Where Is Everyone?

Matthew 28:16-20

“Where is everyone?” thought the young sailor. As he heard the common sirens screaming, and he saw the flashing lights, this was a common scene, as he’s gone through drill many times, but this time it was different. This time, he heard screaming in the background. And as the water level grew up his legs, so too his confidence grew that he truly was in a sinking ship. No way out. No way to escape. Destined for destruction, with no one to save him. Where is everyone? Where is the safety? Where is my escape? You can imagine the feelings of sailors on the USS Oklahoma on December 7th, 1941 on the surprise attack of Pearl Harbor. They don’t know what hit them, but they found themselves in this situation helpless. Where is everyone? Everyone perhaps thought the disciples, the 11 of them as they stood there on the mountain, thinking about what had just happened in their life. Thinking of all the past events, people trying to kill them, all their life circumstances right in front of their face, them in hiding, worried about what the future holds, worried about what’s going to happen, death looking straight in their eyes. Jesus, interestingly, it seems like he’s just disappearing and appearing to all these different types of people, but we don’t know where he’s gonna be, when he’s gonna come, what he’s doing. We don’t know his plan. We don’t know what our purpose is. And here we are on this mountain of Galilee. There with their doubts, with their questions, and with their fear, on a mountain of Galilee, with Jesus. And he says to them these words. He says to them these words that address their concerns and their fears and their questions. He says, “All authority in heaven and on earth “has been given to me. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father “and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, “and surely I am with you always “to the very end of the age.” Wait, all nations, Jesus? But where is everyone? There’s 11 of us. All nations? Did you not hear what our fears were? You’re supposed to know all things and you would know that we are scared to death of what’s gonna happen. You keep leaving and coming. You keep showing your face and then you’re disappearing. We’re hiding in these rooms. We’re terrified. Everybody wants to kill us. And in fact, Jesus, if you remember, a few days ago, they killed you. And now you want us to take this message, the message that you said they will kill you for. And you want us to go baptize and go teach. All nations, Jesus, that’s ridiculous. When we consider everything happening in the disciples’ lives, we can begin to understand their doubts and their questions and their fears a little bit more. Who these men really were, this ragtag group of people, that all of a sudden Jesus is telling them to go out into the whole world, to look death in the eye, to preach this message, and to do it without fear. They’re unsure. They’re unsure of their purpose, of Jesus’ plans, and Matthew sums it up perfectly in those two words describing their feelings. They doubt it. Where has he been? Why is he talking about leaving again? What are we supposed to do without him? What happens next? Is he really in charge? Doubts, questions, fears, flooding into the minds of the disciples. Well, people sitting in the pews of atonement here this morning, where is everyone? All nations. I’m not very good at math, but counting the people here, it doesn’t seem like we have all nations accounted for. Okay, maybe all nations a little bit excessive. What about the US? Still, the numbers don’t add up. Okay, maybe Wisconsin? No, not quite. Milwaukee? What about just this neighborhood around atonement? No, not that. What about your next door neighbor? Are they here? The one that lives only a few feet away from you every day? Are they here? Do they know? Where is everyone? And flipping that, where is everyone, as in there’s only a few dozen of us here. How are we supposed to accomplish this amazing task of reaching all nations? Jesus, that’s ridiculous. And maybe some of these common fears you can relate to. My life right now is so overwhelming. The world seems less and less Christian. I’m already worn out just trying to make it through the day. Making friends is hard. Pleasing my parents is hard. Learning how to be an adult is hard. My kids don’t talk to me. My marriage is struggling. Money is tight. My body hurts. Work drains me. Interest rates are up. There’s talk of war. There’s sickness, brokenness, disaster. I feel lost. I don’t even know what I’m doing with my life. And you expect me, Jesus, with all of that going on, how do I have time to go get all nations when I barely have enough time for me? God have mercy on us for our selfish attitudes. For our selfish way of life. For continually thinking only about ourselves. And forgetting the fact that once we were in that sinking ship. Some of you don’t remember because you were baptized as a baby, but some do. You remember that you were in that sinking ship. Lost, darkness, afraid. That was once all of us. Born in sin, sinful by nature. That’s all of us. And we forget what that was like to where now we live our lives only focused on ourselves and how our life is looking rather than thinking about this mission that Jesus has proclaimed to us. Go save the people in this sinking ship. Well with all that going on, maybe another question to ask then is where is he? Where is this Jesus? Because he said he’s with us always, but with all that going on in my life, it sure doesn’t feel like it. With all these consequences, with all these things happening to me, it sure doesn’t feel like I have a God who’s right here with me always. It sure doesn’t feel like he has the authority. Doubts, questions, fears. Jesus knows. Jesus knows your doubts. He knows your questions and he knows your fears. In the same words that he gave to those scared disciples he gives to you today, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So what? What does that change? Well it changes everything actually. In those words Jesus isn’t just saying that you have everything you need, you’re good to go to struggle through this life. He’s saying that Jesus is everything you need and he’s yours. He is with you always. He has all authority. He has placed his name upon you. But so often we’re convinced of the opposite, aren’t we? That that deceiver, that liar comes to us, tries to strip those truths from our hearts and he points to your circumstances, he points to those things in your life to convince you that Jesus doesn’t have the authority. Because if he had the authority, why would he let this happen? He points to your sins and your failures to say, Jesus has not called you by name. He does not know you. You are not his child because look at what you just did. How could he love somebody like you? He comes to you and points you to your loneliness and says, how is he with you always if you are stuck and lonely and afraid? So which is it? Are you sinking in a ship or not? Is Jesus who he said he is or not? Does Jesus have authority or doesn’t he? Has Jesus called you by name or hasn’t he? Is Jesus with you always or is he not? Because you can’t have one or the other. Or you can’t have a little bit of one and a little bit of the other that’s only one or the other. Either somebody’s telling the truth or not. And Jesus showed us who the one is that tells the truth. Christ is risen. That means something. Because that means that everything he said he would do, he did. That means that when Jesus promised to come to this place and to live here for us perfectly, he did it. And then when he said that he would die in our place, he did it. And then when he said that he would also come back to life, he did it. He has proven over and over and over that he is faithful and that he tells the truth. Proven that he has the authority. He has proven that you are his child. He has proven that he is with you always. We started out by asking that question, where is everyone? But the better question is where is he? When we’re thinking about our problems and our situations and we’re thinking, well, who’s gonna help me? Where is everyone? Who’s gonna do this for me? Who’s gonna be by my side? Rather we ask this question, where is he? And he tells us exactly where he is. He says, I am that word, that word that you just heard today. He says, I am in that water, in baptism. I am in that bread and wine given for you. I am there and here right now, but he’s also out there. That our God is not just a God that is here one hour a week in his temple. Rather our God is a God who is 24 seven with each and every single one of us at all times. Sustaining us, strengthening us, giving us his forgiveness, giving us his word, allowing us to then go and do this mission. To where now we are moved to ask, where is everybody? Where are they? Because I’m gonna go get them. I’m gonna go talk to them. Where is everyone? Because I need to tell them what this Jesus did for me and how he has completely changed my life. Talking can be scary, yes, but the same Jesus who spoke to those scared down in disciples speaks to you today and he says that you feel small and unqualified, you feel like you can’t do it, you feel like you’re afraid, it doesn’t matter. Because I am who I am. I am the way and the truth and the life. I have the authority. And that authority goes with you. That authority, that presence, that power goes with you as you talk to your neighbor. It goes with you as you stand in line at the store and talk to somebody behind you. It goes with you as you’re at the coffee shop and talk to the stranger. It goes with you as you talk with your coworkers and create relationships and friendships to where people see Jesus in how you speak and in how you live and they ask questions and you talk to them about this peace that you know so well and that is yours. And the biggest, one of the biggest things and the most comforting things is it doesn’t depend on you. We have this mission but yet Jesus is the one who does all the work. We have this mission that says go and do this but in reality it’s Jesus that goes with us that uses our words and uses our hands and uses our feet. He says I have the authority and I’m gonna change their hearts and I’m gonna turn them to me through you. And so no rather than it’s that it’s just go and do this it’s rather it’s an invitation to come join. Come join me. Come join me in rescuing this person from this sinking ship. 429 crew members on the USS Oklahoma died on that devastating day. Families lost, sons and fathers and uncles and friends. 429. But there was also something beautiful that happened. Volunteers and military worked tirelessly together to try to save one. 32 sons, fathers, brothers, uncles and friends were saved that day from a capsized ship in the ocean. You think of how amazing it must have felt for those people that not only were saved but also the ones that were working together doing the saving. That as they watched that person that just came out of that ship go and hug their wife or their mom, I was the one who helped do that. I was the one who helped do that. And I don’t know if this is how it’s gonna work but sometimes I imagine that in heaven when you look around and somebody comes up to you and says thank you. It’s because you talked to me. That guy brought me here. How amazing an invitation that is that we get to be a part of that mission. To tear people from the steel clutches of Satan and from the darkness of this guilt and sin from the pressure of this world. We don’t have to overthink it. You just get to be yourself. Love them, listen to them. Because Jesus, our risen Lord, is the one with the authority to change their hearts. And because that is all true, what is there to doubt? What is there to question? What is there to be afraid of? Christ is risen. – [Congregation] Christ is risen indeed! – Go get them, amen.