The Great Commision

Truths about Christ’s Love for His Bride:

Christ loves the Church.

He laid down His life for the Church.

He ascended to heaven and makes intercession for the Church.

He sent the HS who has given gifts to the Church.

Which are to be used to build up the Church.

The Church is not a human idea or creation.

The Church is God’s idea and God’s work.

God has commissioned His disciples (Christians) to:

Become churches…communities of light within communities that:

Gather in His name.

Baptize in His name.

Teach/Discipleship in His name.

How do we see the Great Commission being carried out in the NT?

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We are to do four things:

1) Go 2) Make disciples 3) Baptize 4) Teach

Now, how do we go about carrying this out?

Dr. Leeman says this about modern evangelism…

“Does Jesus intend for churches to work like the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), but for the Christian life?

When the DMV gives you a driver’s license, you have the ability to drive wherever you want.

They give you the responsibility, and then you are on your own.

There are no weekly gatherings of people with driver’s licenses.

There is no need to know the names of other licensees or to care for one another.

There are no driver-license pastors or shepherds, whose work is to make sure you are growing in your understanding of motor vehicle safety.

Strangely, this is how some Christians hear Jesus’ Great Commission: “Go, make disciples, baptize, and teach”…

…somehow becomes “Make converts, give them the license of baptism, and then let them go!”

Sure, maybe people should check in on the church once in a while, like getting your license renewed every few years.

And they should keep reading their Bibles and learning.

But it’s really all up to them now.”

There are a number of problems with this model…

It ignores what the apostles did after Jesus ascended.

It ignores what the great commission says about teaching.

It ignores what the great commission says about obeying.

So, I want us to look this morning and see…

What is the general practice of the GC that we see in the NT?

As we look at the Book of Acts we really see the gospel being told by Christians to unbelievers…

But, what we see as a result is the spread of churches.

We see the gospel being told, people believing the gospel, and churches popping up in those areas.

So, the great commission (which includes evangelism, but is not only) has the result of churches being planted…

And churches growing.

When we look at the day of pentecost in Acts 2…

We see the gospel preached to a large crowd…

And, those who believed the gospel were baptized…

Acts 2:41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

To what were the 3,000 added?

To the church in Jerusalem.

And, what then?

What are we told those 3,000+ people do after that?

Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

This is evangelism in the hopes of the conversion of souls…

And the bringing in of converted disciples into the ministry of the local church.

What happens next?

Acts 11:19-26 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

So, persecution comes along in Jerusalem and it caused a dispersion of Christians…

And, as those Christians went they shared the gospel with those who God placed in their path…

And a large number of people believed the gospel…

They turned to the Lord and became disciples of JC…

And, a church not only formed, but another church (the only church so far) sent someone (Barnabas) to help with the church start.

Barnabas teams up with Paul and they stay for a year and train the church in the Bible.

Acts 14:1 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.

Acts 14:5-7 When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, 7and there they continued to preach the gospel.

We’re not told, yet, that churches have been formed…

We’re just told, so far, that the gospel is being preached in cities as they travel…

And, converts have been made by the preaching of the gospel…

But, I want you to see what has happened during this time that we’re told later in the chapter…

Acts 14:21-23 When they had preached the gospel to that city (Derbe) and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

So, Paul and Barnabas now make a return trip in the same way they came…

And, their goal was to visit the converts, strengthen the churches that had been started by the preaching of the gospel…

And the disciples that were made through conversion…

And they were setting these churches up with elders (leadership) for the long-term benefit of the church…

So, that the churches could function in the way God designed them to function.

In Acts 18:1 we see Paul preaching the gospel in the city of Corinth.

Acts 18:8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.

Acts 19:1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.

Now, we know that there was a church started by Paul in Corinth because we have two letters from Paul addressed to the church in Corinth.

We see in Acts 20:17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

So, Paul not only evangelized for the purpose of gathering disciples into a local body of believers known as a church…

But, he appointed elders in the church, as was his custom, in every place & church…(custom=God’s will)

What did the apostles do with regards to the obedience of the GC?

They preached the gospel and planted churches.

Churches are at the center of God’s Great Commission plan.

Who sends out the representatives to evangelize and plant churches?

The local church.

Acts 11:21-22 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

Acts 15:33 And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them.

Who are these representatives coming back to and reporting to?

The local church.

Acts 14:27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

Acts 15:4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

Who’s making the decisions of who to send and where to go?

The local church.

Who’s helping those churches as they are starting and until they can get a structure of leadership?

The local church. (Most of NT is written to churches)

Evangelism in the NT is a coordinated effort by churches to gather more people into their church…

And, to evangelize areas where there are not like-minded churches…

And make disciples in order to start churches in those areas.

Evangelism is not supposed to be some freelance expedition…

It’s not intended to function like the DMV.

The GC is to be carried out by the church in the hopes of the conversion of souls…

And those souls being gathered into the church.

Now, let me close with just some observations and practical application…

If someone passes out Tracks/Bibles they need to have attached a flyer of a good church(es) nearby.

Otherwise you’re back to the DMV model.

Even better would be to do that effort in coordination with a local church…

If it is not locally for your church.

A local church ought to be sharing Christ with the people in their lives…

With the hopes of their salvation and bringing them into the local body of Christ…

…in order for the GC to be fulfilled in their lives.

I want to challenge you to see the people in your life as people God has for you to reach…

Don’t look to the pastor or someone else to do the work of ministry…

Look to Christ to enable you.Look to Christ to present the opportunities.Look to Christ to give you the words to say.Look to Christ to change their hearts.

But, in your looking to Christ…be the willing servant that wants to be used by the Lord for Kingdom work.

The story of the spread of the gospel is the story of local churches carrying out the GC.

And, local churches are made up of ordinary people like you and me.

And, the GC is the work that we are called out to do.

We are called to disciple one another through preaching, regular fellowship, praying for one another, speaking the gospel into each other’s lives…

And by going into the unbelieving world and speaking the gospel into unbeliever’s lives, as well.

Pray this with me:

Lord, let us be used by you to gather disciples into local churches.Give us a heart to seek your face about planting churches.Help us to see that nothing is impossible with You!

Closing Prayer