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6 · The pastor moves to Acts 1:2, identifying the commands Jesus gave through the Holy Spirit, and establishes those commands by reading the Great Commission passages from all four gospels

Now, how does this happen? Specifically, how does Jesus do this? Well, look back at our text, Acts chapter 1, and we'll move from verse 1 to this week taking up verse 2. In the first book of Theophilus, verse 1, I've dealt with all the things Jesus began to do and teach, verse 2, until the day he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he chosen. How does Jesus continue to do and teach even though physically he's no longer on earth? He does that through commands that he issued through the Holy Spirit to the church. Now we know what these commands are. All we have to do is turn left in our Bibles and we'll find these commands. They're at the end of every single gospel. We know exactly what the commands were that Luke references here. Matthew 28:18, I want to read through these because I want us to all be on the same page about what the commands were that Jesus issued. Matthew 28:18, "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go 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've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Mark ends this way, Mark 16: And he said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Luke 24, the end of Luke. We just read this as we finished our series in Luke. Luke 24:45, then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are my witnesses of these things. 'And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.' John ends with Jesus saying, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.' So all of these verses tell us exactly what the command is that our text references, what Acts 1:2 references, This command is to go into all the world and share the gospel with all people.

7 · The pastor pivots from exposition to direct address, signaling that the issue is not ignorance of the command's content but ignorance of what a command is—that it requires obedience

Now here's the sticker, here's the kicker part of this message. I know you know what those commands were. You knew that before I went into it. I know you know what it meant when it said commands. The commands were to go into all the world. I don't know if you know what the word command means. And that's the stick, that's the sticking part of this sermon.

8 · The pastor argues that Christians' failure to proclaim the gospel stems not from lack of information but from failure to understand that a command requires obedience—that it is a demand, not a suggestion

You know what Jesus commanded. I'm just not sure you know what the word command actually means. You see, we often attribute our lack of gospel passion sharing the gospel because we don't know the gospel well enough, or because we don't know the Bible well enough, or perhaps because we don't know the culture well enough. But I want to suggest it might be just that we don't know what the word command means. Jesus said to go and they went. Why? Because they were commanded to go. What does this word command mean? It means a demand made of a people, obligations laid on a people by God. Scripture stresses that being the people of God involves responsibilities as well as privileges, and it sets out demands which God makes justly of his people.

9 · The pastor argues that pastors wrongly diagnose the problem as lack of training or love when the real issue is that Christians treat the command as optional rather than as a non-negotiable directive

You know, pastors are always asking, why are folks not sharing the gospel more frequently? Why are they not really orienting their entire lives to this idea of sharing the gospel? Why isn't this the main focus of their lives when it was the main focus of the lives of the early disciples, and we say, maybe they just need to learn another technique. Maybe they just need to learn the gospel better. Maybe they need to love God more. I think maybe the last thing we ever think about is maybe they actually just don't know what the word command means. That it means, like, do it. Absolutely. Just do it.

10 · The pastor diagnoses contemporary Christianity as treating Jesus as a menu of benefits to choose from rather than as a King whose commands must be obeyed

You see, Jesus says go, so they went. And that's because at that time à la carte Christianity hadn't yet been invented. We hadn't yet reached the drive-through customized Christianity where we can order off the menu and say, you know, I'd like a full order of eternal life, please. I'll take a half order of inner peace and give me a side of morality with no accountability. You know, à la carte Christianity hadn't yet been invented. See, at this stage in the game where we stand, we've hijacked Jesus and turned him into a self-help system where we just pick and choose what he has to offer to bring us fulfillment. You see, we've twisted the gospel of the kingdom into a self-help system, into a menu almost. We've actually hoarded the benefits of the gospel and turned them inward toward us and ours and not really understood that what the gospel is, what Christianity is, isn't a menu of options to choose from.

11 · The pastor contrasts saving faith with selective faith, arguing that true Christianity is following a person (King Jesus) rather than selecting from a menu of promises

You see, you can have saving faith or you can have a selective faith. But you can't have both. You can have saving faith or you can have a selective faith, but you can't have both. There is no such thing as à la carte Christianity. Consumers select from a menu of promises. Christians follow a person. Just take that in a minute. Consumers select from a menu of promises. They take the gospel and they look at it and say, I'd like this and this but not that, thank you very much. Christians follow a person, and this person is King Jesus, and what he commands we must do.

12 · The pastor asserts that obeying the command to proclaim the gospel is not optional but central to what it means to be a Christian; disobedience means the person is not actually a Christ-follower

When he issues a command to go into all the world preaching the good news, We must obey that command or cease with the illusion that we are Christ followers. This command is not optional or peripheral. This isn't leather seats in your SUV when you buy it from the dealership. It's not something you can choose or not choose. This is a command central to the meaning of following Jesus. Sharing the gospel is what it means to follow Jesus, and following Jesus is what it means to be a Christian.

13 · The pastor contrasts the early disciples' simple obedience with modern Christians' tendency to separate Jesus's words from the obligation to obey them

There was no gap at that early stage in the disciples' lives between what Jesus said and what they thought they had to do. They just heard Jesus say stuff and thought, "Well, He's God. We've chosen to follow Him, so we need to do what He says."

14 · The pastor uses a movie analogy to illustrate how Christians throw obstacles in the way of obeying the command to share the gospel, treating the command itself as a menacing monster to be avoided

Now, have you ever seen a movie where a monster or some kind of crazy person is pursuing a victim on foot and the victim is is just throwing chairs and refrigerators and whatever they can in front of this menacing advancing force to try to get this menacing advancing force to change paths or even to be slowed down. They're running away, they're just throwing stuff behind them. When I talk to Christians this way about sharing the Gospel, there are all sorts of chairs and refrigerators that get thrown in the way. All sorts of obstacles get knocked over to keep the monster of simple obedience to the call to share the gospel away, to keep it as far away as possible. Without fail, people begin to manufacture obstacles that wind up being excuses that can keep them from obeying this person named Jesus who told them You, me, to be witnesses of the gospel.

15 · The pastor signals that he will now address two common objections Christians use to avoid obeying the command to share the gospel

And I'm not going to be able to anticipate all of the possible obstacles you could throw away, you could throw in front of this advancing force that scares you to death. But let me, let me talk about two.

16 · The pastor introduces the first objection—that the Great Commission was only for the apostles and professional clergy, not for ordinary Christians—and notes that this is a common way Christians justify their disobedience

One of these obstacles or objections that people throw is that the Great Commission is always oriented toward the apostles themselves. That the Great Commission, this command that Jesus issues to go into all the world, is issued to the apostles themselves and not to everyday ordinary Christians like you and me. Well, maybe me because I get paid to do it, so I have— I'll— you can group me in with the apostles just this one time. I think there is, whether it's a formal objection or whether it's an informal objection, this sense, this identification that perhaps Jesus' command to go into all the world and share the gospel, to reorient every part of their lives toward this purpose, really is mostly for the apostles and other professionals. Who have signed up for that kind of hard, radical life. Well, let's look at that objection. It's actually quite common. If you Google search "is the Great Commission for," it will autofill "apostles only" or "for everyone." Lots of people are asking this question, and even if you're not asking this question, I want to suggest that at some level you're believing this, right? Maybe you know better than to ask the question, but inwardly, yeah, this is a chair you use to throw in front of the thing that scares you.

17 · The pastor exegetes Matthew 28:18-20 to refute the objection, showing that (1) Jesus's promise to be with them to the end of the age means he is addressing the church beyond the apostles' lifetime, and (2) the command to teach disciples to obey all Jesus commanded includes teaching them to obey the Great Commission itself, thus perpetuating the command beyond the apostles

So is it possible that Jesus was issuing this command to the apostles only, or to professional clergy only? Well, let's think about this. Matthew 28:18, if you want to turn there again, I think we'll have it up on the screen. Matthew 28:18, let's look at this again. Jesus came and said to them— who's them? Disciples, the apostles— 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority— I'm sorry, let's read that again. All authority has been given, and behold, I am with you even to the end of the age. Now, two points just to notice in this text. Verse 20, behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Who's Jesus talking to there? Are the disciples going to be around at the end of the age? Are these men that he's speaking to going to be around at the end of the age? No. Jesus is saying he's speaking to the apostles as church fathers speaking to the church. He's speaking through the apostles to the church, right? He's saying as a promise issued to his people The apostles are the founding fathers, if you will, of the faith. Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. But keep looking at this. Look at verse 19. Let's just say he's talking only to the apostles, and he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. So, so did Jesus teach the apostles to go into all the world and share the gospel? Absolutely. Did he also tell the apostles that part of that meant teaching everybody to observe that which Jesus had commanded them to observe? Yes. You see what I'm getting at here? Part of the Great Commission is was for the apostles to go into all the world and lead people to Jesus and then teach them to obey the very commands that Jesus had issued the apostles themselves, including the command to go into all the world teaching other people about Jesus and how to obey what they had been commanded. So this idea that the gospel commission into all the world is only for the apostles Just doesn't work.

18 · The pastor presents church growth statistics from 40 AD to 350 AD showing explosive growth long after the apostles died, demonstrating that the Great Commission was obeyed by ordinary Christians, not just apostles

It also doesn't work from a church history perspective. I was doing some reading on church history this week. I think we've got a slide for this too. Look at the statistics for church growth in the first 3 centuries of Christianity. So at 40 AD, these are Christians in the Roman Empire. The guy who compiled this is extremely respected, not one to sloppiness. If he's presenting these numbers, he says he feels fairly confident that, you know, that these are essentially accurate. So in the Roman Empire in 40 AD, there were 1,000 Christians. In 100 AD, there were 7,500 Christians. Now at this point, all the apostles are dead. At 150 AD, 40,000 Christians. At 300 AD, 1.2 million, and by 350 AD, half the Roman Empire identified as Christians. Look at the growth from each phase to the next. Look at the growth from 300 to 350 AD, 50 short years. Can you imagine if in 50 years in the United States there were about 33 million more Christians in our country? The correct number would actually be about 150,000 because 34 million is about half of the Roman Empire population.

19 · The pastor argues that the explosive church growth in the 4th century happened long after the apostles and without the miraculous signs of the 1st century, proving that ordinary Christians carried out the Great Commission

Now, and the point about this is obviously it's jaw-dropping. It's amazing to imagine. But two points about this. One, 350 AD is not the first century AD. We kind of cast this like golden hue on the first century and say, "Yeah, all sorts of weird stuff happened." You know, like people were healed and like all sorts of crazy stuff was happening. And you know, so when thousands of people come to Jesus in the 1st century AD, we kind of chalk that up to that 1st century weirdness. This is happening much later than that, and it's also happening not through the apostles, but through just average ordinary Christians.

20 · The pastor cites a church historian to establish that the primary agents of Christianity's expansion were not professional clergy but ordinary Christians who shared their faith in the course of their everyday secular work

Another church historian wrote it this way: The chief agents in the expansion of Christianity appear not to have been those who made it a profession or a major part of their occupation, but men and women who earned their livelihood in some purely secular manner and spoke of their faith to those whom they met in this natural fashion.

21 · The pastor concludes that the objection that the Great Commission is only for apostles or clergy fails both biblically and historically

So this idea, whether you say it explicitly or think of it implicitly, this idea that sharing the gospel with others is the task primarily of the apostles or a professional clergy is not biblical, and it doesn't bear itself out in church history.

22 · The pastor uses logical reasoning to argue that since the apostles were disciples first, and Jesus was addressing disciples, the command applies to all disciples—not just the apostles

And let me just say another kind of just point of logic there. Not every disciple is an apostle, but every apostle is a disciple. Jesus is talking to people who have chosen to follow him, and he's saying, if you want to follow me, you will do what I do, and I have come to seek and save the lost.

23 · The pastor returns to the main point after dismantling the first objection: the issue is not whether the command applies to all Christians, but whether Christians understand that a command requires radical obedience

But you know all of this. I'm just not sure you know what the word command means. As in, do it. As in, rearrange your life, move, empty your 401k, sell your car, move to a different neighborhood, whatever, to obey Jesus's command to Share the gospel. This isn't an option. This isn't a someday kind of thing. This is the King of the universe issuing a very clear command to all who will follow him. He says, I have come to seek and save the lost, and if you are my disciple, you will be about the very same thing. It's a command. It isn't a menu option. It isn't for the elite.

24 · The pastor addresses the second objection—"I don't know enough to share the gospel"—by arguing that if someone doesn't know enough to share the gospel, they don't know enough to be saved, since the information required for salvation is the same information needed to share the gospel

Now, one of the common objections— I'll just deal with this one and then we'll move on from objections. Another common objection is simply this: I don't know enough. Well, here's the troubling possible truth about that. If you don't know enough to share the gospel, you don't know enough to be a Christian, which might explain why you're treating Jesus as a menu. Instead of as a king, the King. If you don't know enough to share the gospel, you don't know the gospel. The Bible teaches that we must know a little bit to be saved, right? We must know that Jesus is God, that he came and lived a perfect sinless life, that he offered his righteous life as a sacrifice for our sin, We need to know that in order to be saved. So if your concern in sharing the gospel is that you don't know enough, I would just say, well, if you don't know enough, then you don't know enough to be saved. The very information you need to be a believer in Jesus Christ is the very information you need to obey this command. Jesus would not issue some blank command to to every Christian, universal command to every Christian, and then create a number of hoops that we must jump through to get that. This is not some kind of graduated level of information that you need to share the gospel. If you know enough to trust Jesus, you know enough to tell others about Jesus.

25 · The pastor uses self-deprecating humor to transition from dismantling objections to the main thrust of the sermon: whatever objection you hold to obeying the command to share the gospel does not hold up under scrutiny, and humility requires acknowledging this

And honestly, we could dismantle other objections like these two objections consistently for hours, and none of it holds up. You ever catch yourself thinking something that just is absurd and untrue and full of fantasy and nothingness? Every once in a while, I'll be surprised at how poorly my mind works when not exposed to the outside world. I'll be on one of these long drives, and you know, at some point I will have, you solved the Middle East conflict. I will have, you know, I will have figured out how to get to Mars, you know, all these things. And then I just start asking basic questions about— none of it holds up. It's just all ridiculous. And so whatever the objection you have that you're holding on to that's keeping you from just obeying Jesus in this basic command, it doesn't actually hold up. And I don't have to address every single one of them to prove that. If you have any modicum of humility, you'll know Jesus has issued this command. I must obey if I am determined to be a Christ follower.

26 · The pastor reframes the command to share the gospel not as a threat but as a blessing, arguing that Christians turn Jesus into a monster by disobeying rather than trusting that his commands are for their good

But rather than deal with all the possible things you can throw in front of this impending monster called evangelism, I'd just like to shed some light and show you it's not a monster at all. This command— let me ask you this question: has Jesus ever told you to do something that you didn't, in the end, wind up being glad you obeyed, if you did obey? All of the consequences we fear when Jesus calls us to obey him turn out to be nothing compared to the blessings and the benefits. And so what I tell you this morning is, is that this isn't a monster at all. It's entirely in your imagination. You are choosing to obey your morbid fantasies of rejection and whatever else than to place your faith in King Jesus who died for you, rose again, and has rightful claim over your life. In objecting to His command, you are turning Jesus Himself into the monster. And He's not. And His commands aren't.

27 · The pastor asserts a theological principle: obedience to God's commands is the pathway to the good life, not a burden to be avoided

Listen, obedience is the good life. If you are a writer of downer of things, that seems to me to be worthy of writing down. Obedience is the good life. Obedience is the good life.

28 · The pastor cites Solomon's conclusion in Ecclesiastes that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments, using this to support the claim that obedience is the good life

Solomon, a wealthy man full of every opportunity, had all sorts of pleasures, concludes his assessment of what the meaning of life is and what life is for with this simple statement: The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

29 · The pastor argues that Christians mistakenly believe they must choose between obedience and happiness, when in reality obeying God's commands is the pathway to meaning and joy

If you would really examine your life, you would see that you often feel as though you try or trying to walk the fine line between obeying God and enjoying a good life, when in reality obeying God is the good life. This command isn't a monster here to kill you. This command is a blessing sent from God to give you meaning and joy in your life. To make you about something so much bigger than what you'd ever make your life about if it were left up to you.

30 · The pastor uses a hypothetical funeral illustration to argue that just as ongoing sexual sin would make someone question a person's salvation, so ongoing disobedience to the command to share the gospel would reasonably cause others to question whether someone was truly a Christian

So that's the one thing I'd just say is the obedience is the good life. Another thing, you know what, integrity just feels good. Integrity feels good. Suppose your next-door neighbor passes away and you're at the funeral and everyone is speaking confidently about Bob's eternal state. Everybody knows Bob is in heaven. The thing is, you're his neighbor, and you happen to know that every time this guy's wife left town, another woman would come over and spend the night. That this had happened for a couple of decades before Bob had died. So you're sitting there thinking, gosh, is he a believer? I mean, there's this long pattern of direct disobedience to God's clear teaching. You know, it doesn't seem as though he had any real desire to change this as best I could tell. This seems to be like just his willful violation of God's simple command. Doesn't the Bible say that someone who's struck bent on this lifestyle isn't really a Christian at all? And you're sitting in the funeral and you're just asking these questions. And of course, you don't know. You don't know where Bob is. But you certainly don't feel as certain as everyone else does because you saw this girl pull up in his parking lot couple times every year. Friends, what I'm trying to get you to see is that it is reasonable for someone to sit at your funeral and say, gosh, they didn't really sell out their lives to be gospel witnesses. And that's a clear teaching in God's Word. God says to do this. I mean, it's a command. He commands us to do this. And gosh, it just seems like there was this ongoing willful violation, not a couple times a year, but like many times a year. It would be reasonable for someone— if you could sit at Bob's funeral and wonder, gosh, I don't know, I mean, is he really in heaven? It would be reasonable for someone to sit at your funeral if you're not sharing the gospel and to assess uncertainty about who you really were and about whether you actually took this whole Jesus thing seriously, because this command is so compelling, so clear, and so consistent throughout all of Scripture.

31 · The pastor argues that obeying the command to share the gospel, even imperfectly, brings integrity and inner peace, contrasting this with the uncertainty of a life of disobedience

Now, the option, the alternative to living this kind of dicey, maybe I'm in, maybe I'm out kind of lifestyle, is to obey and to just say, you know, this scares me, but that's kind of the whole point of following Jesus, right? Walking into places that I'm not sure I can do on my own, and seeing Jesus step in and sustain me. This idea that just integrity itself is a reward. Wouldn't it just be nice to have this area— obviously no one in this room is ever going to be perfect in this area, but wouldn't it be just, just be nice to say, you know, I'm trying? No one's demanding or expecting perfection, but Jesus rightly calls us to pursue progress in this area. And my goodness, I think If you were ordering off the menu of Christian promises and you did want some inner peace, you might start by finding the faith to obey Jesus's basic commands.

32 · The pastor argues that obedience to Jesus's commands is the pathway to experiencing friendship with Jesus, citing John 15:14

Here's another reason why this isn't a monster at all. Friendship with Jesus just feels good. It feels good to be in friendship with Jesus. Jesus says in John 15:14, "You are my friends if you do what I command you." There is an element of that that is Jesus is pointing us to this idea of how do we know we're really his and how do we know we're really enjoying him and he's enjoying us. How do we know? And Jesus is saying, you know what, one way to enjoy practical friendship is to to do what He commands us to do.

33 · The pastor steps aside from the argument to clarify that he is not teaching salvation by works or perfectionism, but rather that true friendship with Jesus is characterized by a general disposition to obey

Now, I want to be clear. The Bible also says Jesus is a friend of sinners, right? Jesus is not holding a threshold up and says, "You've got to do everything I tell you to do exactly the way I tell you to do it. You've got to be perfect in order for me to be your friend." What He's pointing to is a general disposition to believe the person you say you trust. And when He tells you to do something, the general disposition is, I want to do it.

34 · The pastor argues that Christians need not fear obeying the command to share the gospel because Jesus promised to give the Holy Spirit to help those who obey his commands

Another helpful reason why this isn't a monster: the Holy Spirit will take care of you and will help you. John 14:15, Jesus says, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." And then he says the next verse, "And I will give you the Father's promise, the Holy Spirit." There's a part of this that's just a matter of stepping out into that spot you feel like just isn't going to sustain you, and finding the Holy Spirit there.

35 · The pastor cites 1 John 5:2-5 to support the claim that God's commandments, including the command to share the gospel, are not burdensome but are connected to faith and victory over the world

Basically what I'm trying to say is that His commandments are not burdensome. His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:2-5, by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This commandment isn't burdensome. It isn't all that you think it is. It's not going to ruin your life.

36 · The pastor synthesizes the reasons why obeying the command to share the gospel is not a monster but a blessing: integrity, friendship with Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the good life itself

Obedience is the good life. You will be blessed when you obey Jesus. You will have a new integrity to your faith. You will experience and enjoy a level of friendship with Jesus that you cannot know if you're not part of his band of followers going out into the world to witness. To His goodness and His grace. You'll enjoy a sense of friendship with Him. You'll experience the Holy Spirit working in your life. This command isn't burdensome. This isn't some monster pursuing you that you've got to throw a bunch of obstacles in front of. This is just a matter of saying, I do actually believe that You're God, and I do believe that You saved me and bought me with a price, and that I'm not my own. And I do believe I know what the word command means. The word command means do it. And I want to do it. I want to obey. I don't want to keep having all of this hypocrisy building up where I claim to be following you, but what I'm really doing is I'm treating you like some kind of à la carte menu at a mall food court. I want to follow a person. Not pick some of the promises off of a menu.

37 · The pastor shifts from theological argument to direct pastoral call, framing obedience as a choice the congregation must make

Now, all of this is presented in a way that I hope is not feeling like I'm crushing you, but also in a way it just makes it clear. It's just going to have to be a decision, a choice. I want to obey. I want to obey. I'm called to obey.

38 · The pastor introduces a specific first step for obeying the command to share the gospel: reading a book on hospitality to neighbors and inviting neighbors into your home

How? I would never want to encourage anyone— I'll try my best never to hold some high standard up to someone without saying, here's a good first step. I don't want to leave everybody kind of just wondering, well, what do I do? What do I do? You know, the timing of this book is providential. This is where I would tell you I would like you to consider starting. This is what I think would be the best, most biblical first step in obeying Christ's command to be a gospel witness, an intentional gospel witness in the world. This is just a book about learning how to offer hospitality to your neighbors. If you have a space of your own, whether it's an apartment or a house or, mid-Missouri, a trailer, uh, or a sweet camper van, whatever you have, if you have a space, that space is adorned more than you know it with the blessings of God. More than you realize that that space God has given you is adorned with the blessings of God.

39 · The pastor shares a personal story from his teenage years to illustrate how non-believers sense the presence of Jesus in a Christian home even when the believer doesn't notice it

You know, as a kid I was kind of ambivalent, not entirely sure what I wanted to do with this whole Jesus thing. And my home was growing in faith as I was growing in faith, but I would have friends over all the time who weren't believers when I was a teenager. And every one of those friends would say to me afterward, "Your home just feels different." You know, to me, I didn't even notice it. I was too busy looking at all that was wrong with my home. But all my friends who didn't know Jesus would walk away saying, "Your home just feels different." It wasn't because my home was especially nice or clean or ordered. It was because Jesus lived there.

40 · The pastor issues a concrete application: read the book on hospitality by the end of June as a first step in obeying the command to share the gospel

First step I want to commend to you is to take this book and don't put off reading it. Seth introduced this book in a way that if you are prone to wanting to disobey, it would scare you. Seth's like, I was convicted about this book. I was just, you know, yeah, yeah, absolutely. But here's the thing, you're called to obey and we want to give you something that will help you obey Jesus, you know, using everything you have right now. And nothing more. So I ask that you take this book from, from our pastoral desire for you to grow in this area, for you to be obedient in this area, for you to experience friendship in this area. I'd ask you to take this book and read it. Make it a priority to read it this month. Okay, let's go. Let's get this book read by the end of June. Let's, as a church, try to read this book by the end of June.

41 · The pastor introduces the Lord's Supper, reading 1 Corinthians 11:17-26 and applying it to the sermon's theme: don't be a privileged jerk by hoarding the gospel

Now, this sermon is intentionally short because most of what needs to happen in this sermon needs to happen not in this room. I'm done. I want to introduce the Lord's table to you. I want to pray, and then I want you to take time today, this week, this month to process this simple command from Jesus, our Savior, our Lord, to go into the world and share the gospel with people who don't know him, to be a witness to his goodness however he would call us to do it. 1 Corinthians 11:17. I don't often read this whole passage, but I want to today. But in the following instructions, Paul writes, I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it's not for the Lord's Supper that you eat, for in eating each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. There are all kinds of different views on what the teeth of this text are. I think the teeth of this text, the warning, is this: don't be a privileged jerk. If God has blessed you with abundance, don't flaunt that abundance in front of people who have nothing. And friends, do you know, do you know how much abundance you've been blessed with the gospel? Do you know how full your eternal coverage are compared to your next-door neighbor who doesn't know Christ. Don't be a privileged jerk when coming before this table. Paul continues, for I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he'd given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also, He took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.' Paul then says, let's make sure that each person examines himself before partaking of the table. I just like you to examine yourself not on your track record of evangelism, We would have way too much wine and bread left over if you did that. I don't want to examine yourself on your track record. I don't want you to not come because you haven't obeyed. But I do want you to hold back if upon hearing all that I've said today you're still unsure whether you will obey. I don't want you to partake of the Lord's table if today you're saying, Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe this is what God wants from me. Maybe not. At the very least, I think it would be reasonable to say that the word has been preached, it has been clear, Jesus's expectations for us have been clear, and if we want to walk in fellowship with him right now, that would mean at least assenting, agreeing to this command. Yes, this is what you want for me. Yes, I do need to grow in this area. Yes, I do want to obey you, and I'm sorry that I haven't obeyed you. I think examining yourself in this particular moment would simply involve determining whether your heart is inclined to obeying Jesus on this matter. Hopefully the Spirit helps you to see that there's nothing ultimately to be afraid of. And that obedience is the good life, and that God's issuing of His commands are always for our good, and that this is just another opportunity to enjoy His goodness. Hopefully you realize, you know, I haven't been obedient in this area, not like I need to be, but I do recognize God's authority to call me to obey in this area. I do recognize that is clearly His command that I obey Him in this area. And so now I come and partake at the table as a a sinner who needs grace and God's patience and forbearance and help as I go out into this new effort to obey Him in this area. I don't want this to be, don't come if you're not perfect in this area, but I do want this to be, let's take His command and our heart intention to obedience seriously. So we'll take a little, just a few moments. If you want to take a few moments longer than normal, before coming up to partake, that'd be totally reasonable. We'll have music playing. You come when you're ready. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. We serve a living God who issues commands. We obey those commands imperfectly, but we do obey. That's what we strive for. Let's pray.