Well, good morning. It’s good to be with you. Boy, it’s nice weather outside. If it could stay like that year-round, I’d be super happy. But that’s not the state of Alabama, so the humidity will come eventually. But it’s nice while it lasts. I want to do something a little different this morning. We’ve been walking through Matthew, and we’re in the fifth chapter of Matthew. But I would like to do this. I’d like to ruin the end of the story this morning. I would like to preach out of Matthew chapter 28 in the last few verses, verses 16 through 20.

Matthew 28, verses 16 through 20. If you have a Bible, I encourage you to turn with me there.

And this is what Jesus says.

This is what happens at the very end of His ministry. It says, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee. Verse 16, To the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 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. All that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. There’s nothing worse than investing an hour and a half of your life in a movie. And you get to the end of that movie and you realize, I’m not getting that hour and a half back. That was the worst movie. They ran out of a good script or they ran out of money halfway through. And it’s like, what a huge waste of time. But some stories are worth going back over. And re-reading in a book or watching the movies. Because the stories, they have such a wonderful ending. And you just love the story because you know where it’s going. In high school, my best friend and I, we could have watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy time and time again. We just loved those stories. We loved those movies. And we would watch them over and over and over again. Because you just love the climax. You love how it’s going to resolve. It’s such a great story. And I think so often in the Christian life,

we forget that Christianity is a great story because it has such a great ending. And what we so often do because we’re imperfect peoples, we forget that great ending. We forget the climax of the story. We forget what’s already happened. Because what’s already happened, something great is going to happen. And when we lose sight of this incredible ending of this story, it causes us to breed doubt. It causes us to breed despair. While we’re still playing our part in this story. And so Jesus is talking to His disciples here at the very end of His ministry.

And they’ve forgotten, even though He’s shown up, He’s rose from the grave, they’ve forgotten the power of this Jesus. They’ve forgotten what an incredible ending this story has. I want us to see this morning why Jesus’ words are believable. Why this Jesus can be trusted. And because this Jesus, Jesus can be trusted in His life, in His ministry. Friends, the end of this story is incredible. If we stay focused on that story, in seasons of doubt, in seasons of despair, in following Jesus, we will have the strength, we will have the power to keep moving forward.

It says in verse 16,

And they saw Him, they worshipped Him. But it says some doubted. And you’ve got to think, why are they doubting Jesus? He’s standing right there in His resurrected body. Well, they had walked with Jesus for three years. They’d been with Him continuously, night and day. They were with Him. They saw Him do incredible miracles. They saw Him make blind people a seed, deaf people hear, leprous people. He took away their diseases instantaneously. Jesus even raised people from the dead. Yet Jesus was Himself subjected to death. Jesus was brutally tortured and crucified. But this was supposed to be the end of the story. He was supposed to be heaven’s Messiah who had come to make all things right. So there’s that sin problem because of the garden. This Jesus was going to come and make all things right. But He was also, as King, supposed to come and make all things new. He was supposed to reign eternally and no one would ever break that in. But here, they’re confused because Jesus has been crucified, He’s been brutally tortured, and He has been put into the grave. And so now they’re looking at Jesus. And once Jesus has revealed Himself to them, He actually rebukes them. Like, why could you doubt me? In Luke chapter 24, Jesus says to His disciples, and He said to them, O foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning the Lord. The things concerning Himself. So Jesus is saying, why did you doubt when that happened? Because I told you it was going to happen. Jesus is reminding them His words are always believable. But still it says they doubted, or it means they hesitated. Their worship became, they just can’t put all the pieces together. So Jesus does for them the kind of thing He always did for them. And it’s the kind of thing that you and I need this morning. We need Jesus again to reassure us with His words. Jesus’ words are enough. But why are Jesus’ words enough? Because a lot of people talk, a lot of people say a lot of things that don’t end up coming true. So why is Jesus any more believable?

So He says in verse 18, He’s talking to them. Jesus came and said to them. Now who’s the them? The them is His disciples. And I think for us to really value the power of Jesus’ words, we first need to understand what a disciple is. What is the relationship here between the two? What a disciple is, is a pupil. It’s a learner. It’s a student. It’s not even necessarily a biblical concept. A disciple seeks to embody the methods, the ideas, the actions in the very way of life of another. So it’s not always this formal, conscious agreement. This one man with a big white beard and he’s got all these students around him and he’s schooling them in a bunch of things. It doesn’t happen like that. The fact is, we are all, we are all always both being discipled and discipling someone else. So don’t think discipleship is a category you can choose to get into or not. Everyone is being influenced by someone and everyone is influencing other people. Everyone’s doing that. So you’ve got to make a decision about who you’re going to let disciple you. That’s just a choice you’re going to have to make.

You’re discipled every time you turn on the TV. Every time you hear political views, you’re being told what you should believe about politics. You’re being told how you should dress. Your world view is being shaped when you watch certain movies and certain shows. When you get on social media, you’re hearing a thousand voices saying what your life should look like and what you should believe. When parents respond the way that they do in front of their kids, whether they realize it or not, they are discipling their kids as to what they’re going to be like when they grow up. And most of the time, we don’t think about that as hard as we should, but parents, the way they respond, the way they act, what they say, how they say it, it’s all shaping and forming another human life. And on the flip side, what you do, what you say in your home, in your workplace, in public in general, you are making disciples. So it’s not a category any of us can get away from, but think about discipleship on a more formal level. Think about it in terms of trade, whether it’s welding, plumbing, electrical work, construction, all these things are trades that require a disciple and a disciple maker. You could use apprentice if you like, but nonetheless, it requires someone to both teach someone the art of a way of life and show them. You can’t have the one without the other. I need someone to teach me, but also show me the way of life. Imagine, for example, learning how to fly a plane. I’ve given this example before. Only by the classroom experience. Only by the classroom experience. You’ve got the world’s thickest book and true enough, it does have all the information you would need about flying an airplane. But wouldn’t you like to get in that cockpit with a professional pilot first? So technically, could you learn how to fly an airplane by just reading a book? I guess you technically could, but it would be reckless and irresponsible. What you need is someone to show you how to do it. Someone to show you how to live their way. And so this is the kind of discipleship the disciples are in with Jesus. It is formal. It’s conscious on His part. It’s conscious on their part. He called them to continuously watch everything He did and how He handled situations, how He loved people. And also they listened to everything He had to say. So this kind of biblical discipleship, it’s everything Jesus has to say. It’s everything Jesus did. Watch it. And imitate it. And here’s the thing about discipleship. If it’s good discipleship, what you say and what you do matches up perfectly. Here’s the problem though with you and I when we make disciples, so often we find ourselves to be hypocrites. The ideal Chad who is a parent doesn’t often live out what the ideal Chad says is what a good parent should look like. When Darcy and Dawson spill milk all over the floor, it’s ideal. I calmly clean it up and instruct them, hey, next time, hold your cup like this. We don’t drop it. It doesn’t look like that at all. I probably yell and I scream and I get more frustrated than I should. And whose fault is that? It’s my fault because I’m an imperfect disciple maker. So any professional, whatever trade it is, or professional athlete, no one hits the mark every single time. That’s just the kind of disciple makers we are. But Jesus dares to say something completely different. Jesus dares to say, everything I ever say, everything I ever do, I hit the mark first time. I’m perfect in word. I’m perfect in life. In speech and action, Jesus says His character is impeccable. And if His character is impeccable, does that not mean His words will always be true? So if there’s a fault in one of Jesus’ disciples, it’s not Jesus’ fault. The fault lies in the disciple, not the disciple maker.

Every word of Christ is sure. Every thought right. Every action worth imitating. And the prophet Isaiah, so centuries before Jesus, came talking about Jesus. He says, and they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence and there was no deceit in His mouth. And Peter echoes that in 1 Peter 2. He says that no sin was found in His mouth, although Christ suffered as if it was so. So Jesus is saying, I am Lord. Jesus is saying, I am God. Jesus is saying, and the testimony of Scripture is saying, I don’t have any reason to doubt the character of this Jesus. But Jesus takes us all one huge step further. Jesus proves His character by the empty grave.

If Jesus was not Jesus, it would have been proven three days after He was crucified because the grave still would have had a body in it. Yet the whole testimony of Scripture and Jesus Himself, said though you tear this temple down, in three days I will rebuild it. So the disciples on that mountain worshiping Jesus, they should worship Him wholeheartedly because there He stands in His resurrected body proving His character is impeccable, proving I can trust and believe in this Jesus because what He says is always true because His character, it is matchless. The empty grave, it utterly proves I can take Jesus at His word. Do we take Jesus at His word?

George Mueller, I’m reading his autobiography which has taken me forever to get through. But George Mueller is famous for having started orphanages, really the height when London’s, they have a terrible orphan problem, they roam the streets, so it was a terrible situation. He was called the robber of the streets because he took so many of these orphans in and gave them love, gave them food and took care of them. But he’s looking at them, looking for a good reason, like, Lord, do you really want me to start this orphanage? I need a good reason. And the Lord gives him a really good reason. I want to read you a little account here out of his autobiography. He says, I might visit a brother who worked 14 or even 16 hours a day at his trade, the necessary result of which that not only his body suffered, but his soul was lean and he had no enjoyment in God. I might point out to him that he ought to work less in order that his bodily health might not suffer and he would gather strength for his inner man by reading the Word of God, by meditating over it and praying. The reply, however, I generally found to be something like this, but if I work less, I do not earn enough to support my family. Even now, what I work scarcely is enough. And here’s what George Mueller came to find. There was no trust in God, no real belief in the truth of that Word. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things, shall be added unto you. I might reply something like this to the man, my dear brother, it is not your work which supports your family, but the Lord. And He who has fed you and your family when you could not work at all on account of illness, would surely provide for you and yours if for the sake of obtaining food for your inner man, you were to work only for so many hours a day as would allow you proper time for retirement. But he said he could see in the countenance of the face that people weren’t believing him. So George Mueller did this. He started these orphanages so that people could see what it looked like to just trust the Word of God. God says, you can trust in me. I will provide for you. I love you. I am your God. He believed God. George Mueller did. And George Mueller lived an incredible life. The entire autobiography is such and such date, no food. Someone shows up at the front door with food. Next day, such and such account. We have no money. Someone shows up with five pounds. And it’s pages and pages. Pages of this man simply trusting the Lord to be his provider. George Mueller took Jesus at his word. So here’s the question. What do you really think about the character of Jesus? And it won’t be found in what you say. It will be found in how you live. It will determine whether or not we follow Jesus and endure in discipleship in the difficult parts of life. Circumstances will arise and will tempt us to doubt Jesus’ goodness to us. Can I really believe in Jesus if this is happening? Could this really have happened in a ministry setting? I was trying to do something for the Lord. Would the Lord really let such and such person get sick? Would the Lord really ask me to leave this job? Would the Lord really do this if He’s good? Can I really trust His character? When Christ has proven Himself by the empty grave, His character is trustworthy.

Take Him at His word.

But Jesus also pays His disciples, His disciples this grace. He doesn’t just remind them that His character is trustworthy. Jesus reminds His disciples that no one has authority as He has authority and power.

Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

So, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1, the writer says, Long ago and at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in the end, these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son,

whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And Jesus upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited. He is more excellent than theirs. And I want to read Paul say it in Philippians chapter 2. He says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, He didn’t count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So the Scriptures make us do this. They make us consider the authority of Christ through the humility of Christ.

Jesus was in eternity past co-equal with the Father and the Spirit, Jesus had and has all the divine attributes of God, yet Jesus and the Father made this agreement that Christ would go and subject Himself to the humility of becoming a man and the humiliation of dying as a common petty thief. So no one took Jesus’ Godhood away from Him. He chose to suspend it to fulfill the will of God. Jesus who was the creator of the universe, Jesus who was the king of the universe, here He came as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes to live life among normal, common people. He lived life in His ministry among the wretched of society, the outcast, the sinner, the prostitute, the tax collector, perhaps people, if we were honest, we ourselves would not and don’t associate with. Yet Jesus lowers Himself to love and to care for the least of these. And then Jesus suffers, He suffers the evils of man. He takes every offense thrown at Him. He takes every condescending mark. And then Jesus is beaten and Jesus is tortured by the authorities of Israel and Rome. And then Jesus is crucified as a common thief. Jesus is crucified naked. Jesus is crucified maimed. And Jesus was laid in a tomb as one who was crushed.

But,

Jesus was resurrected, an unconquerable king. Jesus said, by the power of God, I will raise myself up in three days. Paul said Jesus was raised to life over the grave, over sin, over death, over every creature, over every human being with what Paul called an indestructible life. Friend, if the empty grave proved His character, no less did the empty grave prove the authority and power of Jesus over every happiness, over every season, every century, every government, every person, everything that happens happens the way it did because Jesus said so.

The Hebrew writer says nothing is hidden from His sight. All things that are done, all creatures will be brought to account before Christ on judgment day. He sees everything. Jesus will judge everything.

If Jesus’ word was powerful enough to win, to will His own crucifixion, to will His resurrection, if He is so strong to do this, friend, can we not trust Jesus through every season He puts us through? Knowing He has suffered far greater and it won Him the glory of the King of the universe, will He not love us, those for whom He died, to see our suffering before our good and also for His own glory?

Peter’s problem when he stepped out of the boat and walked on the water, on the waves, was that he saw the waves for what they were not.

Greater than the Jesus who told the waves to be there in the first place.

Peter saw Jesus, but he saw the waves as greater.

Friends, our sinful flesh, the world tells us, hey, you be in control of your life.

But Jesus had actual power and Jesus desires to lead and guide us in His power, knowing that He sovereignly ordains every moment, even the bad ones. Even the bad ones. What is it to trust Christ in the good times if I can’t trust Christ in the bad times? My pastor growing up would always say, your worship on the mountain is no good if you can’t do it in the valley. And I would say this just as well. If we’re waiting around to understand everything God is doing, I want to grasp who God is exactly and why He’s doing what He’s doing. Let me tell you, you’re going to be waiting for a really, really long time and you’ll never get around to obeying God. Doubt will be your master. Friend, we need not understand. We weren’t created to understand everything about God and why He does what He does. We were created to believe that He’s good. To believe He’s working all things because He loves us dearly. He loves us intimately and all things will end in joy with Him. Friend, the empty grave proves that this Christ is good. This Christ has all authority and power. He calls us to trust. He calls us to obey.

So if this Jesus has this kind of character and authority, we should hear His command not as something we might do, but we would hear that kind of disciple-maker’s command as something we must do. He says, Go, in verse 19, 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 all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. So Jesus says, Hey, just as you saw me with my words in my life, disciple you, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to go disciple people with your words in your life because your words in your life are full of me. So you go make disciples and I want you to go make disciples of all nations. So here’s the qualification of whether or not you should disciple somebody. Are they a human and are they alive? So nations means everybody, everywhere, go and teach them my words, teach them my way of life and I want you to baptize them in the name of the Father and the name of the Son and the name of the Holy Spirit and this will be an outward sign that inwardly, they are following Jesus because they’ve heard His words and they’ve seen His ways and the power of the Spirit. And here’s how you’re going to grow them up. You’re going to teach them. With what? With Jesus’ words and with Jesus’ life. You’re going to disciple them so the same way they come to Christ by seeing the power of God and the Spirit is the same way we keep them and that we ourselves grow up. It’s about being taught the person of Christ.

And that sounds wonderful but I find this problem in myself and perhaps you do as well. I’m an imperfect disciple maker. I don’t hit the mark every time. I’ve got, I’ve got bad character. I’m not in control. I don’t doubt Jesus.

I thoroughly doubt myself.

And I should because those things are true of me.

But Jesus adds these blessed words at the very end. He says, Behold,

I’m with you always to the end of the age.

Jesus is saying to us by the power of the Spirit it’s me in you. It’s me speaking through you. It’s me moving you to obedience. It’s me working in your suffering. It’s me working in your weaknesses. It’s me working in your frailties. It’s me working in your insufficiencies and what you don’t understand. In fact, the Scriptures say that until we recognize we are totally incapable of being used by God, we won’t be. It’s only when we come to that moment saying, God, I cannot live for you that the Scriptures tell us then and then only with the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit come to do a great work through us. So rejoice. You cannot make disciples for Jesus but Christ says, Behold, I’m with you to the end of the age. I am with you to the end of the age. So friends, we can believe in spite of ourselves Christ will do a great and wonderful thing for His name’s sake. Would you take Jesus at His word in spite of your own imperfections? Because He is perfect. And His Spirit is perfectly working in us. And His Spirit is perfectly forming the fullness of Christ within us. If you would, He’d mightily use you for His glory. If you would trust Him. He’d satisfy you with His presence. He’d keep you for the joy of eternity.

Take Jesus at His word. No one’s word is so true. No one’s life is so beautiful and perfect. No one could have accomplished what Christ did. He calls each of us to the eternal joy of knowing and becoming like Him.

I want to go to the very end of this though. I’m going to go to Revelation chapter 20. If you want to turn with me there you can because I want to just see here with you for a second the great difference between the person that believes Jesus’ word and the person that does not believe Jesus’ word. Word.

And here’s what

Jesus reveals to the Apostle John.

John says in verse 11 or chapter 20,

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From His presence earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Then another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire. And it’s a really weighty passage there. There’s great finality in that passage. And I don’t read it just for shock factor like that’s scary. It is scary. But what I want us to do is not do that thing I think we so often do in the American church and that’s this. Think there’s some in between. I can really believe I can really believe I can really follow this Jesus trust his character trust his authority live for him sacrifice placing all my faith in him turning from my sins he is Lord he is Savior I’m going to give my whole life to Jesus. Option one option two I kind of believe that stuff about Jesus but it doesn’t actually change my life. I’m still going to live the way I want to live I’m still going to do the kind of things I want to do. Jesus yeah like I’ll say amen and I’ll go to church sometimes and maybe I’ll share the gospel here and there and maybe I’ll pray but Jesus isn’t really Lord of my life but I’m saved because yeah I agree with that stuff. Revelation makes that clear distinction friends you’re either a disciple of Jesus and you’ve thrown away everything else and you’re going after this Jesus wholeheartedly because you want his character within you you want his power over you you want his spirit as your compass to lead and guide you or friends you’re not there’s the book and there’s the books there’s the book and there’s the books are you in the books are you in the books are you in the book because when that day comes everything is unchangeable and everything is irrevocable so friends the great grace we have in these few moments on planet earth is this trust in Christ suffer for these few moments now Christ says that suffering is preparing you for eternity that suffering is readying you for eternal glory don’t give up eternity for what you can have in these few moments now don’t sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate Christ bids you come and die and find a real and true life in him and in him alone will you will we take Jesus at his word take Jesus at his word let’s pray

oh father it is it is the sinful heart

that hates your ways and loves the ways of this world that thinks it can govern and guide its own life that thinks time will go on forever but father if you were gracious and we know you are would you convict us this morning that time doesn’t go on forever and judgment day is coming and if we’re not found having believed in Jesus that he has forgiven us our sins against you that he died for us that he rose again if we haven’t committed our full selves to Christ we’re not disciples we’re under your judgment still

so Lord I’m just asking your spirit would move in us

would make us sure of our salvation confirm it in us or convict us Lord that we need to place faith in Jesus and truly follow him on into eternity

we thank you for the salvation that you can work for us that you can work in your spirit and only you can work it’s nothing we can work

and Lord if it is so true that we are in Christ this morning I pray just for a renewed passion and fire to believe in Jesus to sacrifice for Jesus to suffer for Jesus to do what he calls us to do to go where he calls us to go to live for him to make his glory known Lord as the song says let this world grow strangely dim

so Lord Jesus we just bless your name we thank you for the truth of the gospel that you came and you died for sinners like us

we just love you and we bless your name and it’s in Jesus name Amen