Order, Words, & Voices
04.16.23, Always, Matthew 28:16-20
Order
Pre Worship Music
Opening Song Billy/Linda
Thank You Lord
Hallelujah He Reigns
Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick
Reading Matthew 28:16-20 Andrea
Songs Billy/Linda
Revelation Song
I Will Never Be
Message Always Rick
Music I Will Never Be Billy/Linda
Community/Peace Rick
Benediction Rick
Post Worship Music
Music (slides)
(Be ready for some verses, etc. repeated)
Thank You Lord
Verse
For all that You’ve done
I will thank You
For all that You’re going to do
For all that You’ve promised
And all that You are
Is all that has carried me through
Jesus I thank You
Pre-Chorus
And I thank You thank You Lord
(And I thank You thank You Lord)
Thank You thank You Lord
(Thank You thank You)
Chorus
Thank You for loving
and setting me free
Thank You for giving Your life
just for me
How I thank You Jesus I thank You
Gratefully thank You thank You
Hallelujah He Reigns
Hallelujah
He reigns in majesty
Hallelujah
He reigns in glory
Hallelujah
He reigns in righteousness
Oh hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah
He reigns in righteousness
Oh hallelujah
Call to Worship (Slides)
Leader: The resurrection inaugurates the enhanced realization of Jesus’ mission.
Response: The cross and the empty tomb were not the end.
Leader: Even though his disciples failed Jesus their calling was not at an end.
Response: Their calling was now renewed and expanded.
Leader: Following the cross, the men went into hiding while the women ran to the tomb.
Response: All were filled with Joy and Fear.
Leader: Mary received the calling to go and preach to the men.
Response: Along the way, Jesus appeared and Mary worshiped.
Leader: The men heard and believed Mary’s message.
Response: The tomb was empty, Jesus was alive.
Leader: They had denied and abandoned Jesus, they had fallen asleep in his time of great need.
Response: Jesus was alive, they were free to release their shame.
Leader: All were now called, called to go and meet Jesus in Galilee.
Response: They were called to live all that they had learned.
Lord’s Prayer (Slides) ‘Join me in the prayer of Jesus’
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us. And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Reading (Slide) Matthew 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:16-20
Music (Slides)
Revelation Song
Verse 1
Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain
Holy holy is He
Sing a new song to Him Who sits on
Heaven’s mercy seat
Chorus
Holy holy holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was and is and is to come
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of kings
You are my ev’rything
And I will adore You
Verse 2
Clothed in rainbows of living color
Flashes of lightning rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor
strength and glory
And power be to You
the only wise King
Chorus
Holy holy holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was and is and is to come
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of kings
You are my ev’rything
And I will adore You
Verse 3
Filled with wonder awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your name
Jesus Your name is power
breath and living water
Such a marv’lous mystery
Chorus
Holy holy holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was and is and is to come
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of kings
You are my ev’rything
And I will adore You
I Will Never Be
Verse 1
I will never be the same again
I can never return
I’ve closed the door
I will walk the path
I will run the race
And I will never be the same again
Chorus
Fall like fire soak like rain
Flow like mighty waters
Again and again
Sweep away the darkness
Burn away the chaff
And let a flame burn
To glorify Your name
Verse 2
There are higher heights
There are deeper seas
Whatever You need to do
Lord do it in me
And the glory of God fills my life
And I will never be the same again (3X)
Message – Always (No Slides)
This may or may not be true for you as it is for me but I think since probably just a week or two before Covid there there were some elements of my brain that just disappeared. For instance, the piece that gives me perspective of time – as in how long ago something was or how soon it will happen, and there were definitely chunks of my memory that dropped out of my skull. But there’s one thing that I can definitely remember and that was just a few days before the world shut down, before businesses closed, before the campus became a desert, before we started doing church on a small screen, a time when hugs still existed and masks were not a reality. I was driving south on Lahoma Street between Boyd and Lindsay and looking at the street. I love that street I love to drive down it and I love to walk down it, all the trees lining both sides of the street, the leaf canopy the covers the street during every spring, summer, and early fall, flowers, and color, and no dead looking branches and no gloomy looking sky. On this day though I remember driving along, seeing no life, and just longing for the leaves, flowers, color, and life to return.
Then, when covid hit I think that I just settled into the world of gloominess. I moved my office to the house, specifically our back patio, my desk was the patio table – While it was still cold I dragged a small heater out, and when it got too hot I brought out a fan. One day I went out to my new office and began to clean off my new desk. Most of what I had to clean up was the seed helicopters that had fallen from our backyard trees. I had a fist full of the seed and as I clenched my fist they all crumbled, they were dead. Then it occurred to me that once the seeds fall the leaves show up. I looked around and they were already there, the trees were full, the color was back, I was even excited to see all the new weeds in the back yard flower beds. They had been there for weeks, maybe days, but I had not looked up, or even in front of my assumption of death.
For months, all I could see was what I thought was reality. I had watched as my nurse daughter, less that a year into nursing, carried on through an under resourced medical system navigating unchartered waters, she, and so many other medical professionals, surrounded by physical death and grief daily, as well as hostility and hatefulness, conspiracies and lies. It was as if God’s creation had joined humanity overwhelmed by pandemic and the accompanying politics of denial and blame. I could only see death so I assumed death had taken over, but I was wrong. Life was there, and life had been there. Life had been brewing under the exterior of death and misery, life was busting out and all I had to do was open my eyes.
Understandably, after the cross, the followers of Jesus could only see death – they had seen it on the cross, they felt it in their hearts, they experienced it in their minds. And, justifiably, fear consumed them. The eleven remaining disciples hid in their fear, holding onto the shame of failing to be there for Christ when he needed them most., Mary, and some of the women headed to the tomb as soon as possible expecting to only see a dead body. No one expected life to show back up, no one expected the resurrection, they had accepted that life was over.
However, God was not absent, life had continued even though everything looked like death, the unseen reality was that life was already spilling out from the tomb. Life looked different now and life was moving forward and the followers had to scramble to catch up. Jesus continued forward in very Jesus’ form, he chose a woman, in the middle of a misogynistic world to teach the men about the resurrection in order for them to be able to teach the world – the world has still not caught up, religiosity still resists believing God calls women to be called by God to preach.
Mary who had previously been defined by her past struggles was soon be the first commissioned to preach the message of the resurrection. Peter the disciple who had fallen asleep in the garden and then denied Jesus three times would soon find his testimony of Jesus to be the rock on which the church would be built. James and John who had hid behind their mother as she campaigned for them to have position and power would soon be known by their humility and their testimony of the resurrection. Life was moving forward, and sometimes forward is scary.
Jesus redefined each of them as he said, ‘You are an apostle, or, you are a preacher, or, you are to carry hope and peace, and to everyone Jesus said, you are to live like I lived in front of you, merciful, compassionate, truthful, graceful, vulnerable, full of life now and forever. Living on earth in the manner you will live in heaven. Others, all over the world, will gain voices as well, as they learn from your life of living like Christ. Words they see proven through your existence.’
And, even though the shame and fear would still be there to distract, they had all received forgiveness rather than rejection. They had all be given purpose instead of constant judgment. They would follow the love of God as commissioned witnesses of the compassion, mercy, and grace that falls and flows out of God’s love for all of humanity.
Our passage today takes place about 40 days after the resurrection. The passage itself is often called the Great Commission. Ministries and denominations have built entire evangelical strategies around these final words of Jesus.
“Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 18:20)
Let me first be honest with you about this passage – I think we have gotten it wrong. So be ready…
It is with an amazing concise, challenging, comforting, and with an intentional finality to Jesus’ human relationship with the eleven men to whom Jesus speaks. The words of Jesus reminded the men what is most important in their new role of apostles – to Make Disciples of all believers, to Baptize those who choose to follow Jesus, and to Teach those new baptized believers everything Jesus taught through his life. Oh, and to remember that even though they wouldl not be able to see Jesus anymore, he would still always with the/us.
Three simple instruction
- Take those who choose to follow Jesus, based on the apostle’s testmony, and bring them into the faith community.
- Symbolically embrace these new followers through a practice they would already understand – baptism for cleansing and repentance. Note: At this time they had no idea their audience would go beyond other Jews, it wouldn’t take long however for this group to grow in diversity – ie. Next week with a guy named Cornelius.
- Teach them about the resurrection, teach them about Jesus.
One Promise
- I am going to still be with you.
Here is the basic reality of Jesus’ command.
- People will choose to be followers of Jesus. The command is to let them be a part of this faith community, which at the time, the apostles still thought this was going to still be a Jewish faith. It would be decades before the apostles would recognize that this was not really the Jewish faith any longer, and, around that same time they would receive a new name ‘little Jesuses” meant to be a insulting but instead it was a badge of honor that verified they understood the commission of Jesus.
- Those individuals who choose to follow Jesus, were to be embraced through the ritual of baptism.
- They were to learn about the life of Jesus so they could then live more and more like Jesus.
Simply put, the great commission is a call to live life like Jesus. Pure and Simple. Follow Jesus, his words, his actions, his life. Follow Jesus – Change the World. Let people learn how to live by us living like Jesus. A commitment for us that will change the way we relate at work, home and play, a calling that will change the way we handle our money, the way we vote, the way we relate to friends, acquaintances and even to enemies. It will change our willingness to allow others to see our flaws and our vulnerabilities. It will change us.
That is what attracted the early followers to Jesus. The apostles did not preach large evangelistic rallies, they used the lives of followers living like the one they followed, Jesus, to speak the news of Jesus, the news of life, life resurrected. In fact, apostle’s usual message were to the small communities of faith to whom they would teach the resurrection and how Jesus with love lived in an evil world.
About 250 years after the after the the final words of Jesus, Christianity became acceptable and powerful due to collusion with political powers. Evenutally, Jesus final commissioning to his apostles, became ‘evangelism’ focusing solely on the word ‘Teach’, while misinterpreting it to mean ‘Convert.’ Soon, this became a method of control by the government and the church. Crusades were fought with warriors sent to force entire cultures to ‘convert to Christianity’ to give up their own faith in exchange for our faith. In our own United States, slaves were not only forced from their homelands but also forced to convert to a God they did not know – forced by those who claimed to be of the Christian faith who diminished these humans’ dignity and humanity in order to hold control. The first Americans had their children taken by force, their native language taken away, traditional haircuts forbidden, all in order to be indoctrinated into the white man’s ugly version, and very unChristlike portrayal, of Christianity. Many of those children have recently been found in unmarked graves even here in our own state. Throughout the 20th century and marginally even into this century, we have staged mass rallies, children and youth camps, and human manipulated revivals, all using death and an emotional mix judgement and fear to aggressively persuade others to join our religiosity.
Jesus call is not one of aggressive persuasion, it is a call for us to all live lives of compassion, empathy, mercy, grace, respect, peace, vulnerability and honesty, lives marked by selflessness and humility, live from which love flows. That is our calling, that is our commission.
It is really pretty simple. Accept all people. Embrace all people. And Live out the life of Jesus in front of people. And, remember that Jesus is always with us even though we cannot see him.
Together for Hope, Jason Coker
Music (Slides)
I Will Never Be
Verse 1
I will never be the same again
I can never return
I’ve closed the door
I will walk the path
I will run the race
And I will never be the same again
Chorus
Fall like fire soak like rain
Flow like mighty waters
Again and again
Sweep away the darkness
Burn away the chaff
And let a flame burn
To glorify Your name
Verse 2
There are higher heights
There are deeper seas
Whatever You need to do
Lord do it in me
And the glory of God fills my life
And I will never be the same again (3X)
Community (Slides)
- Next Sunday, April 23, Acts 10:1-17, 34-48, ‘Prayers and Alms’
Benediction (Blank Slide)
May we walk securely in the confidence of the defeat of death on the cross. May we release our burdens at the wonder of the empty grave. May we continue forward in our hope proven through the resurrection. May we meet our world understanding the blessedness and struggle of humanity. May we live in our reality with the challenge to be salt and light. May we show Jesus through our lives. May we see with God’s eyes and glorify God in our lives.
Closing Peace
Leader: May the Peace and Hope of the Lord go with you.
Response: And also with you.
Leader: Go in the Peace and Hope of the Lord.
Order, Words, & Voices 