Some people just seem to jump straight in - and get it right most of the time! Every congregation has people who are handy. In one previous parish there were two handy men, and I was told to contact one of them if I needed a job done quickly, the other would do a better job but take longer.
Jesus had come into the world with a task to do. He described it in various ways - to seek and to save that which was lost, to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many... He talked a great deal about a kingdom - the Kingdom of God. Most of his teaching was about the kind of life God requires - living as Kingdom-people.
Before Jesus began his work of ministry, we see him tempted by the devil (Mt. 4.1-11). After a very extended period of fasting, he was hungry - just as you or I would have been! So the first temptation came as a suggestion to test his own power as the Son of God - "Order these stones to turn into bread." That's not an unreasonable suggestion! The mission will be aborted altogether if you die out here in the desert! Use your divine power for yourself first!
But no! The Son of God won't do that! He hasn't come into the world to serve himself but others. Right now, in spite of his hunger, what he needs most of all is his Father's word. The Son of God has become a human being. He has accepted our human limitations. He will illustrate in his life the need we all have for the Father's word!
The second temptation proposes that he test the Father's power to protect him. Do a bungie jump from the highest point of the temple - without a rope! Hasn't God promised to protect you? You won't use your own power to serve yourself, but you need to be sure that the Father's power is there to help you. Just do it! Just jump!
No! The Son of God won't do that either! That would be disobedient stupidity, not faith. We can trust God. We don't need to test him. As we do his will, he will be there to help when we need him.
The third temptation urges him to accept the Devil's power to gain the kingdoms of the world. We can't imagine how such a temptation could come to our Lord. Yet it was to gain the kingdoms of the world that he had come!
But no! "Go away, Satan! The scripture says, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve only him'." That wouldn't gain the kingdoms of the world for the Lord. That would do nothing to establish the Kingdom of God. That fervent hope comes from the rebel spirit who longs to make his rebellion effective and complete!
At the close of his earthly ministry, we hear those same temptations surfacing again. "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!" (Mt. 27.40b). Use your divine power for your own needs. Jesus had healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead... Never once had he used his divine power for himself! Even in his dying, he was there for others!
"He trusts in God and claims to be God's Son. Well, then, let us see if God wants to save him now!" (v.43) Surely the Father's power is here to protect you! Jesus had already faced all of that in the garden of Gethsemane. He was accepting the cup of suffering. He wouldn't seek release from it. And when Peter drew a sword to defend him, Jesus said, "Don't you know that I could call on my Father for help, and at once he would send me more than twelve armies of angels?" (26.53) Jesus was trusting the Father and accepting the cup of suffering! No turning back!
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (27.46) - the words of dereliction. Yes, deserted! Perhaps worshipping only the Lord wasn't the best thing after all! You should have listened to me! Just look at you now! You haven't used your own power or the Father's power, and now he's deserted you! Don't you want the kingdoms of the world?
"IT IS FINISHED!" (Jn 19.30) Jesus had resisted the temptations and completed the work the Father had sent him to do!
Yes, he died. He went through with it. He didn't turn back or seek a way out. He accepted all the abuse - and the pain and suffering - to the very end.
And now he's alive from the dead with a mission to fulfil and a plan on how to go about it! He has gathered his disciples together on a hill in Galilee. There were only eleven of them now. One of them, Judas, had betrayed him and ended up hanging himself. The most vocal of the eleven remaining disciples, Peter, had three times denied that he had even known Jesus. And the rest? They had all deserted him! How could his plan ever work?
"I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth." He has received this authority, not from the Devil, but from the Father himself. As Paul put it in Philippians 2 - "For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. And so, in honour of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (vv. 9-11).
We watched in horror the devastation and slaughter in East Timor. We hear of continuing violence in Ambon and Aceh. Can't the United Nations do something to put an end to all this destruction and slaughter? Surely it has the authority and the power to take much more effective measures than it is doing at present! Can't it do something on behalf of humanity, on behalf of the rest of the world? Can't it do more than watch disapprovingly?
And people have had similar thoughts about the Lord Jesus! If he has the authority, why doesn't he just speak the word and bring all people into submission to the will of God? Why doesn't he just speak the word and put an end to all poverty and sickness and suffering? Why doesn't he just speak the word so that every sinful and selfish thought, word and action will cease for ever? So he has died for human sin - let that be an end to it then!
But that wasn't the plan! It is the devil's method to rob people of the ability to choose - to make them less than people. The way of Jesus is to win people. He had called the fishermen to "Come, follow me, and I will teach you to catch people." (Mt. 4.19). But, unlike fishing, which destines the fish for someone's frying pan, fishing for people is to bring them blessing and new life. The net was an appeal to the conscience and the will. Luke records it this way, "in his name the message about repentance and forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem" (Lk. 24.47).
Jesus' plan was to send out this small group of disciples who had been with him for these three-and-a-half years - these who had so recently denied him and deserted him! He is placing the next phase of the great mission in their hands!
"Make disciples" - in the Greek original that is the operative verb to which three participles are attached. You have been my disciples. You have learned from me. Your great mission is to make other people from every nation my disciples. Jesus has died on the cross for the sins of the world. He has been raised to life. You are to call on people to repent of their sins and receive the forgiveness that Jesus has died to make possible.
There are many good things that beg to be done in the world. But the central charter of the Christian church will always be to "make disciples." Alas for those times when we get distracted from our charter!
"Going then to all peoples everywhere, make them my disciples..." Their focus - and the focus of the churches they would establish - was to be forward and outward. On the day of Pentecost, the numbers who responded to the message were so great that the apostles had to establish the pattern of church life. Questions of how the widows were to be helped loomed large and had to be addressed in a way that left them the time to do what they had been called to do. But it was still a very Jewish fellowship. It took the very drastic circumstances of martyrdom and persecution to rekindle the focus of the church on going to all peoples everywhere.
One wonders what it will take for the modern church to recapture the vision of "going". In so many ways the styles of our worship, the structure of our programmes, the agenda of our meetings, the formality and paucity of our praying, the lack of a heart for people who don't know the gospel - all speak of our desire to protect our "cosy club" rather than respond to our Lord's directive to "go and make disciples."
"Baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." This is not just a formula for baptism. It is bringing people into the life of the God who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Notice - one name and three persons.) It is publicly identifying people as part of the community of believers. It is committing people to the mission of Christ in the world.
"Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." The life of every believer, every member of the Christian church, is to continue to be forward and outward. We are all to be involved in the life of Christ and his mission to the world. Not one of us can say, "This is not for me!"
A special offering for missions was being taken up. As the plate came to one pew, the man at the end whispered to the steward, "Not me. I don't believe in missions!" To which the steward replied, "Then you'd better take something out. It's for the heathen!"
Being a Christian means being involved in mission. According to the gifts and calling of the Lord, we are all involved.
The disciples had been deserters. But Jesus, about to commit the mission to them, was not about to desert them! Yes, his physical presence would be removed, but he would always be with them through the Holy Spirit.
"Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always to the end of the age."
That was the plan. It is still the plan. And the promise still stands.
Tonight we have met to induct Hedley Fihaki as Minister of the Word in the Bowen Uniting Church, and to welcome Hedley, 'Amelia and Gordon into our midst. You have called Hedley because the Lord has called you. The Lord has committed to this congregation the task of going and making disciples in the Bowen district - a task which you share with other churches.
You haven't called Hedley to do this work for you, but to do it with you - to work alongside you in the gospel task. You have recognised Hedley's gifts - they will complement and strengthen your gifts.
I challenge you in the name of Christ - commit yourself afresh to Jesus as your Saviour and Lord! Hear and obey his call to use the gifts he has given to each of you - moving forward and outward together with the gospel of his grace.
And don't forget - the Lord is with you always to the end of the age! God bless you all!
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