All right, good morning. You can open up to Matthew chapter 28. Thank you so much for allowing me to join you this morning and worship with you. I've just been encouraged through the singing and scripture reading, through even confessing the faith together. It's just been a blessing. Jake already told you a little bit about me, but Cody Cunningham, originally from Mississippi, originally from Brookhaven, if you're kind of familiar, southwest Mississippi. Moved to New Orleans about four years ago to help plant Emanuel Community Church, where I serve as one of the pastors. I have been serving on the stateside staff with an organization called Reaching and Teaching, which is really focused on training leaders around the world. And I'll talk more about that as we go. But my wife and I have just constantly been praying, feeling like the Lord was probably going to lead us overseas at some point, and went to Kenya in January. And it just became apparent, yep, this is the place for us. And my wife has spent some time over in Africa right after college, and she's been aching to get back, so she was pumped. She's ready to go. So as Jake said, Lord willing, the next few weeks really. We're planning on boarding a plane and living just outside Nairobi, Kenya, which is East Africa, where I'll teach at the seminary and as well do pastoral training around the country for guys who can't afford seminary or just can't come down to the seminary. So going around the country and developing training sites for men to be raised up to be shepherds of the flock. So let's dive into Matthew chapter 28. I'm going to start reading in verse 16, but we're really going to focus on verses 18 through 20. So Matthew chapter 28, starting in verse 16, says, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." As we begin to study God's Word, would you pray with me once again? Father, we do thank you for your goodness. Thank you that you are gracious, that you have not left us in our sin, but you have redeemed us in your Son. You have given us your Spirit. Father, make us alive, that you are cultivating us holiness within our hearts. Father, we pray that you would use me this morning, that your Spirit would come and work mightily. Father, that you would keep my mouth from error. that You would build us up in Your Word, that You would use this Word to conform us to the image of Christ. Father, I pray and ask these things in the name of Christ. Amen. So whenever I mention the phrase Great Commission, many of you didn't even need to turn to this passage. You've probably had it memorized for a long time, right? If you grew up in church, you heard it in Sunday school or in a vacation Bible school or some type of just Bible study. It's very familiar, even as Baptists, right? The Great Commission has played a huge part in who we are, right? Jake is big into Baptist history. I'm a history nerd as well. I'm working on my PhD in historical theology. And I was just reading last night about William Carey and about Andrew Fuller and just the impact that the Great Commission had on their lives. of God cultivating a desire, a vision for the nations through His Word. And so the Great Commission is something that we're probably familiar with. And as I've worked on this sermon and have been writing it and have reflected on this passage, I've thought about how the Lord has used this passage in my own life. sending us from small town Mississippi to, I was able to spend some time in northern India during college, but also down to New Orleans to help plant a church, and now, Lord willing, to Nairobi, Kenya, that the Lord has used this in a great way. And so I want us to just soak in the glorious truth of the Great Commission this morning to reflect on it and to see what God is calling us to do and how to live in light of this Great Commission. So really this is pretty simple if you take notes. Just really three marks of a Great Commission church. Three marks of a Great Commission church. Here they are. 1. They submit to the authority of Christ. 2. They make disciples of Christ. 3. They rest in the abiding presence of Christ. Submit to the authority of Christ, make disciples of Christ, and rest in the abiding presence of Christ. So let's look first, the first mark of a Great Commission church is that they submit to the authority of Christ. Whenever people think of the Great Commission, often our minds jump to what this passage calls us to do, right? but actually what we are called to do in this passage is secondary. It's secondary to what Jesus says about who He is, right? That our commissioning, and this is important, our commissioning as disciple makers is rooted in Jesus' declaration that really serve as bookends in this passage. Jesus' words here give us the reason and the hope for our commission, for your mission as a church. So in verse 18, Jesus says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He declares that He possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. Remember what the Jewish people were thinking the Messiah would look like whenever they came on the scene. They were looking for a very strong political or military leader, right? Someone who would come in and either through like political savviness or just rallying the troops around him would kick off the Roman rule and restore order and put them back in the place of primacy, right? They were looking for somebody like, again, a political or military leader. They wanted a kingly figure who would come in and establish this kingdom, much like Daniel chapter 7. This is what would be on their mind. You don't have to turn there, but Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14 say, there came one like a son of man. and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. So again, they're looking military, political leader, and Jesus comes on the scene and he actively fights against their expectations throughout his ministry, right? Have you ever been reading through the Gospels and you notice Jesus did a miracle? And then he would say, but don't tell anybody. right? That's odd, right? That should strike you as odd. You would think, it's like, oh, yeah, right now, just go tell everybody the Messiah's here. And he did, right? We get glimpses of that throughout his ministry, but he realizes that They have false expectations. They have wrong expectations of what the Messiah looks like, that His kingdom looks radically different. So, He's actively fighting against this false expectation, but here, as He's getting ready to ascend to the right hand of the Father, He encourages His disciples and says, No, it is true. I do possess all authority in heaven and on earth. I am that true promised Messiah. He is the heavenly King who's here to establish His kingdom. It's just not a kingdom like they expected. Right? Jesus' kingdom looks radically different. Glory came through shame. Kingship came through submitting to death. They might say, okay, I get that. Why is Jesus' authority so important for us? Why is it so important for understanding the Great Commission? Well, first, the fact that Jesus possesses all authority in heaven on earth should give us confidence in our mission, just as it was meant to give His disciples confidence. He's getting ready to leave, and you know they're worried, like, what are we going to do? It even says, right, in verse 17, when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. So these are not the superheroes of the faith. They're frail men, right? And so Jesus encourages them that no power can stand against the expansion of His kingdom. There is no power that's greater than His own. The resurrection is a demonstration of that reality, isn't it? That not even death could hold Him. Now don't you see how that gives us confidence? We go out as messengers in a world that's full of sickness, hatred, war, terrorism, all of these things. We go out as sheep among wolves, brothers and sisters, but we can still go out because we have a shepherd king who is greater than any adversary or adversity that we might face, right? This is why we can go out boldly. This is why some people say, Cody, you're nuts. Why are you going to take your family? So I'm married and have three little kids. My son will be eight in January. Then I have a five-year-old daughter and then a two-year-old son. What are you thinking, taking them to Kenya? Don't you realize it's dangerous? And what we come back to, my wife and I both come back to, is that Jesus possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. And not one single hair on their head is gonna be damaged outside of his sovereign wisdom and his goodness and his ultimate plan. And we can rest in that, right? Because he possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. Do you fear the consequences of living as a messenger of Christ? Does it feel unsafe to you? Or maybe it's fear for a loved one. Maybe you know someone that's living overseas and you're wracked by just a worry, an anxiousness in your soul. Take heart that Jesus possesses all authority. But another reason why it's important that Jesus possesses all authority is that there are false gods that are receiving the honor and the glory and the worship that only belongs to King Jesus. Likewise, there are billions of men and women in the world looking to these false saviors for salvation that only Christ can provide. We hold the Great Commission near and dear to our hearts because Jesus is the only true King who deserves our ultimate allegiance. As I mentioned, I was able to spend some time in northern India during college, and we would go into just village after village where people had not even heard of Jesus. You'd have a conversation and say, have you heard of Jesus? No. Who is that? But in every one of these villages, there would be some type of temple. Most of them very small, right? And they would be filled with these little man-made statues that people would offer sacrifices to, would worship, that they would orient their entire lives around. And it was heartbreaking. It was tragic to see that they're looking to some false god, some demonic power, really. They're being deceived. whenever King Jesus sits high and exalted. That should shake us to our core. That should break our hearts. That should drive us to live as disciple makers for Christ. And I'm afraid that we've lost sight of the tragedy, the magnitude of that others are receiving glory that only belongs to King Jesus. We have to ask ourselves in our hearts, right? We live in a time that's just full of polarization and turmoil in our country. And it's a time of outrage and what you need to ask yourself is. within your heart, do you feel more outrage over the things that you see on the news that are going on around you, more outrage over a political decision than outrage and hurt over people worshiping man-made idols than King Jesus? Because if that's what drives you more, if that's what affects you experientially more, then our priorities, our affections are out of shape. right? They're misoriented. What must drive us as followers of Christ is that Jesus receives the worship that He deserves. Third reason why Jesus' statement about having all authority in heaven on earth is important is because it brings a responsibility to us. If Jesus has all authority, and He does, then He also has authority to dictate how we carry out His mission. Churches and missions agencies have all sorts of ideas about how to grow the church, right? I've planted a church in New Orleans, and everybody has all sorts of ideas how to grow the church. Some of them are great ideas, and a lot of them, though, are just man-made foolishness. Since Jesus possesses all authority, we must go and say, all right, what is he calling us to do? How is he calling us to carry out his mission, all right? So the first thing, the first great mark of a Great Commission Church is that the church submits to the authority of Christ, that we come and say, Jesus, you are high and exalted and we will submit to you in all things. So Jesus makes this declaration that he has all authority, but what's next? What do we do in light of this declaration? Well, the second mark is that we make disciples of Christ. Since Jesus possesses all authority, we make disciples of Jesus. Within these verses in 18 through 20, we see one main imperative or command. You see, churches can get busy in all sorts of good things, all sorts of good works, but the fundamental charge to our churches, the fundamental task of our ministries is to make disciples. Now how do we make disciples? Well, as I said, there's one imperative to make disciples, but there are three participles, right? Tell us how to go about making disciples. Going, baptizing, and teaching. Going, baptizing, and teaching. Alright, so let's look at these real briefly. One, go intentionally. The first means of carrying out the Great Commission is by going. As you read through the Old Testament, you see that a lot of the promises are bound up in the land, right? And so Israel was to be this kingdom that was ruled by God and that the nations could look in and see what it looked like to be a holy nation. All right? So the focus is being in the land. And whenever they're taken away from the land, that was bad news, right? That was exile because of sin. But even as what was read from Isaiah chapter 66 this morning, you see there is already this idea of being sent to the nations. that always the mission was coming where God's kingdom was going to spread to the nations. And so here in Matthew chapter 28, we see Jesus telling his disciples, you're not going to stay here. You're not going to stay here. You're actually going to go to the nations. to make disciples. And so, you can think of it this way, kind of rough way to think of it, Old Testament is more of a come and see, New Testament, go and tell. So, this requires an outward focus from churches, an idea, a lens, a vision for the community around here of how are we making disciples of our neighbors around us, and how are we making disciples of the nations that Christ is ruling and reigning over. So we're going intentionally, and to whom are we going? We're going to all the nations. So not just like we go to America, we got disciples here, great. Go to Kenya, make disciples there, great. Go to India, whatever. No, it's all people groups. So think of just every group within these countries. We want to see the kingdom of Christ saturate the nations, right? This is the vision that drives us. Again, let's not restrict our going to international missions. This is important because a lot of times, you know, passives like this, it's preached in the context of somebody like me who's going overseas. And we can kind of, through that, we can think, okay, that's, so missionaries go. Missionaries are the ones, missionaries to overseas are the ones who are carrying out the Great Commission. No, Jesus is telling his disciples, you make disciples everywhere. And so we are called to go to all of those around us who need the gospel, and I would say especially those in our backyards. And this is actually more difficult, I think, to live on mission for Christ in your backyards and in your workplaces. Why? Well, it's one thing to get on an airplane and to go overseas for a couple of weeks, and you can say, I'll share the gospel. People think I'm an idiot. Oh, well, I'll probably never see them again. Not a big deal, right? But it's a whole nother thing whenever you're going to your coworker and saying, listen, you need to repent and believe in the gospel. You're living your life following a false god. You need to turn to Christ. That's when things get awkward. Or you go to family members, right? We're in the holiday season. You go to your family members at Christmas and say, you need to follow Jesus and stop following the way of foolishness. Things get awkward, don't they? So it's harder to, I would say often it's harder to live with this type of mentality around your normal path of life. It's much easier to do it on a short-term mission trip, but this is what we're called to do as Christians. This is what you're called to be as a church. Those who, whoever God has placed in your path, they are your field. Those are the ones you should be sharing the gospel with. So this is not restricted to international missions. Now it will cost you something, maybe relationships, right? It will cost you some awkward moments, but Jesus possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. He's worth it. He is worth it. So we're going intentionally, and what that means is wherever you're going, you're thinking, who can I share the gospel with? Right? Who can I be pouring my life into? Who can I be building up in the scriptures? So it's an intentionality of your vision to baptize faithfully. So go intentionally, baptize faithfully. As we are going, we are boldly sharing the gospel, and we wait for Christ to gather His people to Himself. Now, you might think it's odd that baptism is mentioned here instead of preaching. Right? I mean, we here, I think, would all agree, like, what we're called to do is to preach faithfully. So you would think you'd say, all right, go intentionally and then preach the gospel. So why does he say baptism? Well, preaching is really assumed here because in the New Testament, baptism is so closely tied to faith and repentance, isn't it? All right, you consider the aftermath of Acts chapter two, where Peter gets up and he preaches on the day of Pentecost, and they're struck to the heart. And they say, what must we do to be saved? He says, repent and be baptized, right? And this is a case that throughout scripture we see such a close wedding between baptism and repentance. It's a visual representation of a spiritual reality. Baptism is a robust picture of the gospel. Right? And so whenever we hear baptize, right, we're thinking that really tells us what we're called to preach. That gives us a clue into the heart of our message that we are dead in our sins and we need to be made alive in Christ, which is exactly what baptism represents, right? You plunge underneath the waters of judgment. You raise to walk in newness of life. Right? And so we are called to preach faithfully. We're called to baptize faithfully. And so we're not primarily in the business of giving men and women self-help tips. That's not what the church is. And neither should our outreach efforts, whether domestic or international, be exclusively about meeting physical needs. Notice I said exclusively. We are called to love others and love others and help solve physical needs if we can, but we care most deeply about people's eternal needs. See, in the South, we can have this tendency, can't we, to stay at the nice, superficial level. Just like, how are things going? Doing great, doing well, right? You can be out in the church parking lot. pulling up this morning and things were not great, right? You're sitting there disciplining your kids. You're kind of arguing a little bit. How are you doing this morning? Doing great, right? We can stay at the nice, superficial level, but really a Great Commission mindset forces us to go beyond the superficial, to get beyond the nice, and to say, no, we are not nice people. No, we are broken people. We are sinful people who need the righteousness of Christ. And same thing whenever we're preaching to others. No, you're not fundamentally a good person. You're a sinner. But that's okay because Christ came to save you, right? But you don't have to just wallow in the despair. You have hope of salvation if you turn and look to Christ. So we're baptizing faithfully. We're going and calling people to faith and repentance by the commissioned authority of the King. But third, we're called to teach comprehensively. So you're going intentionally, baptizing faithfully, and teach comprehensively. After we baptize, we don't stop there. The last step in disciple making is to teach, see what he says here, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Whenever we think of the Great Commission, often this is lopped off, especially in an international context. The emphasis is going into a village where people have never heard of Jesus, preaching the gospel, baptizing them, and then I'm going to head out to the next village where people don't know Jesus. Right? And often it's out of a good motivation that we want to see people who don't know Christ come to know Him. But we are neglecting a portion of the Great Commission if we don't stay and comprehensively teach all that Christ has commanded. Again, especially in international missions circles, this is a danger. This is a danger in frontier evangelism to neglect this aspect of the Great Commission. As one missionary has said, our emphasis on reaching the unreached has created a need for speed. And as a result, we've lopped off half of the Great Commission. And this is ultimately why I joined Reaching and Teaching International Ministries. Because if we do not spend time discipling men to shepherd the church, how to read and obey and preach God's Word, then we are neglecting a vital component of the Great Commission. Now, why is this such an important aspect of missions? Let me give you just a couple of statistics about theological education in the world. Approximately 85% of pastors around the world have had no theological training. With just a slightly different perspective here, within the United States, there's about one theologically trained worker for every 235 people. Outside the US, there's about one theologically trained worker for every 450,000 people, right? You might say, so what? What's the big deal there? Well, how can a church thrive whenever a shepherd does not know how to protect the flock from wolves or even how to identify wolves? And rest assured, Satan wants to destroy the work that Christ is doing around the globe. And one of the main ways that he is working is by spreading false teaching. Take, for instance, South America and Africa, where the church is growing so quickly. You know what also is spreading there quickly? Prosperity gospel. The idea that if you just have enough faith, if you believe hard enough, then Jesus is going to keep you from ever getting sick. He's going to give you a big house. He's going to bring you out of poverty. That's spreading like wildfire. Why? Because people haven't taken the time to walk leaders through the scriptures and say, no, this is what the gospel is, and this is how the storyline of the scripture fits together. This is what God's word says about the church. This is what God's word says about preaching, right? All of these things, just taking time to disciple people. right? So the same story is just repeated over and over again where missionaries or whoever will come into a place, preach, baptize, go out, and false teachers will come in or either the people in that community will watch TV and you know what's on TV for the most part is heresy, right? And so that's going to be what's regurgitated from the pulpit. That's what's going to be taught every week we have an abundance of theological resources around us, right? And I don't just mean like seminary degrees, right? I've had the opportunity to go to seminary and working on my PhD, but even just the rich teaching that you're receiving week in and week out in corporate worship of reciting confessions together. of having God's Word faithfully taught, of having Sunday school and things like that. We have just a robust amount of theological resources that we can share with the world, and it's our responsibility to use what we have to go and train. And that's what we're gonna do. That's what my family has been called to do. Because we have brothers and sisters around the world who desperately need to be discipled. I was able to go and start a training site in Liberia, which is in far West Africa. Let's see, it was at the end of 2019, I guess it was. And we just did an overview of the Old Testament in one week, right? So as you can imagine, there's a lot you can't cover in one week of the Old Testament. But we're just showing them. This is kind of the storyline. Here's how it points to Jesus. Here's how it fits together. Pastors in that room had been pastoring for decades who came up and would say, thank you. We've never had anybody teach us this. We've never had anybody explain the Old Testament to us, right? And so these are the leaders, the established leaders in the community. And we weren't given any groundbreaking teaching, just simple discipleship stuff. And there's a need all around the world, not just in Liberia, but everywhere. And so to be a Great Commission Church, we should be passionate about training those in our midst and those around the nations, the full counsel of God. And so our vision really in reaching and teaching is 2 Timothy 2.2, right? What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Right? Let me say this as a side note as well, particularly to parents in the room. Part of making disciples within your own home is teaching God's Word. Now this doesn't mean every week you got to get up and preach a sermon. Just to show you or kind of tell you what it looks like in our own home, it's very simple. As I said, I have three young kids. And what we try to do each morning around the breakfast table, if we're doing it five out of seven, I'm feeling really good for the week. So just don't think it's like seven out of seven. If it's five out of seven, all right, we're doing pretty good, okay? sit down, kids are eating cereal, and I'm going to open up the scriptures, and I'm going to read, might be half a chapter, it might be a full chapter. Some days I might make some comments and explain and highlight something. So we were reading out of Luke chapter 6 this morning with the kids, and we're talking about maybe they have a question, maybe they don't. We're just reading the scriptures to them, and then we're praying. We're praying for church members, at least one church member in our church, and we're praying at least for one missionary each morning. And over time we're trusting that God's word is going to be effective in cultivating faith and also we're teaching them that we're praying for others, right? That we want to be diligent to pray for those in our church. We want to be diligent to keep the nations on our minds as we pray for missionaries around the world. It's just a slow drip of God's word over the years that we're trusting will be effective. And that's what we're called to do. That's what disciple making looks like within the home. So it's not just a mission trip, it's not just coming to Sunday school, but it's the regular rhythms of discipleship within the home. So the second mark of a Great Commission Church is that we are making disciples of Christ. The third mark is that we are You rest in the abiding presence of Christ. So as we move towards the close, let's look at the final bookend. So Jesus starts with who he is, or he has all authority in heaven and on earth. He tells his disciples what to do, and he gives them a word of encouragement here. Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. This is a promise that anchors our souls when the waters get tough in our mission. He promises us, He promises them that He will be with us forever until He finally returns to do away with sin and the kingdoms of this world. Now how is He continually with His people? After all, He's about to ascend to the right hand of the Father. Well, He's with us in a few ways. First, He's with us by sending His Spirit to dwell within our hearts. That the Spirit takes the Word of Christ and implants it in our hearts, giving us the grace to carry out Christ's will. So He's with us through His Spirit. Secondly, He's with us because, as Hebrews 7, verse 25 says, He always lives to make intercession for us. He's interceding on our behalf. And thirdly, He's with us through the gift of the local church, His body, right? It's through our fellowship with the local congregation that we experience the fellowship of Christ. What a blessing that He did not just save us and say, all right, good luck. Lone soldier Christianity is unbiblical Christianity. We have been saved to be a part of a body, and what a great and glorious gift we have. and what hope we have to faithfully carry out the Great Commission. He didn't leave you on your own. He's always with us. And so, brothers and sisters, do you feel inadequate this morning? Maybe you hear that and go, yeah, but you don't know. I mean, I can't share anything. I stumble and stutter. I'm super shy. You just don't know, Cody. I can't teach the Bible to anybody. Take heart that one, Jesus possesses all authority. Two, He is with you always. You have His Spirit. Look to Jesus. Ask Jesus for boldness. Ask Him for clarity. Ask Him for opportunities. So as we close, let's consider the responsibility of the Great Commission, but also let us consider the glorious reality that the Sovereign King of the Universe has saved you and He's commissioned you as disciple-makers. Think about that. The One who is high and exalted, who doesn't need us, yet in His grace has said, I'm going to save you and I'm going to use you. And that's why you're here, that's why you're on earth, that you would be a blessing to this church, you would be a blessing to the nations for the cause of Christ. So let's consider even this week, how can you live out the Great Commission? Maybe it's through sharing the gospel with a friend or a co-worker that's been on your heart. Maybe there's an individual in your life that needs to be discipled, and you say, you know what? Let's start meeting together twice a month over lunch. We'll just sit down and read a chapter of the scriptures. We'll talk through it, and we'll pray together, right? That's a good, sustainable rhythm that I think probably most of us could handle, right? Maybe it's not at lunch. Maybe it's at breakfast. I don't know. Maybe it's just Parents, you say, we haven't been reading the scriptures and praying together faithfully. Let's start there, right? Do that, and that's good, and that's glorious, right? Maybe you're here this morning and you've never submitted your life to Christ. And what you need to do is to see your sin and to see the judgment that you stand under if you're relying on your own righteousness. If you're living your life chasing after those man-made idols, those false idols, look to Christ. Look to the one who possesses all authority in heaven and on earth and run to Him. your sin and run to Him. He commands you to repent and cry out to Him for forgiveness. Lastly, I just want to ask you to pray for us, right? As Jake said, there's prayer cards on your way out there. Please grab one. Pray for us. As you can imagine, taking a family overseas, there's a lot to it. We're still kind of sorting out some visa issues, so pray that the Lord would give us clarity in that. The Lord has provided so abundantly up to this point. We know he's going to continue to provide. And we also we know that he's working really through the prayers of the saints, right? So please pray for us. On the back of the card, you'll see some bullet points of how to pray for us and our family. Also, one other thing, I send out a monthly newsletter just keeping people up to date on kind of what's going on and other ways you can be praying for us. If you're interested in that, I didn't bring a sign-up sheet. Could they give you their email? It's not like a spam thing I'm going to send out. Literally, it's like once a month. here's what's going on here's how you can pray for us so give your email to jake and i'd be glad to to put you on on that list but pray for us also know that i'm praying that this church would be a blessing to this community that you would be marked by a zeal for the gospel a zeal for making disciples of christ so let's pray father we do thank you for your grace we thank you for your for your love, for your salvation that you've given us in Christ. God, I pray for my brothers and sisters here. One, I pray that you would keep the evil one from this place. God, I pray that this body would be marked by unity in the gospel and that that would look like holy lives and lives that are quick to lift one another up and are quick to share the gospel with those around them. Father, use them for your glory. Use them for the building up of your kingdom. God, I pray and ask these things in the name of Christ. Amen.