I don't know if we'll get through it today. I, well, I know we won't get through today. I'm sorry about that. We will not get through today because when I refer to the great commission, I'm referring to every single gospel writer and horse Luke wrote Luke and the book of acts. So I'm not, I'm going to be preaching about the great commission in its entirety. as presented by the Lord to the church. And we'll get into the details here in a moment. Let's read our text as we begin in verse 18. We'll just look at verse 18 to 20. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we just ask you now through the leadership of thy Holy Spirit, through these messages, Lord, to prepare us for the Missions Conference, to give us a greater understanding of what you want us to accomplish as a church, our church body, and through the church to the entire world. So, Father, give us the vision that you want us to have. And through the scriptures, Lord, we know that you bring, you speak to our hearts, you bring conviction, you bring sanctification and change to us. And Father, we just ask you, Lord, just to help us in these next couple weeks. And we pray for our missionary that's coming, that you prepare Him, Lord, whether he builds upon what I'm preaching or repeats it or adds to it, we trust you by your Holy Spirit to lead him and lead the rest of our missionaries that will be speaking to us and sharing some thoughts about missions with us. I'll just lead them as well. Father, we thank you that you are in control. This is your the very heartbeat of the church and help us to be close to that. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Now, I didn't decide just to forget about Sermon on the Mount or 2 Peter 3 or any of that. We're going to come back to that after the conference. Speaking of the book of Jude, he mentioned the book of Jude. Jude also did that. He said, I intended to write you, but it was needful for me to write, to tell you about this. And so I just feel like it's needful for me to be preaching on this subject for the next couple of weeks. Now, when we think about the Great Commission, obviously we think about preaching that exhorts us to do it. You know, to be involved in evangelism. And that is important. But, and a lot of times we'll hear just one passage, right? And this is probably the the, the selected passage of the great commission. If you hear the great commission, you're thinking of Matthew 28, 18 to 20, but very seldom do we have preaching. I think of one that I, one of my favorites and we'll look at is Luke 24. There's a lot in Luke chapter 24 about the great commission. Another passage we'll be looking at is Mark 6, 16, 15. One of the most overlooked is John Chapter 20. Very seldom do we look at John Chapter 20 as the Great Commission. And then another very famous and often read and preached passage is Acts 1-8 about the power of the Holy Spirit. And we know we will be also looking at that. But let us understand this. It is important to understand or recognize that the Holy Spirit of God saw fit to preserve each version, each passage of the Great Commission as found in the four Gospels and the Book of Acts. Now, when you think about that, not one of the Gospel writers gives us the commission in its entirety. Not one of these you could say in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20, Acts 1-8. That's not the commission in its entirety. It's just one part of the commission. So we need to understand that all of these passages beautifully complement each other. They supplement each other. when you go through this now there will be some phrases that may be redundant but as we look at the teaching neither of these statements are redundant or contradictory but they are simply complimentary and that's the importance about looking at all the passages of the Great Commission obviously before we're done you will be familiar with each passage. Amen. If you're not already. Now the title, the overall title is what I'm giving this message is our church's mission is the Great Commission. When you think about the church, this is it. This is what we're about. This is where we are to set our goals because in the commission we find a compass, a charter, and a plan. And we think of the commission as the church's purpose and pattern for our mission. The purpose and pattern for our mission. It defines and delineates. And this is where a lot of people are getting off track in our modern times because they don't look at it this way but it defines and delineates the church's missionary task and we could say the activities of a church you know if you believe this is the mission This is what we have to keep in the forefront of our church. Obviously, it's going to limit us because you can't do everything. You have to stay to the task. And it eliminates a lot of other fluff or activity that may be fun and, you know, good, but not so much. It doesn't contribute to the mission. In fact, you know, We had a visitor this morning, early on, but, you know, she's like, you know, why don't we grow a garden out here? Why don't we be the community? And that's good, but it's not the church's task. We're not told to do that. You know, and I didn't say it that way, but I just thought it, you know, like, well, yeah, I said, everyone looks at that a little differently. God's will. Amen. And that's how I look at it. You know, you may say, well, yeah, that and it it could be a blessing. I understand that. And we could use it for God's glory. But think about. That could be like the main thing you start doing and churches get off on that. They start doing one thing and that's all they do is like, you know, social work or things of that nature. So we have to understand that to substitute other activities for these activities that the Lord specified is an attempt at a heart transplant. And we know that yes, you may get a heart transplant, but sooner or later that heart's going to fail. You're still going to die. So, you know, you, you could be saying, no, we're going to do these things, but sooner or later it will die. The church will die. It will not no longer be the Lord's church. So let's begin today to look at some of these passages, and we're going to kind of start out in Matthew, that's why we're here, but we will get to, Lord willing, Mark 16, 15 a little bit today, and I doubt if we'll get to Luke 24 but and there's so much there but I'll do my best we have a few more minutes amen the priority of our commission the priority think about these words and what I mean by priority we have a command here go you therefore and teach all nations now when you think about baptizing teaching going we look at these words if you if you begin to break down this these would be participles and they support this main command of teaching and it's the interesting part of this word is it's the root word is disciple disciple And the idea, and you've heard this before, is that when we're teaching, the goal is to produce disciples. In fact, the root word here, teaching, in verse 19, and the teaching in verse 20 are two complete different Greek words. And so, when we think about the goal, when we think about what are we to do, what's part of the Great Commission, we are to reproduce ourselves and make disciples. And that word disciple is found 268 times in the authorized version. So we are to be making disciples of all nations. We'll look at that. When you start thinking of all nations, and I don't know when that'll come up, but I think it's the people of our commission, but nations is from the word ethne. Ethne is ethnic groups. And that's a way that God is telling us to break down societies, to break down countries, to break down peoples of the world into ethnic groups. And we are to reach all ethnic groups. That's part of our mission. Now, one of the things I've always contended here is a lot of times we start talking about making disciples and we miss it because to make disciples, we must be disciples. And that's a very important part of being a disciple of the Lord. When Jesus came and taught, you look at the gospels, disciple was it. They weren't called Christians, they were called disciples. That was the term. Remember over in Acts 11, it says they were first called Christians in Antioch. How many years later is that? At least 15, 20 years after Pentecost. so that's a long time so for the duration of the Lord's ministry and the preaching of the apostles wherever they went they were making disciples they were talking about disciples reproducing disciples being disciples now I don't have this up here for you but I want you to understand this is the command teach teach That first teach is the command. That's the imperative. So we have to understand these are commands from the Lord. This isn't like, well, you know, let's take a vote on it. If we want to have this as our mission. No, you don't take votes on commands. We need to submit ourselves to the Lord. And really when you think of discipleship, isn't that kind of sum it all up? We're submitted followers of Jesus. And I'm just going to give you a list here. You know the passages. Luke 640 says a disciple is not above his master, but he shall be as his master. So a disciple are pupils and and followers of Jesus are to be like him. We know we were talking about spiritual growth and second Peter. What is the goal to be like Jesus? What is the goal of a disciple imitate Christ? Follow Christ. If you step over to Luke 14. from Luke 6, there's three qualities there and he says, we're to love Christ more than anything, right? We're to love him more than father, mother, brother, sister, even husband and wife. You're to love Christ more than you love yourself. And if you're doubting, you love yourself more than anyone else. So you need to love Christ more than yourself. I think that would take care of the rest. And you know, over Matthew, he says, hate if you don't hate. And that is hyperbole. And that means love them less. Obviously the Bible is never going to command us to hate our father and mother, but we are commanded to love him more and love them less. Die to self. Take up your cross, he says in Luke 14. And then the very thing that we need to keep in mind all the time, we are to renounce materialism. We are to keep things in the right perspective about material wealth or material things on this earth, lest we be carried away with that. And then Josh mentioned John 8, 31 and 32, it talks about discipleship there as well. And it talks about, in fact he said, you should know the truth, the truth shall make you free. and now i have that in my mind without verse 31 and i think verse 31 is what i'm looking for so i'm gonna have to i'm gonna have to reference that one john 8 31 it says very clear If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. We have to continue in the word, and we preach that and teach that all the time, that as followers of Jesus, we are to be in his word daily. He speaks to us. We are to learn. We are to obey. We are to study. That's why we preach the Bible, amen? This is what Jesus says. And then in John 13, he says we are to love the brethren. What it was, how's the world gonna know we are disciples if we love the brethren, John 13. And then John 15, very simply, he talks about fruits, he talks about bearing fruit, he talks about abiding in the vine, and he talks about he's chosen us to bear fruit, and as disciples, we are to reproduce. That's a very healthy list. In fact, that's a whole message, right? Just walk down all the passages about Christ requirements for disciples. But that's not the message. Oh, you know what? I did list that. Wow. There are the passages for you. If you haven't taken them down, If we're failing in one of these areas, it may be the reason we're not reproducing. So we have to constantly align with his requirements. Are we following him the way he holds us his requirements not what i say oh you're a christian because you know you feel this way or you dress this way or you sing this way no are you a christian because of what jesus says now you singing and dressing and whatever is important don't get me wrong but what i'm saying is what about these this is what jesus said we need to be doing So this, he's commanding us to go do this now. Everywhere in the world. Make disciples. That's the goal. Make followers of Jesus. Obviously, aren't you thankful he's with us? We don't have to do it alone, amen? So the process is by going, baptizing, and teaching. Obviously, if you're sitting in your house, sitting in front of the TV, eating, sitting there, you're not going to make disciples. You have to go out in the highways and hedges. And to tell you the truth, we're going to get to a part of this scripture. And I always bring this up and I know I don't care if it works or not. We are commanded by God, by Jesus to go house to house. It's not an option, folks. We don't vote on whether visitation means going house to house. It's a command. It's what Jesus wants us to do. It's what the apostles did. See what I'm saying? So how many churches are just saying, wow, we don't like that anymore? Well, what are you telling your Lord? This is very important. There's details here, amen? There's details here that we ought not overlook. Now this going, obviously the detail isn't in Matthew 28, but it is though. And that word go is used for the march of an army. Amen. Isn't that what we're doing? We're, we are a team. We're an army. We're, uh, an army of witnesses. Amen. But the other thing he's telling us is to go where? To all nations. And we'll get to that. What a task. Amen. What a task. we have to go to all nations remember when Jesus sent them out go to Matthew 10 he sent him out to the house of Israel remember that and even Paul don't you remember Paul first went into the synagogues and he preached to them and then there came a day when He dusted off his feet and he realized, you know, while Jesus as as we could go through the the the time that Jesus was walking with the disciples, he was teaching them to reach Gentiles because he himself reached he he he won Gentiles and brought them salvation. But we see in verses five and six. These 12 sent Jesus sent forth and commanded them going not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans entry not but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Here's the miracles that Jesus was talking Josh was talking about heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devils. freely you have received freely you give provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses nor script for your journey neither two coats and he says about going to the city and then it go down to verse 12 and when you come into an house right there's an example they had to go from house to house saluted and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it not be worthy let your peace return and whosoever shall not receive your words receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet verily i say to you it should be more tolerable in the land of sodom and gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city so think about what they were doing But they were going, this was the call. And then that leads to people getting saved, is it not? Because you're making disciples. We're going to see in Mark 16, it's very clear that we're taking the gospel. Amen. That's the goal of when we get to people's houses, when we talk to them, we are to be giving them the gospel. And I, I was thinking about this, you know, we'll get, we should get to that, but remember, The goal of meeting people out here is not just to give them a Bible and invite them to church. It's to give them the gospel. Let's not forget the goal here. Jesus says, preach the gospel to every creature. So that's the goal. We have to always do our best to give people the gospel, to leave them with the gospel message. You may never see that person again. How many of them said they'll be here today? Where are they? Right? But we have the responsibility of preaching the gospel to them. Now preaching the gospel as you're going and you're doing this, it's going to lead to baptizing. So those who become true disciples, who receive this message of the gospel, who are taught how to be followers of Jesus and they receive that, they are to be baptized. Brethren, when I look at this, we can't, another goal of the Great Commission is church planning. It's not just, you know, printing Bibles. That's a good thing. Or taking Bibles. That's a good thing. Providing scriptures. That's a good thing. But if we're going to fulfill the scriptures of the Great Commission, we have to plant churches. Because if I'm going to all nations, that's what we represent here, different nations that we're able to help. If I'm going to all nations and I get there and I make a disciple there and I baptize them, that's a church, that's the beginning of a church. You're not just baptizing them, it's a church ordinance. So part of missions, that's why we should be very selective in our missionaries and because there's a lot of like you wouldn't believe how many emails I get from missionaries and they do a bunch of things and a lot of them are eliminated doctrinally because of what we believe and where we stand on the church but many of them are just off doing different things which are good But we as a church have to choose to support missionaries who are preaching the gospel and planting churches. Because we can't do everything. We can't support everything. We don't have enough funds. So we have to restrict who we support by limiting and saying, no, if they're closest to preaching the gospel, baptizing those disciples, forming churches, that's who we really want to support. Now we know that this pattern wasn't just like, okay, by the way, I'm on my way to heaven now. Here's what you need to do. No, Jesus lived it. Jesus did it. Jesus set the example. Go to John chapter four. What was his goal? Why he lived on the earth? John chapter four, one and two. Think about this. When therefore the Lord knew how that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples. So he gave them authority to baptize. But what they knew, everyone knew Jesus was going about making disciples and baptizing them. That's what he did. Pretty clear, isn't it? He was doing it with his apostles. Now remember, those apostles, and that's one good thing that we were talking about requirements about the Bible had to be written by apostles or prophets, men of God sent by God, Holy Spirit sent, inspired, but the apostles had to be baptized by John the Baptist. Two, when a member in Acts 1, when they chose Matthias, he had to be one that was with the Lord. He was with us when the Lord was going in and out. And beginning from the baptism of John the Baptist, that's one requirement, with the Lord and a witness of the resurrection of the Lord, of the resurrected Lord. So that was a, Acts 1, that was a requirement. And then teaching them, that third teaching, go back to Matthew 28, what's our goal there? And this is something that we always have to remember, and anyone that's a teacher in the church should remember this. that our goal in teaching is not just to give information our goal in teaching is to change lives our goal in teaching is that our students would do what we're teaching and that's not an easy thing because those who receive the teaching have to be engaged or they're not going to learn anything first point but then they have to have some motivation about what they're receiving, like what we were learning today is a very important theme. Amen. We need to be motivated to be able to talk to people about the reliability of the Bible, the inspiration of the Bible, the preservation of the Bible, how we know we have God's word today. And so if we're not motivated, how are we going to say, you know what? I want to go tell someone about this. Obviously we have to pray that the Holy Spirit of God, but he said very clearly, teaching them to observe all things. Not just teaching them all things, teaching them to observe all things. Observe is to obey, to do. And so, we know that in Acts 2, without going there, they continue steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine, in the breaking of bread, in prayers, in fellowship. They continued in the teaching of the apostles. So brethren, they continue steadfastly, meaning they adhered to that. And that's that's what Jesus told them to do. And aren't you thankful they did that? Amen. But I like the promise that we see. I am with you always. Amen. I am with you all even under the end of the world. Amen. We know that this is a church commission. It's a church commission because he said, I will be with you all way even under the end of the world, which limits it, eliminates the apostles only theory. because they're dead and gone. And the end of the world did not come. Jesus said, I'm going to be with you always, even under the end of the world. That is a church. Go ye. It's plural. It's a church commission. It's the institutional commission for the church. And think about the early disciples, the disciples of the apostles, amen? These church fathers that we're learning about, some of them good and bad lines of doctrine, but Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, all them were seemingly sound in doctrine. And they had the truth. But even early on, remember the agnostics and Judaizers and all them, they were still working on people to, to, to follow other doctrines, even at the beginning. So we have this promise and I'm thankful that Jesus is with us. We don't have to do this alone. In fact, you know, remember in the Old Testament, God said, I'm going to send the angel of the Lord with you. You know, I'm going to send the angel of the Lord. He's going to guide you. He's going to lead you. This is what we have in our church. We have Jesus Christ. Amen. He's the one that's going to guide us. He's the one that's going to lead us. He's going to be with us all the days that we are here on the earth, the days of weakness, the days of sorrows, the days of joy and victory and power. He's going to be with us all kinds of days until when the consummation of this age to the end of the world as we know it and the coming of the Lord. So, brethren, this is a powerful incentive, this promise. because it should help incentivize us to the fullest endeavor to press on to the farthest limits of the world that all nations may know Christ and the power of his risen life. The salvation go to Mark 16. Let me introduce you to Mark 16 15 because we have that same command to go ye. I guess if we missed it, maybe you can get it this time. Amen. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to who? Every creature. we could break down all these but he that believeth in his baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned when josh was talking about the signs these are this is the passage that came to my mind verse 20 and they went forth and preached everywhere the lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following Amen, he says. These miracles were confirming the word of the apostles until the completion of the New Testament and the apostolic age was over. Go back to verse 15. This is a church. When you say go ye, when you see the plural, it designates the church corporately. There we go again. We all are to be going. Not just the few select of the church. All the church. Go ye. Go as a body. Go corporately. This is the commission of Jesus. And I believe when you look at the New Testament, remember Acts 8? What happened there when the persecution came to the church? Who went? Says the apostles, they abode in Jerusalem. But the believers, the disciples went everywhere preaching the word. And then that's how the word got all the way to Antioch. And God began to save souls there. You know, from Antioch, where the word of God went. So it is the vision of Christ. It's not just A few believers of the church, a few brethren of the church, are the faithful ones spreading the gospel. He's telling all of us to go, corporately, collectively, as a body. And so, this is a repeat of what the ye is over there in Matthew 28, 19, and the you, I'm with you, that's plural as well, always, that's plural. And so he's gonna be with us, brethren, amen, as a church. And so think about all of the, he appeared to Mary Magdalene, he appeared to Peter, he appeared to James, he appeared to Paul. And think about the 500 brethren that saw him at once in his post-resurrection appearance. 1 Corinthians 15 says, He was seeing a 500 brethren, the 120 over there in Acts 1. So think about all the people, collectively, the church. He's saying, go. We are commanded to go. But then he tells us the extent of that command is to go into all the world. Wow. Isn't this what necessitates missions? We can't reach the whole world without sending missionaries around the world because you can't go everywhere. Now some get the, you know, you get to travel every once in a while and, and that's a blessing maybe in other parts of the world, but We know from the early church, they did systematically send out missionaries and they were covering Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most part of the earth, into Europe, Asia, the spread of the gospel. And ultimately, because of that, our ancestors were saved and came to America, started America. And that now we send missionaries all around the world. Now those countries are sending missionaries back to America because we need it. Amen. So let me end on this point and we'll get to the preaching of the gospel at another time in the next point. But as I mentioned to you, that these were not only just preaching the gospel, they were baptizing them, they were starting churches, amen? But we can go to the book of Acts and know how they were literally impacting the world. Go to Acts 5.28. There's a lot of verses that tell us about the extent of their Outreach. Were they really doing this? Acts 528, remember they were being persecuted. Did not we straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name? And behold, ye have what? Filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. and attend to bring this man's blood upon us. You have filled Jerusalem. What about over there in Acts chapter number 17 verse 6? This is where, this is a great one and there's a wonderful message here. How to turn your world upside down. Amen. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the cities, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." They turned the world upside down. Amen? Go to 1910. Acts 1910. And this continued by the space of two years, so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. There's a little more I want to bring out of Mark 16, 15. But I just want to end, I won't do it this time, but I want to end just with this thought. Don't you see the impact that they were making in the world because they were out doing what the Lord called them to do. This is all God's asking us to do. He's not telling us to do something new, something different, something bigger, something better. He just wants us to be faithful disciples doing what he called us to do as a church. And that is strictly our calling is preaching the gospel to every creature. making disciples, seeing them baptized. If it's beyond our church, starting churches, this is what God's calling us to do. We have the example of these early believers, and I'll get back to the example of every house. It is in the Bible, but I will get back to that next week. But brethren, when you see other verses, In Romans, 1 Thessalonians, Colossians, it talks about the whole world. That the gospel was going into the whole world. So think about their lifetime. Think about their generations. They were very busy doing the Great Commission, obeying the Great Commission, being involved in the Great Commission. I don't think we should do any less. It doesn't matter what your vocation is, what you're called to do in life. you have to be part of the great commission of the church you have to be part of preaching the gospel to every creature and at times collectively come and go with the church that's part of ye that's in there and that's bible and it's a command so let's Be involved in missions. Let's understand what the Great Commission is all about. And we have a lot more to say about it, but we will do that next week. Let's all stand and have a word of prayer.