What do we do in the Great Commission?

Intro

· (Read Matthew 28:16-20)

· Last sermon was doctrine-heavy, we didn’t have much in the way of practical application

· Today’s sermon will be application-heavy; while last week’s sermon was on the who of the Great Commission, this week will be on the what of the Great Commission

· I want to read a quote from John Piper: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.”[1]

· Missions exists because worship doesn’t.

o Christians intuitively know we ought to worship God

o When we have been redeemed by the cross of Christ, when our hearts have been changed, we instinctively want to share this good news with others

o But the world does not join us in this; false worship and idolatry abounds

§ Pagans grovel before statues

§ They engage in idolatrous, immoral practices

§ They parade around statues of Buddha, or Mary, or Vishnu

§ They engage in “holy war” to kill infidels

§ Societies revel in immorality; they gleefully kill the unborn, they celebrate sexual perversion, they oppress the poor, the widow, and the orphan

o Our Triune God does not enter into their thinking; Christ is unknown to them

o They live without hope and without God; they live a life of misery in their sin

o But the misery does not end there – these men and women will die in their sins, will face the just wrath of God for their sins, and will justly spend an eternity in hell for their rebellion

o No hope, no joy, no peace

o Do we have any obligation in view of this?

· Believer, we have been redeemed by the cross of Christ; God saved us, not so we would retreat into a holy huddle, but for a purpose

o He saved us to proclaim His glory to the nations, to proclaim Christ

· Summary: God has called each church to grow and reproduce by making disciples who know, obey, and worship God

The Subject of the Command – the Church

· We first need to examine to whom was the Great Commission given? Who is the subject of the command?

o If your instinct is to say, “it was given to Christians!” you’d be correct, but we need to make sure we draw that conclusion correctly

o We want both the correct conclusion and to get there in the correct way

Command to the Apostles

· What you should notice first is that, when the command is originally given, the command was given to the eleven, to the apostles

o Look at our passage, starting in verse 16: “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them…”

o The original audience was specifically the apostles

o They were the first ones to receive this commission from Christ

· But from there we see that in Acts 1, Jesus tells the apostles that they will be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth

o There is an expansion of the command, a spreading out

o And when Pentecost occurs in Acts 2, the apostles go out and preach in Jerusalem; thousands come to faith, and the first New Testament church is formed in Jerusalem, led by the apostles

Carried on by the Church

· So the command that was originally given to the apostles, is then further carried out by the church

o This church in Jerusalem ends up sending out others, who then plant churches

o Some flee due to persecution, others are founded by the apostles when they go to new towns

o Throughout the book of Acts, when we see Paul on his missionary journeys, he goes into various towns, preaches the gospel…and plants churches

o And Paul was himself sent out from the local church at Antioch on his missionary journeys

· So what we see is that while the command was originally given to the apostles, it is carried on by the church

o It is carried on by the church of all ages, that body of believers that have existed throughout time

o More specifically, it is carried on by local churches

o And so, since it is carried out by local churches, it is therefore carried out by those Christians who are part of a local church

The Heart of the Command – Discipleship

· Now that we know to whom the command is given, what is the command itself? What action is at the heart of the Great Commission?

· Four verbs in the command: go, make disciples, teach, baptize

o These are the four constituent elements of Christ’s command in the Great Commission

· However, in the original Greek, the verbs are not all constructed the same way

o The verb for “making disciples” is written as an imperative, while the others function more like adjectives

o In other words, “making disciples” is the main verb of this passage, and the other three (going, teaching, baptizing) are all describing this main verb

o So, there is in Christ’s command a single core imperative – make disciples

§ The other verbs (going, teaching, baptizing) all support this one command

§ They describe what it means to make disciples

§ Making disciples involves going, teaching, and baptizing

· This means that discipleship is at the heart of the Great Commission!

o Disciples are those who follow Jesus

o Disciples don’t merely repeat a prayer, raise a hand, or merely profess belief

o Discipleship involves the whole of life; it is not something done easily, but instead, it is costly

· Not only this, but this is making disciples of every nation

o This is not merely a domestic activity, one which we can carry out in our own little corner without concern for the rest of the world

o All the souls of every man, woman, and child in the world belong to Christ, and it is our duty to seek them out and call them to faith

o The word for “nations” is not about nation-states, like the United States, or China, or Mexico

o The root word for nation that Jesus uses in this passage is “ethne” from which we get our word “ethnic”

o The command is to go to every people group, regardless of geopolitical boundary

o This means the command is not just for Jews, but for Gentiles as well! We are Gentiles, and so we believe because someone in our past brought the Gospel to the Gentiles in obedience to the Great Commission

· The Great Commission is not merely about making converts

o Yes, making converts is part of the Great Commission, but we cannot reduce the Great Commission down to this

o No doubt you’ve heard stories of speakers who go out and hold rallies or conferences, who show a Jesus video, hold a concert, or some such stuff, and they come back and say that 10,000 people made decisions for Jesus, but these people are never plugged in to a local church, they are not taught, nothing happens; it’s just a “we have converts!” and that’s it

o Or maybe you’ll hear that a “missionary” will go into a town, find an unbeliever who is willing to repeat a story given them by the missionary to two or three other people, and this small group – usually lead by an unbeliever! – is called a “church” and all the people involved are called Christians!

§ What’s incredible is that this approach is called the “Disciple-Making Movement”!

o But there is no discipleship in these cases; there isn’t even conversion!

· But discipleship is hard! It takes time! Shouldn’t we push to get as many converts as we can as quickly as we can? After all, aren’t thousands passing into eternity every day?

o It is true that discipleship is costly; it is true that discipleship takes time

o But our Lord’s command is to make disciples; do we care more about the lost than our tender-hearted shepherd who wept over Jerusalem?

o Jesus encountered countless numbers of lost people; He cared about their conversion, He died for them

o But He did not go after cheap conversions; He pursued discipleship

o Christ did the hard, time-consuming work of making disciples

o And we see the results – a religion that has spread to the ends of the earth

o So we pursue discipleship, not because it’s easy, but because it is how Christ intends to grow His church; we pursue Christ’s methods, not our own

· So when we look to partner with someone in the proclamation of the gospel, we need to find out what their emphasis is

o Are they looking to pump up numbers of converts?

o Or are they looking to do the hard work of discipleship?

· With that in mind, let’s examine those three aspects of discipleship: going and sending, teaching, and baptism

Going and Sending – from the Church

· So what’s the first step in making disciples?  You have to – go!

o Disciples don’t show up fully formed

o In fact, disciples don’t start that way; they start as unbelievers, dead in their sins, hating God and ignorant of His Word

o These unbelievers don’t usually show up at church; in fact, billions of people have never even heard of Christ!

· We must go to them!

o Romans 10:14-15: How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

o We are the envoys of the King, the messengers of the King! We have a glorious message of good news of what God has done for us in Christ!

o If men are ignorant of this news, we must go to them to tell them!

o Our job is not to call down judgment on men, but to share with them good news, to share with them what God has done for us in Christ, as one beggar telling another where to find bread

· The very first step of being a disciple is to confess faith in Christ

o We must go to them, show them the fact that they are sinners, and point them to the good news of the Gospel

o But this is itself not a quick task; we must learn the language, learn the culture, and translate the Bible, often into languages without a written alphabet!

· But we not only go out, we must be sentout

o Can just anyone raise their hand and on their own go to do mission work?

o No.  We go, if we have been sent, and more specifically, sent by a local church

· Every single time someone goes to proclaim the gospel, to serve as a missionary, they are also sent

o The apostles were specifically sent by Christ

o Paul and Barnabas were sent by the church at Antioch

o We don’t send ourselves; if we are called to mission work, to take the gospel to the nations, we must be sent

o And when missionaries are sent, they are sent to plant and grow churches

o This is how the church reproduces – it sends people out, who then plant more churches, who themselves then send people out to plant churches, and so on

· But you don’t have to be sent to share the Gospel!

o Christ has called us, both men and women, to be His witnesses, not just abroad, but in our own cities, in our neighborhoods

o Your neighbors need the Gospel, your families need the Gospel

o God in His providence has placed you in a specific family, in a specific neighborhood, and places people in your path, and these are opportunities to share the gospel!

o So even if this isn’t “going”, of doing the work of someone set apart for missionary work, it is still sharing the gospel, and sharing the gospel is essential, for we cannot do any other piece of the Great Commission without it

Teaching – by the church

· But once we proclaim the Gospel, once we make converts, we don’t stop there

o That’s simply the first stage of the Great Commission

o Christ’s command is to make disciples, and so while a disciple must first be a convert, he must not stop there

· This brings us to the next element in the Great Commission – “teaching them to observe all I have commanded you”

o This is applying the Word of God to all of life

o Notice the comprehensiveness of this command – “all I have commanded you”

o This is a reference to all that Christ taught – which would include all of Scripture

· Ethical or moral

o This is how we ought to live as Christians

o This covers how Christians ought to live as parents, as children, as employees, as employers, as citizens, as church members

o It covers how Christians ought to treat each other, how they ought to worship God

o It covers all the duties that God requires of man

· Doctrinal

o This also covers all that we are to believeabout God

o The Christian faith is not merely about ethics and morals

o What sets the Christian faith apart is what we believe; this includes things like the Trinity, who Jesus is, what the Gospel is, the hope of the resurrection and eternal life, and numerous other things

o Romans 12:2 commands us “be transformed by the renewal of your mind”, and so we must care about the doctrinal, the theological; digging deep on theology is a command of our Lord

· If we are to make disciples, we must teach them

o This also highlights the importance of Bible translation; how are people to know Christ’s commands if the Bible is never translated into their language?

· This command to teach is carried out by the church

o This is church-centered teaching, and it is why the ability to teach is one of the qualifications for elders in churches

o The church is the hub where this teaching takes place! The primary area for teaching is what we do every week: teaching in the sermon, in our songs, in our prayers, in celebrating the Lord’s Supper

o But as with going, God has providentially placed people in your life who you can teach, such as your children and grandchildren

o Even if you are not an elder in a church, you, both men and women, can still teach your children and grandchildren; don’t neglect this opportunity and duty!

Baptism – entering into the church

· We keep talking about the centrality of the church in the Great Commission, so this naturally presents the question: how does one enter into the church?

o This brings us to our last element of the Great Commission – baptism

· Baptism is that action by which we are brought into the church

o It is the initiation rite of the church

o We are brought into the church of all ages through faith

o We are brought into the visible church, those local gatherings of believers, by baptism

· It is a sign of God’s promise to us and how we publicly identify with the people of God

· It is in baptism that we confess our belief in our Triune God, in which we attest to our faith in Christ and His work on the cross, in which we renounce sin and the devil

· And it is baptism that opens the doors for us to enjoy the other benefits of membership, in particular the Lord’s Supper

· So when we make disciples, we are calling them not merely to place their faith in Christ, but calling them into a community

o If we simply make converts, if we simply give them a set of moral commands, we have not accomplished the Great Commission

o These individuals must be brought into the visible community of faith

· We should also see that baptism is notsomething that can be done apart from the church

o You cannot do this individually; only local churches can baptize

o You cannot baptize others; you cannot baptize your neighbors, your kids, your grandkids, your friends

o This is an activity that must be done by the church and only by the church

o This also highlights why the sending of missionaries must be done by the church; these missionaries must themselves baptize converts

o If only churches and not individuals can baptize, these missionaries must have been properly sent by a church, to baptize on their behalf

What’s Not Part of the Command?

· We’ve looked at what the Great Commission doesinclude, but what does it not include?

o Are there any activities which do not fall under the Great Commission?

o Well, there are obvious ones – sinful activities!

§ We cannot pursue righteous ends through unrighteous means; we are to avoid even the appearance of evil

o But there are other activities which are otherwise good, but which are not part of the mission of the church

· Anything not church-focused

o Each of the aspects of discipleship we looked at – going and sending, teaching, and baptism – all centered on the church

o If it’s an activity that’s divorced from the church, then it’s not part of the Great Commission

· Social/political/environmental action detached from disciple-making and gospel proclamation

o Maybe it’s doing humanitarian work, like digging wells or teaching English

§ Are these good things? Yes! But are they part of the Great Commission? No, because they do not involve teaching and baptizing

o But these things can be part of Great Commission if they’re a means for the proclamation of the gospel

§ Medical missions is part of the Great Commission, because providing medical care is intended as an avenue for sharing the gospel

§ Same goes for humanitarian work or educational centers which are used to proclaim the gospel and teach biblical truth

§ This is why our food cupboard intentionally includes evangelism and preaching the gospel to those who come

o Or how about social or political action

§ Maybe it’s voting or running for elected office

§ Are those things wrong? Not at all! Christians have the liberty to be engaged in government

§ But controlling the levers of power is not part of the Great Commission

· It’s not that the church has nothing to say about morality in the public square

· But the purpose of the church is not in partisan politics, but in proclaiming the Gospel

· Every time we see someone in the New Testament speak to some ruler on issues of morality, it’s always set in the context of calling that person to repent of their sins and believe the gospel

· It’s true that the Bible does speak to social, political, environmental, and humanitarian issues

o We ought not be ashamed to be clear on what the Bible teaches on these subjects and to speak on issues of morality, such as the evils of abortion or racism; we ought to teach what the Bible says on all aspects of life

o But the church is not a political party; it is not a humanitarian agency; and we do violence to Christ’s purpose for the church when we turn the church into it

o Our task is an eternal task; our eyes are fixed on eternity

o Politicians come and go every four years or so; humanitarian problems will always be present; but the souls of men and women are eternal, and the glory of God is incalculable – this is the emphasis of the church

Application – No Solo Christians!

· We’ve spent a few minutes discussing the theology of the “what” of the Great Commission, but we could’ve spent much longer on it

o Baptism, theology of preaching, doctrine of the church, theology of discipleship are all things we could have spent much longer on

· But how can we, our own small church in a small town in eastern Florida, be involved in the Great Commission? Here are five ways we can, though this list isn’t comprehensive

Missionary Development and Support

· The first application is the necessity of developing and supporting missionaries

· A church ought to send out only elder-qualified men into the mission field

o We should be praying that God will raise up in our midst elder-qualified men and their families, who are willing to dedicate themselves to going and proclaiming the gospel

o We should encourage those who are elder-qualified to consider this possibility, and we should encourage each other to pursue these qualifications so that one day we might send someone

· But even if we don’t ever send someone, we can support those who do!

o This is why we are looking to partner with elder-qualified, established missionaries, who have been properly sent by or are connected with a church, who love the Gospel, who love the truths of the Bible

o The pioneering missionary to India, William Carey, once said, “I will go down into the mine that is India, but you must hold the rope.”

o The senders are just as important as the ones who are sent! Those who are sent, must be supported by those who stay behind

o As they go into dark, pagan places, we, both men and women, can hold the rope for them

· So when Juan Hernandez comes to visit, it is our obligation to make sure we vet him, and if God is calling us to support him, we ought to enthusiastically offer our prayers and our resources to aid him

Preaching and Teaching in the Church

· The second application is the centrality of preaching and teaching in the life of the church

o If it is a priority to Christ because He includes it in the Great Commission, we must make this a priority in our church

o Just as the early Christians devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles, so must we dedicate ourselves to the preaching and teaching of the Word

o The chief avenue for this is weekly worship on the Lord’s Day

o We must not absent ourselves from weekly worship

o We must come ready to be taught, to learn, to listen

· So make it a point to dedicate yourself to worshipping with the saints and to be taught

· Moreover, whichever missionary we decide to support, these individuals should likewise be dedicated to preaching and teaching in the church

o Preaching and teaching the Word of God must be central to all they do

How Christians are to Live in the World

· The third application is understanding how we as Christians are to live in the world

· I said earlier that the Great Commission is not a charge for political, or humanitarian, or social action

o But the Bible does speak to how Christians ought to live in each of those arenas

o It teaches what righteousness and justice is in each of these spheres

o It teaches how Christians ought to engage in business, in family affairs, in politics, in every arena

o And it teaches how we are to live in the church, how we are to treat each other, how the church should be organized

o It teaches how we ought to engage with unbelievers

· And God has ordained the church where we can learn this and live it out

o We not only learn these things, as we discussed in our previous application, but we also get to encourage each other and build each other up

o God has not called us out of the world, but to holiness in the world, and we need encouragement from each other to stay the path of holiness

o God has given us the gift of each other, to strengthen each other when we are weak, to encourage each other when we falter, to comfort each other in grief

o God has given deacons to serve the church in this way, and so we ought to pray that God would raise up many more in our church who would be willing to serve

o But we can also take steps ourselves, to love one another, to serve the orphan and the widow, to strengthen the fainthearted

Worship

· The thing is, non-church organizations can theoretically do everything I’ve listed so far: they can serve, they can teach, they can support missionaries

o But something that is distinctively an activity of a Christian church is worship!

o This is our fourth application – worship

· If we stop short of worship, we have ultimately stopped short of fulfilling the Great Commission

o Look at verse 17: “and when they saw Him [Jesus], they worshipped Him”

o This is the context in which Christ gives this Great Commission – worship!

· You see, we gather to worship

o Our whole lives ought to be marked by worship, worship of our Triune God, worship of our risen Savior

· The sending, the teaching, the living, should all revolve around worship of our God

o This is not a matter of singing five songs every Lord’s Day

o It covers what we do every Lord’s day, it covers the mundane of our day-to-day lives throughout the week, it covers everything!

o Our lives ought to be bathed in worship, in prayer, in gathering with the saints, in reading Scripture, in meditating on God

· And this is why we must so carefully vet who we support as missionaries – are their lives and ministries marked by the worship of God? Is that their goal? Is that their purpose?

· Missions exists because worship doesn’t.

No Solo Christians!

· The fifth and final application is that there is no such thing as a solo Christian

· If you are a Christian, this command applies to you!

· You see, if the Great Commission is about making disciples who observe all of Jesus’ commands, one of those commands is…the Great Commission itself!

· Jesus commands you to follow the Great Commission

o The Great Commission is not for extra special Christians, extra holy Christians, only those with special skills and special callings

o If you are a disciple, male or female, you are commanded by your Lord to be involved in disciple-making

· But this command to you is not a command to go off by yourself

o Look again at all these commands: people are sent from the church, are taught by the church, baptized into the church

o This command, even though it applies to you personally, is a corporate command

o You cannot carry out this command individually

o This command is intended by our Lord to be carried out by the church

o While the command cannot be accomplished without the involvement of each individual member, it cannot be carried out divorced from the church

· This goes to show that Christians themselves cannot be separated from the church

o If our Lord’s command applies to you, you yourself must be part of a local church

o The sending, teaching, and baptism are all done by local churches

o Not only has Christ commanded these activities to be done by the church, the way you are to receive it is in the church

o Christ expects you, commands you, to be part of a local church

o Your life as a Christian is a life of community, the community of the church

Conclusion

· The Christian life is not intended to be lived alone

o The Christian life is a life in community

o It is a life of learning, of service, of worship

· Believer, you are called to do this, not merely out of a since of obligation, but out of gratitude for what God has done for you in Christ

· So go forth and obey this Great Commission, not out of a sense of guilt, but out of love and gratitude for the Savior who loved you and gave Himself for you

o And as you do so, you will find a Spirit-given fire to serve the Lord, with eager anticipation of that great day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father

[1] John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 35.