Get off the Sidelines

Matthew 28:19-20

It’s that time again in Alabama. It is football season. High school and college programs across the state and the southeast are sweating it up in the scorching temperatures of August. Most of the guys on these football teams are looking for an opportunity to play football on Friday and Saturdays. They are out there in the heat; day in and day out giving it their all so that they can have an opportunity to play. This game of football is too hard and too demanding for anyone to just want to be on the team and wear the uniform as the sacrifices are too great for anyone to just want to be on the team and stand on the sidelines. Each one of those kids want to play, however; realistically we know not all of them will be able to play they will just be standing on the sidelines watching as their teammates play on the gridiron.

When we look at the game of football how does it relate to today’s scripture beginning with v. 18 where in Jesus’ last words, he indicates that he has been granted all (pas) authority (exousia) in heaven and on earth (28:18). An on this mountain, Jesus gives a command to his disciples to Go! In this climatic ending to the Book of Matthew Jesus is setting fourth what must be done in order to carry own his legacy and his ministry. In v. 20 Jesus reassures his disciples that he would be with them until the end of the age. We all know this passage of scripture as the “Great Commission” and its significance to the call of those disciples at that time to spread the Word and the witness of Jesus Christ to the world. Yet it was not just for those disciples, but for all disciples of Jesus Christ then and now.

It was a hot September day in 1992. I was a starting offensive lineman for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons as we opened up the season against the University of North Carolina Tar Heels! The Saturday before, my ankle had started to bother me a little, but it was no big deal. I practiced throughout the week yet my ankle never stopped hurting me, but I preserved. Game day came and my ankle was still bothering me, I was hurting but not injured, at least at that time. I played the first half of the game and the pain in my ankle became increasingly severe. I was hobbling back and fourth to the huddle and off the field, but when the ball snapped I felt no pain. By half time, I was in such severe pain I was hyper ventilating and crying from the pain in the locker room. I was done for the day and later I would learn I was done for the year. When the team returned to the field I was on the sidelines! It was not a place I wanted to be as it pained me to be on the sidelines. I wanted to be in the game, but I was just a spectator and not an active participant.

So from the perspective of the Church, if you allow me to draw some analogies, we can view ourselves as a team. When you come to Church on Sundays or participate in Bible study or Disciple you are at practice. You are being prepared for game day, if you will. What you are being prepared for is the equivalent of the playing field or in Church terminology the mission field.

There’s a book I found related to this topic called Church is a Team Sport by Author and Pastor Jim Putnam who says that “Coaches speak from the heart with words and with passion. Coaches teach from experience with knowledge and with precision. Coaches lead from the start with integrity and with inspiration, but without a team behind them there’re just preachers.” You, the church are the team.

You can view your pastor as the head coach for our team. The associate pastors are the assistant coaches. Each one of us has different gifts and talents for which God has blessed us with. The question is what are we doing with those gifts and talents as it relates to our faith? Scripture tells us in Ephesians 4:11 "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

When you come to church and here the Word of God read to you and the Word proclaimed it is to equip you and to prepare you as it is analogous to learning football plays and being prepared to run those plays on the field. Being a Christian is far more than just coming to Church it is about getting off the sidelines and doing something. Do you really just want to be on the team or do you want to get your uniform dirty and have battle scars on your helmets. Yes, the mission field can be messy and sacrifices must be made, but are they not worth it for the sake of the Gospel. Is it not a small thing we do to demonstrate our faith for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who bore the burden of our sins? Can we not do as he commands and “Go and make disciples?”


In James 2:14 we read “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?” If you have faith in Jesus Christ and you have fully committed yourself to him, can you sit on the sidelines when there is so many in this world, we live in, that need to hear the Good News? The Gospel of Jesus Christ!


Missions are a result of true faith in Jesus Christ which produces good works! Thus we learn in James 2:14 that belief becomes faith only when it produces action. Thus the writer is conveying to us that it is sincere belief which is accompanied and validated by good works.

Mission is not just a church mission, it is an action in which the Holy Spirit does new things through those whose faith is demonstrated in works. You may be sitting there right now and thinking what can I do? My answer is to be in mission and fulfill the Great Commission.

I am learning more about missions and have learned more about missions over the past couple of years than any other period in my life. I like some of you, heard pastors preaching from the pulpit about missions. I always figured as long as I paid my tithes and offerings that those financial contributions were my duty to missions. It was only the missionaries who did the actual work in the field. If you are like I was, then we were both wrong. Now don’t misunderstand me, we do need your tithes and your offerings for missions and other projects, but God wants your time and your talents as well.

One of my favorite songs is If We are The Body” by Casting Crowns. The chorus goes like this:
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
There is a way
Jesus is the way

In Romans 12: 4-8 “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”

John Wesley once stated that it does a persons soul good to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked within the God given ability that you have. Thus by performing these acts of mission we can awaken “those that sleep in death; to bring those who are awakened to the atoning blood, and to provoke those who have peace with God to abound more in love and in good works.”

Mission is in and of itself Trinitarian in nature. God sent Christ to redeem the world, and then God and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. So as the church is the body of Christ it should be in mission outside the church walls so that no one would not know the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus Christ is risen and he is our Lord! He is our Savior!

I am going to give you a word picture to demonstrate the importance of missions to the church! “The Church exists by missions as a fire exists by burning. No burning no fire! No mission no church!” How powerful a word picture is that? Without missions there is no church. Many churches miss that concept in this modern day what’s in it for me culture. If you “take mission out of church what do you have left? Potentially, a social club, which; is unfortunately true in some American churches.

As we consider the importance of missions and the mission field which lay outside the walls of this church, I want to ask you a question which I have borrowed, from the former President John F. Kennedy, and altered it to fit our topic of missions this morning.

Ask not what God can do for you, but what can you do for the Kingdom of God?
When we consider the importance of missions does it pain you to be on the sidelines? Do you want to be in the game? You have to remember Church is a team sport requiring your participation it is not a spectator sport. I am asking you this morning to get off the sidelines and step out of your comfort zone in the name of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus is calling us to Go! Will you Go?
Amen.