Sermons

Explore sermon manuscripts from True Way Christian Ministry Outreach – expository messages rooted in Scripture, designed to equip and challenge believers in their walk with Christ.

Sent with Authority: The Gospel That Releases and Retains

Matthew 28:19–20 & John 20:21–23 (KJV)

Introduction

Imagine you are a kid standing on the edge of a diving board, staring down at the water. You’re terrified, frozen, and completely unsure of your own ability to swim. Then all of a sudden you feel a pair of firm, loving hands place themselves on your shoulders. It’s your father or someone you love and trust. They don’t push you. Instead, they whisper three things in your ear: “I am right here with you. I have built you for this. Now, dive.” This puts me in mind of Peter when he saw Jesus walking on the water and asked if it was Jesus, then bid Him to call him out – and Peter began to walk on the water.

Instantly, the fear doesn’t disappear, but your confidence completely shifts. You are not operating on your own strength anymore; you are operating on His.

For three years, the disciples were essentially consumer Christians. They sat on the hillsides and ate the free bread and fish. They watched the miracles, listened to the teachings, and stayed safely behind Jesus while He took all the heat from the religious leaders. But after the resurrection, everything changes.

In Matthew 28:19–20 and John 20:21–23, Jesus corners His fragile, flawed followers and completely rewrites their job description. He doesn’t tell them to pull up a chair and keep learning. He tells them the training wheels are off. In John, He breathes on them and says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” In Matthew, He claims all authority in heaven and on earth and commands them to “go and make disciples.”

Jesus does not call us to be passive consumers of His grace, but active conduits of His glory – sent out with His absolute authority, fueled by His Holy Spirit, and sustained by His constant presence.

Primary Passages

John 20:21–23 (KJV)

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Matthew 28:18–20 (KJV)

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Literary Context

Matthew closes with a commissioning scene where the risen Christ asserts universal authority and gives a discipleship mandate. John records the risen Jesus sending the disciples, breathing the Spirit on them, and speaking of forgiveness and retention – linking mission, Spirit, and pastoral authority.

Key Words & Phrases

Key Ideas

• Authority precedes mission. Jesus’ sending is grounded in His universal lordship.
• Presence empowers mission. The Spirit makes the church Christ’s embodied presence.
• Pastoral authority serves reconciliation. The church is entrusted to declare and steward forgiveness, always under Christ and by the Spirit.

Broken Cisterns and the Illusion of Righteousness

Jeremiah 2:13 & Jeremiah 2:23 (KJV)

Introduction

Ancient Judah was a religious nation. They had the Temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the festivals, and the covenant name. Outwardly, they looked spiritual. Inwardly, they were dry, cracked, and empty.

God uses a powerful image – cisterns – to expose the spiritual condition of His people. A cistern was a man-made pit carved into rock, plastered to hold rainwater. It represented human effort, human dependence, and human preservation.

But when a cistern cracked, it became useless. It could not hold water. It could not sustain life. It could not fulfill its purpose.

God says Judah has become a broken cistern.

The Text

Jeremiah 2:13 (KJV)

“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”

Jeremiah 2:23 (KJV)

“How canst thou say, I am not polluted…?”

I. The Fountain They Forsook – God’s Sufficiency

God calls Himself “the fountain of living waters.” The Hebrew word for “fountain” is maqor – meaning a spring, a source, a continual flow.

A spring never runs dry. A spring never needs human effort. A spring never depends on the weather. A spring is living, fresh, pure, and constant.

God is saying: “I am your source. I am your supply. I am your life. And you walked away from Me.”

This is the tragedy of Judah – not ignorance, but abandonment.

II. The Cisterns They Chose – Self-Made Religion

The Hebrew word chatsab means to carve, cut, labor, chisel, work with effort. A cistern represented:

• Hard work
• Human effort
• Man-made provision
• A backup plan
• A substitute for God

Judah didn’t stop being religious. They simply replaced God-dependence with self-dependence.

• A cistern is religion without relationship.
• A cistern is worship without surrender.
• A cistern is faith without obedience.

They were busy, but they were barren. They were active, but they were empty.

III. The Condition of Their Heart – Broken and Leaking

The Hebrew word shabar means fractured, shattered, split open. A broken cistern cannot hold water, cannot sustain life, cannot fulfill its purpose, and cannot hide its emptiness.

This is the picture of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is a cracked cistern. It looks impressive on the outside, but it leaks on the inside.

Judah claimed purity: “I am not polluted…” But God says: “Your cistern tells the truth.”

IV. The Four Sins of Broken Cisterns

V. The Divine Indictment – God Exposes Their Empty Religion

God confronts Judah’s denial: “How canst thou say, I am not polluted…?”

• Their words said “clean.” Their cistern said “corrupt.”
• Their lips said “pure.” Their lives said “polluted.”
• Their religion said “holy.” Their hearts said “broken.”

God is not fooled by outward religion. He looks at the cistern – the heart – and sees the cracks.

VI. The Gospel Answer – Jesus, the True Fountain of Living Water

Jeremiah exposes the problem. Jesus provides the solution.

John 4:14 (KJV)

“The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

John 7:38 (KJV)

“Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus is the fountain Jeremiah spoke of. He is the spring Judah rejected. He is the living water that fills the cracked cistern of the human heart. Only Christ can heal the cracks, fill the emptiness, restore the soul, satisfy the heart, and replace self-righteousness with His righteousness.

VII. Application – What About Us?

We live in a world full of cisterns: careers, money, relationships, religion, morality, self-help, personal strength, and human wisdom. But every cistern cracks. Every cistern leaks. Every cistern fails.

Only Christ is the fountain.

Conclusion & Invitation

Judah’s tragedy was not that they lacked water. It was that they rejected the fountain. They chose cisterns. They chose substitutes. They chose self-righteousness. They chose emptiness.

God says: “Your cistern is broken. Come back to the fountain.”

• If your heart has become a cistern – cracked, dry, leaking – come to the fountain.
• If your religion has become nominal – empty, routine, powerless – come to the fountain.
• If your righteousness has become self-made – fragile, shallow, deceptive – come to the fountain.

Christ is the fountain of living waters. He alone can fill the empty places. He alone can heal the broken cistern. He alone can satisfy the thirsty soul.

Faith – Pistis in the Ancient and New Testament World

Koine Greek: Pistis

To understand pistis, we must strip away centuries of modern assumptions. In contemporary English, “faith” often means intellectual assent – believing a set of doctrines to be true – or a blind leap into the unknown.

In the ancient Greco-Roman and New Testament worlds, pistis was radically different. It wasn’t just a state of mind; it was a social fabric. It was concrete, relational, and deeply tied to action.

Etymology and Core Definition

At its root, the classical Greek noun pistis derives from the verb peitho, meaning “to persuade” or “to convince.” The passive sense of pistis is the state of being persuaded, while the active sense is the trust that results from that persuasion.

When looking at its usage in antiquity, the semantic range generally groups into three core concepts:

• Trust / Belief: Reliance upon the integrity, veracity, or ability of a person or thing.
• Trustworthiness / Good Faith: The quality of being reliable or loyal (fidelity).
• A Pledge / Assurance: The concrete guarantee or proof that creates trust.

The Cultural Context: Greco-Roman and Jewish Worlds

To fully grasp how early Christian writers used pistis, we must look at the two distinct worlds they inhabited.

The Greco-Roman Relational Web

In Roman society, the Latin equivalent of pistis was fides – a foundational legal, political, and social concept. Roman society operated on a network of patronage: a powerful patron provided protection and resources (beneficia); the client responded with loyalty, public honor, and service (fides). Therefore, pistis was inherently reciprocal. It wasn’t an abstract feeling; it was a relational bond that demanded ongoing loyalty and allegiance.

The Jewish Septuagint Context

When Hebrew scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek (the Septuagint), they used pistis to translate the Hebrew word emunah. Emunah is best understood as firmness, steadfastness, or fidelity. When the Old Testament speaks of God’s faithfulness, it uses emunah. When applied to humans, it means acting with integrity and enduring loyalty to a covenant. Thus, pistis inherited a deeply historical, covenantal weight: it meant staying true to a relationship over time.

Theological Shift in the New Testament

When the New Testament writers adopted pistis, they fused these cultural concepts into a distinct theological framework. The word occurs over 240 times in the New Testament, signaling its central importance.

The Problem of “The Faith of Christ” (Pistis Christou)

One of the most intensely debated areas in modern New Testament exegesis centers on the Greek phrase pistis Christou, found frequently in Paul’s letters (e.g., Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16). Grammatically, this phrase can be translated in two distinct ways:

• Objective Genitive: “Faith in Christ” (Christ is the object of human belief).
• Subjective Genitive: “The faithfulness of Christ” (Christ’s own fidelity to God’s mission).

Many contemporary scholars agree that Paul intended the subjective genitive. Under this reading, humanity is not saved merely by their own capacity to believe in Jesus, but by Jesus’s own radical loyalty and obedience to God, culminating in the crucifixion. Human pistis is a responsive alignment with Christ’s prior pistis.

Intellectual Assent vs. Embodied Allegiance

New Testament pistis explicitly rejects mere intellectual agreement. The classic text here is James 2:19: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder.”

James uses the verb form (pisteuō) to show that recognizing a fact is insufficient. True pistis requires a transformation of volition and behavior. It is a holistic orientation of a person involving:

• Notitia: Cognizant understanding of the claim.
• Assensus: Agreeing that the claim is true.
• Fiducia: Utter personal trust and reliance upon the claim, resulting in allegiance.

Summary of Meaning