Our Great Commission
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
I have had the wonderful privilege of studying under some great professors and men of God at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, NC over my time studying and preparing for the ministry.
We have the blessing in the Southern Baptist Convention of having 6 amazing seminaries, and all of them have their unique traits and features.
Spurgeon Library Image
For example, Midwestern Baptist is the site that hosts the Spurgeon Library and has many of his original manuscripts and works, including a replica of the pulpit that Spurgeon used.
You can travel West to Golden Gate Seminary and the focus is on Church Planting in Urban Environments.
If you go back east, you will find Southwestern Seminary, which is well known for church music and youth ministry, New Orleans Baptist with an emphasis in personal evangelism and church strengthening.
The historic flagship seminary is in Louisville, KY at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Then you come all the way to the East Coast and get to Southeastern Baptist in Wake Forest.
GO PULPIT LOGO
One the distinguishing marks of Southeastern is an emphasis on the Great Commission. All of our seminaries are Great Commission seminaries, but one thing that you will notice at Southeastern is that on the pulpit of the chapel and all over the publication material is a blue circle with the word GO in the middle.
There are also photo props with the words “I Am Going” and a blank for you to fill out. The emphasis of the Seminary is that we are a “going” people and have been sent out to make disciples.
I AM GOING PIC
If you had to fill out that circle logo for yourself, where would you say God has called you to go? One thing I can assure you is that your line should not be left blank.
We also should not be so vague as to simply put Laurens County, or East Dublin in the blank. We need to get specific and ask ourselves where God is calling us.
You know, we serve a very specific God. He called the church to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world to make His name known and lead others to know Christ.
This morning, we are going to take a look at our great commission and what it means for you and me.
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 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,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Pray
1. Why We God (v.18)
1. Why We God (v.18)
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth - Jesus
9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,
23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We could go on and on and on with passages from Scripture that teach that Jesus is sitting on the throne and is over all things.
Paul says in 1 Cor. 15 that Jesus is going to rule until he completes the kingdom and one day hands it over to the Father.
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
So if we ask the question, “Why should I go? Why should I care?”
The answer is very simple, God has called us to go and Jesus has all authority.
Illustration
Some of you have served in the military before, but for the rest of us who have not, we don’t have to stretch our imagination to understand how important rank is in the army and how important it is to follow orders.
Now, in the military, those orders may be correct or they may not be, but they must be followed.
Imagine what it would be like in the military for soldiers to question every decision that is made. There would be absolute chaos and disorder and the army would end up fighting itself.
Hmm......sounds somewhat like what can happen in some churches doesn’t it? We can get so distracted and off the mission that God has called us to that we begin to have disorder and chaos in the ranks. The enemy loves this, because we cannot accomplish the mission that way.
Or, we have people who think that the marching orders Christ gave us only apply to other people and not themselves. They sit back and do nothing as if they are on a cruise ship instead of manning their stations on a battle ship.
Application
What about you?
Are you submitting to the authority of Jesus by making disciples?
Paul said in 2 Tim. 2:1-2
1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
Are you being disobedient and hiding your talent in the dirt, instead of investing it in the Kingdom and submitting to the authority of Jesus.
You cannot sit on the throne of your life with Jesus. He can give you a throne around His throne in heaven, but that throne is subordinate to His. You must submit to His reign or He is not really the Lord of your life.
Does Jesus have authority or not over you?
2. What We Do (v.19-20)
2. What We Do (v.19-20)
19 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,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Go
Go
Text literally reads in the Greek, “as you are going”
Where Are You Going Story
Where are you going?
Who are you going to?
Tell
Tell
One part of our mission is simply to be obedient and tell people about Jesus
What does that look like in your life?
Tell your story of how God saved you
Teach
Teach
You are called to pass on what you know
You have to be a learner to be a disciple-maker
You have to invest in the next generation
Live
Live
Do you live what you preach?
Part of living out the great commission involves at least a few simple things
Baptism
Does not save, but what would be a reason you would not be baptized short of disobedience or a deathbed confession that prevented you from following through
Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch - what prevents me from being baptized
What is preventing you from being baptized?
Is it your pride?
Is it fear?
Is it inconvenience?
Is it disobedience?
Teaching to observe all that I’ve commanded
Lord’s Supper, Spiritual Disciplines
We live out what we say we believe because it shows how important our beliefs really are
3. How We Do It (v.20b)
3. How We Do It (v.20b)
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Does it seem like a crazy idea that we could take the gospel into all the world?
Think about it. That is an insurmountable task
The church started with 120 people at Pentecost
By the end of Acts, the church had grown to roughly 400 times the initial size estimating 48,000 believers
By the end of the New Testament, we have the church reaching to the edges of the Roman empire
Today, just based on numbers that we can gather from surveys and polls, the church is approximately 1/3 of the world’s population, or 2.2-2.4 billion people
Conclusion
Now, to be fair, the church is mixed. There are wheat and tares in the field and sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. That is why Jesus said in the parable of the wheat and tares that the workers were not to pull out the tares until the harvest. Many have looked like believers and where not. Jesus said many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not teach and perform many works in your name?” Jesus will say to them, “Depart from me, for I never knew you!”
Billy Graham once said, “I believe that thousands of church members are not saved.”
It is reported even that many pastors who preach week in and week out stand in pulpits but don’t really believe the gospel that they preach. I would imagine if their congregations knew that they were not really saved, many of them would not tolerate it, but it goes hidden.
Spurgeon in his “Lectures to My Students” wrote to future pastors,
“Take heed unto thyself, lest thou shouldst be a castaway, while thy hearers are saved.”
He goes on to write in the Lecture called “The Minister’s Self-Watch”
Lectures to My Students, Vol. 1: A Selection from Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle Lecture I: The Minister’s Self-Watch
Believe me, it is no child’s play to “make your calling and election sure.” The world is full of counterfeits, and swarms with panderers to carnal self-conceit, who gather around a minister as vultures around a carcass. Our own hearts are deceitful, so that truth lies not on the surface, but must be drawn up from the deepest well. We must search ourselves very anxiously and very thoroughly, lest by any means after having preached to others we ourselves should be castaways.
How horrible to be a preacher of the gospel and yet to be unconverted! Let each man here whisper to his own inmost soul, “What a dreadful thing it will be for me if I should be ignorant of the power of the truth which I am preparing to proclaim!”
Lectures to My Students, Vol. 1: A Selection from Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle Lecture I: The Minister’s Self-Watch
People go to their place of worship and sit down comfortably, and think they must be Christians, when all the time all that their religion consists in, is listening to an orator, having their ears tickled with music, and perhaps their eyes amused with graceful action and fashionable manners; the whole being no better than what they hear and see at the opera—not so good, perhaps, in point of æsthetic beauty, and not an atom more spiritual. Thousands are congratulating themselves, and even blessing God that they are devout worshippers, when at the same time they are living in an unregenerate Christless state, having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. He who presides over a system which aims at nothing higher than formalism, is far more a servant of the devil than a minister of God.
Lectures to My Students, Vol. 1: A Selection from Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle Lecture I: The Minister’s Self-Watch
Terrible is it to consider what a death must await such a man! and what must be his after-condition! The prophet pictures the king of Babylon going down to hell, and all the kings and princes whom he had destroyed, and whose capitals he had laid waste, rising up from their places in Pandemonium, and saluting the fallen tyrant with the cutting sarcasm, “Art thou become like unto us?” And cannot you suppose a man who has been a minister, but who has lived without Christ in his heart, going down to hell, and all the imprisoned spirits who used to hear him, and all the ungodly of his parish rising up and saying to him in bitter tones, “Art thou also become as we are? Physician, didst thou not heal thyself? Art thou who claimed to be a shining light cast down into the darkness for ever?” Oh! if one must be lost, let it not be in this fashion! To be lost under the shadow of a pulpit is dreadful, but how much more so to perish from the pulpit itself!
Oh, I could go on and one reading this lecture from Spurgeon to his young students, but the message is just as much for you and me today, whether we serve from the pulpit or from the pew.
Do you come to church regularly, yet your soul is far from the Celestial City?
Do you know Christ, but He has never known you?
Today, if that is you, you need to get that right. Don’t gamble with your future! Turn to the Lord and be saved.
But I wonder how many of us are gambling with the lives of others that we know who do not know Christ.
Who do you need to share this life-giving message of the gospel with?
Who do you need to plead before the throne of God for today?
Let’s come to the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth and submit to His marching orders today.
