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Stephen Ministry

Today is the second of three sermons considering the question, "After Easter, what’s next?" With the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, a great work had been accomplished—victory over sin and death. But the work of the Kingdom was not finished. The question for the disciples of Jesus—both then and now—is what’s next. What happens now? And what is my role in it?

The Scripture passage for today is the familiar words of the Great Commission, the closing words of Matthew’s gospel, found at chapter 28, beginning with verse 16. Listen to the word of God. (Read Matthew 28:16-20)

Just this past week I happened to catch a commercial on TV for the state of Utah. The theme of the commercial was all the fun activities there are to do in Utah. The vehicle for expressing that theme was the question, "What’s next?" The commercial would show, for example, someone boating on Lake Powell, then the announcer stating the question, "What’s next?’ followed by a scene of someone at Zion National Park, and, again, the question, "What’s next?" And so on throughout the 30 second commercial. "What’s next?"

For followers of Jesus Christ—both in that time and place with Jesus and for followers today—the question after the Easter celebration is what’s next. And one of the answers comes in Jesus’ Great Commission to the Church. This series of imperatives from Jesus: Go! Make disciples! Baptize them! Teach them! And all of you…Obey! Go, make, baptize, teach and obey! That’s what’s next!

The Great Commission is the culmination of the gospel story for Matthew. In Matthew’s account of the Upper Room, Jesus had instructed his disciples about the events to come, including his words, "But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee," (Matthew 26:32). In Matthew’s account of the women at the empty tomb, both an angel and, a few moments later, the risen Jesus himself tell the women to tell the disciples that Jesus has risen and will meet the disciples in Galilee. Matthew then concludes his gospel with the account of that meeting. At the "mountain" Jesus had told them to go to, they see Jesus and worship him though, interestingly, some still doubted. Right away we learn a couple of things. One, the fact that they worship Jesus and he does not rebuke them for their worship is another example of Jesus’ claim to divinity. Only God is to be worshiped. If their worship was misdirected toward Jesus, he would not receive it and would rebuke them for it. But, Jesus receives their worship—here and elsewhere—a clear sign of his claim to being "God with them." Also, we learn that some of the disciples still had their doubts. Interesting that with all that has happened, with all they have witnessed, they still have their doubts. But Jesus doesn’t scold them for that, Jesus doesn’t separate out the doubters from the certain believers and then give his Great Commission to the certain believers. Jesus calls all of them to the Great Commission. We learn in that that Jesus works with us in our doubts. All of us experience doubt at certain points in our faith journey. That is not a disqualifier to following Christ. Jesus works with us, even in our doubts.

Then comes the Great Commission itself, Jesus’ words of what’s next for the disciples—a series of imperatives. Go! Make! Baptize! Teach! Obey! "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." Let’s take a look at each one of these imperative commands.

First, Go! Notice Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples to stay put and proclaim the gospel to whoever happens to come by. The first command of the Great Commission is to "go and make disciples of all nations." And that is what the disciples eventually do. They go to Jerusalem and, after Pentecost (as they were further instructed by Jesus, which we will see next week), the disciples go out into Jerusalem and proclaim the gospel. That results in some persecution which leads to some of the disciples scattering to Judea and Samaria—where they continue to proclaim the gospel. Soon, a converted Saul, now known as Paul, and Barnabas go out into the areas of Syria and Galatia and proclaim the gospel. Then further missionary journeys to Asia Minor and Macedonia, proclaiming the gospel along the way, making new disciples along the way, establishing churches in places like Ephesus and Corinth. Followers of Jesus Christ, throughout history, going into all nations to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We all stand as beneficiaries today of faithful followers who answered the call of the Great Commission to go and make disciples.

Yet, I think the cultural heyday for the Church of the 50’s and early 60’s, at least in the United States, lulled the Church to sleep regarding answering the call of go and make disciples. Rather than go and make disciples, the Great Commission became "build it and they will come, then make disciples of those who come." We lost our edge to go and make disciples. Oh, perhaps not in a global mission sense; the Church continued to be very active in the 50’s and early 60’s in sending missionaries abroad. But the general acceptance of and sought after connection to the Church of most people in the United States of the 50’s and early 60’s dulled our sense of going and making disciples of whoever was out there in our immediate mission field of our neighborhoods and communities. No longer did we go and make disciples. Instead, we built our churches in the midst of them and expected them to come to us. And, frankly, we are paying the price today for that. For awhile they did come. But then they stopped. And the resulting status of Christianity and the Church today is very far removed from their status in the 50’s and early 60’s. There’s lots of factors we might point to and blame, but certainly a major one—one that we have control over—is our negligence in going and making disciples. We need to rediscover and respond to the first command of Jesus in the Great Commission—Go!

There is, however, an important caveat to our going. In doing so, we must first discover something about the people to whom we’re going. The first act of going and making disciples is not what you might think it is, telling them about Jesus. The first act, once we actually go, is getting to know the people God brings across our path, getting to know their stories, establishing a relationship with those to whom we are going in order that we might earn the right to be heard in our witness to the good news of Jesus Christ.

Let me give you an example. A few years ago we were running the Alpha class at church when one of the participants asked why we ran the class at the church. "Aren’t we told," he said, "to go and make disciples?" He was right, of course. And from that sprang the idea to offer the Alpha experience at his apartment complex. It was a great adventure from which we learned many things. One important, central thing we learned from that experience is that we cannot simply go and offer to people this great opportunity we have for them…without knowing something about the people to whom we’re inviting into this great experience. Yes, we are called to go. And, yes, we should be prepared to speak at a moment’s notice to the hope we have in Jesus Christ. But effective disciple making occurs when we go and first learn something about the people with whom we someday, when the time is right and Christ’s Spirit prompts us, share the good news of Jesus Christ. But, first we must Go!

Well, I’ve taken most of my time to address only one aspect of answering Christ’s call in the Great Commission, the first command to go. The fact of the matter is, I’d be a happy pastor if we would take seriously and respond to that first imperative—Go! That is the first hurdle we must clear in responding to the Great Commission. It’s no longer adequate to say, "Hello! We’re here! If you need us come on up. We’re friendly people!" We must go in order to effectively make disciples. I’d be a happy, happy pastor if we took that command seriously. So, perhaps the go should capture most of our attention. Fulfilling the Great Commission begins there.

But, let me say a few brief words about the other imperatives in the Great Commission (you knew that was coming, didn’t you?). The Great Commission probably deserves its own sermon series, but let me briefly say this about the other imperatives.

After go, there is make. Make disciples. There is a twofold aspect to this "making disciples." First, there is indeed the act of making NEW disciples out of the people we come into contact with as we go into our neighborhoods and communities. Always in the forefront of "what’s next" in the life of the church is bringing people who are far removed from God into the fellowship of following Jesus Christ. Always we seek to make new disciples. But the other aspect of making disciples is continuing to grow in our own discipleship—encouraging one another in our journeys with Jesus Christ. That’s not the end all of making disciples, always there is the call to make NEW disciples, but our own discipleship is never to stagnate or atrophy. Always, we are to grow in our own discipleship while we seek to make new disciples.

While we may have lost the sense of going in order to make disciples, we’ve pretty much kept up with the command to baptize new disciples. Oh, we might quibble among denominations about the appropriate way and time to baptize, but we haven’t lost sight of the importance of baptism. Hopefully, when we celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism you take seriously the words we say about "remembering and celebrating your own baptism." "Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Those are important responses to what’s next after Easter in the life of followers of Jesus Christ.

Finally, there is the call to teach and obey all that Jesus commanded. An important part of responding to what’s next is to grow in following Jesus Christ as Lord. We do that by teaching others about Christ, in turn growing in our knowledge and understanding of who Jesus Christ is, and obeying what Jesus commands. The story of Easter is the story of salvation: Jesus, through his death and resurrection, conquers sin and death; Consequently, we are saved from our sins and sin’s penalty, death; Jesus’ victory in his Easter resurrection is our victory. It is Jesus fulfilling his role as Savior. "What’s next" after Easter is very much the story of Jesus’ role as our Lord. Will we seek to know his will for us? Will we, as we discern his will for us, obey? Will we answer his call in our lives, an essential part of which can be found in the Great Commission—to go and make disciples of all nations (growing in our own discipleship in the process), baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (all the while celebrating our own baptism), teaching them (and ourselves) to obey all the Jesus has commanded us? Will we do that?

Recall the commercial for Utah I mentioned earlier. The punch line to the commercial—these series of activities one can do in Utah, all as an answer to what’s next during your stay in Utah—the punch line to that commercial was, "It’s up to you." And that is the punch line to the Great Commission. Jesus left the work of the Kingdom of God to his disciples. I find that an amazing thing, that the God who can do anything He chooses to do gives to us the work of the Kingdom. That’s "what’s next" after Easter—the work of the Kingdom. And one response to that question is the work that is summarized in the Great Commission. Whether or not that work gets done is up to us. To be sure, we have the promised presence of Christ with us and the supporting power of Christ’s Spirit, but accomplishing the work is up to you and me. So, go 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 obey everything that Jesus commands…and know that Christ Jesus is with us until the very end of the age and the work of the Kingdom is done.