The Fundamental Task of Honor

October 5, 2025
The Fundamental Task of Honor
Sermon Audio

CENTRAL TEXT: Matthew 28:16-20; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

The Great Commission

Matt. 28:16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

2Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

2Cor. 5:16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

CALL TO WORSHIP: Isaiah 42:5-9

LEADER: “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness;
  I will take you by the hand and keep you;
  I will give you as a covenant for the people,
  a light for the nations,

ALL: to open the eyes that are blind,
  to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
  from the prison those who sit in darkness.

LEADER: I am the LORD; that is my name;
  my glory I give to no other,
  nor my praise to carved idols.

ALL: Behold, the former things have come to pass,
  and new things I now declare;
  before they spring forth
  I tell you of them.”

PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: Daniel 7:13-14

LEADER: I saw in the night visions,
  and behold, with the clouds of heaven
  there came one like a son of man,
  and he came to the Ancient of Days
  and was presented before him.
14 And to him was given dominion
  and glory and a kingdom,
  that all peoples, nations, and languages
  should serve him;
  his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
  which shall not pass away,
  and his kingdom one
  that shall not be destroyed.

  The Word of the Lord

ALL: Thanks be to God

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

Isaiah 9:6; 42:8
John 7:17

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

  1. Strongest memories of gatherings at grandparents’ home for holidays? 
  2. First things you think of when you hear the word “evangelism”? Strongest apprehensions to it? Strongest inducements to it? Assume for a moment it can happen without a sermon or engaging in complex apologetics. What are several ways it happens? We referenced in the sermon a few reasons why it might be thought of as a privilege; think of others.
  3. Put Paul’s words in your own as you think he might mean: “for the love of Christ controls us.” How would that power–that motivation–for making disciples change the task of evangelism from mere “recruitment”?
  4. Where do you see in our text the gospel most succinctly put? Put it in your own words. 
  5. Refresh your memory of what Paul meant by regarding Christ and others “according to the flesh.” How are people these days tempted to regard others according to the flesh? Why is that option no longer on the table? 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  

Oct 5, 2025

QUOTES:  

Follow him and you will know him. 
- Albert Schweitzer
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. . . .And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. 
- C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”
Gone then will be all anxiety as to what his neighbour may think about him. It is enough that God thinks about him. To be something to God--is not that praise enough? To be a thing that God cares for and would have complete for himself, because it is worth caring for--is not that life enough? . . .Neither will he thus be isolated from his fellows. For that we say of one, we say of all. It is as one that the man has claims amongst his fellows. Each will feel the sacredness and awe of his neighbour's dark and silent speech with his God. Each will regard the other as a prophet, and look to him for what the Lord hath spoken. Each, as a high priest returning from his Holy of Holies, will bring from his communion some glad tidings, some gospel of truth, which, when spoken, his neighbours shall receive and understand. Each will behold in the other a marvel of revelation, a present son or daughter of the Most High, come forth from him to reveal him afresh. In God each will draw nigh to each. 
- George MacDonald
We were talking casually about everyday matters when, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, something happened. I felt myself invaded by a power which, though I consented to it, was irresistible and certainly not mine. For the first time in my life I knew exactly — because, thanks to the power, I was doing it — what it means to love one’s neighbor as oneself…. My personal feelings towards them were unchanged — they were still colleagues, not intimate friends — but I felt their existence as themselves to be of infinite value and rejoiced in it…. 
- W.H. Auden
Because you hated me so deeply I always prayed for you.
- Zakariya

Books / Docs

“The Church is your Mom,” Tish Harrison Warren
Devoted to the Church, Sinclair Ferguson
Contesting the Body of Christ, Myles Werntz
Church: A Guide to the People of God, Brad East
C.S. Lewis and the Church, eds. Judith and Brendan Wolfe
The Church and its Vocation, Michael W. Goheen
“What is Church?” Jason Micheli
Life Together, Dietrich Bønhoeffer (tl;dr: start here)
Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas
From Isolation to Community, Myles Werntz