Authority to Reach Nations | All Authority | Rick Atchley

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Welcome to The Hills. My name is Rick. I'm lead teacher, minister of our church. We have five campuses in Weatherford and in Dallas and Keller. West Fort Worth and North Richmond Hills. If you're in person or online, I'm so glad you are here today. I love Sunday, every Sunday is special. There are some Sundays that are more special to me than others. For example, Easter Sunday will always be my favorite Sunday of the whole year. And there are some Sundays in the fall. I really enjoy a baptism Sunday. And I love today because today is fall back Sunday. Today is the one Sunday of the year where people have no excuse about falling asleep while I'm preaching because you had an extra sleep time and I expect you to stay awake. Every Sunday in the fall is next Sunday, harvest Sunday. We're going to go way past three and a half million dollars because we're supporting 20 church plants and 29 missionary families and partner organizations around the world and is a part of our vision of asking for nations. So we'd like to give you updates about part of that vision. For example, part of our vision is Livingston International University. We helped start a Christian University in East Africa. And we just had three of our own get back from a trip. Drew Ritchie and Sarah Brooks and Chris Shelby went and blessed the students there. They just graduated 80 more students. That means over 500 since the school was founded.

It is a phenomenal work. All you have to do is go one time and you will be passionate for the rest of your day. And it's possible because of your generosity. And then we're a church planting church. And Jamie and I love to go visit our planters. We saw some last week, including, for example, Brandon and Malia Cobb. Now they're in Bergen County, New Jersey. Brandon is from that area. From the age of about five to nine, Brandon was homeless and didn't know the Lord. And now he's saved and he's helping people in the town he grew up in, come to find home with God. So we're so thankful for what Brandon is doing. And then I got to spend the day with Manny and Marlene Namingas. Our own. We love them. They are thriving. Get this. They launched Brave Church in January. They've already had 80 baptisms. Isn't that something to celebrate? And Manny just preached his first wedding in his church. There was a couple coming. They did not know God's will for marriage. They did not know that if you live together and have sex together, that you're supposed to be married to each other, they learned God's word. And they asked Manny to preach their wedding and he did. And so we're thankful for that. That's why we plant churches. Now, I grew up knowing God's design for marriage, but I realized I wasn't prepared and I wanted to be because somebody I wanted to be married.

So I was in college and I took a class called Marriage and Family. And there's one thing I remember of all else about that class. We talked about conflict. And our professor said, "You're going to have conflict in marriage." In fact, he said, "I'm going to tell you what your first fight is going to be about and I'm going to tell you who's going to win." He said, "Your first fight is going to be whose parents' house do you go to for Christmas?" And you're going to her house. And he was right twice. That was the first big fight my wife and I had. And we went to her family's house for Christmas. Now, I want to be very clear about something. I am the undisputed leader of our home. And I'm a good leader because I knew exactly like I'm told. And the fact of the matter is if you're going to survive in marriage, you're going to learn to share authority. That's true for most of our institutions. They work better when authority is shared. Think about the church. This is not a church where I'm in charge and everyone does what I say. I am accountable to a board of elders. And a church is healthier when authority is shared. Same way with government. So this week, you're going to vote. And some of the people you vote for are going to win. Some of the people you vote for are going to lose. Either way, you give thankful. where authority is shared, because hundreds of millions of people don't have that privilege.

So in most institutions, it's a good thing to share authority. But that is not how a kingdom works. In a kingdom, only one person sits on the throne. And I've said many times, Jesus is not your life coach or your therapist or your mascot. Jesus is a king. I wanna share with you one of the earliest messianic prophecies about Jesus. It's a prophet named Daniel. He literally saw something and he wrote down what he saw. He said, "In my vision at night, I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man. Coming with the clouds of heaven, he approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, sovereign power, all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. And his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. The messianic vision was that one was coming who was going to be in charge of all the nations. Jesus said that of himself. John three, the father loves the son and has given him power over everything. What the Bible says is that Jesus is in charge of the entire universe, both seen and unseen. And the king has made his will for his domain very clear.

So I wanted, as we talk about the authority of Jesus to specifically close this series with the text we're about to read. It's a perfect preparation for next Sunday when we ask for nations. Jesus is about to return to the Father in heaven. And he's gonna give a commission or a statement of agenda for the church to his disciples. And here's how he starts. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, stop right there. I'm about to tell you what to do. On what basis do I have a foundation for telling you what to do? On what I just said that all authority has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. So Jesus is not convening his followers and having a council and saying, okay guys, let's all get together and see if we can reach a consensus on what the agenda of this movement ought to be. Let's all throw stuff on the white board and see what sticks. No, Jesus says I decide what we're gonna do 'cause I have all authority. All authority means Jesus alone gets to set the mission.

And the agenda is clear, make and grow followers of Jesus. And so the church must always be on guard against drifting toward a misplaced emphasis on pseudo missions. A well-known preacher, a generation before him named Charles Wendell, tells the story about being in Atlanta at a hotel looking for a place to eat and some of you are old enough to remember something called the yellow pages. And so he was looking in the yellow pages and he found a restaurant close to his hotel called Church of God, Grill. He was intrigued. He called a church, a church of God, Grill. He said, I'm interested in how you came to such a name. He said, well, we started here as a mission to serve the neighborhood, but to raise funds, we started serving chicken dinners after church service. And they became very popular. So we started cutting back on the service so we could serve more chicken. And finally, we just shut down the mission and we're just a restaurant, but we kept the name. Now, this is what happens when mission drifts. And it's so easy to happen because there are so many things we could prioritize that flow out of the mission but aren't exactly the mission. We do a lot of benevolence in our city. We care about justice and seeing justice done. And all of those things flow out of the mission but the truth is a lot of the things that we do,

you don't even have to follow Jesus to do. The danger is when the church starts trying to bring the kingdom to the world without the king. Jesus says, I love you. That's what we have to ask ourselves about everything we do as a church, no matter how good it is, we have to ask our people becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. If Jesus is over everything, then he's got the right to be worshiped everywhere. And so Jesus charges his church to take his name to every nation and every tribe and every ethnicity and every language to everyone everywhere. That is a mammoth's claim. But it's grounded in a mammoth claim. All authority has been given to me. Now if we don't resolve that authority issue, if it remains unresolved, the mission will remain unfulfilled. Who's in charge? Who sets the agenda? Those very first missionaries had decided the question of authority was resolved. We don't think about this a lot, but men who had never been more than 60 miles from where they were born went to all the known world. And they died hundreds and thousands of miles from where they were raised because they believe that everywhere they went,

Jesus was Lord. And it's that same conviction that compels us to go or to radically and generously support the people who do. Some of you have heard the name of William Carey. He's considered the father of missions. He went to India in the late 1700s. Any Christian influence in India to this day has its roots in William Carey. He's in England, he's a student. They're praying about the world. Someone says that there is no gospel presence at all in that nation. And he said, it's a goldmine as deep as the center of the earth, but who will explore it? And William Carey famously said, "I will go into the mind if you will hold the ropes." That's what we do on harvest weekend. For church plants and missionaries around the world. If you're willing to go, we're willing to hold the ropes. What does it mean to ask for all the nations? Because Jesus has all authority. Let's break that down. First, here's what it means that we should expect to harvest in all the nations. There's no place on earth where you cannot make a disciple of Jesus. The same gospel that saved you and me can save anyone, anywhere and anything that gets in the way of this gospel must surrender to the authority of the risen Christ.

This is the revelation that heaven gave to the apostle John. He said, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count. From every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. Now, we live between Matthew 28 where Jesus said, here's the mission, go and Revelation seven, when that mission will receive its full fruition. We go so that that vision will come. And that's why we do what we do. You may not be aware of the breadth of our work with church plants. We're currently funding 20 church plants around the country. Look at this map. Every dot represents a place where we're supporting a new church. Now, you'll see some in the middle of the country, like Boise or Denver or St. Louis or New Orleans, but you'll notice most of those dots are on the east and west coast. Because that's where the most unchurched cities are. We're supporting churches from San Diego to Maine, from Seattle to Miami and speaking of Miami. Next week, our church planners from Miami, who have started a fantastic church, are gonna be with us, Terrence and Emma Mullins. And you are gonna love getting to know them. And I just, so you'll know, they are from Australia. So don't be shocked when a dynamic black man

stands up and says, "G'day, mate." Because that's what he's gonna sound like. And he's got a great testimony to share with us. And we are also taking the name of Jesus to 66 countries around the world, and most of them are considered unreached. Look at this map, that box is called the 1040 window. sending people. They are unreached and frankly, it's unsafe. Let me show you this picture. This is one of the churches that exist in that part of the world because of your generosity. Had to black out their faces, can't tell you where they are. But today, they are meeting, they're reading scripture, they're praying, they're singing songs about Jesus and then they're going home and hope they don't get arrested. Let me show you this picture. I can't tell you where they are. I'm going to call them B and T and they are fierce warriors for Jesus Christ in a very, very hard place. And they are faithful. And today, they are leading 57 men's and 62 women's Bible studies in the backyard of the Taliban. That's what they're doing because Jesus is Lord of all the nations. In fact, we have credible reports from some of our partners of baptisms in Mecca. The good news that Jesus told us to take can reach all the world because Jesus has all authority. Listen to Paul. God has put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers and kings, not only in this world, but also in the next. He is Lord. He is over everything. He has preeminence, which means that obedience is his due and should be our response. So he said, I want you to go to all the world and I want you to teach them to obey everything I've commanded. So if we can't expect to harvest in all the nations, we must expect obedience to all its commandments. Christianity is more than a message to believe. It's a way to behave. Submission to Jesus authority produces transformation. This is one reason Jesus said, you baptize them. It's more than a ritual. I want them to understand that when they come under my authority, they are dying to their old way of living and they are rising in the power of the Spirit to a new way of living that is submitting to my teaching. And in every nation dying to the old is going to come with perspectives and practices that are going to have to be surrendered because Jesus is your new Lord. Let me give you an example. Now here in the West, many are offended by the sexual ethic

the church has taught for 2,000 years. That sex belongs in marriage between a man and woman. And people say, that's oppressive and I don't like that. Do you understand in parts of the world where we're going, there's no problem with that ethic. They expect it and they affirm it. Do you know what their problem is? Love your enemy. Because they've been raised in a culture that says, if someone hurts you or your family, revenge is a virtue. And they've got to die to that way of thinking our own Chris and Jill Shelby. We said about 20 years ago to be missionaries in Rwanda, which was not too long after the genocide. And when they began to teach, you must forgive and bless those who hurt you. They got push back. Where ever you take the teachings of Jesus, there are going to be cultural views and sensibilities that are going to have to be surrendered. One reason I believe the Bible is God's word is because at some point it's going to challenge the cultural values of every single people group. And let me just add here. You say you believe in God? If that belief has not changed anything about the way you live, you don't worship God, you worship yourself. Tim Keller puts it well. If Christ is really God, then all the conditions are gone. To know Jesus Christ is to say, Lord, anywhere your will touches my life, anywhere your word speaks, I will say, Lord, I obey. There are no conditions anymore. If he's really God, he can't just be a supplement. We have to come to him and say, okay, Lord, I'm willing to let you start a complete reordering of my life. Listen to Paul who said to his young minty, preach the good news. Tell them when they're wrong and encourage them with great patience and careful teaching. So when we obey Jesus and we take this good news that can bear fruit in any nation and we take it to all the world, there are gonna be times where we're gonna have to say, "This that you do is not good." Jesus wants you to change that. But it's good news, why? Because when you come under the authority of Jesus,

you receive the blessing of heaven. We believe it is good for everyone, everywhere to come under obedience to the will of Jesus. And there's no place where that can't happen. Because Jesus said, "Surely, I'm with you always. "We can expect to harvest in all the nations "and we must expect obedience to all His teachings "because we can expect His presence in all situations." There is a core Bible doctrine called the omnipresence of God. And what it means is that the Bible says God is everywhere. The psalmist says, "Where can I go and flee your presence?" We believe that. You can't go anywhere where God is not there. But when Jesus said, "I will be with you always," I think He's talking about something more. You see, we don't take Jesus anywhere. We go where He already is. And Jesus has said, "Do you wanna have "a dynamic experience of my presence?" Then live on mission because I'm gonna be where I want you to go. He told a story about God who's like a shepherd with a hunter sheep and one gets lost. Where do you find the shepherd out there looking for the lost? That's where he's gonna be. Jesus is saying you're gonna have a powerful encounter of my presence in your life when you go out

and do what I've asked you to do. And it's this reality that overwhelms the church's timidity. I've mentioned before there is a map in the British Museum of Natural History called, well, it was drawn in 1525 of the New World. And around the edges are words like here be dragons and here be monsters and here be terrorists because they were saying we don't know what's out there. But I'm sure it's scary. In the 1800s, a Florida named John Franklin got that map and he scratched through those words and he wrote, here be God. Living on mission is scary. But Jesus said, you can't go anywhere in obedience to what I've asked you to do that I won't be with you. This is why the authorities opposed to God cannot eliminate the underground church. This is why in countries where it's illegal to be a Christian people are having visions and dreams of Jesus. This is why the persecuted church from North Korea to South Sudan refuses to be intimidated because they are experiencing the presence of Christ back to B&T. There's a young man, I'm gonna call him G that started associating with them and they live in a country where there is enormous pressure to not practice anything but Islam.

And so we caved under the pressure and he turned B&T into the authorities and the Taliban arrested B and they beat him savagely. Chris Shelby has seen a picture of B after the beating and it's not pretty. Three years later that same young man came back in repentance and said, I'm sorry and I want to be a part of your fellowship and follow Jesus. Will you forgive me and let me be a part? What would you do? Is he a plant of the Taliban? Here's the Nile of Christ guy, you beat up. Well they knew immediately what they would do because they followed the teachings of Jesus, they forgave him. They brought him into the fellowship. I witnessed the video of his baptism. And he is currently in that country leading 13 Bible studies in his community. How do people do that? Well they would say, well because we're full of the spirit of Christ. [BLANK_AUDIO] Another vision in Revelation, it has come and asked salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ for the accused of our brothers and sisters that have been thrown down the earth, the one who accused them before our God day at night, and they have defeated Him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. It has come at last the authority of Christ, and nations no longer have to be subject to an illegitimate sovereign. Jesus is Lord everywhere, and everybody needs to know.

If you're a civil war buff, you're familiar with the Battle of Shiloh, a very significant battle in the turning of the tide of that war. So the Union troops are trying to ascend to heal with the Confederate forces at top, and the commander of the battalion told the drummer boy to beat out attack, and he did, and the soldiers from the Union began to ascend to heal, and they came under fierce Confederate fire. And the commander told the young boy beat retreat, so he got his drum, and he started to beat attack. And the commander said to the boy, "I told you to beat retreat." And the boy said, "They never taught me retreat. They only taught me attack." And the soldiers heard attack again, and they kept going up the hill, and they took it and turned the tide of the battle. I don't think Jesus has taught his church retreat, because there's not a part of the earth where he is not Lord. And so we must proclaim his name to the nations, and we must claim the nations in his name. The church of Jesus Christ does not search for a mission. The head of the church has given us the assignment. The church of Jesus Christ does not search for a mission, but the mission of Jesus Christ searches for a church. Let's be that church. Let's hold the ropes. Let's testify. Let's pray. Let's go, and let's radically and generously support those who are in the mine. Let's ask for the nations in the name of the one who's been given all authority. I started working on this series last spring, so I have been noticed because it's in my mind all the songs we sing on a regular basis that actually talk about all the world knowing or praising or being under the authority of God. So it's meant a lot to me to be singing these songs recently, and we're going to sing a

song like that at the end of our service when we offer an invitation to the gospel. But we're going to sing a song before, and I'm going to lead it. Right now, every campus, everybody stand up, everybody stand up. Okay, there's going to be a little bit awkward. It's going to be a cappella. I'm going to lead. I can't read music, so whatever note I start is the correct note. But I want you, this simple popular hymn, to notice the repeated reference that all will know and all praise belongs to God. To sing this with me, please, the splendor of a king clothed in majesty, let all the world rejoice, all the world rejoice, he rabs himself in light, and darkness tries to hide. It trembles at his voice, trembles at his voice. How great is our God, sing with me how great is our God, and all will see how great is our God, name above all names, you are worthy of all. ♪ And my heart will sing ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ Declare that one more time. ♪ Name above all names ♪ ♪ You are worthy of all praise ♪ ♪ And my heart will sing ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Sing with me how great is our God ♪ ♪ And who all will see how great ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ So God, we declare that you are great. You are worthy of all praise. There is not a place on this earth where you're renowned should not be spoken and your praise should not be given.

And so God, would you give us, would you give us deep confidence in the authority of Jesus? Would you give us courage and passion to see his name go to all the world? Would you give us a willingness, God, to be incredibly generous because we believe God in declare that there is not a place on this earth where someone should not sing. Worthy is the Lamb. We declare this in Jesus name. Amen, amen, amen.