What is the Great Commission and Who is Responsible?

Fulfilling the Great Commission

Week 1: What is the Great Commission and Who is responsible?

Week 2: Going in Evangelism and Missions

Week 3: Pre-conversion Discipleship

Week 4: Leading to Christ and Baptism

Week 5: Discipling a new believer

Week 6: Discipling towards maturity

Week 1: What is the Great Commission and Who is responsible?

Tonight, as we start a 5 or 6 week study on the Great Commission, I want to start by asking how familiar different ones are with the Great Commission. What are some of the elements of the Great Commission that you can recall off the top of your head? (PAUSE)

Thank you for those responses. It is crucial we take some time to reflect on the what of the Great Commission tonight, along with those who are responsible for this task. So, let’s start with looking at What is the Great Commission. If you have a Bible, you would be helped in turning to Matthew 28:16-20. This is the most prominent place the Great Commission is given to us from Christ himself prior to his ascension.

While you are opening to Matthew 28:16-20, I want to lay out why I think time spent here is crucial. Apart from us knowing our marching orders, we as the church will run aimlessly. Unless we set our focus rightly on fulfilling the Great Commission, we will be distracted from the mission and wandering in the wilderness aimlessly. The Great Commission is the task that is left unfinished. And we as the church are called to take our part in fulfilling it. Here these lines from the hymn Facing a Task Unfinished from Keith and Krystin Getty:

“Facing a task unfinished

That drives us to our knees

A need that, undiminished

Rebukes our slothful ease

We, who rejoice to know Thee

Renew before Thy throne

The solemn pledge we owe Thee

To go and make Thee known

Where other lords beside Thee

Hold their unhindered sway

Where forces that defied Thee

Defy Thee still today

With none to heed their crying

For life, and love, and light

Unnumbered souls are dying

And pass into the night

This is the mission that is left to us, this is the mission we are going to spend the next 6 weeks looking at, thinking about, equipping, and Lord willing mobilizing around our city and the world with.

So now, we come to the Great Commission that is given to us in Matthew 28:18-20. But, for the sake of context, let’s read starting there in verse 16 (READ).

Jesus has already risen, he is appearing here to his disciples to give them their marching orders. But prior to giving these marching orders, he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” All authority is in the hands of Christ our King. All authority is given to him, nothing is left outside of his control and power. Therefore, we need to pay close attention to what Jesus is telling us then. We need to listen and obey. Do you catch this? There is no greater task we are being given then. For the authority belongs to Jesus. No one can send us on a more important mission than Christ our King. But, go ahead and drop down with me to verse 20, even in what Jesus calls us to go out on, he doesn’t send us alone. For he says there in the final sentence of Matthew’s gospel, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As Jesus sends us, he is the one both with authority who sends us and he is with us as the one who has all authority. We are not alone as we are sent on this mission, Christ is with us. And what more could we need if the King of glory is there with us in the mission we are given?

What mission is this that we keep building to? The mission is to go therefore and make disciples. Here in verse 19-20, we are going to get grammatically technical for a moment. In this whole mission, the main verb, the main imperative is to make disciples. The go, baptizing, and teaching are all participles that help us understand what it means to make disciples. I draw this out to help us to understand that all of this is part of what it means to make disciples. Our primary task and mission given to us as disciples of Jesus is to make other disciples of Jesus. This is the mission given to every follower of Jesus, this isn’t something that is negotiable. And yet, this has been the part lacking in so many churches for so many years. The aim isn’t to get decisions for Christ, the aim isn’t to get conversions. No, the aim is to make disciples of Jesus.

To help us understand this difference, let's look at the defining participles used in helping us understand this task of making disciples.

Go

The first participle that helps us understand the task in making disciples is the participle go. Before we go any further here, we need to understand that in the Old Testament, Israel was a come and see model for people to come and see what God was doing in their midst. Now, with this word go, it is redefining this in that the church is not a come and see mission, but a mission that goes to the people. In particular the task of making disciples is to spread to all nations. Some through the years have tried to say that this should say make disciples as you go. This is certainly partially true. We are to be making disciples as we go throughout our daily lives. However, by understanding it as therefore go, we need to understand the intentional nature of the task to make disciples. It isn’t something we can be passive about, but are called to be intentional in. We are to be intentional in going to others in our city, in our region, and to the nations to make disciples.

Baptize

The second defining participle of making disciples is seen in that we are to be baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we are to go and make disciples and baptize them. Now, does this mean that we just go and baptize anyone and everyone? Absolutely not. There is a background that is understood in this call to baptize and it is seen in Acts 2 even, that baptism is to follow repentance from sins and a trust in Jesus. Therefore, part of making disciples is leading them to make a decision and come to faith in Christ. We make disciples as new people profess faith in Jesus and declare to follow him, starting with the step of obedience in baptism. As good baptists, we know that this means by a believers baptism by emerging them under water. None of that sprinkling.

Let’s pause here, any questions so far?

Teaching

The final participle given to help define the task to make disciples is teaching. The call here is to teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded us. Making disciples is a call to teaching others what it means to follow Jesus. To quote Mark Dever, “Discipling is helping others follow Jesus.” This means that teaching and learning should always be happening in our Christian lives. For we are always to be learning and growing ourselves, as well as helping others learn and grow in their walk with Christ.

Summing up the Great Commission

“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.” This is the commission we are given as Christ followers. And this is the commission that we as a church must have as our focus and mission. If we take our eyes off this mission, then everything else we do will be missing the aim of our Christian walk. We can do all the good we want in our community, but if we miss the task of the Great Commission, we fail to make disciples of Jesus. We can have all the outreach programs we want, but if we fail to be about making whole disciples of Jesus, we miss the point. We can have numbers sky-rocket, but if we fail to make disciples we have missed the point.

What are some ways that we have struggled in the past to see this reality of the Great Commission needing to be central?

Who is responsible for this task?

Having seen what the Great Commission is, we now need to think through who is responsible for fulfilling this task. This task is given to the church as its mission. Well, starting with the Great Commission, it is clearly without distinction given to the eleven disciples. But, if you will turn with me to Acts 1:8. It says here, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Here Jesus is with his disciples, but it is more than the 11, for we see the company was about 120 in Acts 1:15. And it was all the disciples of Jesus who would then receive the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. Therefore, the Great Commission is not merely left to the eleven to do and fulfill. This task was given to the churches. This is why we see Paul’s call to the church of Colossae in Colossians 1:28 in a desire to present all mature in Christ. It is to churches that are given instructions in the Pastoral Epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus that are to guard the truth and set up to instruct, carrying out the task of teaching in the Great Commission. It is the church who is called to go and bear witness and to partner with those who are taking the gospel to the unreached. We see this in Paul’s letter to the church of Phillipi in Phillipians 4:14-15 which says: “Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.” The Philippian Church partnered in financially supporting and providing for Paul’s mission to go to the nations with the gospel.

These are just some of the places in scripture we can see where it points that the duty of fulfilling the Great Commission belongs to the entire church. To quote Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert in their book What Is The Mission of the Church?, “God will make all things new, but our job in the world is to help all peoples find a new relationship with God. We are not called to bring a broken planet back to its created glory. But we are to call broken people back to their Creator.”

This is the mission that has been left to us as the church. We are to help bring broken people back to God in telling of his word to the nations.

Where do we do this mission?

One last part for us to consider this evening, the where of fulfilling the Great Commission. And that is answered for us back in Matthew 28:19, where it says make disciples of all nations.

Fulfilling the Great Commission is not just local, but it's not just foregin either. You see, there are two extreme camps when we think of evangelism and missions. There are those that say that we need to not worry about foreign missions, we just need to focus here. And then there are others that would say that the only way we fulfill the Great Commission is by going only to the nations. This second camp is more defined not in saying it this way, but how they treat missions. They get all excited about going to a foreign nation, but never share the gospel in their own city, business, school, etc.

I want to show that there is a third way in how we fulfill the Great Commission. It is a both and. We must be about fulfilling the Great Commission both locally and globally. As a Southern Baptist Church, the very reason we exist as Southern Baptists is to partner together in the sending of missionaries around the globe. Apart from this, we have no need of existence. We support the sending of missionaries to places like India, China, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Thailand, and Mongolia. We also send them to places like Southern Europe where refugees are, along as many who once had the gospel and since have left it.

At the same time, we are called to be doing our part here in fulfilling the Great Commission. Too often we think that if we give to missions, we can say our part is done. I would like to argue that is far from the case. There is a need all over the world for people to hear about Jesus. And therefore, for us to be faithful in fulfilling the Great Commission we must be doing both. We need to be sending and supporting missionaries who are going to hard to reach places, but we also must be fulfilling the Great Commission here in making disciples where we are.

Any questions?

Conclusion

The Great Commission is given to the church, and every member is to do their part in fulfilling this mission. Therefore, the mission of Central City Baptist Church must be to make disciples of all nations for the glory of God. Go therefore, and make disciples this week. And may we continue to support our IMB and NAMB workers in giving to be apart of that great work.

Let’s pray…