1.
Please pray with
me. May the words of my mouth and the
meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our
Redeemer. The message from
God’s Word today comes to us from Matthew 28:18-20 and is entitled, “The Great Commission or the Prime
Directive,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
The world is
changing! Some of those changes are good, some bad. The church
changes too. Some of those changes are good and some bad. One of the changes
that disturbs me is that it seems that the church derives its purpose more from
Captain Kirk on Star Trek than from Jesus Christ in the Bible. Captain Kirk and his buddies on Star Trek
followed something called the Prime Directive. For Kirk and crew, obeying
the Prime Directive meant that when they explored new worlds and boldly went
where no man had gone before, they were
not to interfere in the life and culture of the new places that they went. They were not to interfere with anything at
all. Even if they could help these
struggling people, they were not to violate the Prime Directive. Were they
dying from a disease? Let them find
their own cures. Were Captain Kirk and
the crew able to relieve the suffering of the planet? Even if they were, they were not to interfere
at all with the culture.
3.
Over the last 20
years, this idea has been adopted more and more by our society. Today we
may not call it the Prime Directive; we call it “Post-modernism.” Post-modernism says that there’s no such
thing as objective truth. Whatever you believe to be true can be true for you.
This idea says that truth is relative—that we can’t really know anything for
sure. Jesus, as he was about to
ascend into heaven, gave a much different directive. He gave us the Great
Commission. He didn’t say, "Do not interfere, let people grope in the
darkness to find Me." Rather He said, "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe whatever I have
commanded you.” “Let the light shine out of the
darkness." Help everyone in every way that you can, and especially tell
them about Me.” Jesus gave us the command to change the world, to change
it from being lost in death and sin to life eternal in Him. Which is it that the church follows today? Do
we follow the Great Commission or the Prime Directive? One is from our Lord. The other is from the
Devil.
4.
This idea of the
Prime Directive either reflects or causes changes in how Americans think. People no
longer think that something that is true is true for all people in all
situations. Rather, our culture tends to think that something is true, if it is true for you. An example of this is if I say that something
is red and you say something is green. These are contradictory statements; they
can’t both be true. But today, people
are losing the concept of truth. To
say it very crassly, we’re beginning to think that something may be red and
green at the same time. People still
believe in objective truth in science, but in the world of religion, this idea
is thrown out the window. People want to think that everyone is correct in
their religion. "Whatever works for
you" is what people say about religion; "Whatever makes you happy." But Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one can come to the Father
but by Me."
5.
In our society,
this odd situation has arisen. It’s harder to say that you’re
right than it is to say that you’re wrong. It’s difficult for us to admit
to mistakes. But it’s even harder to say that we’re right and say that someone
else is wrong. We find it very hard to disagree with people. To stand our
ground makes us narrow-minded and stubborn. The Bible says that we should
witness with gentleness and respect. But
too often we give away the farm and don’t witness clearly to our Savior. This happens within our Christian families.
It’s a horrifying thing for a pastor to hear these words from a Christian
parent, "We’re just going to let our
child decide what religion they want to follow when they grow up. We don’t want
to prejudice them toward Christianity. We’ll let them choose." Your children will make their own decisions when they’re older, but God has
charged you to teach your children about their God and Savior. The
frightening thing is that people, because of their sinful nature, are more
likely to remain in their sin than to come into the saving light of Christ.
Without the Holy Spirit, it’s not possible. Do
not raise your children according to the Prime Directive, but according to the
Great Commission.
6.
At the
beginning, I said that the Prime Directive is of the Devil. Why is that? It’s
plainly from Satan because it denies Christ and His saving work on the cross,
and instead promotes the idea that a person may be saved through works. To say that a person can believe anything he
wants and be saved without faith in Christ is a denial of our Savior. For us to
believe this and say this is an insult to Christ. It makes everything that
Jesus did FOR US unnecessary. It makes His birth and His baptism, His
suffering and death all for nothing, because we’re saying that a person is OK
without Jesus. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. To say that a person is right with God
without Christ is to say that a person can be saved by good works. All other religions in the world say that a
person is made right with God by what they do. Christianity teaches that a
person is made right with God by the free forgiveness of sins, won for us by
Christ. Paul answers this question by saying in Galatians, "If righteousness comes by the works of the Law, then Christ died
in vain."
7.
The result of
the Prime Directive is death. The Bible is clear that only those
who believe in Christ have the forgiveness of sin. Jesus said to Nicodemus,
"Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God. That which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." Also in John 3, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting
life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abides on him." People without Christ are doomed to be tortured in
hell forever. Hell is not a popular
term in the view of the Prime Directive, but it is a teaching of the Bible. The Prime Directive says to let
people take their chances of finding Christ and escaping hell. The Great
Commission says to snatch every soul from the jaws of hell and the power of
Satan by the wonderful message of Jesus.
8.
The Prime
Directive just doesn’t work. We need to look again to the Great
Commission. WE’RE TO SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS OF SALVATION IN JESUS. We know
that Jesus didn’t leave us alone in this assignment to tell others the good
news about Him. He gave us His power and His presence to support us in this
work. The power of Jesus is revealed
in His words, "All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to Me." There is not a battle between God and Satan
anymore. Satan has been completely defeated.
He can only do what God permits him to do. God is in control. Satan
does not rule. Jesus has all authority.
Now He has given us the charge to spread His Good News of the
forgiveness of sins to all people.
9.
Jesus also gives
us His presence to accomplish this large task. "I am with you always, even to the close of the age." Don’t
be afraid to speak of your Savior to other people. He’s standing by your side.
The Holy Spirit will give the words that you are to speak. You should also know
that the church is here to help you in your witness. If someone has questions you can’t answer,
you can invite them to church to hear the Word of God proclaimed. You can
ask me as the pastor and other people in our congregation to help to answer
those difficult questions.
10.
We always
remember what the Bible says about the power of the Word of God: “For as
the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but
water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the
sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My
mouth; it shall not return to Me void.
But it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for
which I sent it." These
words tell us something from which we may receive a lot of comfort. When we
proclaim the Word of God, we can’t fail. The Word of God will accomplish that
for which it’s sent. It may seem that we don’t accomplish anything, but we
have the promise of God that that the Word has had its effect. The effect
may not be apparent for some time, but the seed has been planted.
11.
We’ve seen the
results of the Prime Directive. As long as the message of Christ
isn’t shared, when it’s not spread around, people are condemned to hell.
When we look at the Prime Directive, we see nothing but darkness and people
lost in darkness. We know that it’s a
loveless thing to let people remain in their spiritual darkness. We’ve also looked at the Great Commission.
We’ve seen our risen Savior and the message of free forgiveness in Him. He tells us to make Christians of the entire
world. He tells us to teach
everything. This we do gladly, for
all that Jesus taught us relates to our forgiveness. As each day begins, we study the whole
counsel of God by looking into the Word of God and marveling how it all fits
together with the centered cross to tell us that God has forgiven our sins. And
so we tell others that they may have their sins forgiven also. Amen.
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