The Mission of the Church- Matthew 28:18-20

We are at a natural dividing point before Rod takes on the next section of Colossians. And given that, Lord willing, little Dallas will be making his appearance into the world soon, I did not want to start the next section of Job only to stop for a couple of weeks.

I asked several people for input on preaching, and the theme of the Great Commission came up. And one of my personal goals as an individual and a goal as a pastor of this church is to be more mindful of the lost.

With that in mind, I want to preach a sermon about the Mission of the Church. There is a lot that could, and probably should be said about the mission of the church as there is a great deal of confusion. We are addressing the mission. Everything else a church does should flow from or depend upon this divinely-given mandate.

The mission of the church can be summarized by the Lord Jesus’s commandment in Matthew 28:18-20.

I. The Christ of the Great Commission

The beginning of the Great Commission is not, as some my think, the command to go. No, before Christ issues his command, He makes an astounding statement. Matthew records this in 28:17, “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, nut some were doubtful.”

Then Christ tells them all authority is His on heaven and earth. There is not a realm of existence that Christ is not KING of kings and LORD of lords over. I love the words of R. B. Kuiper,

“The disciples must have been shocked when the Lord commissioned them to make disciples of all the nations. That assignment was nothing short of overwhelming. It was a case of eleven men against the world, of eleven relatively ignorant men of the most despised nation under the sun against all the power and wisdom of the world. That feeble, by human standards utterly neglibigle, band was given orders to conquer the glory that was Greece and the grandeur and might of the world-spanning Roman empire, together with whatever wild tribes might be dwelling beyond Caesar’s domain.

‘Impossible!’ they thought. ‘Utterly impossible!’ they reasoned. ‘Unthinkable!’ they felt.

Their Commander knew their thoughts. But His thoughts were higher, infinitely higher. Said He in effect: ‘Did you in your own strength confide, your striving would indeed be losing. But remember that you are not alone. I, the man of God’s own choosing, am on your side. Lord Sabaoth is My name. Mine are all authority and all power on earth and in heaven. Yes, even Satan and all his host cannot so much as stir without My permission.’” R. B. Kuiper, God-Centered Evangelism

We cannot even think of carrying out the Great Commission unless we remember the rise, sovereign Lord Jesus.

Thus, our mission is guaranteed to accomplish what Christ desires. He cannot lose. It is from this place of solid, peaceful, resolution, that we receive and hear the command of the Great Commission.

II. The Command of the Great Commission- “Go, Make Disciples…”

There is one word and one phrase that I want to examine with this command. The command is to make disciples. In order to do this, or as a part of doing this, they were told to go, to travel, to go from one area to another. The extent of this command is “all nations.”

We could phrase is like this, “Now that you are going, make disciples from every where.”

This simple to grasp mentally, but difficult, it would seem, to enact practically. So let me offer a few brief considerations.

This command applies to every disciple of Christ, as is well defended by the great Baptist Missionary William Carey. In his work, An Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heaven, Carey lists out objections and strong replies as to why this Great Commission task is still in effect, but I think John Piper’s words, which are considerably shorter, capture the heart of this issue.

“Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” John Piper

There are people that God will save that need to hear the Gospel, believe the Gospel, and then be discipled in the Gospel. That is the great work of the church.

So, every disciple is commanded to make disciples. But we understand that looks different for different people. Hannah, with six kids and one on the way, will make disciples differently than say a retired man of 80+ years.

A full-time employee at a production plant will not have the same type of disciple-making ministry as a part-time treasurer. In other words, the command is inclusive (all disciples) but not constricting (it has to be done this way by all disciples at all times).

Your going and making disciples may be staying at home, working with the kids, and living and sharing the Gospel with them. Your going and making disciples may be volunteering at the Crisis Center, tangibly showing the love of Christ through mercy ministries and praying with those in need. It is binding on all without being constricting.

Our responsibility, then, in making disciples, is to take advantage of the opportunities afforded to us by our sovereign Lord Jesus. If He has placed you in a field of employment, seek ways to make disciples. If you are a carer for the home, seek ways to make disciples.

I think we all get the point. But what does making disciples look like? In other words, how can we tell we are making disciples? There are two additional ways, and I refer to these as the components of the Great Commission.

III. The Components of the Great Commission

There are two words that expand on the idea of making disciples. They involve baptizing and teaching. In other words, we cannot say we are making disciples if we are not baptizing and teaching them. There is an unfortunate view of missions that only seeks to see people saved and then leaves them to whatever churches are in the area. A very famous evangelist in recent history took that approach.

This is not obeying the Great Commission. Neither is simply aiming at having so many baptisms per year. That is another unfortunate view that has emerged in recent years. They call them “spontaneous baptisms,” where the church fills up the baptistry and baptizes anyone that wants to be baptized. For one, that demeans and weakens the beauty of baptism (like we discussed a few weeks ago), but it also fails to obey the Lord Jesus’s Great Commission command.

So, what does it look like?

A. Baptize Disciples

When God saves an individual, we baptize them in the Name of the Trinity. Or, we use the Trinitarian formula. In our baptisms we declare our adherence to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We are displaying the incredible work of God through the sacrament of baptism. It is a mystery, showing how our union with Christ, His life, burial, and resurrection, change us from sons and daughters of disobedience to children of God.

A word of caution here is needed as well. We are commanded to make disciples, that is true. But Scripture equally reminds us that the results are up to God, not to us. 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 clearly teaches this, especially 1 Corinthians 3:6 “6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” If we send missionaries, or if you share the gospel, and we see little to no fruit, that is God’s prerogative. Adoniram Judson, missionary to Burma, labored for six years before seeing one convert. Jeff Lovin also shared how little, visible fruit he enjoyed while serving in Afghanistan. We disciple, going and baptizing and (as we will see shortly) teaching, and God provides the growth.

So baptism is one part of making disciples, the second is to teach.

B. Teach Disciples

If we are obedient to the Great Commission, we will teach those whom God saves. And Christ specifies what our instruction material should be: “all that I have commanded you.” Or, we could say, teach them God’s Word, whether given in the Old Testament in mystery or revealed in the New Testament clearly.

What do these two parts of making disciples sound like when put together? Have you ever considered this? It sounds an awful lot like a church, does it not? You have baptism, and all things commanded by Christ, which would include pastors, the ordinances (including the Lord’s Supper), and the church.

In other words, we are called to plant churches in all nations. That is the mission of the church.

And keep in mind this is a difficult task. We live in the world, a place that opposes God in a variety of ways. We operate in a fallen world with fallen people. We have spiritual enemies that we cannot see. People are killed for their faith. Just in our particular denomination, Baptists, we have seen countless imprisonments, beatings, and deaths.

To give one example of an early Baptist forefather here in the Colonies, Obadiah Holmes was whipped 30 times for believing the Lord’s commands to make disciple and baptize them. He was beaten, by the way, by Puritans, simply for teaching and practicing believer’s baptism. In his whipping (which was the same punishment as adultery, raper, and counterfeiting, by the way), Holmes told the magistrates, “you have struck me as with roses, and, although the Lord hath made it easy to me, yet I pray God it may not be laid to your charge.”

“You have struck me as with roses, and, although the Lord hath made it easy to me, yet I pray God it may not be laid to your charge.” Obadiah Holmes

Why could Holmes make such an astounding claim? Because of the Comfort of the Great Commission.

“Observed regularly, baptism and the Lord’s Supper teach the congregation the basic truths of our gospel. Taken together, these two ordinances not only fulfill the Lord’s command but also serve as beautiful public testimonies to the sum and substance of the gospel.” Kelley, Land, and Mohler, BF&M Study Guide, 99.

IV. The Comfort of the Great Commission- “I am with you”

We will not dwell long on this sweet and precious truth, but notice how Christ begins and ends the Great Commission.

“All authority is mine…and I am with you.”

The Great Commission, church planting, if you will, is the mission of the church. It is our privilege, and responsibility, and Christ-given and Christ-sustained goal of life.

Are you making disciples?

Are we making disciples?

Do you need to become a disciple?