Surely I Am With You Always | Matthew 28:8-20

Show Notes

Episode 798: 
In this episode, we look at the promises of God as outlined in Matthew 28. They read and reflect on the passage where Jesus commissions His disciples, emphasizing His assurance that He will be with them until the end of the age. Chris and Jeff discuss the significance of this promise in the context of the Great Commission, highlighting the importance of making disciples and sharing the gospel.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning, it was coming. We talked the whole not through good morning. Good morning to you and you and you, Hey, good morning everybody. I'm Chris and I'm Jeff, and we are the Bible Guys. And today we are in the middle of a series about God's promises and right, yes, yes, I'm a big fan, big fan promises and how we can rely on them on different contexts. But before we dive into that, we have a segment today. Hot Takes. Hot Takes. Now we've only done this a few different times. Right, that's correct. And this Hot Takes, I haven't even actually I haven't even read it. I've not even read it. Oh, I have an opinion on the first one. This is me reading it for the first time, right now. Okay, So it says on Hot Takes, do you agree with this statement? And then it says defend your answer. So the first one is the middle seat on airplanes is actually the best? Who in their right mind I know that would say that that's actually the best. That is insane? So did you know that unfortunately. I hate to speak bad about my beloved Delta, but did you know I'm not I'm not a world class traveler like you. So you get like perks and benefits and stuff, but I'm in the low life. Okay, I am silver medallion, but all you have to do is show up to be silver. So yeah, no, no, no, you have to. You have to get a certain certain come on couple flights. Give me a little credit. But anyway, so I'm with the minions. I don't mean to break right, but anyway. The point is is that it used to be that you could choose your own seat for free, and that's one of the things I loved about Delta. Did you know they just recently changed that. Now you have to pay to choose. Well, unless I'm wrong, but you know, there's that whole like basic, you know, like you could choose the Basic, then you choose the you know. But anyway, so I always choose the cheapest, and usually unless I'm wrong. I could be wrong. I'm open to being wrong here, but I'm almost positive what I did was I chose the Basic, and then I realized later on that the only time I could choose my actual seat was I had to pay thirty something dollars, which. Is what were you trying to choose seats a little further up? No, there were basic seats, so they had to assign my seat for me, which is what Southwest does, right, and then Jet Blue and all those other horrible ones like that. Yea, so it can never book basic, pay the extra twenty bucks and book main cabin. Yeah that's well, those are the same seats, but you have way more selection. Well, anyway, I got stuck in the middle, okay, and it's a good thing. I've lost great like in row. Twenty five, I mean many how many hours? Oh it was only from Florida to here, so took. Two and a half. It's still a long time sitting in the middle seat. Yeah, but I'm smaller now. But here's the thing. The guy next to me was huge, but you know what, he was good though, Like you know, a lot of times people are big and then they sort of, you know, like they go over the vager side, they take over. This guy was really good, so he knew he was very very big. I mean I'm talking like six foot four and he must have been two sixty. But he wasn't like he was in shape. He was thick, like like an athlete, right, so I was I was actually looking at him like, wow, this guy can He's got to play ball or something, right, But anyway, this guy was very large. And then but then I had the sweet old lady next to me. But here I'm in the middle, and I'm watching my elbows right, and I'm just sitting there the whole time, And I thought to myself, the middle seat is the worst. How could anybody defend him? I hate the middle seat. Now, you know, I do have a friend, We have a mutual friend. You know him too. He's from the Middle East. He's not a big guy. He's pretty small, and he doesn't care. So if I go, oh no, I've got a middle seat, I'm gonna do everything I can do to get out of that middle seat. You know, pay an upgrade if I have to, whatevers. And I'd like, oh, I don't care. He can get his he can get his knees up on his seat, go to sleep. You know, he's just a little guy and so he doesn't care at all. But I hate it, just absolutely hate it. I got stuck on an eight and a half hour flight in the middle seat because we had a last last minute change and it was my only way. So I hate it. So this is a dumb question. There's nobody who believes, come on, it's actually the best. Come on, it's not. Nobody needs it's the best seat. So you name me one example. Try to find me one example why it's the best. You know what? Okay, hey, how about this one. If you're with your family. And your wife wants to sit next to you, your kid wants to sit next to you. Yeah, and you want to be in between either because you want to separate them. Yeah, I never want to be in between, or you want to talk to them. I don't want to sit in the middle. Okay, I don't want to talk to anybody on a plane. Your plugs, put my headphones in, don't talk to me. Yeah. Well, I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think of a single good reason. Here's the next one. Boneless wings are just nuggets and should be labeled that way. I think I absolutely agree. One hundred percent. Yeah, I'm always disappointed by boneless wings. Yeah, and the breading is different, I know, I know. They might as well just be like banquet nuggets. Remember banquet yeah, right, that's what they should be. Boneless wings are fraudulent. Yeah, I agree, And I think that like when I go to a place and they ask me between the two. If if for some reason I do boneless, which every once in a while i'll do it, I'm always regretting it. There was a lawsuit about it a guy. A guy sued over false advertising because they there is no wing meat in them. It's all breast meat. Oh so they're not wings. Right, and just looking for a quick wit. Yeah, and that the court said it's a commonly known thing, that it's just a marketing thing, and so they didn't they didn't side with him. Yeah, but I agreed with him. He's right, it's fraudulent. They're not wings. It's fraudulent. It is man. Yeah, you're right though, they are definitely not wings. But what I've also eaten my body's weight in them, So does it stop me from meeting them. I'm just saying they're not wings, they're chicken nuggets. But yeah, Hey, by the way, let's let's take just a moment. Since that was a quick segment. I'll take just a moment, because, after all, there are plenty of listeners who are not living in Michigan, right, Okay, Yes, however probably I would say the majority of our listeners are in Michigan. Go Lions, Go Lions. Okay, So take just a second, and because I know you are a food connoisseur, especially with carne. Meat meat, yes, meat, yes. So uh, tell everybody, what is your favorite wing place or one of them? Really? Is that? Okay? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Well what's your favorite wing place? It's that place that you took me to. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. What is the name wing Stops? Oh no, there was another one. It was a different name, but yeah, wingstop is good. Wing snobs, wing snobs. Yes, they're the best ones. Yes, yes, I like them. It was you took me there and I and you said, oh, these are these are leaders. Live up to their name. They're wing snop And I was like, okay, listen, I'm not a big wing guy like wings are. Okay, And I went there and ate them, and I actually thought to myself, these are a cut above the rest. Yeah, they were really good. Yeah, and there's a few of them around here too. There's not one rate near my house. So I'm praying that the Lord will go before me. Yes, provide before and behind me, go to wings now right next to me. Yeah, it's weird. You know where we live For our listeners who don't know, we live in a suburban metropolitan area outside of Detroit, and it's mostly all like engineers and people involved somehow in the automotive supply industries and engineering. It's just thousands and thousands of engineers for General Motives and Chrysler, and so there's not a lot of industry in our communities. They're all just giant bedroom communities. It's just subdivision after subdivision and stores and restaurants. Right, it's great. So we have every restaurant and the planet within like two and a half miles of my house right right, And it's crazy. Have you ever noticed you go, hey, let's go out tonight. Okay, where should we go? Oh? I don't know, And you can't think of where to go. There's so many options there. So you know, when I was growing up in LaPier, there were like three options right right right? Do you we want pizza? Do we want chicken? Do we want burgers? That's basically and then there was the expensive steakhouse, but that was it. Whenever we go to La City, campus. There's that one restaurant, what is Lucky's. Yeah, it's like, hey, where youre gonna go? It's like, want to go to Luckies? Yeah, yeah, exactly, So that's that's how it is. But but where it's just all restaurants. But they have a new burger place that's pretty darn good. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, they really do. They are good. By the way, Uh you said Chrysler and GM that you excluded what Ford. We don't have a lot of Ford engineers where we live. They're over on the other side of town. Okay, there's no Ford complexes right here for engineering. Okay, Well, I just didn't want for people to feel left out. Well, we don't care about Ford. Stop it, yeah, stop it. You're wearing a Lion's jersey though, Yeah. And I know, and they should sell the company, sell the. Time, I definitely agree with. Okay, when you get a sixty year run of not winning, maybe you should hand it off. Yeah, but hey, but look at they sell it for a crazy probu. How do you like me now? Yeah? Yeah, they're playing well right now. Yeah, it's not the Fords that did it, though, Let's. Talk with that. Let's be clear. So, hey, Anyways, now that we're in nine minutes and we wasted a bunch of time, listeners like, what are you talking about? I tuned in for devotions. All right, let's take twenty minutes and really jump into. Well, I'll tell you what I was devoted to those hots takes and especially so now it's time for devotions. Okay. So we are in Matthew chapter twenty eight. We're talking about the promises of God, and particularly this week, we're focusing on the presence of God in our life. And so at the resurrection, the Bible says the women in verse eight of chapter twenty eight of the Book of Matthew. The women ran quickly from the tomb, and they were very frightened, but also filled with great joy. And they rushed to give the disciples the angel message the he's not here, he's risen. And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them, and they ran to him and grasped his feet and worshiped him. And then Jesus said to him, said to them, don't be afraid. Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they'll see me there. As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. Meeting with the elders. A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. And they told the soldiers, you must say, jesus disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body. If the governor hears about it, we'll stand up for you, so you won't get in trouble. So the guards accepted the bribe and said that they what they were told to say, and their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today. Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told him to go, and when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some of them doubted, And Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all the newsations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And teach these new disciples to obey all the commands that I've given you. And be sure this I am with you always even to the end of the age. So we're talking about the promises of God and Jesus is promising to be with us always. Yeah, even to the end of the age. Yeah. Now there's a forty day gap, just so our listeners understand, there's a forty day gap between verse fifteen and verse sixteen, right, forty days. Yeah, and the other gospels talk about. Yeah, fill in all the other details on that. Yeah. Yeah. So Jesus is once again where I should say, you know, once again the promise is being reminded to you and me. But in this context, Jesus is saying, I am with you always, I will never leave you, I'll their forsake you. Those commandments go hand in hand even to the edge end of the age. And the context for this promise, because remember, on Monday, the context was God will never fail you, He'll never abandon you, and it was with the context of being content with what you had. And then yesterday it was the exact same promise, He'll never leave you, He'll never fail you, but it was in the context of God going before you and being strong and being courageous and in your battles and never doubting because after all, that was sort of why he said it three times. And choosing to love God, obey God, yes, and he'll give you life. Yes, yes. And this is the same promise that God is with us and he'll never leave us. Only this is the context of the Great Commission. And the Great commission is the mission that God sends his entire church on. So when he sends the church in motion, you know he actually you know, it's really a movement of his people, if his believers, of his followers, and he gives a commission of them and says, your job is to go and tell everybody you can about and about my story, about my resurrection, and teach them to obey and and disciple them, baptize them, can you know, make believers of them and then do this and remember I'll be with you the whole time. Meaning, uh, we know now of course it's going to be challenging. It's not going to be easy at times. It's going to be daunting. Uh for a lot of the disciples. It's going to cost you your lives, right for most of them, right and uh, and it's and it's you're going to be persecuted. You know, it's going to be tough, and so that applies to us today. Outside of maybe it costing our lives, most of us won't have to pay with our life. But it may cost you your job, it may cost you your reputation. It makes it to stand up for what is right, to to tell people about Jesus, to never back down. It may cost you, like a moment where people may poke fun at you or maybe you know, roll their eyes at you. Right, it may cost you something like that, But it's going to cost you something. But just know that God is with you when you take your stand, when you're on mission, when you tell people about him, He'll never leave you. Yeah. So when Jesus paid the price on the cross, he took the punishment for our sin, and he paid the price. He took the punishment in his body. That's what the bread represents it communion. He paid the price for our sin with his blood. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins, the Bible says. So he deals with both of those. But it was his resurrection, the power of his resurrection that gives you and me life right. And it's also in that time that the Bible talks about how Jesus holds the keys, right, and so he has all the power. When he resurrected, that demonstrated that he had defeated death and hell and sin and the grave and all the consequences of that. And so while Satan still has power, Satan will never win. Right. He might win a battle, but he's never going to win this war. He's already been defeated. The only reason why he has not been totally vanquished yet is God is letting time play out. As Peter tells us, that God's not being slack or lazy. Instead, he's being patient, right, not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to penance. So God's allowing time to play out because there's still more people that need to come to him. Right, But Jesus has all the power, He has all the authority. The Bible says that God has given Jesus the name above every name, and that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is lord. The Bible says that he's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Right, he is the pinnacle of everything that exists in all of creation, inside and outside, above and below, you know, as the Book of Roman says. And it's that authority. He says, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. It's that power. He holds the keys to heaven, he holds the keys to hell. He has defeated Satan and death. He's defeated everything. He's vanquished sin, and he has the ultimate resolution of it. And he says, so, now, since I have all the authority on heaven and earth, therefore, and you were taught whenever therefore is there you have to spend time and figure out what's it there for. The next thing that's going to be said is because of the previous things said. Right, So, because I have all the power, I need you to go and tell everybody everywhere go make disciples'. That's evangelism, that's disciple making. Every single believer is called to be a disciple maker. And then he says, baptize them the name of the Father's Son in the Holy Spirit. It's interesting, it's a very clear articulation of the Trinity. There's not many times Jesus does mentions the entire Trinity at one time, but he does in this one. After he says, I have all the power. He says, Father's Son and Holy Spirit, and baptizing them is really including them into the family of God. That's what baptism signifies. It signifies the death, Beryl and resurrection of Jesus. You're in Christ. Because you're in Christ, you're also in with Us, and it's the family of God kind of component. And then he said, then teach these disciples to obey all the commands they've given you, which, if you have our time remembering all the commands of Jesus, he said, the two most important ones to fulfill all the law and the prophets is love God and love people. Right, and then oh yeah, go tell everybody and baptize them. There's those four things you got to do. Just do that make disciples. And then he says, in that context, you can be sure of this, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. So it's in the context of making disciples and teaching them to obey. And it's because of his power that he says, in that context you never have to be afraid. I'll always be with you, whether you live or die, I'll always be with you. Yeah, And it's a wonderful thing to that promise, knowing that when it's scary, you know, when when when you're trying to be bold, when you're trying to be trying to be brave, that God is with you, because sometimes that's when you feel the most alone, right, you know, It's like, uh, I'll never forget. So many times in high school, I just I have always found myself myself in situations where I felt like I was the only Christian in the room and there'd be like something that would happen. I had an atheist teacher who used to say things, and I oftentimes challenged her or rebutted her or said that's not true. I literally would shout out, well, that's just not true, right, And then she just would just hey, you raise your hand before you speak, and all these kinds of things, and I'm like, no, no, I'm not going to do it. Well, you have attention. I don't care right now. Granted, could have done it different, Yes, I get right, I could have done it, you know, with respect and things like that, but but you know, but back then, I'm just like, hey, I'm sure going to do it so anyway. But all those times where I felt like I was the only one. You feel alone. But you have to realize when God asks you to never back down and stand up and be bold in this case, you know, to bring up God and to disciple someone. Well, gee whiz, that's not just a that's just not like one sermon. That's like that's a lifestyle, right, and that's like sometimes that's multiple conversations. I'm going to get to know you. I'm going to bring up God in the conversation. Hey, so what's your church background? And you believe in the things of God? And I mean these are developing things and and so you know through that whole thing, you know God is saying I'm right there to give you strength because every step is hard, every step is is a brand new piece of this discipling. You know, think about all the different scary moments that this entails. This is a lifetime mission. Right, one of the most powerful beginning conversations. You know, tools or starters that I've ever used, and I use it judiciously. It has to be an appropriate time and place. But there have been times when it was clear somebody was hinting around in a spiritual conversation. And people sometimes either don't know how to get into the spiritual conversation. They don't want to be confrontational, or they just feel uncomfortable with it. They're very attracted, they want to talk about spiritual things, they just don't know how to get started. And so in that when I have that sense if the Holy Spirit's nudging me, there's been many times I'll just say, hey, can I ask you like a really direct question? So I get them to give me permission? Yeah, yeah, go ahead, And I'll say, if God forbid, but if something tragic happened and you died today, are you one hundred percent sure you go to heaven? And I can't tell you how many times that just breaks it open. Right, So there's a boldness to that, because some people get it mad even bring that up or whatever. Right, So it has to be the right time, the right moment. But I've done it many many men, many times where I've seen grown men get teared up and they go, I think that's exactly what I'm asking, right, is I want to go to Heaven when I die. And so there's this opportunity there. So there's a boldness. This is what Jesus saying, Listen, I've got all the power, and I'm sending you on the mission, but I'm never going to leave you. The reason why I brought up the fact that he mentions the Trinity there is because at the end he says, I am with you always, even at the end of the age. But we know it's not him, it's the Holy Spirit. But he's speaking in the power of the Trinity there right, He's not speaking just in the Jesus conversation. He says, I'm the Son, the Father's Son and Holy Spirit are one, and I will be with you always. That's kind of thing. So now you're talking. You have the full power of the Triune God behind you when you are going and making disciples, and you don't have to go to you know, Ivory Coast to make disciples. You can make disciples in your lunch room. You can have a spiritual conversation with the person sitting in the cubicle next to you right right, or with your uber driver or whatever. It doesn't have to be some mystical go everywhere in the world. Christians are everywhere. Now, We've got Christians everywhere. So if all the Christians would just go next door, go across the street, we could lead people to Christ. The sad thing is only about five percent of all Christians ever have the privilege leading somebody to Jesus. And most of it is because ninety percent of all Christians never share the gospel, right, So it's interesting five percent will share what will lead somebody to Jesus. Ninety percent will never say, will never try to share the gospel, which means you can see the numbers there. More than half of us would lead somebody to Jesus if we would try. Yeah. And then the global stat you know, I work with a global evangelism disciple making organization called the Timothationership. The worldwide stat is you lead one out of every fifteen people you share the Gospel with. That can be discouraging to some people. That means you're gonna get fourteen nos. To me, I'm like, get through fourteen knows because you're gonna lead somebod to Jesus a number fifteen, right, that's the average share the gospel fifteen times, So fifteen times with the same person or fifteen times you know, with fifteen different people, you can lead people to Jesus. Just that's how it works. That's the mentality of a good salesman right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, get through the nose so you can get to the s Yeah. And because you have the power of Jesus with you. Yeah yeah, that's great. You know, it's so interesting. I remember hearing a sermons series one time called Go Fish. It was all about fishing. For men, yep. And I remember it was like a six week series or a seven week series or something like this. It was the best evangelism series I've ever heard in my life. It was talking about leading people to Christ. But I remember the context of one of the sermons in this series talked about how it was called fishing Buddies, and it was the idea of like, hey, whenever you go fishing, you go go go the buddy, right, and you're, you know, two guys in a boat or whatever as opposed to one. And basically, what are you're saying was you have these two things. You have Jesus saying I'm going to build my church and nothing's going to stop it. And then you have the great commission go and make disciples, and you have two of these things and these are partners, right. And so he was talking about the idea that the church should be a partner with you. So here you are, you're at home, your at work, You're in your own little world. If you invite somebody to church, your church should be a partner with you in that when you invite them, the church should be also a place where I can give the gospel and they could hear the gospel. Right now, you shouldn't depend on your church solely. You should lead them to Christ yourself. You should share the gospel with them. You should know how to do that, you should do it regularly. But when you do invite them to church, we're both on the mission of reaching people for catching fishers and men, right you know, you know what I mean, catching fish. And so I just remember never forgetting that. I heard that. I heard that sermon in two thousand and three, and I thought to myself, I will never forget that. Yeah, that the church is a partner in the great commission. And so then sometimes, not often, but sometimes when I talk with people, they talk about like, hey, why is your church, you know, so heavy on reaching people who are far from God. You actually angle your services toward that person, And I say, hey, listen, it's just some churches don't do that. Some churches do like in depth Bible studies and and and they're more you know, for the for the believers, you know, focused on the believers on a Sunday morning. That's fine. And then I remember getting into a conversation with somebody about like, oh man, they very much prefer uh, this church because it's just a deep dive in the you know, in the book of whatever, Leviticus or something, and and and on the Sunday mornings. And their church was about, you know, it's a smaller church. And then here's what I did. I said, well, that's great. So how many people have you led to christy? And and they said, what do you mean, how's it? Well, if you don't go to a church you just talked, you just criticized my church for focusing on people, you know, focusing on reaching people for Christ. You're saying that your church doesn't necessarily have that focus on a Sunday morning. So therefore, you as an individual must be a superstar, right. Like leading lots of people to Jesus outside, Yeah. Because because you can't invite in the church to do so. And they're like, well, I never thought about that, right, And so it's the idea that like this great commission is hopefully going to be a partner. Hopefully you go to a church that shares this partnership with you. But it's both and it's not either or. Yeah, but it's so. The church is not an institution. We are the church, that's right, and we are here for the world. So whether it's inside of our building or outside of our building, we should all be making disciples all the time. That's right. Yep, that's great. Well, that's a great way to yep. Good reminder. Okay, well, hey that's our time, so we will see you hopefully next time on the Bible. Guys,