Matthew 28:16-20 – Which Part of “All” Don’t You Understand?
A pastor in a drought-stricken part of the south called his people to begin praying for rain. In fact he asked each member of the church to join in a prayer vigil that would continue day and night until God granted their request. Never had there been a greater sense of urgency in that church than was revealed over the next few days. At any hour one might pass that small rural church and find the lights on and someone at the altar praying.
Finally late Wednesday evening some dark clouds began to roll in. Soon rain began falling in sheets. Four straight days and nights it rained without ceasing. The creeks began overflowing their banks. It became necessary to evacuate persons from their homes. Still the water kept rising. The entire community was now under water.
As rescue workers made their way in a boat through the perilous floodwater evacuating the last reluctant stragglers, one of the boats passed that little country church now almost completely submerged.
There on the roof of the church sat the pastor with a look of grand satisfaction on his face. As he surveyed the floodwaters he said to himself, “Not bad for a church our size. Not bad at all.”
Often small churches suffer from feelings of insecurities: “We’re too small to do that” or “We’re just a small church – we’ll leave that to bigger churches.” What does a small church in a small town have to offer the world?
If you judge the value of things by how big they are, you will misjudge. That one tooth is so small – it won’t hurt me. That one screw doesn’t matter – don’t bother with putting it back in the engine of the car. That one toe is so small – it doesn’t matter if it’s ingrown. That one mosquito flying around isn’t very big – just let it be. Folks, what I’m saying is, don’t judge importance by its size. That includes this church. That includes your talents and abilities. That includes the value of others in the sight of God. Francis Schaeffer, a Christian theologian, said, "In God’s sight . . . there are no little places." I might add, there are no little talents, nor are there little people.
I’d like to look at Matthew 28:16-20 for just a minute today. There’s one small word in verse 19 that carries a punch. It shows us that God can use small churches, even this one. It shows us that God has a plan for every talent He dishes out, even your small ones. And it shows that no person is too small or insignificant to matter to Him. v16-20.
Let’s look at one word, the same in virtually every translation of the Bible, from the classic older translations to the newer ones. It’s the word “all” in verse 19. Jesus told his followers to go into all the world, or to make disciples of all the nations. That is, no matter which country around the world, no matter which people group, they need to know about God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice for them. All includes everyone.
Thinking of this word, Jesus was certainly an all-or-nothing kind of guy. Matthew 13:44 tells the story of a man selling all he had to own the field with a treasure in it – that is, nothing is as valuable as being part of God’s kingdom. Matthew 19:26 says that all things are possible with God. Matthew 22:37-40, what we call the Great Commandment, says that we are to love Him with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. Basically, all that is in us is called to love Him above all things. Matthew 9:35 says that He went through all the towns and healed all the sick. And Acts 10:38 is a description of Jesus’ life on earth as told by Peter, an eye-witness of it all: “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”
Well, who was “all”? Which lives did Jesus touch? Who did He reach out to? What did He spend time doing? If we just grab a hold of who Jesus was and what He did and how He did it, we can impact our world too. This is where “small” and “all” intersect. No matter how small this church is or how small you think your talents are, God can use you to do your part to reach out to all people. If this church has enough people doing their parts to reach out to all people, and if there are enough churches filled with enough people doing their parts, and if there are enough communities with enough churches filled with enough people doing their parts, and if there are enough countries filled with enough communities filled with enough churches filled with enough people doing their parts, then all the world will hear the truth that sets them free.
You are the first link in the chain that brings the good news to all the world. If you don’t think you are important, then you don’t believe that God has the power to do miracles anymore, and you have a faith problem.
But we are not all called to overseas work. We are not all called to be “missionaries” in that sense. Well, in that sense, neither was Jesus. Leaving heaven to come to earth, taking on human skin and human problems, that was missionary work for Him, to be sure. But once He got here, he never traveled more than 150 miles from his birthplace.
You know who Jesus reached out to? The people around Him. He went looking for the people who needed Him. He looked for people with needs that perhaps others didn’t see. Let’s take these last few moments to look at the people Jesus ministered to, and perhaps we will see the people around us that we can minister to, also. And in some small way, we can reach out to “all” the world, reach out to all around us, and fulfill our part of the Great Commission.
We can obviously see that Jesus spent time with people whose lives were obviously marred by sin. In John 4, He spent time with the woman at the well. This is significant on so many levels. First, she was a woman – there were strict rules about Jewish men not talking to women. Second, she was a Samaritan, a Jewish and secular half-breed. Third, she was divorced. And fourth, she was now living with her current flame. These four things were solid reasons for good people to stay away from her. But Jesus’ love for her broke past social stigmas. He was more concerned about cleaning her up than getting dirty himself. Folks, getting dirty happens when take sin into your heart, not when you get around it. Jesus knew that, and He used that woman to start a church. When was the last time you showed some love to someone with obvious sin problems?
Jesus also showed love to people whose sins weren’t so visible, like the rich young ruler. He had it all, except for open, flagrant sin. He had kept all the commandments. This man was squeaky clean. But Jesus told him he needed to sell all he had to give to the poor. Tough words, and the man walked away downcast because of it. Jesus didn’t ignore him or overlook him. He said, “You are pretty good, but not good enough. You still need me. Will you accept?” How about the people in your life who are good but not good enough? Will you take time to show love and compassion towards people who look religious, but still need to commit their lives to Christ?
In John 9, we see Jesus healing a man blind from birth. The question was asked, what caused this sin? Was this man sinful or were his parents sinful? The man’s heritage was in question. Were his parents sinners? Does our culture today judge others by what kind of family they have? Yet Jesus spent time with him. In fact, the whole chapter is spent showing us how Jesus reached out in love to this man. Apparently, Jesus didn’t care about whether a person’s parents were sinners – He loved the person anyway. And those of us who claim the name of Jesus as our master should also.
In Mark 10:13f, we see Jesus spending time with children. Too often we look at kids as the future, instead of remembering who they are today. We see kids in church as interruptions in the adult service. We work hard to get adults to come back, but we worry less about providing stuff for kids. Folks, if we as a church want to grow, we need to spend more time and money on how to find and reach and keep kids. And we all need to work together to make them welcome. Learn their names. Say hi. Don’t scowl when they do something wrong. If Jesus loved kids and allowed them to take up His time, then so should we.
Well, who else did Jesus reach out to? The social outcast, the woman who had been bleeding for many years, never being allowed in the temple because of it – Jesus touched her and loved her. Who are the outcasts you know?
How about Matthew? He was a lowlife, the lowest of the low, the person no-one in town liked. He was a tax-collecter, and Jesus reached out to him, and made him a disciple, one of his closest followers. Do you spend time with lowlifes?
Jesus spent time with sick people: those who had leprosy or other skin diseases, those who were paralyzed, those who were blind. What about you? Do people down on their luck know you care? Luke 4 gives us Jesus’ self-appointed job description: to reach the poor, prisoners, the blind, the oppressed, and the broken-hearted. Are these who we want in this church? Honestly? Do we want ex-cons coming to church? Do we want people who have more problems than usefulness? Do we want people who are oppressed by Satan? Jesus didn’t seem to mind showing love to these kinds of people? And if we really want to be the church God is calling us to be, we may have to get dirty hands. Jesus called us to be fishers of people. First you catch fish; then you clean them. Cleaning isn’t as fun as catching them, but it must be done.
Bill Hybels, pastor of the largest church in America, whom I had the privilege of seeing in Montreal last week, said “We have never locked eyes with someone that did not matter to God.” St. Francis of Assisi said “Always preach the Gospel, and when necessary, use words.” And Bible commentator William Barclay said: “More people have been brought into the church by the kindness of real Christian love than by all the theological arguments in the world.” Christ has called us to go and help all people find Him. No matter how small you think you are, God is calling you to commit to show His love to all the people around you, people who so need to know hope and peace. Jesus gave His all; will you give yours?
