Introduction

Wouldn’t you have loved to have been there? To have been there with the eleven disciples with Jesus, hear his last words and see him ascend to the right hand of the Father? By the mercy of God they had come to understand what Jesus had meant when He kept telling them that he would be crucified by the Gentiles and the Jews and on the third day rise from the dead. He then was with them for 40 days and now He was giving them His last instructions before He ascended.

After He ascended we know they were excited because the very last verse in the gospel of Luke tells us

And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
— Luke 24:52-53

But amidst their joy they must have had moments when they wondered “how are we going to do this? This great task that Jesus gave to us to make disciples of all the nations?” A pretty daunting task. And if we are honest, that is our response to the Great Commission. “How are we going to do this?” And even more personally, “How am I going to participate in this great task our Savior has given to His people?

Well our comfort and strength should come from the same source that the Apostles took encouragement from. From the words of Jesus when He said, “I am with you always to the end of the age.” Now most of us would agree and believe that Christ is always with us. But we might also ask “What does it mean that He is with us and am I really experiencing his presence?”

If we are to participate in the Great Commission we will need the presence and power of Jesus to accomplish it. So how do we grow in experiencing the empowering presence of Christ in our lives? I think the title of an old hymn instructs us - we are to trust and obey. We must grow in actively trusting that Jesus is not only with us but that His presence will empower us to do His will in all areas of life including the Great Commission of going and making disciples. Let’s pray.

I. Through Faith In His Word

The truth that Christ Jesus is always with us is one that should affect every aspect of our lives. But this morning we are going to focus on how it connects us to participating in the Great Commission. And this taps into two areas. One is evangelism and the other is discipleship. They are both part of the commission that our Savior gave to us. Evangelism is actually the first step of discipleship.

Here are two very basic descriptions of these two callings on every Christian:

Evangelism involves influencing others to come and follow Christ.

Discipleship involves influencing others to grow in Christ.

So how do we grow in experiencing the presence of God? My three points are aimed at that question and they are:

1. Through Faith In His Word
2. Through Believing Prayer and
3. Through Trusting In His Sovereignty.

And as you can see all three are connected to actively believing in God and His Word. The Christian life is an active life. Just as our natural life is an active one, so is our spiritual life. (We are called to actively engage our God through the avenues He has ordained for us)

Now you may be tempted to think, “Mike, you’re sticking with the basics”. Well the truth is disciples stick to the basics. We don’t often think of disciples outside of our Christian faith but one can speak of certain iconic figures or movements that have their own disciples. This could be in the area of art or music or literature or in other areas of life. These disciples tend to stick to the basics of the discipline they’ve learned. They may have their own style but they build on those basics.

Our pastor emeritus, Phil Sasser, passed away recently. What was Phil doing at the end of his life? The basics. He was reading through the Bible using the well known M’Cheyne reading plan. The man who more than anyone influenced our church theologically over the last 30 years was still reading his Bible everyday. At our New Member dinner recently one of his granddaughters told me that she had read some of Phil’s prayers at the end of his life.

Followers of Jesus Christ stick to the basics! And when it comes to experiencing the presence of God the basics are important. How do we know that Christ is with us? The Bible tells us so! How do we know anything in the Christian life? From the truth of Scripture. It is the foundation of our Christian life. So what does the Bible tell us about the presence of Christ and the fact that He is always with us? It tells us of His abiding presence and also His empowering presence.

His Abiding Presence

John 16 tells us about this wonderful truth that Christ is always with us. It not only tells us of the abiding presence of Jesus in our lives but the unity of the Father, Son and Spirit in our lives.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
— John 14:16-18, 23

If you are a believer, the Triune God has come and made His home in you. The Father, Son and Spirit have come to dwell in your heart in your spirit in your soul. If you are not a Christian this is not true. But the Good News of the gospel tells you that all who come to Him in faith will experience His presence in their life. Jesus said my sheep hear my voice. And if you are not a Christian I (we) appeal to you today to come and hear His voice. Believe in Him and follow Him.

There is a glory in the abiding presence of Christ within the believer. He is with us always. This is not in some symbolic or generic way but is a reality. Through the Spirit he and the Father have made their home with us. This is a spiritual and theological truth. If you are a Christian then this abiding presence is with/in you.

However if you never think on this truth or dwell on it you will not experience His presence/power in the way God intends for you. Think about the marriage relationship. When a couple exchanges vows and say “I do’ and receive the blessing and sanction of a minister or justice of the peace they are legally married. But all married couples know you have to work at the marriage relationship - especially after the honeymoon experience. Reality sets in - you must be actively involved in the relationship. The same is true in our relationship with God and a key component in it is remembering the truth of Scripture and believing or trusting it to be true.

So one simple application to grow in experiencing the presence of God is to meditate on the phrase from verse 20, “I am with you always”. You might be thinking I don’t know how to biblically meditate. Take two minutes (start small) and begin to think about the truth of that phrase. Be comforted by it or strengthened by it. Remember the 3 parts of believing: understanding, assent, entrusting.

As you think about this truth that Christ is always with you maybe you are reminded that He is the Good Shepherd or maybe you are struck that He is the firm Rock that your life is founded on. The main way that God speaks/communicates to us is through His Word and as you take time to think on this and other glorious truths of Scriptures the Spirit will manifest His presence to you.

Exercise your believing muscles (remember Romans 10: 17: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.) This is a discipline you should cultivate in your life - meditating on who God is and how that connects to your life. And as you do that with this verse you will grow in your confidence that He is with you and that He will help you including in the areas of evangelism and discipleship. You will experience what theologians call the “active” presence of God.

he who is introduced to us in the prologue as Immanuel, “God with us” is still with us, to the very end of the age. The English adverb “ “always” renders an expression found in the NT only here, strictly “the whole of every day” Not just the horizon is in view but each day as we live it.
— D.A. Carson

So through His word we can grow in our awareness of the abiding presence of God - that He is with us the whole of every day. Through His word we also become aware of His empowering presence.

The Empowering Presence of God

In the his gospel account Luke not only details the Great Commission but he also records Jesus’ words about the empowering that will come to the disciples through the outpouring of the Spirit.

You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
— Luke 24:48-49

Then in the book of Acts Luke again writes of Jesus’ promise of the empowering presence of the Spirit

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
— Acts 1:8

So part of Jesus being with us the whole of every day includes this filling or baptism or the empowerment of the Spirit. Christ is with us through the Spirit’s empowering presence when we are filled and refilled with the Spirit. You see this pattern in the book of Acts when believers are filled and later refilled with the Spirit.

I love to water our garden, to turn the sprinkler and see the plants brimming and overflowing with water. But in the summer in a day or two they look quite different.They and we need to be filled and refilled. We fresh refillings of ongoing grace to live as a Christian and as a witness. (word/deed). How do we receive this power, this filling of the Spirit? Well first we must believe that it is for us. It’s a promise for every Christian. (unbelief)

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?... Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
— Galatians 3:2, 5-6

Abraham was saved by faith alone and so are we. And also we receive the Spirit by faith alone. Salvation is a free gift from God and so is the initial and ongoing supply of the Spirit. Just as we need air to breathe and live so we need the ongoing empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This connects to our second point which is that we experience the presence of Jesus through believing prayer.

II. Through Believing Prayer

In the first point I was stressing the importance of believing the truth of Scripture. And in this point I want to point out praying the truth and promises of Scripture. We see the early church praying with expectant faith in Acts chapter 4.

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
— Acts 4:29-31

They were praying for God’s grace and power to obey the Great Commission. They weren’t assuming that His promises would come to pass or that they would have the ability to accomplish His will. They were a church devoted to prayer. That is described in Acts 2. We see their devotion not only in this passage in Acts 4 but also in Acts 12 when Peter was imprisoned and we are told earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

We live in an affluent culture and that is a blessing from God. But we must be on guard that we are not lulled to sleep by it. There’s an interesting and provoking verse in James chapter 2:

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
— James 2:5

This doesn’t mean we should seek to be financially poor to be rich in faith. But we should realize how poor and weak we are apart from having God’s empowering grace in our lives. Paul Miller has written two books on prayer ( A Praying Life and The Praying Church). Here are two quotes from it.

If you are not praying then you are quietly confident that time, money and talent are all that you need in life.
— Paul Miller

He hammers away at the idea of being a dependent Christian. Dependent on God’s grace, mercy and power.

We tell ourselves “Strong Christians pray a lot. If I were a stronger Christian, I’d pray more.” Strong Christians do pray more but they pray more because they realize how weak they are. They don’t try to hide it from themselves. Weakness is the channel that allows them to access grace.
— Paul Miller

When it comes to this Great Commission from our Savior to evangelize and disciple others we are poor and needy. We are in need of God’s grace and power. And He will give it to us. Remember when applications for smart phones first came out and people would say “There’s an app for that”? For the Christian whatever God commands us to do, there’s grace for that. But that grace comes to us in and through different means and believing prayer is one of them. So here are three ways we can implement believing prayer in our lives and grow in experiencing his empowering presence.

In Your Prayer Closet

Jesus said in Matthew 6 that we should go into our room and shut the door and pray to our Father in secret. Jesus Himself demonstrated that to us in that He often would get up early and pray to His Father in secret.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death
— Hebrews 5:7

This was the Son of God praying that way. May we follow His example. If our Savior was desperate for God the Father to help Him, for the Holy Spirit to empower Him shouldn’t we be the same? And may one of the things that we desperately call out to Him for, be for more of His Spirit and power to evangelize and disciple others. To influence others to come and follow Christ and to influence others to grow in Christ. If you do this regularly you will find a growth in experiencing His power. I’m not talking about big explosions of growth but the steady increase of His presence and power in and through your life.

In the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6 Jesus we read that we are to pray for our daily bread. I don’t think that means just for our physical food but that the application is for whatever we need for that day. And we are always in need of a fresh supply of the Spirit’s filling/empowering presence-especially in this area of evangelism and discipleship. One good practice is to think through your day and maybe the next. Who will you be with? What situations will you find yourself in? ]

Today not looking down the road. Life happens today (mundane) We can pray for those specific situations as well as the ones that come up unplanned. One of the ways we live ready to share the gospel is through persistent asking for it in our prayer closet.

In The Field

When we are out of our prayer closet and in the field we are still in need of God’s help. We read in Mark 13:

“But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
— Mark 13:9-11

I don’t think this means that we shouldn’t plan or prepare in being more effective communicators of the gospel message. But it seems to be an encouragement to trust the Holy Spirit for things to say. We should seek to grow in the Lord, to be prepared as much as we can and then we trust the Holy Spirit that He will make us useful vessels. We may not get into “sticky” situations like the one Jesus is describing to the Apostles. However we will encounter situations where we are not sure what to say or what to do.

During these times we can train ourselves to, first - relax! (Faith puts us at ease even in tight situations). In World War II the British came up with a slogan that read: “Keep calm and carry on”. For the Christian it’s: “Have Christ’s peace and carry on. “ I am with you always" means His grace is with us. We can trust Him

In John 14-16 (Farewell) Jesus is encouraging the disciples that though in a little He would no longer be with them physically He was sending the Spirit to come and help them. We must cultivate our relationship with the Spirit, part of which is learning to pray silent prayers in “sticky situations”. Prayers like: “Holy Spirit help me”. “Jesus, what should I do now?”

And when you do so you don’t know how that might turn out but you can trust Him. He is the Third Person of the Trinity. He will help you. Jesus has not left us alone. Let us learn to turn to Him, to look to the person of the Spirit, trust in Him, lean on Him pray to Him.

In Corporate Prayer:

As we see in Acts 4 there is power when we pray for others. There are many opportunities to pray together with others. You can do that in your home, in your homegroup or with the church. The older guys in the church pray together twice a month. The prayer team gathers every Sunday before our service to pray. We have scheduled corporate prayer meetings for every other month starting next Sunday night. Corporate prayer should be a part of our lives (devoted). And one of the things we should be praying for together is that the Lord would help us to fulfill our part in the Great Commission.

I am currently reading a book by J.A. Medders and Doug Larson called “The Soul-Winning Church”. Its goal is to help mobilize churches to be evangelistic churches. They have six principles and the very first one is having a church culture that is frequently and earnestly praying for conversions. They write that “In our experience there can often be a gap between intention and reality.” May God help us to make corporate prayer a reality and a norm in our church and one in which we are frequently and earnestly praying for people to come to Christ.

III. Through Trusting In His Sovereignty

The name of this short series is “As You Go, Make Disciples”. And we can do that because Christ is with us. For the Christian this is true whether we “feel” it( sense it, experience it) or not. We must learn to believe and walk in this truth. He has not left us alone! He is with us and he will help us even in the things that we might feel shaky about. We are not to live the Christian life in our own strength. He is with us and He will go with us and empower us.

So as we go where do we start? I think one starting place is (trusting)the Sovereignty of God. Charles Spurgeon said that

The sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the child of God rests his head at night, giving perfect peace.

• Charles Spurgeon

And it’s not just at night but all throughout the day we can rest that God rules over all things. (Swirling) But this should not lead us to passivity (in our prayers or our actions) but to a confident assurance that as we seek to serve God in the lives of others He will be at work. (paraphrase: I will be with you as you go into all the world and make disciples-He will not only go with us but He will be at work ) Both in salvation and sanctification (evangelism and discipleship) God’s will is to use us, to work through us. But in the end it is He who must work. Paul describes this mystery of us working and God working.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
— I Corinthians 3:6-9

We are called to influence others both to come and follow Christ and to grow in Christ. But unless the Lord builds the house we labor in vain. We hold both of those truths as we go and make disciples.

In Wisdom

Trusting in God’s sovereignty includes seeking wisdom by asking questions regarding where God has placed us right now. (not in a year…) Some questions we can ask are: Where do you work? What neighborhood are you in? What is your family situation? Who do you interact with? What relationships do you have or could have if you made the effort? What desires do you have in serving God? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Here are some specific examples of taking that type of inventory of your life.

• You’re on a sports team with lots of non-Christians.
• You’re on a sports team with lots of Christians. (Work)
• You are a parent of older teens who have friends that come over regularly.
• Maybe you are a college student and interact or have the opportunity to interact with others on campus.
• Maybe you are an empty nester who has grandchildren who live near you.

For Connie and I, almost all of our grandchildren live in this area. Now their parents are called to be the primary disciplers in their lives. But Scripture also speaks of the influence of grandparents. One of the things we have done is to buy every children’s book that R.C. Sproul has written. Recently we bought a book by Marty Machowski called “The Ology” which covers theological truths for younger children.

Now when they come over the younger kids want to read the “Where The Wild Things Are” or the “Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea”! And we love to read those books to them. But we also pray and look to initiate reading from one of these children’s devotional books and for other opportunities to encourage them to either come to Christ or grow in Christ.

Maybe you are an empty nester and don’t have any grandchildren or they don’t live near you. So you decide to get involved with one of the groups that seek to minister to international students at the local universities or you reach out to college students in our church. Or maybe you get involved in the FAM, our ministry to our middle school here in Apex. Jesus said lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.

In Faith

Trusting in the sovereignty of God means we know that He who rules over all things has called us to extend His kingdom and build His church. And so we go trusting that as we go He will be with us and guide us and use us. Proverbs tells us that man plans his way but the Lord establishes his steps. This was true for Paul in his missionary efforts and it is true for us as well. I want to encourage you to take inventory of your life and ask God for wisdom for how you might influence others to come to Christ and to grow in Christ. And wisdom as how to build this into your life and schedule. Then as you go make disciples!

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
— Colossians 4:2-6