Matthew 28:18-20

I would like to invite you to turn to Matthew 28:18-20 and we’re going to read this together.

This morning we are focused on graduation. How many of you have been to a graduation ceremony in the last few weeks? During these few weeks of June most families in America will have at least one member graduating from someplace.

Two weeks ago we went to my oldest son's preschool graduation. It was pretty cute to see 4 year olds marching around with caps on and getting diplomas. And, I have to confess that at one point I had to hold back some tears.

Do you remember the valedictorian address? The speech given by the person selected to say something meaningful on behalf of the graduating class. I have to admit that after a while these all sound the same to me. Something like, “We want to thank everyone who helped us get here. We’re really going to miss this place - well not really - And, this is a wonderful new beginning for us.”

However its put, graduation - and in these valedictorian speeches - there is an expectation that something new is suppose to happen in our lives - A new meaning - A new purpose for our lives.

Recorded in Matthew 28 there is one of the most important graduations in all of history - and Jesus gives the valedictorian address. The disciples are graduating from a 3 year course in the Jesus’ School of Ministry - and Jesus gives to them and us the great purpose statement of the church.

Read this together - familiar - refresh our minds - what Jesus said. Matthew 28:18-20: “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 lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

This is a purpose like no other purpose that has been given to anyone before or since. Go out and make disciples in the name of God.

Bring the unsaved to Jesus - bring the unchurched to church - and bring the saved to maturity in Jesus - make the discipled into disciplers.

Here were eleven men who were told to go out and conquer the world and lay it at the Lord’s feet. Eleven insignificant men.

Eleven men who had never been more than 50 miles from home. They’d probably never been outside of the country of Palestine. Eleven men who were doubtful - downcast - fearful. And even though they had seen the resurrected Jesus and knew Him to be the victor, they were hesitant and disturbed - not really sure of what the Lord intended to do. And, Jesus had no funds to carry out this assignment - no endowments. He had no basis of political power - no visible organization or administrative structure. He had already been rejected by His own nation.

Sometimes we look at our church and numbers and finances and the huge task and ourselves and our abilities and wonder how. The Christian life and calling is not just difficult. It’s impossible - and God designed it that way. The bottom line is that we can’t do this on our own. We must rely on God - our authority is not ours - but God given through Jesus Christ.

To live, with boldness - with confidence - If we are to achieve the significant purpose to which we have been called - we need to realize the authority of Jesus Christ and its significance for our lives.

Jesus said, “ALL authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” That word ALL is inclusive. Jesus does not say that He has some authority - or a lot of authority - authority over a million things. What Jesus is saying is that He has sovereignty over everything. There is nothing that He does not have authority over.

Max Lucado, in his book “In The Eye Of The Storm” - shares this account by Frank Koch.

Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities.

Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing reported, “Light, bearing on the starboard bow.”

The lookout replied, “Steady, Captain,” which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.

The captain then called to the signalman, “Signal that ship: ‘We are on a collision course, advise you change course twenty degrees.’”

Back came the signal, “Advisable for you to change course twenty degrees.”

The captain said, “Send: ‘I’m a captain, change course twenty degrees.’”

“I’m a seaman second-class,” came the reply. “You had better change course twenty degrees.”

By that time the captain was furious. He spat out, “Send, ‘I’m a battleship. Change course twenty degrees.”

In whatever situation and whatever circumstance - Jesus is the greater authority.

Listen to how Jesus is described in Hebrews 1:2,3: “...In these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He - Jesus - had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven.”

The Apostle Paul says this, “....God highly exalted Him - Jesus - and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

The authority of the disciples was not the size - or power - or material qualifications of the group - but the divine authorization given to them by the Jesus - who is the sovereign Lord who created men and by whom lives again can be recreated. There is no one or nothing that can stand against - stand above - or refute the authority of Jesus Christ.

This last week, the Southern Baptist convention took a fairly strong stand against the Disney Corporation. Did you hear this? The Southern Baptist convention with it’s 15.7 million members voted to challenge the moral direction of the Disney Company.

The resolution passed by the denomination urged Baptists across the county to “refrain from patronizing” any of Disney’s myriad of enterprises - it’s themeparks, ABC, Touchstone, ESPN, A&E, the Disney Channel, the Anaheim Angels, and the list goes on.

The resolution challenged Disney - and “any company that promotes immoral ideologies and practices” calling for a boycott if Disney continued its “anti-Christian and anti-family trend.”

Of course Disney’s response was predictable. “We are proud that the Disney brand creates more family entertainment of every kind than anyone else in the world. We plan to continue our leadership role and, in fact, we will increase production of family entertainment.”

Our wonderful society and press have begun to paint the Southern Baptists as fundamental - homophobic - family and children haters. And no one seems to be asking if maybe the Southern Baptists are right - I mean this is Disney we’re talking about - the cute little mouse with the big ears....

And yet, Disney has been moving in a very anti-Christian direction. Consider their latest “family” movie Hercules - where Hades (Hell) is pictured as a comic figure. And remember Pocahontus? - which was not only a complete rewrite of history - but a rewrite which eliminated every positive reference to Christianity in favor of Indian and New Age mysticism. I could go on.

Sometimes I feel that - as a Christian - if I take a strong stand on anything - the society in which I live is going to run over me. In some respects it is a little scary to see just how powerful and entrenched the anti-Christian sentiment in our society really is. And it is easy for all of us to be hesitant - and not bold - in proclaiming our faith.

I appreciate this comment from Wiley Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park - located 5 miles from Disneyland, talking about the Southern Baptist resolution, Pastor Drake says, “This will help us to win people to Jesus... because the world we live in today is not looking for a mamby-pamby bunch of pansy-waist (sic) Christians that don’t take a stand. Most people that are looking for Jesus today have been there, done that, grew up in a church with... no backbone, no guts, and they’re looking for real Christianity.”

The disciples went out into the world - a world hostile to the Gospel - they went out armed with the authority of Jesus Christ. He was their authorization, and they needed no other. Historically, we know that within a period of a few weeks they saw 5,000 come into a relationship with their Lord. Within 35 years they had planted churches in every major center in the Roman Empire. Recently I heard that statistically today there is not one place in the occupied world that is more that 50 miles from an assembly of believers.

These disciples went out believing that they could make disciples of all men, and in the name and authority of Jesus Christ they conquered the world. A little, insignificant group, but with all the power of the sovereign God available to them they accomplished - and are still accomplishing what they set out to do - and this is the same authorization and authority with which Jesus sends us out into the world and says to us, “Go... and make disciples.”

The Random House Dictionary of the English Language speaks of authority as, “a power or right to direct the actions or thoughts of others”.

Listen to these words from 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 and consider the authority of Jesus Christ over your life. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price - the blood of Jesus Christ - therefore glorify God in your body.” Honor - obey God with whatever you do.

A few years back, the contemporary Christian singer, Bryan Duncan, wrote a song entitled “Last Graduation”. The setting is a school reunion. The question he asks in the chorus has always challenged me.

Where have you been since the last graduation?
How have you changed the world you are in?
Is life a party or a sad revelation?
What do you do with the time of your life?

Each Sunday - at the end of the Service of Worship we hold a graduation ceremony called the “Benediction”. And when we walk through those doors we are sent out into the world to make a difference for the Kingdom of God.

When we come together on Sundays there is a class reunion - a time to ask, “Where have you been? What have you done?” And, the Bible tells us that one day there will be an ultimate reunion. When all the graduates - from the original disciples to each of us will stand before Jesus and He will ask us - “Where have you been? What have you done? Did you go?”

It was a few weeks before Christmas 1917 and the beautiful winter landscapes of Europe were blackened by World War I.

The trenches on one side held the Germans and on the other side the trenches were filled with Americans. The exchange of gunshots was intense. Separating them was a very narrow strip of no-man’s-land. A young German soldier attempting to cross that no-man’s-land had been shot and had become entangled in the barbed wire.

Between the shells all the Americans in that sector could hear him scream. When one American soldier could stand it no longer, he crawled out of the American trenches and on his stomach crawled to that German soldier. When the Americans realized what was happening they stopped firing, but the Germans continued. Then a German officer realized what the young American was doing and he ordered his men to cease firing. Now there was this weird silence across the no-man’s-land.

On his stomach, the American made his way to that German soldier and disentangled him. He stood up and with the German in his arms, walked straight to the German trenches and placed him in the waiting arms of his comrades. Having done so, he turned and started back to the American trenches.

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder that spun him around. There stood a German officer who had won the Iron Cross - the highest German honor for bravery. He jerked it from his own uniform and placed it on the American, who walked back to the American trenches. When he was safely in the trenches, they resumed the insanity of war!

To stand in boldness for Jesus Christ means that we will face the worst that this world can fire at us. And yet as Christians we are called to boldness - fearlessly to step out into the world with the authority of Jesus Christ - to declare with our lives His Gospel - to go out and to make disciples who will in turn go with boldness into the world to make disciples.