Sermon Date: 2009/3/15

DATE: 2009/3/15
SCRIPTURE READING: Matthew 28:18-20
SERMON: Who should go out into the world?
講道題目: 誰要出去進入世界?

By now you should have been very familiar to the words I use when pronouncing the benediction. “Go out into the world in peace…” These words have a lot to say about you as a member of the church. A church does not cease to exist when the benediction is pronounced Sunday morning and the congregation leaves the sanctuary for home and return to the routine activities of the week.
(1) A church is as real when she is scattered as when she is gathered. She is as real when she is an invisible corporate body as when she is a visible congregation worshipping inside a beautiful building.
(2) When the church is scattered, when she is invisible, she is doing the work to which Christ sends her. This is implicit in Christ’s analogy of his disciples as salt: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”(Matt. 5:13) and seed: “The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one.”(Matt. 13:38) Salt and seed are useless in their gathered form. When they are put to use they are scattered, and they disappear—salt into food, seed into soil.
(3) Awareness and acceptance of this reality are pressing needs among believers today. Most of our thinking, talking, planning, and programming presupposes the church in her gathered, visible, corporate form. Her influence in the world is measured on this basis by result-oriented and result-obsessed administrators, and failure to see “success” in these terms intimidates and discourages the whole church.
(4) This inadequate view of the church and her mission should be readjusted to the right understanding of the great commission.
I. The focus of the commission traditionally has been on the word “go.” The emphasis, the challenge, the pressure, the mandate has been “go!”
(a) The measure of a congregation’s commitment in mission has been the number of people who have gone out into the world to preach and teach in a far off land, or it has been the amount given to those who go out into far off land to preach and teach.
(b) The word “go” has been identified almost exclusively with a relatively few professionals (the missionaries), who take specialized training for a work somewhere else. Generally speaking lands beyond an ocean have been thought of as the primary mission field, the place where those who are sent out into the world “go”.
(c) “Go” is not the only big word, the mandate, in the great commission. Nor was it intended that a relatively few “professional missionaries” be the only ones to take it seriously, unless we assume it was intended only for the Eleven. The mandate in the great commission is “make disciples…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.” The measure of our response is in terms of making disciples, not the number of converts or baptisms which are recorded in our book.
II. The word “go” as it is used in the great commission (Matt. 28:19) is for all the people of God, as demonstrated in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And in Acts 8:1, 4. “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria…Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”
(a) The word “go” is addressed to all the peoples of God with reference to their dispersion. It is as if Jesus said, “Go back out into the world” or “Wherever you are…make disciples.”
(b) Here is the exciting strategy of our Lord Jesus Christ. He scatters his church like salt and seed everywhere to accomplish his purposes. And everywhere she is dispersed she is enlisting and teaching followers of Christ. This is the work of the church, and it involves every single member.
(c) You are not alone, for Christ has promised to be with you with all authority. Christ has equipped you his servant with all that you need to do his work in the person of the Holy Spirit.
III. Why are you there? Is it not to make disciples?
(a) As a witness to Jesus Christ you are to share his reconciling, redemptive love. As an ambassador of Christ you are to beseech those nearby, in Christ’s stead, to be reconciled to God. You are there to share all you know and have experienced with others, that they might receive the benefits of the love of God for the world and conform to God’s will.
(b) This is something each and every one of you can do. As you learn you transmit your knowledge to another; as you grow you share your life with another. Think of the network of believers at any given moment scattered everywhere. Literally encircling the earth, penetrating all the institutions like salt in food, like seed in soil.
(c) In the economy of God every believer is called to full time service for Jesus Christ. You should accept your daily task as your holy vocation and accept the place you are in as the place where you are to do it. The work of the ministry belongs to all believers, and those who are professionals, such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, or teachers, are to equip them for this work. Paul said, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received…But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men…It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Eph. 4:1-12)
Who should go out into the world? You and I. Each and every one called by our Lord Jesus Christ. What are we to do when we go there? We make disciples for Christ. Amen..
Sermon Synopsis:
讲道大纲
一個教會並不是在主日崇拜祝福後散會就不再存在的。
（1） 教會在分散時和聚集時都是同樣真實地存在著。
（2） 當教會分散時，她是隱形地做基督要她作鹽作種籽的工作。
（3） 我們設定教會工作只限於有形的看得見的事工。
（4） 這個不完整的設定，須由大使命的真義去改正。
I． 以往我們把大使命的焦點放在那個【去】字。
甲． 以往我們捐錢和派人【去】世界外面傳福音。
乙． 【去】成為了海外宣教士的任務。
丙． 【去】不是大使命的唯一中心。【誰】和【做甚麼】才是。
II． 【去】是指所有神的子民都要去。
甲．【去】是對所有分散的神的子民說的。
乙．耶穌把他的教會分散在地上，作鹽作種籽來完成他的旨意。
丙．你不會孤單，因為主把權柄賜給了你。
III． 【去】是使人做主門徒。
甲． 作為主的見證人，你可以與人分享主救贖的愛。
乙． 這是每一個人都可以做的事。
丙． 神預算所有信徒都是全時間的牧者。誰要去？你和我！去做甚麼？去叫人信耶穌。