Good evening, if you will turn with me in your copy of the scriptures to Matthew chapter 28. We will read verses 16 through 20 as our sermon text this evening. Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 through 20, the very end of Matthew's gospel. Hear now once again God's holy word. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore 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 observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. And if you will be seated at this time. And let us join together our hearts and our minds now as we go before the Lord once again in prayer. Our Father, as we come before you tonight once again, we come with humble hearts seeking to hear your word carefully and clearly as we continue to understand what your word tells us and how we must apply it to the subject of worship. We come knowing it is such an important topic. It is the very foundation of who we are, why you have created us, and where we are going. So Lord, we pray that tonight you would give us once again ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And we pray these things now in Christ's name, amen. This evening, we continue our series on what happens when we worship. And tonight, I'm going to be specifically preaching on why worship, and specifically corporate worship, is the most important thing that we will ever do. Let me say that again. Worship is the most important thing that we will ever do. Now, this is a statement that we've made several times throughout this series already. I've said it numerous times in my sermons, and I know the other pastors have said it as well. And we've made this claim on several occasions as we've explored the topic of corporate worship in this sermon series. But tonight, we will devote an entire sermon to exploring this concept in greater detail so that we can really explicitly address the claim. That is something that even in conversations we've had, we've heard, not necessarily objections, but maybe some skepticism to that claim. Is it really true that corporate worship is the most important thing that we will ever do? So my desire tonight is that you will leave here with a greater sense of understanding why this claim is true, and also, and perhaps even more importantly, that you'll leave here with a greater conviction in your own life for why the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day, and the Lord's Day worship that is contained therein is the most important thing we do. why the Christian Sabbath is the most important day of the week, and why the activity of corporate worship is holy and it is set apart as the most important activity in our lives. Now, I know that this may sound like a pretty, let's just call it an audacious claim, at least upon first hearing it. We have many important things that we do in our lives, do we not? So the question is, why is gathering together once a week with other Christians to listen to sermons, to pray, to hear the word read, to sing together, and eating a small amount of bread and juice the most important thing? Well, my hope is that you've already begun to understand why this is so and what we've been preaching so far during this series. But just as a short activity, an exercise if you will, I want you to ponder with me for just a moment. If for any reason you're not fully convinced in your mind that corporate worship is the most important thing that we do in our lives, I want to ask you a question. What would you say is the most important thing? Or perhaps maybe now you are convinced or are beginning to be convinced that this is true. What would you have said before is the most important thing that you do in all your life? Is it your job? Is it your daily exercise regimen? Is it the call to raise your children day after day or your daily morning quiet times? Is it your weekly or biweekly small group meetings where you study the word or study a book and pray together with other Christians? Perhaps you would think it's leading your family in family worship each day. Or maybe this, you think the most important thing you do as a Christian is evangelizing the lost in your workplace and in your community. Or perhaps you think it's your regular health checkups, your annual vacation to the beach or wherever your destiny of choice is. How about something that happens less often or even only once in a lifetime? Would you think of the most important event in your life as your wedding day? or perhaps the birth of each of your children. Now all of these events may play an important role in your life, it's true. And perhaps some, if not all of them, are even essential. Some even being unique, tremendous blessings of God's undeniable goodness and kindness to you. But here's the key. According to what we find in scripture, none of them are as important as the weekly rhythm of the observance of the Lord's day and worship with the people of God. I know that we've covered several topics on the theology of worship and what's happening when we worship, but in this time, I want to bring many of them together and highlight three specific reasons for why corporate worship is the most important thing that we will ever do. Now, you may have found it odd that at the beginning of this sermon, the text that I chose to read is Matthew 28, 16 through 20, and the words of Jesus recorded there in what we know and call the Great Commission. We often think of that as a text about evangelism. This probably isn't the text you might think of as one that helps build the foundation of corporate worship as the most important thing we will ever do. However, I hope to show you how this text is so often misunderstood and even misapplied today, and how specifically I believe the Great Commission, based on what we see in Scripture, is finally and ultimately really about worship. The context of this passage, of course, is Jesus' preparing to ascend to the right hand of the Father 40 days after his resurrection. He has accomplished His earthly mission, why He came to earth, why He took on flesh. He fulfilled the law, obeying every command of God perfectly, without any exception and without any sin. And therefore, He was able to die the shameful death on the cross that we deserved. And then by doing so, he accomplished the redemption of his people. On the third day, he was raised from death. And this is, of course, the vindication. This is the proof that his death did what he said it would do. This is the proof that he has actually accomplished his mission. This is the definitive evidence that he has defeated sin, death, and hell once and for all who will come to him by faith. In other words, he has finally offered the sacrifice for sins and at the same time become the great and true high priest who alone is the mediator between God and man. He has made true and pure worship possible for His people without any earthly mediator or priest. So he was raised on the third day. Then we know from Luke's writing that he spent 40 days on the earth in a glorified state, appearing regularly to his disciples and teaching them in preparation for when he would then ascend to heaven. So now he is getting ready for that moment. It was necessary for him to ascend to the Father's right hand. Why? because He would then send His Spirit, just as He promised, so that redemption could then be applied, the redemption that He accomplished could then be applied to all His people throughout every age until He returns. This is the context for Jesus giving His disciples the Great Commission. And so here we read Jesus's final words, his final instructions that he gives to his apostles. And notice how the scene begins. It says the 11 disciples, that is the 12 apostles or the 12 minus the one who betrayed Jesus, Judas himself, who proved to be false, a false apostle, and to be the one who would deliver our Savior over to death. Jesus had directed them, those 11 disciples now, to go to the mountain in Galilee where he would meet them to give these final instructions. And it is very likely that as they go, it's not just the 11 who are there, but there are other disciples who are likely present with him. In a moment, we will see how this text makes that likely very clear to us. And notice, as they come to the mountain, as Jesus instructed them, notice what happens after they arrive and Jesus meets them there. What does the text say? When they saw him, what did they do? They worshiped him. Now, of course, this is the proper response to a recognition of who Jesus is and what he has accomplished. But why would they worship Jesus? Well, it's because they were good Jews who knew the Ten Commandments well, and they did know that there is only one true God and that He alone deserves worship. So therefore, the only logical conclusion that we can deduce from this picture that Matthew's gospel gives us is that the 11 disciples recognized and they knew that Jesus indeed was God and that he indeed deserves all worship, that he is worthy of worship. And this is the first point for why corporate worship is the most important thing that we will ever do. We worship because it is what we were created to do. The disciples worshiped because it was what they were created to do. They had spent the last three years with Jesus. They had heard the authority with which he spoke and taught. They knew and they had seen the power with which he displayed his divinity. They had seen those miracles that Jesus performed in order to prove His divinity culminate with what? The greatest miracle of all, which was His resurrection. And now, they had spent 40 more days with Him, and they were seeing His resurrected body right before their very eyes. And so they did what anyone who finds themselves in the presence of the Almighty God, who is the creator of all things, would do. They bowed down before Him, and they paid homage to him, they worshiped him. We were all created to worship. Everyone knows this internally if they will only stop for a moment to really consider it. We know this if we turn to the beginning of the Bible and the creation account in Genesis. God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which was, of course, the very first temple, the very first place of worship, so that they could walk with Him and talk with Him, so that they could commune with God. God has written eternity on our hearts, and this is true for every person who has ever lived, not just those who professed faith in Christ, and not even for those who just simply refer to themselves as religious in some sort of way. We were all, every single one of us, by nature and by birth, we are all, rather, worshipers. This is true even of the person who claims to be an atheist. He is a worshiper. That's who he was created to be. He just suppresses the truth and unrighteousness. The psalmist in Psalm 63, 1 captures this reality so well. Here's what he says. Oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Likewise, we read in Psalm 84, verse two, my soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. We were all created with a longing in our hearts, what many have called a God-shaped hole, as it were, that can only be filled by God himself. We all know this, and every person really must come to acknowledge this. And indeed, one day, every person will come to acknowledge this, for better or for worse. And yet, because of the fall, The fall that we read about in Genesis chapter 3, what do we learn? We learn that our worship is disordered. It is distorted, and it is indeed pitiable. We long to worship, yet in our sinful state, we don't know who to worship or even how to worship properly. And this is why we also read that while the 11 disciples worshiped him, that there were some present, probably others besides the 11, who were there when Jesus appeared. What does the text say that they did? They doubted, but some doubted. Though they were witnessing the resurrected Lord of all creation standing before them, they still doubted. They did not recognize God even as He was there in their presence, visibly standing before their eyes. And so in our natural state, this is true of all of us, we do not recognize God for who He truly is. We will worship anything before we bow down and declare that Yahweh is Yahweh, that He is Lord. And this is why Paul begins his sermon before the Areopagus in Athens in Acts chapter 17 with these words. Listen to what he says. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed His offspring. And so our being created for worship is true, yet our natural bent is toward false worship, and this is exactly what Paul explains in his letter to the Romans in the very first chapter. I referenced it just a few moments ago, but here now, verses 18 through 23, once again, and their totality. Paul's writing says, "'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. And here's how. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images Resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things Notice what Paul is saying in these words and don't miss the main point by nature fallen man we all suppress the truth and However, even though we suppress the truth, there is something that God created in us that we do not suppress, and that is worship. We all still worship because we were created to worship, but we suppress the truth and worship falsely. Worship was what we were created to do. So for every person, there isn't a question of whether or not we will worship. It is rather who or what we will worship. In his well-known confessions, Augustine of Hippo famously said these words, you stir man to take pleasure in praising you. This is, of course, a prayer to God. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you because you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you. This is true of every human who has ever lived and will ever live. You were created to worship and you will worship something. but our hearts will not truly find rest, peace, joy, or freedom until we worship the one true and living God. Yahweh, who appeared on earth to take away our sins in the man of Jesus of Nazareth, is the one we must bow down and worship. So how do we ensure that we will worship the one true and living God and him alone? Well, we must remember that what we want and what we love most is what we will then order our lives around. This is a very important point. What we want and what we love most is what we will order our lives around. And what we want and love, we worship. As Jonathan Cruz said in his book that we're using as a guide through this series, what happens when we worship, he says, we desire things that we think will give us a good life, the good life even, and so we order our lives around whatever that thing may be. That desiring and ordering is called worshiping. Whatever is most important in our lives will be the thing we worship, which is just an inverse way of saying that worship is the most important thing we do in our lives. We might say with our mouths all day long that we worship the one true and living God, but if we order our lives around worshiping something else, In reality, this is what we will actually end up worshiping, okay? So we might say we worship the one true and living God, but if we order our lives around something else, we will actually end up worshiping that thing. So the question we have to all ask ourselves is this, who or what is worthy of our worship? And this is an obvious answer. As Revelation 4 and 5 shows us, God alone is worthy of our worship. We've been studying these two chapters on Wednesday evenings in our Revelation series. Revelation 4, 11, the song of the creatures in heaven as they proclaim the truth, as they proclaim praise to God. Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were existed and were created. They are praising the Creator for creating all things, for being the Creator, because He is worthy of all worship. And then we see in chapter 5 the same worship, the same kind of worship ascribed to the Son, to the Lamb that was slain. To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. We will worship what is most important. We must worship only that which is worthy of our worship. That which is worthy of our worship is God alone. And worship is the most important thing that we will ever do because we were created to worship. That's the first reason. Now we move to the second reason. Worship is the most important thing that we will ever do because it is what we will go on doing for all of eternity. Because it is what we will go on doing for all of eternity. Here we turn back to the words of Jesus in his commission given to his apostles. He says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, 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 observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now, again, when we think of these words, so often we think of them as the words that charge all disciples of Christ to go into the world and evangelize. It is the Great Commission for those who will go to the streets, those who will go to the nations, sell everything they have, give up their lives to be missionaries. And let's state the obvious up front. These words are, in fact, telling Christians to evangelize, okay? That is true. But there is much more that we can often overlook in these words. And you probably heard this before, but I'm gonna remind you, the main verb in this commission is not as it might first seem, go, but rather the main verb here is what? Make disciples or just simply disciple. As has often been said, perhaps a better translation of this would be something like this. As you go, make disciples, or as you go, disciple. Make disciples of all nations or of all peoples. Then, what follows after this main command are two participle phrases. And if you know your grammar, participle phrases modify the main verb. They modify the command to make disciples and tell us what that actually looks like. Two primary things here. Number one, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And number two, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. So here's the reality. The Great Commission is not simply about going around the world and telling people the message of the gospel and then sending them on their way with a couple of books and saying, good luck. Making disciples certainly begins with the proclamation of the gospel. The gospel is the good news that we can be saved from our sins and eternal damnation because of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior, and that we can have eternal life in Him, a life which is full of joy and pleasures forevermore. But making disciples doesn't end with someone making a decision to follow Christ by praying a prayer and then being sent on their way. Making disciples really begins, according to what the Great Commission tells us, with what? Baptizing those who have received the good news of the kingdom with childlike faith. In other words, having them stand up and publicly profess, identify with Christ, showing something that is true externally, that is an internal reality already in them. They are professing the faith in Christ. They are showing that they had been united to Christ and they are telling the world and they are being joined into the body of the church. And so with that, We understand that this immediately connects the Great Commission to the local church because baptism, unlike some may say, cannot happen just out anywhere apart from the local church. It is an ordinance of the local church. And then comes the rest. Disciples must be taught to observe everything that Christ has commanded. The only way that the Great Commission can be fulfilled is in the context of the local church, the visible and tangible representation of the body and the bride of Christ. This is the place, as we've been learning in this series, where God builds his people up into a holy temple by his Spirit. We must remember that this commission is given first and foremost not to us, but rather to whom? To the 11 that are there, to the apostles. This is who Jesus is directly speaking to. Of course, it's true that all Christians receive this commission secondarily in a sense, because we are also called to make disciples. But we must understand these words in the context of the whole counsel of God, just like when we read the commission in different words that Jesus gives, and it's recorded in Acts chapter one, verse eight. As Christians, we are all members of the household of God that is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Always keep that in our minds. So disciple-making happens truly in the context of the local church that abides in the Word of God, that is, abides in the apostles' teaching, and teaches Christians to observe everything that Christ has commanded. It teaches them and disciples them in the Word and teaches them to observe the things that are commanded in that Word. And as we have already seen many times in this worship series, and we will continue to insist on, corporate worship is the foundation for our discipleship as Christians. This is because in corporate worship we are doing a number of things. We are being built together as the temple of God. We are being renewed in the covenant of the gospel. We are being transformed by the renewal of our minds, and we are being trained for the Christian life. Furthermore, and even greater, what's happening in corporate worship is the end, this is key, for which disciple-making is the means. Let me say that again. What's happening in corporate worship is the end for which disciple making is the means. And we can see clues right in these words from Jesus in Matthew 28 in the Great Commission. He says, first and foremost, that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to whom? To him. And at the end of the passage, after he gives the command, he gives a promise. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Jesus is with them. He is with us by his spirit, even to the end of the age. Why is that significant? Furthermore, Jesus' instructions to the disciples are to make disciples of whom? Of all nations or all peoples, all ethnos or ethne. Why? It's because Jesus has ransomed a people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. They are a people called out of darkness and into his marvelous light. And he has made them and is making them a kingdom and priests to our God. And furthermore, they shall reign on the earth. These are the promises given to us in the book of Revelation. Again, here is the most important thing that is taking place in corporate worship as we consider these words. Here it is. We are preparing for eternity. When we gather with the people of God, as we said a few weeks ago, we are spiritually participating in something greater than what is simply before our eyes. As Hebrews 12, 22 to 24 shows us, we are joining in the ongoing worship that is now taking place in heaven, even at this very moment. That's also what Revelation 4 and 5 and 7, 6 and 7 even, are showing us. is this is worship as it is in heaven. And it is the model for our worship as we come together. When we come together physically, we are spiritually partaking of something greater. That worship is a worship that is corporate in the very best sense of the word. It is a worship that includes people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people group. And that great multitude isn't alone. It's not just all these people from all the different nations. What else do we read? That multitude is joined with all the heavenly hosts, myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands of angels, the four living creatures, the 24 elders, and even as we get to the end of Revelation 5, every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them. That is corporate worship. We are not saved to be lone ranger Christians who experience God in secret on our own. Although God's grace is so amazing that our worship of him pours over into every single area of our lives, and we do experience his grace and his presence with us at all times as we walk by faith and not by sight. We really do worship him in a sense in all of our lives the other six days of a week, although it is indeed to a lesser degree. But we are made for a community and we are made to worship God with every living creature because it is what we will go on doing for all of eternity. And every time we gather with the people of God for corporate worship on the Lord's Day, we are experiencing a small foretaste of that eternal reality. Corporate worship strengthens us for the journey ahead. Corporate worship recalibrates us so that we can know what is true and what is real. Corporate worship with the people of God transforms us from one degree of glory to another by the renewal of our minds. And then one final point that needs to be made about the connection here between making disciples and worship is this. As we said earlier, because we are all created to worship, and because we are by nature going to worship the creature rather than the creation, the disciple-making of all nations is really about restoring the image of God to God's people. And it is really about teaching them how to worship the true God and how to worship him according to the way that he has prescribed in his word. Isn't that exactly what Jesus means when he says that you must teach them to observe everything that I have commanded? It starts with corporate worship that extends into all of our lives. Corporate worship is a weekly rhythm. a liturgy that we so desperately need to lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees and make straight paths for our feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed. And that's the third and final point I want to make about why worship is the most important thing that we will do ever. It's because God has also designed a day especially for corporate worship. He has built a day into the very fabric of creation so that we might know and remember who it is that we were created to worship, and so that we might know and remember what is our eternal destiny. Our confession, the London Baptist Confession in chapter 22, paragraph seven, puts it this way. It is the law of nature that in general, a portion of time specified by God should be set apart for the worship of God. So by his word and a positive moral and perpetual commandment that obligates everyone in every age, he has specifically appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy to him. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, the appointed day was the last day of the week. After the resurrection of Christ, it was changed to the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's Day. This day is to be kept to the end of the age as the Christian Sabbath, since the observance of the last day of the week has been abolished. Now, we don't need to stop here and get into a discussion about Sabbatarianism and what it is and what it isn't. But we do need to understand and believe this truth. The Sabbath day is a blessing from the Lord for his people. The Sabbath day is a blessing from the Lord for his people. And when our Lord was raised from the dead on the first day of the week, the Sabbath was then changed from the seventh day to the first day of the week. Or even better, we might say that it was changed from the seventh day to the eighth day, which is the eschatological day of God's new creation in Christ Jesus, pointing us forward. We must remember what Jesus said. that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Too many Christians view the proper observance of the Lord's Day as a burden, as something that encroaches upon our time with our family or hampers our ability to relax and find leisure from a life of busy work. Or even some Christians find it as a hindrance to good productivity. One more day where we can make extra money. We can do a little bit more on that day. But here's the point. We need Sabbath rest. We are promised Sabbath rest. That rest, of course, has been fulfilled and it has been accomplished in the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Savior. And that rest, in its truest and fullest sense, subjectively experienced in the lives of Christians, is still ultimately a future reality. But The Lord, in His great mercy and His loving kindness, has provided one day in seven that we might experience the foretaste of this future glorious reality, even now in this life. Yes, we do experience that Sabbath rest to a degree every day as we abide in Christ, but not in the same sense and not in the fuller reality that we do when we come together with the people of God to corporately worship Him on the day that is set aside as the Lord's Day. The Sabbath is a joy for the Christian. And it is a day that we should delight in setting aside. It is not a day where we legalistically submit ourselves to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch according to human precepts and teaching. It is not a day for self-made religion, asceticism, and severity to the body that provides no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. It is rather a day that is to be set aside so that we might seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. It is the day where we come together to experience the joy and the wonder of the most important thing that we will ever do. But it is a day that points us to something far greater, far more wonderful, and far more joyous. it points us to that great day of the Lord. And for those reasons, it is a day that should be set apart as holy unto the Lord, separate, different from the other six days of the week, so that we might seek his face fully and completely with the people of God without distraction. It is a day that we can spend in the joyous fellowship of God's people so that we might continue to be strengthened for the journey along the pilgrim way. So let us, dear brothers and sisters, call the Sabbath a delight as we seek the face of God and experience the joys of what we were created to do and what we will also go on doing for all of eternity. So let us remember that worship is truly the most important thing that we will ever do. It is the most important thing that we will ever do because we were created for this purpose. Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And we were created to experience this in the company of God's people, not on our own, not in the woods, not on our back deck with our cup of coffee, although we can have times of worship in a lesser sense in those ways. Everything we do must be done for the glory of God. But we must also remember that naturally we do not seek God. We do not worship him the way that we ought according to his word. So we need to be renewed and transformed. And we also need to remember that worship is the most important thing that we will ever do because it is what we will go on doing for all of eternity. We were made to worship to the end of the ages and beyond. This is why Christ states his words. He will be with us now and then in a spiritual sense, but then we will see him face to face and we will be like him when we see him as he is. And because the Lord has given us one day in seven to specifically experience this reality in the greatest and most tangible way that trains us for a life of worship, let us remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy. It is my prayer that all of us will continue to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as it relates to what we were created for and what we will go on doing forever. that we will take the worship of God more seriously, that we will come here and we will rejoice. for the Lord's day, that we will come with glad hearts and eager expectation every time, that we will have in view from Monday through Saturday, we will have the Lord's day in our view. Because when we have the Lord's day at the beginning of the week, we are also having that in view in our minds, the view of the great day of the Lord, the eschatological day of the Lord, as we prepare, as we look forward to when he will come again. So let us keep these things in our hearts and our minds and let us cherish the Lord's worship. Let's pray together.