:

Then I saw heaven open and there was a white horse and its rider is called faithful and true. — Revelation 19:11

See, this is Jesus on this horse. But it also says in chapter that God's people, the armies of heaven, his ones that have trusted him, they're on white horses as well going into battle. But the beautiful thing is that Jesus don't need us to fight—but we're with him. But this is the last thing it says:

He has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. — Revelation 19:16

See, when a church plants a church, the church is engaged in spiritual warfare. And it's not pretty. And I'm understanding that it is hard, but I also can attest that it's sweet.

And I'm going to be vulnerable right now and be totally honest and transparent with you. On this trek that my family and I are on, we're planting a church, and I gotta be honest, there are many times where I'm anxious and I'm afraid. And it's in those moments of feeling all of that fear and anxiety that I have to run to the scripture and allow the gospels to wash over me because then I'm comforted.

But I realized this: that Jesus is not up there berating me. "You ain't got no business being scared. Suck it up." He's not doing this. But he moves close to me. He ministers to me and uses me in my weakness, and he would do the same with you as you are engaged in his work.

So I encourage you, don't be afraid. Or if you are afraid, run to Jesus. Because he has a work for us to do. And here's the beauty: we're not doing it on our own. He is with us. And I understand why scripture constantly tells us, "Don't fear. Don't fear."

We don't have to fear because this is his work and he will accomplish what he purposed. Praise God that this is not my work. This is his work and he is going to accomplish his work.

The Presence of Jesus

Finally, I want us to see the presence of Jesus in verse 20. Jesus says this:

Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you and remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. — Matthew 28:20

The mission that Jesus calls us to requires teaching new disciples to observe—or some translations may say obey—all that he commanded. In verse 19, Jesus says to the disciples, "Go make disciples and he says, baptize them." Baptism is vital and we must do it, but baptism is not an end all be all. The church must also teach.

But this is not about having more information or education for education's sake. I've said this to you before. I'm among a bunch of people that got more degrees than a thermometer, and so you all know a lot of stuff, right? There's nothing wrong with degrees. I love it. But we have information like we have books and libraries. We have stuff everywhere. I'm not preaching to the choir—I'm standing in the line. I got books for days. But it's not about just having information. Jesus is speaking of the taught as observing. In other words, this has shoe leather to it. You have information—what are you doing? It's about pleasing God in every area of life.

Again, Jesus says to the disciples, "Teach them all that I have commanded." I love this because he didn't say cherry pick certain sections of scripture that you want to teach. We can go to the Bible and go to our vivid verses and only deal with that. No, Jesus says, teach everything—all that I have commanded. That's why I love going through books verse by verse. I do. I understand sometimes you have to deal with topics and things come up and you have to rearrange, but I love going verse by verse because I have to deal with the text, not to tell people what it means, but to allow the text to deal with me and then I just give that to others. Jesus doesn't say cherry pick. He says, teach all that I've commanded.

And finally, he tells the disciples, "Remember, I am with you always to the end of the age." This is a statement of assurance. He does not say "I will be with you," but he says, "I am with you." We have the assurance that we will not be left to serve God alone. We have a great companion to help us fulfill the Great Commission. He is with us wherever we are.

And just like the disciples, we experience Jesus in a new way because Jesus is not physically on the earth. When you read John, chapters 13 to 16, Jesus keeps telling the disciples, "Y'all need me to go. Because right now I'm just with you, but there's one who I will send that will be in you." Now that the Holy Spirit is here, he's not just with us but he is in us, empowering us the same way he did Jesus while we're about his work.

And he said he would be with us to the end of the age. I love it because many people would think that this command was only given to the eleven who were present with Jesus here in Matthew 28, but no. I don't think Peter and James and John are still here. These brothers been gone a long time. But Jesus's promise is to be with us till the end of the age. This points to the eschatological judgment and renewal. So this promise is for us as his disciples today in perpetuity until Jesus comes back. There will never be a day when Jesus is not with his disciples as they are about his business.

The Great Commission and Church Planting

So the Great Commission is all about church planting, I believe. This is how we reach the entire world. We must know that the message of the kingdom that Jesus gave, that we proclaim, is going to bear an incredible harvest. And that's what makes me so excited about being a part of CTK—the belief that there is a harvest.

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. — Matthew 9:37

CTK wants to be a part of those laborers, raising up people to go out and plant churches, of which I'm a part. But I believe there's going to be more churches that CTK plants. Not because CTK is so great, but because he is great. And he cares more about Wake County than you do. And he wants to see them reached—not just Wake County, but the rest of the world. We can be encouraged to go out and spread the word with him.

God's Plan from the Beginning

In closing, I want to talk about what we see in Revelation 21 and 22. In reading those chapters, we see what God intended from the beginning. What you see is the new Jerusalem, the bride and the lamb. The bride of Christ is the new community—the church. And this shows us that the church is not incidental. The church has been God's plan from the beginning. Therefore, we want to get on board with what God is doing because Jesus promised to build his church.

So I close with this question: As you hear this story, are you in the story or just hearing the story? Those that are in the story are in Christ and sent on mission. Those who simply want to hear the story are like the athletes on the bench—cheering from the sideline, saying "go get them"—but have no skin in the game.

What I love about the church is that none of us are on the sideline. We're not called to be on the sideline cheering on the pastor and the elders and the deacons and telling them to go do it. No. Jesus is calling you and me into the game and calling us to go do likewise: make disciples of all nations.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your work, and I'm thankful that you know how all of this plays out. In Revelation, we see that the bride of Christ will be glorious, without spot or blemish. Until that time, you've called us to be about your work of setting up places of salt and light throughout this earth.

But falling back, let's think about Wake County, Lord God. You've called us to saturate this area, and I pray that we will be about your work so diligently that there will soon be no more work for us to work in this region, and we have to move to new areas. Have your way. Be glorified in your church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.