Connecting People to Jesus
ReConnect
The Purpose of the Sunday School
Psalm 1:3
 
For the next few weeks, I want to take the short time I have on Sunday mornings with you to talk about Sunday School.  It is my objective to lift it high and do my best to educate you about Sunday School and motivate you either attend and get involved if you aren’t already, and if you are to refocus us on its function and purpose.
 
The reason I feel it necessary to do that is because there is so much misunderstanding and though about why a church has Sunday School.
 
If I were to ask most anyone here today why we have Sunday School, I would guess the most prevalent answer would be, “To teach the Bible”.
And if you gave that answer, you would be partially right.
 
One of the primary functions of the Sunday School is to teach the Bible.  And I am happy to report that our faculty of volunteers takes that responsibility very seriously and week by week, they do exactly that.  But the responsibility of the Sunday School is much larger than merely teaching the Bible.
 
Others, if they were pressed, would answer that not only is it the responsibility of the Sunday School to teach the Bible, but it is here to teach them the Bible.  In other words, the church is all about them and it exists for them.
 
Therefore, the structure of the classes, the type of literature we use, the programs and teachers must meet their needs and make them happy because they are the focus of the Sunday School.  And it is unfortunately that many people never think of the Sunday School existing for people who aren’t in it.
 
So I want to use the next weeks to help us to understand why we have Sunday School and what it is designed to accomplish and how God uses it in His work.
 
Now I would suggest the Sunday School stands alone in what it is and does.  It is different from any other organization in the church in that it is not just a program of the church, it is the church organized to do its work.
 
When you think about it, if a church didn’t have a Sunday School, it would have to come up with some other way to systematically teach the Bible, disciple its members, gather its money, minister to its member’s needs, fellowship with one another, share the gospel and do ministry because all of that falls within the scope of the Sunday School.
 
I want to challenge us to see the Sunday School as a strategy rather than a program.  In fact, the Sunday is the church’s primary strategy for connecting people to Jesus, His Truth, His Community and His Mission.
 
Our goal is to help people know Who Christ is, what His Word teaches, how them to become involved in His church and how to help others repeat that process in someone else’s life.
 
And I would suggest that it is time, maybe passed time, for us to reconnect to that purpose.
 
Now to help us understand that, I want to direct your attention to Psalm 1:3 this morning because there we find an object lesson, a picture, if you will, that God gave to help us understand how to build strong lives.
 
Psalm 1:3
 
The picture is that of a prosperous, fruit-bearing tree.  And what I want to do is borrow that imagery for a moment and apply it to the Sunday School.  I don’t think it takes any stretch of Scripture to see the application.
 
Obviously, the goal of a fruit tree is to bear fruit.  Now in the case of the church, I want you to think in terms of six primary fruits the church bears. And by the way, I think it important to note that no other group or organization in the world can bear this fruit.  It is exclusive to the church.
 
Obviously, we are to bear the fruit of
 
- Worship.  We worship the True and Living God and it is our privilege to lift high the Name of Jesus, and participate in worship to a Holy God.
 
Second is
 
- Evangelism.  The Great Commission instructs us to go into all the world with the Good News of salvation.
 
Closely connected to evangelism is
- Discipleship.  The Commission doesn’t end with seeing people saved, but begins there.  The end result is to see them become disciples of Jesus Christ.
 
Once a person is saved and growing in the Lord, it is important they learn to repeat that process, therefore the church is to be diligent in
 
- Missions.  The most prolific and energetic witness for the Lord is most often the one who has most recently been saved.  It is the most natural response in the world for a person who has been saved to seek to share that hope with others.
 
Beyond, sharing the gospel, the church is to be involved in
 
- Ministry.  If not the church, then who?  Who should feed the poor and relieve oppression and help with hurts, if not the church?  Unfortunately, we’ve come to expect that from the government, rather than the church, and it’s our God-given assignment.
 
Then finally, the church is a place of
 
- Fellowship.  The church is a place of protection and encouragement from the world.  It is here we find like-minded sympathetic brothers and sisters to come along side us and help and share our struggles and our victories.
 
Now, the pressing question is, “How are we going to get all of that done?”  There must be a strategy, a plan by which we can get our hands and hearts around these God-given assignments.
 
I would suggest we already have in place a structure to take care of all of that and it is called the Sunday School.  It is the most logical and best-organized resource at our disposal. That’s why I say it is the church organized to do the work it has to do.
 
So where does that leave all of our other ministries?  They are the root system that feeds the Sunday School.  You see, the reason we have all these support ministries is so they can be sources of contacts and touches on lives.  But the goal is never to simply reach them for the organization itself.
 
There are two unfortunate and related failures in most churches and they are that we tend to see our Sunday School class as an entity unto itself and never see it as a part of the larger structure of the church, and secondly we don’t see our support ministries as an entry point to get people involved in the Sunday School, and thereby, the church.
 
So for the next several weeks, it will be my aim to help us reconnect with Sunday School.  If you aren’t involved, I want to challenge you to come an hour earlier than you normally do, find a class and hook up with other people in your church family.
 
If you are already doing that, I want you to refocus on what Sunday school is all about.  If you are a teacher or leader, make a commitment to reconnect your class to being more than a place that caters to its members and does nothing more than teach a lesson.
 
 
 
Here’s why:  Once you begin to see your class as a part of the church’s strategy to get people connected to Jesus, His Truth, His Community and His Mission, and everything we do aimed at developing followers of Jesus Christ that are involved in worship, evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship and missions, it will absolutely revolutionize how we function and do our work.
 
Now the beginning point is help people connect with Jesus, so let’s start there.
 
It makes all kinds of sense to start with connecting people to Jesus because, not only is that the primary need people have, it is the main business of the church.  And it stands to reason, if the main business of the church is connecting people to Jesus, then it is the primary function of the Sunday School.
 
In fact, the only way to justify your existence is to carry out the purpose for which you were created.
That’s true of any organization, institution, or business in every area of life. A grocery store justifies its existence if it continues to make groceries available to people.
 
If you walked into a grocery store and said, "I would like to buy a dozen bananas," and they said, "We are sorry, we don't sell food here but we have some brake pads and transmissions if you would like to purchase those." It wouldn't be long until they would be out of existence.
 
If you go to a university and walk into the registrar's office and they said, "What can we do for you?" You say, "I would like to enroll in some courses to further my education."
They respond, “We don't have any courses available for you but if you would like a dozen bananas we have plenty of those." It wouldn't be long until that institution would be out of existence.
 
So any organization, institution, or business justifies its existence only as long as it accomplishes the purpose for which it is intended. That is true also of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Sunday School in particular. What are we here for?  Why do we call this a church?  Why do we organize into a Sunday School?
 
Without question, the one unique entity on the face of the earth that is given the commodity of the gospel is the church.  Therefore it must be the main business of the church to help others connect with Jesus.
 
Now, nobody with any sense at all argues that point.  We accept it and believe it.  But here is the paradox.  Very few of us live and act like we believe it. In fact, most often in our churches and Sunday School classes we do everything except connect people to Jesus and instead get involved in all kinds of secondary trivialities when our main business is to tell people about the Lord Jesus Christ and get them ready to go to heaven when they die.
 
Now, we know this responsibility is important because of what Jesus, who founded the church, said about it.  I want to direct your attention to a very well-known passage of Scripture.  In fact, it is so familiar, I hesitate to use it for fear you will tune me out.
 
It is called the Great Commission.  Unfortunately, in a lot of churches it is the Great Omission. But Jesus has told us in these verses exactly what He wants the church to do. I want to just kind of reassert it this morning as we look at reconnecting our Sunday School to its purpose and in that process connecting people to Jesus.
 
Matthew 28:16-20
 
First of all, Jesus talks about
 
1. His Power
 
verse 18
 
The word authority carries the idea of the right to act.  It’s not just about strength, Jesus is talking about the right to exercise His authority, and notice it is “all authority in heaven and earth.”  That means
 
It’s absolute authority.
 
Think about how He demonstrated that. When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7 says those who heard Him speak were astonished at His words.  They said this man speaks with authority and not as the Scribes. He taught with authority.
 
In the 9th chapter of Matthew they brought a sick man to Jesus and Jesus said, "That you might know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins."  He had authority to teach, He had authority to forgive sins.
 
But here He says, all authority is give to me.  When they came to arrest Jesus, He said, "This is your hour and the power of darkness.”
 
But when Jesus died on that old rugged cross, all of the powers of hell joined themselves against the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are told that He decimated every power and principality.  He has all authority, total power.
 
The hands that bore in them the nails of the cross are the hands that hold the scepter of this universe. He has all authority, total power, absolute authority.
 
Notice not only that but He has
 
universal authority.
 
"All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth."
 
That means that angels and cherubim and seraphim gladly do His bidding. That means that the demonic powers of the world are held in check by Him. That means He has total universal power. Power in heaven. Power on the earth. That simply means that Jesus Christ has authority to tell the church what to do. It's His church. It's not my church. It's not your church. It is His church.
 
Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church." He's the One who founded the church. He's the One who says all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And the good news is, the power to carry out this great commission has been provided for us in the Lord Jesus.
 
Put this statement in its context. Remember that Jesus was talking to some disciples who had been scared out of their wits. The cross of Calvary had come. They all forsook Him and fled.
 
Now, they understand that Jesus Christ has been raised again from the dead and yet Jesus says to that motley little crew of disciples, "I want you to go into all the world, preach the gospel and make disciples."
 
There they were like little specks in the world, just like little drops in an ocean of humanity. Yet, Jesus said go into all the world and tell them about me. They must have wondered how in the world they could do this. He said, "All authority is given unto me."
 
What an encouragement that is to me as a pastor and to you as a Sunday School teacher and to those who will share their faith.  Jesus said, "All power is given unto me and I'll give that power to you. I'll give you the power to do what I have commanded you to do." That's what I like about Jesus. He never asks you to do something that He doesn't provide you the wherewithal and the power to do it.
 
Now remember, we’re talking about authority. That means Jesus is in charge. So, let's just stop right here for a moment and let’s deal with the authority issue.
 
Have you yielded yourself to the authority of Jesus? Have you decided in your own mind and in your own heart not only that He is the Savior of your life, but He is the Lord of your life.
He is the final authority in your life. You can't go further in the Great Commission until you solve the authority question.
 
In fact, now would be a good time to have an invitation.  I'm going to ask every believer in this building today, right where you sit, in your own heart, to say to the Lord, "Jesus Christ, you are not my Savior alone you are also my Lord. I yield my life today to your authority. I'll do whatever you command me to do."   First, we see His power.
 
Notice secondly, he sets forth
 
2. His Plan
 
verses 19-20
 
Here's the plan. Here's how you will accomplish the mission He has assigned us to accomplish. There are four parts to this plan. Let me briefly hit those four parts of the plan.
 
The first part is going. The verb there is not an imperative. It has the force of an imperative before it is over, but really the idea here is "as you are going." It is assumed by the Lord Jesus Christ that those who follow Him will be going.  And all of us bear witness to that.  We are a going people, constantly on the move, in the daily traffic patterns of life.
 
The Christian life is compared to a walk. The church is on a walk. We are on a journey. That's why we are called strangers and pilgrims. We are just passing through. We are on a journey.
 
I heard about a country preacher one time who was preaching and he said, "Now, beloved, if we are going to do what the Lord called us to do, the church has got to walk." The congregation said, "Amen, let the church walk."
 
He continued on and said, "Now, folks, if we are going to do what the Lord has called us to do, we have to run."  They said, "Amen, let the church run."
 
Then he said, "If we are going to do what the Lord wants us to do the church as to fly." They said, "Amen, preacher, let the church fly."
 
Then he said, "If the church is going to fly, you folks are going to have to give more money than you've been giving." They said, "Amen, preacher, let the church walk."
 
No doubt, we are “going”.  But the emphasis the Lord adds is, “as you are going, make disciples. The directive is that believers, along the way, will be witnesses for the Lord Jesus. And let’s just broaden that to our subject.  As a Sunday School, as we are going, we are to go with intentionality.
 
Jesus took this seriously. In Luke 19, verse 10 He said, "The son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus Christ was on a journey. He journeyed all the way from heaven to this earth and everywhere Jesus went, He went with intentionality.  His purpose was to tell others about eternal life.  In fact, I think it safe to say,. Jesus took His own commission seriously.
 
 
The early Christians took that commission seriously also. You read in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, Simon Peter stood and preached the Pentecostal sermon and when it was over he gave an invitation. In that one day alone, 3,000 people were saved and baptized into the fellowship of the church. They took it seriously.
 
The early church took it seriously as individuals. In Acts 8, the Spirit of God said to the deacon Phillip, "Arise and go into the desert." He arose and went. There was a man riding in a chariot. The Lord used Phillip to win that man to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
It’s always been something of a mystery to me that people can intentionally go to Malawi or Mexico or Idaho or Sturgis, but they can’t go to Ardmore or their job or their neighborhood and share the gospel.  There is something desperately wrong with your evangelism testimony if it only works two weeks a year in a foreign country.
 
As you are going, on the way, it is assumed that we are to go as witnesses to the Lord. And I want to call on every one of our classes to be involved in intentional, positive, vibrant outreach that seeks to connect people to Jesus, both through organized church-planned events as well as personal, lifestyle outreach. 
 
Not only is there going, but there is winning. "As you go, make disciples. . ." What does it mean to make a disciple? It means that you win someone to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and that they begin to follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master. That's what it means to make a disciple.
That’s what we’re after and the process is never finished simply because someone makes a profession of faith.  In fact, I wouldn’t give you two-cents for a profession of faith that has no follow-through.  People make say words and fill out cards and walk aisles and all that, but if there is not a lifestyle change that begins with a public profession of faith and follows them through their life, they have not met the requirements of the commission and we have failed in our efforts to fulfill it.   
 
The bottom line is that people who are genuinely won to faith in Jesus Christ always follow through in becoming disciples.  That's the main business of the church. That's what we are here for.
 
Now here is where we meet the imperative of the Commission.  It is not in “going”.  Jesus didn’t have to tell us to go.  The command is, “As you’re going, make disciples."  It is a command of the Lord Jesus.
 
This is not optional. This is mandatory. Are you obeying the command?   Remember, we’ve already had an invitation where we told Jesus He would be the authority in our life.
 
It's the job of every believer. And a Christian who does not win souls is not worthy to wear the name of Christ.  A church that does not win souls does not deserve the land on which the building stands. A Sunday School class that does not seek to win souls is not worth the electricity and the heat and the lights and the carpet and the paint and literature that goes to provide for that class.
 
 
Are you winning people to Christ in your class? Teacher, are you leading that class to be obedient to the command of the Lord?   If not, get busy. It's time for you to be faithful to the Great Commission of our Lord.
 
Put a chair in your class that's empty to help your class have a constant reminder of those who need to know Jesus Christ. Challenge them to have someone in it next Sunday.
 
Going! Discipling! But that's not all. There's a third
part to this plan. "Baptizing them in the
name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."
 
The commission isn’t complete until they are following in believer’s baptism.  We are going to deal with connecting people to the church at a later time and I’ll touch on baptism then, but let me just say, the doorway to the community of Christ is the baptistery.
 
That’s why Jesus included it in the commission.  It’s not about getting people wet. It’s about helping them to identify with a group of believer’s who are like-minded and joined together by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
 
And we have not been obedient to the commission until those who are converted are baptized and are in the fellowship of a church.  It's not enough to get them to sign a card. It's not enough to get them to raise a hand. You have to win them to Christ and then they have to be baptized.
 
 
Obviously baptism doesn't save anybody, but baptism is an outward expression of an inward experience. Baptism is a way of giving testimony that you have indeed received Jesus Christ as your Savior. That He is not only your Savior, but He is also your Lord and you intend to follow Him and live for Him.
 
Baptism is an illustration of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. That's why we immerse. It's also an illustration of what happened to you. It's a picture of your death to your sins and that old way of life. It's your resurrection to a brand new way of life.  It's an illustration.
 
Baptism also shows appreciation. By being baptized we are publicly saying to the Lord, "I appreciate what you did for me in saving me. I'm not ashamed to do what you have commanded me to do."
 
It is also an act of identification. You are identifying yourself with a local church.
 
In the New Testament, you will discover that when people were saved, it was automatic that they were baptized. You didn't have to beg and plead with them to be baptized.  They were thrilled to identify with Christ and His church. The moment they received Jesus Christ they were like the eunuch was in the 8th chapter of Acts. He said, "Here is water, what prohibits me from being baptized?"
 
Going! Winning! Baptizing!  There's another one.
 
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. That is, get them involved in a Sunday school class.
Teach people to live the Christian life. The Christian life is not something that is just a matter of information; it's a matter of application. It's not just a matter of what you believe; it's a matter of how you behave.
 
After you accept Christ and have been baptized and are now in the fellowship of a church, you should be more pleasant at home. You should be a better worker on the job. You should behave better at school. Your life should be better if you are now a disciple of the Lord Jesus.
 
We’ve seen His power and plan. Now I want you to hear
 
3. His Promise
 
Verse 20
 
What a promise.  If you obey His “go”, then you
can claim His “lo”. We know that Jesus is with us always. His very name, Emmanuel” assures us He is always with us.
 
That's His personal presence. But put it in context. He's making a special application.  When you go and witness and seek to win people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in a special way He is with you for that specific purpose and always will be.
 
Let me tell you about someone who believed and lived that.  Her name was Martha Myers.  She was born March 13, 1945.
 
 
 
When she was 10 years old, her family moved to Montgomery, Alabama.  She graduated from Lee High School in Montgomery in 1963, having received many honors, including selection as a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist.
 
After graduating from Samford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Martha attended the University of Alabama in Birmingham. After her third year of medical school, she participated in the Foreign Mission Board receptorship program, which allowed her to spend two months in Jibla Baptist Hospital in Yemen. This experience cemented her call to medical missions and specifically her mission to serve in Yemen.
 
Martha returned home after her receptorship, finished her senior year of medical school and completed her internship and residency in obstetrics at the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile. Following her time in Mobile, she studied at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. After seminary she spent a few months in the Polyglot School Ltd., in London, England, which provided the foundation for her mastery of the Arabic language.
 
Because of her earlier work with the FMB at Jibla hospital in Yemen, Dr. Martha Myers was sent back to the Hospital, which was an 80 bed facility that treated 40,000 patients yearly. She initially worked six days a week, spending two days in surgery, two days in the outpatient clinic, and two days traveling to villages in the surrounding area to administer inoculations and to teach the people about health care.
In fact, her ministry to the surrounding villages came to occupy a majority of her time. She spent most of her days in a Toyota Land Cruiser, covering hundreds of miles of rough, almost impassable roads over high mountains.
 
She would arrive at a village after a long, tiring journey, work tirelessly, sometimes even sleeping in the village if it was too late to return home. If called to see a specific patient, she would treat them no matter what time she arrived, often throwing stones to awaken a household at 3:00 a.m. if necessary because she had given her word that she would come.
 
As hostilities in Yemen increased, Dr. Myers was kidnapped.  Armed men hijacked her Toyota, forced her to lie down in the back, threw a rug over her and threatened to kill her if she spoke. "Well, I'll be in heaven," was her reply. The men soon abandoned Myers and the vehicle when it stalled.
 
Somebody asked her if she had known she would be shot would she have gone there. She said, "Oh, I would have come whether I was going to be shot or not."
 
The FMB decided to close the Jibla hospital, making December 30, 2002, the last day that the hospital in Yemen was to be open. Dr. Myers had been working there 25 years.  When the gates to the hospital opened that day, Abed Abdel Razzek Kamel, a member of an al-Qaida cell that had killed a political leader in the capital city of Yemen just a few days before, walked into the hospital compound with a concealed weapon, which he cradled in his arms as if it were a baby.
Kamel followed Myers into a meeting and opened fire, shooting her in the head, killing her instantly.  Two other missionaries were also killed. Kamel's actions were prompted by an earlier visit his wife had made to the hospital. Upon her return, she spoke highly of Myers, noting that no Muslim doctor had ever treated her with such love and compassion. Kamel knew he had to kill Dr. Myers to keep her from spreading Christianity in Yemen.  Martha was killed doing what she loved, in the place where God wanted her to be. It was her wish to be buried in Yemen and her family honored that wish.
 
Ironically, in trying to stop the spread of Christ's love in Yemen, Kamel served to reveal His love to the world through the broadcasts of Martha Myers' death, which showed her Christ-centered dedication to those in need.  Reports began to come in that
the hearts of those in Yemen touched by her ministry are broken, and are especially tender and because of her death, thousands of people in Yemen came to
know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
 
Why was she over there in such a dangerous place? It's because Dr. Martha Myers took seriously these words, "Go ye, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them." She was willing to die to obey and to do the main business of the church.
 
Now it just seems to me that if people like Dr. Martha Myers are willing to die to carry out the church's main business, we ought to be willing to live right here in Ardmore in obedience to the command of our Lord.
 
Let’s pray