Good morning, church family. Happy Lord's Day. We will now begin our service. All right, sorry, we'll try that one more time. Sing wonderful, merciful. Wonderful, merciful Savior. Precious Redeemer and friend. Who would have thought that a lamb could rescue the souls of men? Oh, you rescue the souls of men.
Counselor, comfort her. Counselor, comfort her, King. Spirit, we long to embrace. You offer hope when our hearts hopelessly lost the way. Oh, we hopelessly lost the way. You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace. Our hearts always hunger.
Oh, our hearts always hunger. Almighty, infinite Father. Faithfully loving your own. Here in our weakness you find us. Falling before your throne. Oh, we're falling before your throne. You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace. Our hearts always hunger.
Oh, our hearts always hunger. You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace. Our hearts always hunger. Oh, our hearts always hunger. Oh, our hearts always hunger. - All right, good morning. Welcome to Bruin Community Church. Let me get a few announcements started.
First of all, happy Father's Day. I think some of you guys are here because it's Father's Day. Our children and the moms have prepared some snacks for you, and they wanted me to tell you the variety that you have is beef jerky, chocolate, homemade cookies, chips, candy. So basically, it's going to be out there at the table.
And they said that you can get whatever you want, but you can only grab three. Okay, so don't grab more than three, they said. And then the drinks, you have non-dairy milk tea is one of the drinks that you can grab. Or if you're health conscious, there's jasmine tea.
So after the service, just go visit one of the tables, and they'll have those stuff ready for you. Just make sure you can grab that bag and take it with you. So again, happy Father's Day. Newcomer's Welcome Lunch is happening on June 30th. So if you are new to the church and you want to find out what the church is about or meet some of the people who are serving at our church, that's happening on June 30th at 1 p.m.
in the Youth Group Chapel. So across the courtyard, entrance into that at 1 p.m., there's going to be lunch provided and basically a light presentation about what's going on at church. Two other things. Gospel Presentation Q&A Night on Heaven and Hell is being held on Wednesday on July 10th at 7 p.m.
to 8.30 p.m. So it's going to be led by our outreach team. Pastor Mark Lim is going to be hosting that. And the Q&A is going to happen, and the people who are going to be on the panel is Dr. Mobley from UC Irvine. He's a member of our church.
He's going to be here, and then Elder James Hong is also going to be there to answer any kind of questions that you have on that. So our outreach team is hosting that on that one night on July 10th. And then there's going to be a Seeker Group, meaning people who are interested in the gospel and have a lot of questions, there's going to be a small group that's going to be taking place July 24th to August 14th from 7 p.m.
to 8.30 p.m. So it's on Wednesday nights, I think two or three Wednesdays. So if you have a friend or family who may benefit from having this, you can contact them, and they'll give you the information for that. So it's being led by our outreach team. Pastor Mark is going to be hosting that.
One other thing is the retreat. They said our capacity is almost filled. The hotel has given us a number that we can't go beyond. So early registration, obviously, was finished. But if you are planning to go, please sign up for that, and we have room for a little bit more.
And so that's happening in August. And then one last thing, as you guys know, our Korea team is headed out to Korea for some of our missions tonight. We'll be leaving tonight, and we'll be coming back on July 3rd. And so our team, after our worship time, is going to come up and give a presentation.
So you can know who they are, see their faces, and they're going to be doing a body worship presentation. And we want you guys to take some time to pray for them as we go. So that's what's happening today. I'm going to pray for us for our offering. If you have a physical offering, we have an offering box in the back that you can visit on the way out.
And then after our worship time, our brother Angelo is going to come, give his testimony, and be baptized. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for all that you are doing and continue to do in our lives. We pray, Father God, that you would help us to keep our mind and heart fully engaged in you, that our worship will be a pleasing sacrifice.
We pray that our giving may be multiplied for the sake of your kingdom. May this busy weekend be filled with your grace and reminders, Lord God, of your love toward us. Bless this time and bless this worship, Lord God, for the sake of your name. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Let us all rise and let us spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us before we continue. Our next song is "Here is Love," and this morning we'll be singing it slightly differently where we will just be singing through the five verses of the hymn. And so I hope and pray that we may be encouraged as we sing through the gospel through these lyrics.
♪ Here is love, vast as the ocean ♪ ♪ Loving kindness as the flood ♪ ♪ When the prince of life our ransom ♪ ♪ Shed for us his precious blood ♪ ♪ Who is love will not remember ♪ ♪ Who can cease to sing his praise ♪ ♪ He can never be forgotten ♪ ♪ Throughout heaven's eternal days ♪ On the mount.
♪ On the mount of crucifixion ♪ ♪ Mountains open deep and wide ♪ ♪ Through the floodgates of God's mercy ♪ ♪ Flowed a vast and gracious tide ♪ ♪ Grace and love like mighty rivers ♪ ♪ Poured incessant from above ♪ ♪ Heaven's peace and perfect justice ♪ ♪ Kissed a guilty world in love ♪ Here is love that conquered.
♪ Here is love that conquered evil ♪ ♪ Christ the first born from the grave ♪ ♪ Death has failed to be felt equal ♪ ♪ To the love of him who saves ♪ ♪ In the valley of our darkness ♪ ♪ God is everlasting life ♪ ♪ Perfect love in glorious radiance ♪ ♪ Has repelled that stylish death ♪ ♪ That same love, that same love ♪ ♪ Beyond all measure ♪ ♪ Mocked and slain by hateful men ♪ ♪ Lives and reigns in resurrection ♪ ♪ And can never die again ♪ ♪ Here is love for all the ages ♪ ♪ Great and son of heaven he stands ♪ ♪ Calling home his father's children ♪ ♪ Holding forth his wounded hands ♪ Here is love.
♪ Here is love vast as the heavens ♪ ♪ Countless as the stars above ♪ ♪ Are the souls that he has ransomed ♪ ♪ Precious daughter, treasured sons ♪ ♪ We are called to feast forever ♪ ♪ On a love beyond our time ♪ ♪ Glorious father, son and spirit ♪ ♪ Now with men are intertwined ♪ ♪ We are called to feast forever ♪ ♪ On a love beyond our time ♪ ♪ Glorious father, son and spirit ♪ ♪ Now with men are intertwined ♪ >> All right, so that's our CREA mission team.
They're going to be headed out. We're going to be headed out tonight, and then we'll be back on July 3rd. And I'm going to be swinging by to India on the way back, and I'll be back a few days after them. But we're working with two churches that are out in CREA.
We're going to be running English camps, and then hopefully through that, we'll be able to share the gospel and strengthen the church that is there. If you can just, again, continue to keep us in your prayer. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Matthew 28, verse 16 to 20.
Matthew 28, 16 to 20. "But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'" Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today.
We thank you for all the things that you are doing behind the scene. We pray that you would bless the time that we have, help us to understand your word, and that our hearts and our lives will be surrendered to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Again, today, as I was preparing for the sermon, I had to kind of wrestle with, am I going to preach on the Father's Day today, or this is graduation weekend, so we have a lot of friends who are in town because of their children's graduation.
And it's also our send-off service because our Korea team is going out to missions, and so I was kind of wrestling with what should I focus on, and so my conclusion was I'm going to focus on all of it. So at the end, hopefully I can wrap this up, and I believe that the Great Commission has application for the fathers, the graduates, and the people who are going out as well.
If you think of leadership, there is a clear contrast that the Bible teaches us between King Saul and King David. Saul was established because Israel wanted a king just like the other nations, and they were going through all these cycles of problems, and they concluded falsely that maybe the reason why they were having this problem is because they don't have a king.
So they banded a king, and they established this king, King Saul, and then eventually he ends up getting rejected because of certain actions that he was taking. And so the contrast that is made between why Saul is rejected and why David is established is written in 1 Samuel 16:7.
It says, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, but man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'" So the only difference that is made, at least it spells out for us, between why Saul is rejected and why David is received is Saul was a man who was after his own heart.
He used that opportunity, his authority, his power, his money to gain advantage for himself. So every opportunity he got, he used his position to advance himself. And then he says of David, the reason why David was selected was a man after God's own heart. And so that was a distinction between a good leader and a bad leader, a man after God's own heart.
And the reason why this is so important, if you do not know the heart of God, you won't understand why you need to pray. If you do not understand the heart of God, you study the Bible just because you're supposed to, you're a Christian. If you don't understand the heart of God, why God is so concerned about the laws.
As today is Father's Day, one of the benefits of having older children now is they have some money. So they actually are able to buy gifts. Before it was just, I owe you, I'll give you a massage. And so those are usually the gifts, or they have a paper necktie that they would make.
And so all are cute, but now they're actually getting me gifts. But imagine if they're getting me a gift, and they bought me an annual pass to Disneyland. Some of you guys already know what I'm talking about. Disneyland is not my favorite place. And so I know some of you guys enjoy it, but that annual pass is a lot of money.
So imagine if they pulled all their money, emptied their bank account, and they said, "We got you this gift." My, obviously, response would be, "Why do you hate me? Why are you trying to torture me?" Because they don't know my heart. So you can pour all your energy and effort and pull your money into getting something and working towards something, but if you don't know the heart of God, you're going to miss the whole point.
And in the same way, people who don't understand the heart of God can labor, sacrifice, give, and do all of that, and you completely miss the whole point if you don't understand the heart of God. And that's the distinction between Saul and David. Saul was a man who was seeking to do what he thought was right, but David was constantly concerned about God's heart.
What is at the core of his heart? In Matthew 28, 16-20, we call this the Great Commission. And this Great Commission is something that Jesus said to his disciples from the beginning, "Follow me, and I will make you disciples of men." That was in the calling of the disciples.
All throughout his training was to prepare them for this Great Commission. In fact, when we talk about God's heart, it doesn't begin with Jesus calling his disciples. The whole reason why Jesus even showed up and was humiliated, living and taking on human form, was for this purpose, to seek and save the lost.
He said, "Son of man, do not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." It goes even beyond that, where from the very get-go, the fall of man, there was a promise that God made that the seed of the woman was going to come and crush the head of the serpent.
And so all of Old Testament history is God fulfilling the promise that he was going to seek and save the lost. This is his heart. If you read the Scriptures without understanding this, Scripture's not going to make a lot of sense. If you try to do inductive Bible study, and you disconnect it from God pursuing sinners, you're not going to understand why these things are so important.
This is the heart of God. If you study it without knowing this, if you study it without understanding it and applying it, you're going to miss the whole point. You're going to get an annual Disney pass for God. You worked hard, you labored, but it's like, "You just don't know me." This morning, I want to look at four aspects of the Great Commission to help us to better understand his heart.
First of all, to understand the Great Commission, the heart of God, you need to understand the context in which Jesus says this. In Matthew 28, verse 17, something very strange happens. You need to understand this to understand what's happening in the Great Commission. Jesus, after the resurrection, told his disciples to meet him in Galilee because Jerusalem is still dangerous.
They're going back home, and remember the scene where Jesus sees his disciples. They went back to their old job, they're fishing. Jesus calls them, restores Peter back, "Do you love me?" He restores him back, and he tells them, "Then go feed my sheep." Now he's restored them, he's preparing them for ministry, and then he says this in verse 16, "But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus has designated.
When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful." Some were doubtful. Now, were they doubting Jesus' authority? Were they doubting Jesus' identity? It just tells us that they just worshipped him. For them to worship him and yet doubt if he was the Son of God, it would have been blasphemous.
No Jew would have ever gotten on their knees and worshipped Jesus if they had any doubt of who he was. In fact, if you remember, Thomas is the first one, after meeting Jesus and making sure that the scars were real, he's the first one who kneels down and said, "My Lord and my God." So it can't be that they were questioning who he was, because now he sees the resurrected Christ.
In fact, if you read the word that's translated for doubt, this is what it says in the Greek dictionary. Matthew 28.17 said, "The verb translated 'some doubted' should rather be translated 'they hesitated.' This refers not to the doubt of the disciples concerning the identity of the risen Christ, because they recognized him fully.
However, they hesitated in regard to their responsibility to preach the gospel to the world, knowing that Jesus in his resurrection body was no longer going to be on earth." So this was not a doubt about Jesus' identity, because they already worshipped him. They're doubting themselves. They're hesitating, because they just failed miserably.
They were so confident. Peter was so confident. He said, "They may all fail you, but I will not." And he took up the sword, and he was going to battle. All of them, when Jesus went to the cross, confused and afraid, hid themselves. After failing their final test, now Jesus says, "Now I'm going to commission you to go." So one, they were hesitant because of their own ability.
Has he really chosen the right person? I mean, you say one of us already betrayed him, and he's gone. There's 11 of us left, but how many of the 11 of us are going to last? And they're in Galilee now, and Jesus is going to send them back to the epicenter, where they crucified Christ, where the leaders and the Roman guards can easily capture the disciples.
If they were able to crucify somebody who raised Lazarus from the dead, they would have no problem crucifying and killing the other disciples. So the hesitation wasn't about who Jesus was, but has he chosen the right person? Are we the right person? Are we going to fail again? Are we going to pass the test?
If they come, and they want to crucify us, who's to say this isn't going to happen again? So you can see the context of the Great Commission is what leads us to Jesus giving the assurance of the Great Commission. And so in the very next verse, it says, "As they doubted," verse 19, "go there," it said, verse 18, "all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." He said, "I'm not sending you because you've been trained.
In fact, you failed miserably. I'm not sending you because now you have experience that you--I picked men of courage." He says, "No, I'm sending you with my authority, not your authority, not your ability, with my authority. When you preach the gospel, and you go as I tell you to go, just do exactly as I tell you.
In fact, the power is not in you. It's not in your training. It's not in your experience. It's not because you were doing certain things better than other people." He says, in Acts 1:8, he says, "After all of that," he says, "don't go yet. You don't have the power.
You don't have the ability. If left to your own, you will fail. You will fail." He says, "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses." Jerusalem, not only in Jerusalem, to Judea. Because they were afraid if I go to Jerusalem, they're going to kill me.
He said, "Not only are you going to succeed in Jerusalem, you're going to take the gospel to the next place in Judea. And then to Samaria, even in Samaria, where people hate the Jews, you're going to go there. And then you're going to go from there to the remotest part of the world.
You will be successful because I will ordain it." So the authority of the Great Commission is not our training, is not our ability, is not our knowledge, is not our know-how. He said, "It's with me. All authority has been given to me, so now you go with my authority." You see in Acts 4.13, when Peter preaches his first gospel, in front of the very people who crucified Christ, where he himself was probably afraid, and he stands boldly and preaches the gospel, "You crucified the author of life." I bet, humanly speaking, he was expecting to be crucified.
But they respond to him. He said, "Now as they observed the confidence," in some of your translations, it said, "boldness of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus." They recognize. How did these fishermen, how did these uneducated men, who had no training, just out of nowhere, are speaking so boldly and so powerfully?
And the only explanation that they can come up with is, "That sounds and looks just like the Jesus that we crucified." Their authority and their power must be coming from Christ. So even these non-Christians recognized that their power and authority came from Jesus Christ, and that's exactly what Jesus said.
"You will go with my authority. You will go with my power, not yours." So the only thing that you and I need to be worried about is to abide in Christ, to be with Christ. Isn't that what Jesus says in John chapter 15? "If you want to bear fruit," he said, "don't get training, memorize a lot of Scripture, get organized, have plans." None of these things are innately wrong, but all he told us to do is to abide, abide.
Stick with me, stay with me, be devoted to me. Sometimes abiding in Christ simply means not to quit. Sometimes it means to obey. Sometimes it would be to study, to pray. But sometimes to abide in Christ, to recognize our weakness, and just to persevere. Because the power is not with you.
It's not with me. The authority and the power of preaching the gospel isn't because I lived a great life for the last three weeks, so now I'm equipped and I can do great things for God. No, because this is his heart. This is what he has called us to do, and this is what the authority that he has given to his church to do.
The power of the Great Commission is with Christ. Third, the goal of the Great Commission is clear. Make disciples. Again, if you've been at church any period of time, you've probably heard so many messages on this topic, and the only imperative in the Great Commission, the only commandment in the Great Commission is to make disciples.
All the other words are supporting. To make disciples. Not gather people, but make disciples. If you look at Jesus' ministry, you had some who reject Christ and they never followed him, so they're never called disciples. But when we use the word disciple, there's three groups. One, we have the apostles.
We don't have apostles today, and we don't choose apostles. Jesus himself chose the apostles. So when he says to make disciples, he's clearly not talking about them. And then there was a large crowd of people where when Jesus was feeding the 5,000 in John 6, many of them wanted to make him king.
But it also says in that text, when Jesus says, "I am the bread of life," he said it was hard to understand him, and they reject Christ and they walk away from him. They're called disciples, but only temporarily. So when he says to go make disciples, he's not talking about them.
He's not talking about just gathering people. Sometimes the language that we use is churched and unchurched. So our goal of church is to get unchurched people to be churched. That is not the goal of the Great Commission. The Great Commission is to call people to himself, to make disciples of Jesus Christ, not somebody who just didn't go to church and all of a sudden go to church, somebody who didn't read the Bible, read the Bible, or sometimes to make an atheist to say that they are a theist.
It's to make disciples of Jesus Christ. You know, today we call ourselves Christians, but in the early church, what they called themselves was "The Way." That was the name that they chose for themselves in the early church. It was first used at the Church of Antioch, "The Way." The way to what?
The way to God is Jesus Christ, "The Way." But later on, Christians were called by non-Christians, "Little Christ." That's what Christian literally means, "Little Christ." That the Christians did such a good job that when the non-Christians saw them, it's like, "There goes Little Christ." All he's talking about is Christ, worshiping Christ, following Christ.
He's our "Little Christ." And so the very term "Christian" means "Little Christ." And that's what making disciples ultimately is. It's to make "Little Christ." So if somebody claims to be a Christian, doesn't act like a Christian, talk like a Christian, eat like a Christian, live like a Christian, they're not "Little Christ." So the goal of the Great Commission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Now, that's probably not new to you. Especially if you've been in the church and you've participated in many send-off services, that's not new to you. But what may be new to you is behind the scenes. And I told you last week how Greek is a very precise language. And so some of you who may have taken Latin may already know this, but the tense behind, tense and the voice in the Greek grammar is extremely important.
So I know some of you who are not here for, you know, to get too intense, but this is very helpful to understand, okay? The word to make disciple is in the aorist passive voice. Aorist tense and passive voice. So if you've taken Latin or you've taken Greek, you already know what that means.
The aorist is the simple past tense. It's an action that happened in the past and it ended in the past, right? So they have 27 tenses and there's a bunch of different kind of tenses under that, the perfect, the imperfect. The aorist tense is the most simple of the past tense.
So it's a past tense. Now, so again, it's interesting because this is an imperative to go make disciples, but it's in the past tense. And then the Greek has what's called the voice. And the voice is, you have three voices. You have the active voice, you have the middle voice, and you have the passive voice.
Those are the three voices. And this is all from one word, right? Active voice, to give you an example, is I punched you. I did the action. That's the active voice, right? The passive voice is you got punched, right? You just sat there and you received the action. You got punched.
The middle voice is I let myself be punched, right? So you took some action. You didn't actually do the action, but you had some action in receiving that. Do you understand? Okay. I know school is over for some of you, but this is important, right? So it's interesting that the only imperative is in the aorist, past tense, passive voice.
And so is the word go. It is in the aorist, past tense, passive voice. So it means be sent. So what does this mean in translation? How can an imperative, where we are called to do something, we would automatically think that it is in the active voice, progressive, like the present tense, to go and actively make disciples, but it's in the past, passive.
And so is the word go. You know what that means? This is a description of who we are. This is an action that has happened. You have been made a disciple maker. As soon as you became a Christian and the Holy Spirit is in you, you are making disciples.
You are making disciples. You are making a disciple either of yourself or you're making a disciple of Christ. But you are reproducing. You are reproducing. If you're a nominal Christian, you are reproducing probably nominal Christians. Whatever you are, it's that God has made you a disciple maker. That's who you are.
So when he says to make disciples in the passive, past tense, he's basically saying live up to the calling that you have been given, the salvation that you have been given. That's why we are called witnesses. The Bible never talks about evangelizing. He says be a witness. What God has already created you to be.
And so the word go is also in the past passive. To be sent, meaning you've been already sent. This is not something that you say, you know what, I'm going to gear up and I'm just going to go and reproduce and do all of this. Yes, there is our action involved, but this text is telling us this is who you already are.
You've already been sent. You've already been sent. You've already been made a disciple maker. That's why the Bible says in Peter that you are aliens and strangers in this world. You already are aliens and strangers. You don't have to be. The fact that you are a follower of Christ, if you are a genuine follower of Christ, you don't belong here.
It says in Philippians 3.24, our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Your citizenship hasn't been changed. Or you're not going and you have to change it. It's been changed. Before you were a citizen of the United States or before you were a citizen of any other country, it says you have become a citizen of the kingdom of God.
You are. You're not in the process of being naturalized. You have been naturalized. So the very fact that you are a follower of Christ and the Holy Spirit is in you, God made you to reproduce. God made you to go. You are already going. You may not pack up your bags and get on a boat or get on a plane to go to another country.
You may stay at home, but the fact that you are a Christian, you have already been sent. The question is do you realize that? As we send off the Korea team, we're not just sending them off so that they can go and then we stay. No, you've already been sent.
Whatever it is that you are doing, you've been sent. Whoever you've been around, you've been sent. Whatever family you belong to, you've been sent by the very nature of who you are. That's why it's in the past passive voice. Either you can receive that and live according to that or you can just say, "You know what?
Forget that." A Christian who claims to be a Christian who doesn't live according to the heart of God is constantly frustrated. He's constantly frustrated. No matter how hard you work, you just can't seem to get close to God. You know where that shows more than any other place? In your prayers.
I'm a Lakers fan, so Lakers are not in the final. I'm not as interested, but I've been watching the basketball games and I know today is a big game. I just find enjoyment in watching. If you ask me, "Hey, have you been watching?" "Yeah, I've been watching." It's like, "Oh, did you see what Luka Dantic did?" "He's Kyrie Irving." "Did you watch the Celtics?" "Who do you vote for?" I'll have a deep conversation with you or at least some level of conversation.
If you ask me, "Did you watch the latest hockey game?" I say, "I have no clue." I don't even know what the rules are. All I know is that the sport allows you to beat each other up as part of the game. I have no idea how that works.
But it's very difficult to have a conversation when you don't know what's in my heart. When you draw near to God through prayer and you have no clue that the heartbeat of our God is pursuing sinners and you have no interest in that. So even when you pray, you're not confident if you're praying according to his will.
When the Bible says, "If you abide in me, my words abide in you." Ask whatever you wish. There was a condition to answer prayer. But because you don't understand the heart of God, you come and you talk about Disneyland, hockey, whatever it is that's on your heart. On your heart, you bring to God.
And that was the problem with Saul. He spent all his time pursuing his own heart in the name of God. Until you understand the heart of God, that this is his heart. This is what he desires. And all of a sudden, you'll see prayer opening up. You'll see interaction with the Holy Spirit.
You'll see all of a sudden confidence in prayer. And you realize that you've tapped into the heart of God when you understand the Great Commission is at the core of what everything he does. If you try to understand the New Testament without understanding the Great Commission, it's not going to make much sense.
Why do we need to live holy? Why do we need to do this? Why do we need to submit? Why do we need to be organized? All of it for the purpose of being a greater light. But the light is not your pursuit. Like, why? I don't see any consequence in that.
The method of the Great Commission, right? It says to go, that we are to go. But here's the other thing. The other two verbs, right? To baptize. It's in the present active voice. Make disciples. Going is in the aorist passive voice. But to baptize and to teach is in the present active voice.
Present active voice meaning that you go. And active meaning that we're doing the action. Going is who you are. Making disciples is what you have become. How do you do that? By baptizing, right? Now, again, in our culture, baptizing has become just nothing more than a simple religious ceremony that you do or don't do.
It doesn't really matter, right? In the early church, they took it very seriously, right? In fact, the communion table was so serious, it was so holy that anybody who participated in an unworthy manner, they actually got sick or died. So baptism was one of two ordinances that was given to us.
And he says baptism has two significance. One, baptism symbolized conversion. So when he says to go baptize, it's to preach the gospel and convert somebody who's headed one way and bring them to Christ. That's what baptism means. As somebody who is engrossed in another way of life, that by preaching the gospel, they repent and come to Christ.
That's what the first understanding of baptism means, right? Not to simply change where they are on Sunday, right? Or sign off on membership, but to actually convert someone to Christ. The second understanding of it is the significance of entering into a covenant community, right? It is a marriage ceremony between God, between Christ and the sinner.
And that's why we always say, before you come to the communion table, that if you're not baptized, not to come up, because the baptism is a ceremony that unites us to Christ. And to uniting us to Christ means that we're united to the body of Christ, which is the church.
And so baptism means that you go and fulfill what God has called you to do by preaching the gospel and causing them to participate and be a part of the church. Some people may say, "You know what? "Preaching is the job of the pastors, "and I'm just not good at that.
"I'm just going to be good. "I'm just going to do social justice "and feed the poor and take care of the orphans, "and by doing so, I'm going to shine the light." The problem with that is the Buddhists do the same thing. The Catholics do the same thing. The Muslims do the same thing.
And so if all you are doing is shining the light by being a good person, you get the credit. You're a good guy. Oh, you're very compassionate. But part of baptism requires preaching. You may never come up on the pulpit, but to make the gospel clear to the people who are around you, how will they convert if they are not sent?
How will they know if you are not sent if you don't go and you don't make it clear to them what the gospel is? And then he says to go, "Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. "Disciple them." He says in Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, "He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, "some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers "for equipping of the saints for the work of service." Equipping of the saints.
So teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, meaning that you are being equipped for what purpose? To serve other people. Your whole point of spiritual maturity is not I got more Bible knowledge than I did before, which is important. I'm being more disciplined than before. He says no.
He said all of the offices has been given so that you may be equipped to what? To serve other people. So if your maturity only leads to your benefit, you're not really mature. If all you've been doing in the church is gaining knowledge and serving yourself, you're not really mature.
He said the whole point of equipping is so that you may serve to the building up of the what? Body of Christ. Not just simply you, but the church. Until we all attain what? Unity of what? Faith. You know, one of the most common things that the church is dealing with, especially as the church grows, is unity.
Because the church is big. When we were 30, 40 people, we're meeting at our house, and unity was easy. Everybody goes to the same school. Everybody had black hair at one point. You know, we all ate the same food, hung out, you know, at Carl's Jr. And our life looked exactly the same.
But as the church grows, it becomes more and more diverse. Different age brackets, different socioeconomic background, different experiences, and all of a sudden it's very difficult to be united if you're not united in faith. If what unites us is our past background, it's our culture, it's our language, it's where we came from, our experiences, it becomes more and more difficult.
The Bible never says to unite for those things. The unity in the church, as we mature in our faith, comes because of our faith. So if we're not growing in faith, whatever unity that you feel like you're experiencing has nothing to do with Christ. That's the kind of unity you get by hanging out with Dodger fans.
That's the kind of unity you get because these guys like the outdoors. It's very superficial. There's some level of unity there, but the unity in the church is despite our differences, despite the different backgrounds, united in faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to know Christ, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, not to be satisfied just being far off and appreciating Christ from a distance, but to seek Him, search Him, ask Him that we may have the fullness of Christ.
The problem that we face when we get stagnant in our faith and we're satisfied with so little. You don't go to the banquet and eat the hors d'oeuvres and say, "This was great," and go home. Hors d'oeuvres were basically to open up your taste buds. If the hors d'oeuvres are this good, imagine what the banquet's going to be like.
So many Christians come and they nibble in Christ, but they're never passionately pursuing Christ. Your most passionate days were when you were younger. And you've just kind of given yourself to say, "Ah, that's young people." Whatever passion, that's what young people do. And as a result of that, you live off of the nibbling that you experienced when you were young.
But he says, "Teaching them to observe "all that I have commanded you "is so that we may attain the fullness of Christ." That whatever goodness that you have tasted, the reason why God allowed you to taste it is so that you may be drawn to Him further. Hunger and thirst for His full coming.
If the nibbling was that good, imagine what it would be when Christ comes, when the full banquet is open to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, rather by the trickery of men, by craftiness, deceitful scheming, by making the truth in love.
Truth in love. The cross is the truth in love. The cross is the perfect combination of God's righteousness and His mercy and love. Any person or church that diminishes one or the other does not represent Christ. Because if you bring the grace of God without the judgment of God and the righteousness of God, the cross is not necessary.
The cross was to satisfy the wrath of God, His holiness. So if all it is by grace, He's so gracious, He's so loving, then the cross was unnecessary. If it was just a judgment, the cross is unnecessary. Because all you have to do is wipe us out. But the perfect union of truth and love is at the cross.
So that's why he says true maturity happens when you don't neglect either. Where we speak the truth, where we preach the truth, we preach the imperative, we preach the standards of God, we preach holiness of God, but do it in a manner in love, in grace. And when a parent learns how to balance these two, you're a good father.
Either you are gracious and just let them do whatever they want and they become spoiled and they don't respect you and they grow up to have a miserable life because they think the whole world revolves around them, or you're so harsh that they don't know what love and grace is.
And so they want to run as far as they can from you, as soon as they can. But being a good father, being a good mother is learning. Learning to practice righteousness and love at the same time with our children. Now we don't know that right away. We grow to become like that.
And that's what the Bible says that we are called to do, because that's what he practiced with us and so he tells us to do the same. We are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, cause the growth of the body for the building up of itself.
You know that your spiritual maturity is needed for the whole church. If your whole spiritual life is about, you know, I'm good with God. You don't know the heart of God. I will never say I'm good if one of my children is not good. The greatest gift that my children can give me, and I think all parents will say the same, is be good to your brother.
Be good to your sister. Because so much of my lifetime energy and finances go to taking care of my own kids. Any parent would agree with me. Any father would agree with me. So the best gift that you can give me, right, be good to your brother. Help me love your brothers and your sister.
And God, it would be no different. You cannot understand the heart of God if you don't love the church. If you don't love the people in the church. Yes, especially the ones that are harder to love. Especially the ones that are harder to love because those people who are harder to love, the only place where they will receive grace is with you, is in the church.
Because any other place they go, they're going to practice justice. You don't deserve grace. I'm not going to practice grace with you. You're a jerk, so I'm going to be a jerk to you. That's how the world functions. Only in the body of Christ, we are called to love even our enemies.
So if that's a child of God, and you understand the heart of God, God calls us to love, especially the ones that are harder to love, to speak the truth in love. And then he says, "And lo, I am with you "to the end of the age." I am with you to the end of the age.
You don't choose to go the path, and then Jesus is like, "Let me go with you." That's not how that works. You don't pick and choose. Those of you who just graduated say, "You know, what do I want to do with my life? "What is my heart's desire?" And then we create the work, and then we pray, "God, join me, please.
"This is what I want. "Lord, join me, please." No, if you understand the heart of God, and you walk the path that he walked, he says, "I will be with you. "I will be with you." When we walk the path that he walked, and that's why he said, "If you want to follow me," what did he say?
"Take the path that I took. "You pick up your cross, too. "You deny yourself, and you follow me." And when you experience the fellowship of God, the heart of God, prayer opens up. Prayer opens up because you understand what he desires. You don't have to be a pastor. You don't have to be a missionary.
Whatever it is that you're doing, if you understand the heart of God, communication just opens up. Where you will see the conflict in your life is at prayer. It's hard to have communion with God when God is so concerned and consumed with saving the lost, and we are not.
That's why we have to understand the context of this Great Commission, "Lo, I am with you to the end of the age." I want to wrap up with three applications. First, the fathers. As we celebrate the Father's Day, some of you guys have been fathers just seconds, right? Pretty brand-new fathers in our church, and you're kind of scrambling, like, "What does it mean to be a good father?" And then we have veteran fathers, right?
But whether you've been a father for 40 years or whether you've been a father for literally weeks, if you ask every father, like, "How do you be a good father?" Nobody knows, right? There are certain things that I wish I did different when I was younger. I can make you a list of regrets.
I don't regret anything that I've done at church. Not to say that I wouldn't do anything different because now I have all this-- I know what it resulted in, but at that time, whatever decision was made, it was made because we believed that this was what God desired. So I don't regret anything.
But as a father, I would say there's things that I would do differently. I would have been probably a lot more patient when I was younger. So I could list you the things that I wish I could have done differently. But it's so overwhelming, right? Because the end result is so important because it's your children.
And every father wants that for their kids. So I ask all of you to be patient, right? Because your fathers are people who love you and they're doing their best. Just like you do your best and you don't get an A, right? Some of you worked hard and you didn't get an A.
And so every father that I know is working hard, but maybe they didn't get an A, right? But let me simplify fatherhood according to the Bible. These are training, how do you discipline the kids to providing and when to push and when to back off, all of these things we're going to continue to struggle with.
But it says one thing, only one thing is required. Be a man after God's own heart. Be a man after God's own heart. And if you pursue the heart of God, you said God will be with you. God will be with you. In the midst of a storm, in the midst of chaos, in the midst of regret, God will be with you.
For those of you who are graduates, and some of you know exactly what you're going to do. Some of you are wondering what's the next stage in life. Some of you may go into grad school. Some of you may have a career. Some of you are just going to wander for a while, right?
Wondering what's the next stage in life is. Whatever that may be, don't forget your primary goal in life. You are a disciple maker. You are an alien and stranger. And if you labor to make this place your home, a better home, you will lose your life in that process.
Only those who lose their life in Christ will truly find it in Christ. So first and foremost, before you worry, overly worry about what the next stage in life is, first make sure, am I abiding in Christ? Do I understand the heart of God? And so whatever it is that you do, whatever field that you get into, to be the light that God called you to be.
And then finally, the mission team that is going. And I'm going to read three passages as a request for prayer. 2 Thessalonians 3 says, "Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord "will spread rapidly and be glorified, "just as it did also with you." One, as we go, I know most of you who are Christians will agree with me that preaching the gospel is necessary.
But what we struggle with is the sense of urgency. We all live like we're going to be here forever, right? Whether we're young or old. But Paul says to pray for us so that it will spread rapidly, right? That God would instill in us, as you pray for us and as you are sent here, that God would stir in us a sense of urgency to get the gospel out.
Because until you sense a sense of urgency, you're not going to say no to God, you're just going to say maybe later. Maybe when I'm better, maybe when I have a job, maybe when this. But I pray that God will stir in us a sense of urgency to preach the gospel wherever we are.
Colossians 4, 5, "Conduct yourself in wisdom toward the outside, "making the most of the opportunity." You'd be surprised the kind of opportunities around you here. Most people think you're in Orange County, so everybody has heard the gospel, but they've already rejected it. That is not the case. You go out and talk to people around here, you'd be surprised.
Even people who have attended for 15 years, you ask them, "How is one saved?" They can't tell you. You'd be surprised. So there is a dire need here. The good thing is they're not closed to the gospel because they go to church, some of them. Some of them fell out of the church.
And so there is an openness toward the things of God that we haven't seen in a long time. The pandemic has created a hunger for God that I didn't see before the pandemic. So the opportunity is there. An opportunity is there for us when we go to Korea because the younger generation, they haven't rejected Christianity.
Most people who fell out of the church in Korea, they don't say, "We hate Christianity." They say they don't like the Christianity in Korea because they've gotten so many reports of pastors embezzling churches and spending all their money to build $100 million churches. And so they said they're not interested in Christianity in Korea, but they're open to have outsiders come and share the gospel with them.
So we found last year that they were more than willing to talk to us. So they're not close to the gospel. They just don't want to hear it from who they think are hypocrites. And the whole country is not like that. But that's the prejudice that they have to work through.
So the door for the gospel is open there. And thirdly, Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, "for it is the power of God for salvation "to everyone who believes, "to the Jew first and also to the Greek." We pray that, again, as we go, that you would pray that we would be able to bear fruit, even though it's a short period of time there, that there would be a sense of urgency, that we would make the most of every opportunity, and that when that opportunity comes, that there would be a boldness in preaching the gospel where we go.
So let me pray for us, and we'll have the praise team come back up. And, again, we presented the team here because we wanted you to see their face and pray for them. We'll be gone today and then be back on July 3rd so that when they come back, they would have great testimonies to share with us.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your love and grace. We pray, Father God, that you would fill our hearts and mind with you and your word. And as you have made us witnesses, as you have made us aliens and strangers in this world, that we would continue, Lord God, to preach the truth of your word, to baptize, to teach all that you have commanded us, knowing, Lord God, that you are with us everywhere we go.
May Christ, in his name, in his name, only be exalted in this place. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Sing, "Who, O Lord." Who, O Lord, can save themselves? Their own soul can heal. Our shame was deeper than the sea. Your grace is deeper still.
Who, O Lord, can save themselves? Their own soul can heal. Our shame was deeper than the sea. Your grace is deeper still. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You alone can find us. You alone can let us out of hell.
You alone we are the highest praise. Who, O Lord, has made our world a great divine place? When our hearts were far away, your love refused. Yes, your love goes further still. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You can help us find us.
Let us out of hell. You alone we are the highest praise. You alone we are the highest praise. You alone we are the highest praise. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. Lift them up now. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. Lift them up now.
Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. Lift them up now. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. Lift them up now. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You can help us find us. Let us out of hell.
You alone we are the highest praise. You alone we are the highest praise. You alone we are the highest praise. Let's pray. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the eternal love of God the Father, rest, restore, encourage, and challenge us that we may be the aroma of Christ wherever you send us.
Amen. God sent his Son. They called him Jesus. He came to love. He left for good. He lived and died. To find my partner. An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future.
And life is worth the living just because he lives. Amen. And ever stand. All the power, all the glory, I will trust in his name. For my God is the ancient of days.