This morning, however, we're going to return to our study in Matthew and we're going to consider a very important question for reconsideration. That is, what is the mission of the church? Now, I say reconsideration because we've considered this many times before, countless times in fact. However, we as believers are often like goldfish. We have very short memories, which is why we need constant reminders of the things that are most important. See, the mission or the purpose of the church is perhaps the most important question that we could consider because so often we tend to misunderstand or misremember why we exist. Furthermore, others outside the church will often capitalize on this missional confusion to try and steer churches away from their God-given mission and towards some other pursuit. Now, these alternate purposes range from a slight distraction to a complete betrayal of the mission. For example, there are some who view the church as merely a social organization. This is a place where you make and have friends. Of course, we understand that fellowship is a key component of body life here, as we'll see, but when it comes to the holy hangout, when that becomes the ultimate end of church life, we become distracted away from our primary mission. Others see the church as a vehicle for social change or cultural progress. Now, there are very worthy causes for Christians to consider and maybe to devote some of their time to, but we need to make sure that we are working alongside the commission and not against it. Some see the church as a vehicle for political action. to help set the agenda for governments and leaders. Others see the church as serving education for themselves or for their children. And again, as we'll see, education and instruction are all components of the mission, but with a very specific goal in mind. Now, when you add all of those possibilities together, we see that there's also today a prevalence of para-church ministries. some of which are designed to come alongside, para meaning coming alongside, coming alongside the church to help us, but many of them, many church ministries outside of the ministry of the local church, exist unto themselves and oftentimes treat the church as a piggy bank for people and resources. There's not a month that goes by every month without fail that I'm contacted by some ministry organization, whatever it may be, that wants to get into this church and promote their ministry. Now that's not to say that there aren't good ministries out there because there are. But there are many that might not be a fit for harvest at this time. We have to be discerning. We don't just open the floodgates and let everybody in because at a certain point it starts to drown out what our primary responsibility is. Furthermore, any ministry that we join arms with undergoes a level of scrutiny to make sure that it's going to help us to be faithful to our mission. And so, what is our mission? Well, we're going to find that in the last two verses of Matthew 28. The conclusion of Matthew's gospel provides us with Jesus' parting words to his disciples after his resurrection from the dead. Remembering back to Good Friday, he goes to the cross, he dies to pay for the sins of his people, he was buried in the ground, and then on the third day he rose again. And once he appeared again to the disciples, he instructs them to go and meet him in Galilee in order for the commission to be handed off to them. And so we read in the last couple of verses of Matthew 28 verses 16 to 20. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now at first glance, These might appear to us, at least just a very quick glance, to be just a collection of disjointed statements. But as we're going to see, these are all connected to one another for very important reasons. Last week we looked at the authority of Christ in verses 16 through 18, which explores what William Hendrickson calls the Great Claim. The Great Claim. And what is that Great Claim? Well, Jesus claims to have all authority been given to Him. That is a wonderful claim, a marvelous claim, a glorious claim. And as we go from that Great Claim, today we're going to look at the Great Commission given in verses 19 to 20. The first thing we have to consider in verse 19 here is the word therefore. Whenever you see in scripture the word therefore, you need to ask what it is therefore. There's a purpose always for the words that are in scripture. When Jesus says go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, the word therefore connects what is in this verse to what has been previously stated. Moreover, it functions as the backbone of what Jesus is about to say. And it's clear from the context here that the word therefore in verse 19 is built on verse 18, the claim that all authority has been given to Christ, all authority in heaven and on earth. That is the primary claim, the great claim. It's the only thing that he really says up to this point in this section. It is of preeminent importance. And so based on that, considering that Jesus possesses all authority over all things, he has the divine right to command and to commission. With regard to the 11 disciples who were all standing before Him, He possesses all authority as their Master to tell them what He wants them to do. And He retains that authority over us as well. He has the divine right to tell our church what He wants us to do. And we relish that, we bask in that, we love that, that we have a Master who cares about us and is not vague about what He wants us to do. Furthermore, the authority of Christ is also why we believe and understand that this is not the great suggestion. This isn't just something that we have in a menu of options for us to do. And I think some ministries, some churches treat this as this kind of a thing where we vote on the kinds of things we want to do. We sort of do a grab bag of options and this kind of gets funneled in somewhere. But that is not how the scripture set this up. This is not some grand suggestion as though it's optional. Rather, the authority of Christ undergirds this command. What he tells them here is backed by his divine right to do so. And so, because Jesus possesses all authority to tell his disciples what to do, he says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Now, commentators have noted in these two verses here, four key components of Jesus' commission here. And we read them, we see go, we see make disciples, we see baptizing, and we see teaching. Now, there's actually really only one key command, as we'll see. One key command, and that is to make disciples of all the nations. And we look at this grammatically, the other three, go, baptizing, and teaching, those are all participles of the main command here. The main command is to make disciples, and so we're gonna look at that first together. This Greek word here, methatase, refers to a disciple, a student, a learner, a follower who's committed. In the New Testament, Jesus' followers are frequently called his disciples, and they were those who sat under his teaching in order to become like him. Because that's essentially what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. It's about learning to become like Him and following His lead. We call this Christlikeness. If Jesus is doing and saying and living in such a way, we want to do that, we want to follow that. He is our model, He's our example, and He's also the commander and the master. Approximately 250 times in the New Testament, we see references to Jesus' disciples, at least by name. However, what is it that characterizes a disciple? Because all those different usages, they're not always defined here. But what are the marks of a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's a good question for us to consider. And so this morning, I wanna just, before we get into the rest of the text here, I wanna look at five key markers of what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. Five key markers of being a disciple. Number one, Disciples are converted and saved. Disciples are converted and saved. Now, this is probably the most obvious point, I would think, but it follows that you cannot be a true follower of Jesus if you don't belong to him in some kind of a saving spiritual way. If you're not born again, if you're not a Christian, but you're thinking that you can somehow follow and not do with the most essential thing he's commanded, then you're misguided. We read about this in John 3.3, Jesus tells Nicodemus when they meet together at night, he says, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is the very foundational prerequisite. Before you can do anything else, before you can follow in my footsteps, before you can go to heaven and see the kingdom and be in fellowship with God, you must be born again. Your heart must change. You must become made anew in Christ. A true Christian convert is one who believes the gospel and is saved by that gospel. They have a heart change. In fact, these two things are intertwined when we consider in Acts 11, 26, it reminds us that the disciples were first called Christians. Christian and disciple are interchangeable in biblical language. In God's eyes, to be a Christian is to be a disciple, and to be a disciple is to be a Christian. But there's a little bit more to it than just that. Number two, disciples live and abide by God's word. They live and abide by God's word. Jesus declares in John 8 31, if you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. Christian disciples, we read and study and abide by God's Word. There's a reason that we're called Harvest Bible Church. It wasn't just because we flipped open a Christian thesaurus and said, oh, let's pick a name. There's a reason that Bible is in the center of the name. Everything is deliberate because the Word of God is central. There's a reason the pulpit is where it is, in the center of the room. There's a reason the pulpit is elevated, not because of the preacher, but because of the office and the verbiage of what's being declared to you. The truth contained here is the most essential thing about who we are as disciples of Jesus. We desire to live by the Word of God, to obey the Word of God, to know the Word of God. After all, there is by definition the very meaning of disciple as a student, a learner, a follower. We have to learn to know God's Word if we are to follow and to be a disciple. The Lord desires His people to know His Word inside and out. Friends, you can't know too much Bible. It's not possible. Even if you were to memorize the entire thing, spend your lifetime memorizing the entire thing, well, that's just memorization. You're gonna spend a whole other lifetime learning to live it out, right? My point is, it's inexhaustible to devote yourself to the Word of God. In fact, Jesus gives that very same invitation in Matthew 11, 28. He tells his disciples, come to me. He says, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Well, that sounds really good. I want to come to Jesus for rest and for respite and for comfort and for strength, all these things. But how do we come to him? How do we come to him? What does he say? He says in the very next breath, take my yoke upon you. His yoke is his teaching. Take my yoke and learn from me. Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Everything that our soul is desiring is connected to learning and knowing and abiding by His Word. They're inseparable. You want the comfort of Christ in your life? You have to draw near and know His Word. Because it's by His Word He's going to speak the words of life to you. You must know His Word. Disciples, we learn God's Word. We abide by God's Word. Number three, disciples love God's people. Disciples love God's people. John 13, 34, and 35. A new commandment I give to you, says the Lord Jesus Christ, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. Listen to this, by this all men will know that you are my disciples. if you have love for one another. Of course, 1 John 3.15 says that if we hate our brother, if we don't love each other, if we hate one another, God considers us in the same category as murderers. And he says, and we do not have eternal life abiding in us if we don't love each other. And so rather, Christ's disciples, we must be characterized by our love because God is love. and to love one another is to belong to Him. All love comes from the Father to us through the Son, by the Spirit, and we take that love that we have received and we pour it out to others. We must love one another if we are to be His disciples. Number four, disciples bear the fruit of sanctification. Disciples bear the fruit of sanctification. John 15, 8, "...by this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples." It's one thing to profess faith in the gospel. It's one thing to read your Bible. It's one thing to go to church. It's one thing to claim the title of Christian. But it's quite another thing to bear the fruit of godliness and Christlikeness. See, our fruitfulness The fruit of our life demonstrates to others and to God that we belong to Him. It proves, Jesus says, that we are His disciples. And lastly, number five, disciples make more disciples. We reproduce spiritually, that's what we do. This is the thrust of the Great Commission here, to make disciples of all the nations. And we know that this commission was carried out by the early church. In fact, for example, in the first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas, they were committing themselves to this very end. We read about this in Acts 14, 21, and it says, after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith. But that's the sense of it. Reproducing yourself spiritually through other people. We find this is what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.2, writing to his primary disciple, Timothy, he says, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. It's a Christian relay. It's where Paul is saying, everything that you, Timothy, have heard from me, I'm going to give to you. I want you to entrust to other faithful men, and those faithful men will entrust and teach others also. We have four generations of disciple making in this one statement here in Paul's letter. We even see a model for this in Titus chapter 2. Titus 2 portrays this very simply, where we see older men discipling the younger men and older women in the faith discipling younger women in the faith. We see it modeled for us and inherent in that. If you look at even just the older women and the younger women, part of that is teaching them how to love their husbands and also to teach and train up their children. Motherhood is disciple-making. That's why motherhood is so special because that is the first and primary place that as Christian mothers you have the opportunity to reproduce spiritually. Maybe you're concerned, I don't have as much time to pour into this person and this person and this person when my kids are young. Guess what? You're making disciples even when they're young. And then there's gonna come a day when you'll have the opportunity to teach other women how to do the same with their children. You see, God's plan for even disciple making through motherhood and children, even that is perfect. And men, that's your charge as well, to work alongside your wives and to train up your sons and your daughters and teach other young men also. This doesn't have to be some formal programmed thing. This is just life together, helping each other to be more like Christ. That's the model we see in the New Testament. It's laid out for us. Friends, the Christian faith was never meant to be hoarded. You don't just keep it for yourself. You don't just build yourself up and stop there. No, if you're building and growing, it is incumbent upon you. It's your joy, your stewardship to pass it on to other people. While we are commanded by the Lord to pass it down, what's given to us, again, it is also a tremendous, tremendous opportunity. Whatever you have, whatever God has given you, share it. Well, I don't have very much. Share it then. Whatever you do have, share it. And then when you've shared that, go get more. Learn more. Seek more. Sharpen more as a believer. Learn godliness. Learn contentment. Learn the scriptures. Learn obedience. Learn discipline. And whatever you have, as big or as small as you have, give it away. Give it away. Such a wonderful thing. That's the heart behind disciple making. But let's explore this further, Matthew 28 verses 19 to 20. We now see that it centered around this command to make disciples. Again, there's those three participles that we talked about. The first one is go. Now, some have mistakenly overemphasized this to the point where the merely of the going is seen as the Great Commission. That as long as we go, and there have been whole missionary movements that have been built on this idea of go. Go, go, go. But sadly, I've even heard of missionaries who've taken great strides to go, and once they're in the mission field, they fall short of attempting to then make disciples. It doesn't stop just by going. There has to be the main command of making disciples. Going is not enough. But we also don't want to underplay the imperative to get out of our comfort zones. Again, it's so easy for us to just learn and grow and sit and do our own thing and not think outside of ourselves. It's easy to sit. It's hard to go. But let this exhort you to work hard, to get outside of yourself to make disciples. In fact, some scholars have interpreted the grammar here is not simply go, but as you go, make disciples, implying that discipleship is something we commit ourselves to as part of the course of our lives. Again, you don't have to quit your job, stop what you're doing and say, okay, now comes the portion of my life where I'm going to make disciples. That isn't how it happens. It happens as you go along the way, as you get to know brothers and sisters in the faith, as you get to grow closer to your children, as you come alongside them. I know on Thursday nights I've been doing a men's theology study for about 11 years now, maybe 12 years now. And frankly, I mean, guys come in, guys come out. I've got a core that are always there. And no matter what happens, whatever I'm learning, whatever I'm studying, I just want to keep on going and challenging. Sometimes we do simpler material, sometimes it's more complex. We vary it up, we change it up, we have fun. I mean, for me, it's one of the highlights of my week just to spend time with men pouring into them in hopes that they too will pour into other people. And I exhort the men of the church to go home, bring this information, bring this teaching to your wives and to your children, to other people, to other men, to unbelievers. I mean, that's the core of it is to take everything that we have and give it forward. But my friends, you have to go. You have to get out of your comfort zone and get out of your chair and go. This brings up the bounds of discipleship. Well, to what end? To what end? Who should we make into disciples? Remember back in your minds to Matthew chapter 10, Jesus instructed the disciples not to go to the Samaritans or to the Gentiles, but he says, only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The gospel, the faith was initially intended for the Jews first and the Jews only. But now, post-resurrection, things are changing. Things are changing. He commissions the same men to bring the faith, not just to the lost sheep of the house of Israel now, but to bring the Christian faith to all the nations. You see the shift here from chapter 10 to chapter 28. Now, make disciples of all the nations. Evangelism is meant to be universal. Disciple making is universal. No peoples are left out. We are meant to go to all the world. Now, all the world can mean the ends of the earth. It can mean across the nation. It can be in the state of New Hampshire. It can be in Gilmanton. Wherever you go, all peoples, everywhere, it doesn't make a difference. All peoples are to be reached with the gospel, but with the totality of the Christian faith. Furthermore, that's what Jesus promises in Acts 1, verse 8, before He ascends back to heaven. Just a few weeks later, after this is taking place in Matthew 28, He tells the disciples, right before He goes back up to heaven, He says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, right next door, He says, in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth. The gospel call goes out to all. And yet, once they have believed the gospel and come to Christ by faith, there is another step. There is another step. Jesus then adds here, when he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, he adds even more to this. He says, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is part of disciple making. How so? Well, it's the very first step of obedience for new believers. Because there's, and maybe you've noticed this, maybe you've experienced this, maybe this has been you. Some people, when they hear the gospel and they believe the gospel, there's a distinct point in time when they say, I'm a believer. I believe the gospel. I got saved on this day. I can write it down. I can mark it on my calendar. I can celebrate that one day. Because they know there's been such a radical shift from who they were before Christ to who they are in Christ. But here's the thing. Not everybody has that. Some people do, but not everybody does. In my experience, this is not scriptural, this is just experience, a lot of believers can sort of point to a season of time. It's not to say that conversion hasn't taken place, but rather they can say, you know what, actually it was more like in this couple of weeks here, I remember something changing in me. I was hearing the gospel, I don't remember exactly the day I believed it, but I know that my life before that time was markedly different. than the season of time when I began to believe and follow the Lord." Again, that's not a hard and fast thing. If you have a date, if you don't have a date, but all of us need to make sure we understand that we haven't always just been Christians. There is before Christ, and then there's life in Christ. But at a certain point when you realize that, yes, I believe this gospel, I have repented my sins, I have turned away, I hate my old life, I want to follow Christ, I want to obey His commands, I want to live my life for Him. Well, what do you do first? The first step of obedience is to be baptized. To go and make a public declaration that you belong to Jesus and there's no turning back. That's essentially what this is all about. This word in the Greek, baptizo, refers to dipping or immersing. It even points to the mode of baptism. There's a reason why you baptize full immersion because that's what baptizo means. But it signifies one of two ordinances that the church maintains, baptism and also the Lord's table. or communion. But baptism itself, it's the outward sign that you have been spiritually born again in Christ. Romans 6, 3 and 4 tells us that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus. That is, into His death. You go down into the water, it symbolizes dying with Christ. And then, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death in order that as Christ was raised from the dead, come out of the water symbolically being raised with Him from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Baptism visibly demonstrates death to old life, death to self, and reborn in Christ Jesus. There's a spiritual connection here. By being baptized in the water physically, we declare to all people that we have been first baptized into Christ. spiritually. The water doesn't save you. The towel drying off after doesn't change you. None of that. It's the act. It's not the act itself. That's a symbol of what has taken place spiritually inside of you. I died to sin and was buried and I was reborn and resurrected in Christ to new life. At the conclusion of Peter's first sermon even, in Acts 2.38, he commanded, repent And let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And so even from the very beginning we see that baptism is part of that. When you become a Christian you must be baptized. It's a command. What are the purposes of Christian baptism if we had to summarize? One scholar named John Broadus offers three main purposes for Christian baptism. One, to illustrate or represent purification, that our sins have been washed away. It's a symbol that our sins have been washed away. Number two, to symbolize burial and resurrection, union with Christ. And third, to make an oath of allegiance or to pledge devotion to Christ as our Savior and our God. When you are baptized publicly and you give profession of your faith, you're telling everybody who's there, I'm a Christian now and I expect you to hold me accountable to my profession of faith. It's a big thing. It's not a small thing at all. It is a command of the Lord. As for that third design, the pledge, the promise of devotion, we see that reflected even here in what Jesus says. That is, when we baptize new converts, we aren't doing so in the name of Paul or Peter or James or whatever evangelist led you to Christ or the pastor. Nobody's baptized here in my name at all. Rather, we are baptized in identification with the one true God, the triune God, who exists eternally as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In fact, this text is one of the many great expressions in Scripture of the doctrine of the Trinity. Many others, including 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4-6, 2 Corinthians 13, 14, Ephesians 1, 3-14, Ephesians 4, 4-6, 1 Peter 1, 2, Revelation 1, 4-6, and so on. So many places in Scripture that elucidate and explain or express the doctrine of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our triune God. It's interesting to note that when Jesus is baptized in Matthew 3, we see that members of the Trinity are there with Him. As He's coming up out of the water, He's being baptized by John, but as He's coming up out of the water, the Bible says that the heavens, He sees the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descending on Him like a dove, and behold, a voice coming out of the heavens, that's the Father's voice, saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Even at Jesus' baptism, we see the Son, we see the Spirit, and we hear the Father. When we're baptized as Christian disciples, it is into, as 2 Corinthians 13, 14 says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Of course, we know that baptism and conversion, they're not all there is to disciple making. Jesus will add something else here in verse 20. Again, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And then verse 20, next phrase here, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. One absolutely essential component to disciple-making is teaching. Teaching. Didasko in the Greek refers to teaching or instructing. There's also another way to interpret this or define it as directing or training. If Christian disciples are to be learners, then it implies that there also needs to be teachers. You can't have a church full of disciples and no teachers, right? So we must have teaching as a core component of who we are as a church. Now, this does not mean that every single Christian needs to be a certified Bible teacher or even have a PhD in Christian theology, but it does mean that disciples need to be competent in the Scriptures. That's one thing I lament and many lament is that for some reason in this age, this generation, we have a plethora of Bibles. We've never had so many Bibles available to us. I don't know how many billions of iPhones there are on the planet, but every single one of those phones is connected to the internet and you can download a Bible. You can literally put the Word of God in any hand around the globe at any time. We have more access to Scripture than any time in human history, and yet we are a generation that is largely ignorant of what is in the Scriptures. It should not be this way. It should not be this way. If anything, we should be the most devoted. We have more Bibles, more resources, more commentaries, more word studies, more online sermons, more teaching available. Some people on Sunday mornings, I talk to several of you, you'll come here and then you'll go home and stream like two or three other services. You get church three times on Sunday in different places because of technology. That's wonderful, but what does it produce? Has it brought you to a place where you're desiring to know God's word, to read God's word, to study God's word? So important. Verse 20, I believe, gives us a two-fold sense of discipleship. Two-fold sense of discipleship. I don't want to keep on confusing you with lists here, but I can't not give you the lists. They're really good. First, discipleship involves a commitment to teaching and learning Christian doctrine. Well, how much doctrine? How much scripture? Well, Paul in Acts 20, 20 reminds the Ephesians that he did not shrink from declaring to them anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house. What is Paul saying? Paul says, I taught you as much as I could wherever I could. When I was with you, Ephesians, I did not shrink. I expanded. I went everywhere. I didn't care what the situation was. I gave you everything I possibly could. Anything that was profitable from the Scriptures, I gave it to you. Verse 27, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. I went everywhere in the Scriptures. I didn't hold back. That's what Paul's commitment was as an apostle. But what about us? How do we qualify or quantify this? Well, I would say, and I get asked this question more often than you think, I would say this, and this is just my two cents pastorally, but I think I've got something here to stand on. What is essential Christian doctrine? I think it's no less than the inspiration and authority of the Bible, the doctrine of God, especially the Trinity and His sovereignty, the nature and reality of sin, the person and work of Jesus Christ, the essential elements of the gospel including justification by faith alone and repentance, the doctrine of Christian holiness and sanctification growing in Christ, and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the future. I think that's pure essential doctrine if I had to boil it all down. There's a lot of doctrines that are sort of, I don't want to say periphery, but they're not as clear, they're not as defined, the implication isn't as broad or as pressing. There are some things that are mysterious. You don't want to build a first-level doctrine on something that's maybe a third-level doctrine. But essential Christianity, there are things that are absolutely essential for us to understand. But what about the things that are more practical, practical theology? Well, I would add to that list the nature and identity of humanity, who we are as people, the imago Dei. If you don't understand the imago Dei, the nature that's in us as human beings, you'll never understand the current issues of the day. gender ideology, abortion, euthanasia, all these different things. If you don't understand the Imago Dei, you'll never have a biblical worldview on any of those things. These are so essential to understand. The nature of humanity created by God, the roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives in marriage. I feel like I could spend every Sunday just preaching on marriage and encouraging you to grow in that area. So important. Biblical spiritual disciplines, such as Bible study and prayer. Biblical child raising, Christian parenting, very important. A biblical concept of working and serving and giving. And I would add to that the Christian's responsibility toward government. Now, that might seem like a lot, but let me ask you the question. Imagine for a second that you are a brand new Christian, brand new believer, and someone came into your life and walked alongside you and spent their time teaching you these things. What kind of a faith walk would you have? How would you be able to grow and mature? You'd be doing a lot better, right? So would I. But here's some good news for you. Two things. Number one, everything that I've just said is here. It's found in one place. You don't have to go back in the 80s when they used to sell the encyclopedias that were 65 volumes long. And remember those days, some of you? We have one book to master, one book to learn, one book on which we build our life. And so it's all found in one place. And here's the second bit of good news. You have your whole lifetime to learn it. You can spend the rest of your life, you should spend the rest of your life learning what it means to be a Christian, who the Lord is, who is the God that you serve and worship, how are you saved, by which gospel are you saved to learn this? But that's the first part, a commitment to teaching and learning Christian doctrine, and all of that leads to the second part. Learning doctrine with a view to obedience. Jesus says the goal of teaching is to produce obedience to His commands. Matthew records this word here as tereo in the Greek. It means to keep, or to guard, or to observe, or to obey. It's the idea that it's not just hearing and understanding, but rather obeying Christ's commands. Putting them into practice. In fact, John 14-15, Jesus says, if you love Me, you will keep My commandments. Now, He doesn't mean law-keeping. We're not slaves to laws. But rather, He does mean the law of love, and righteousness, and godliness, and goodness. When we learn to be like Him, we do what He does. We want to do everything that He does, everything He commands. We read about this in 1 John. Chapter 2, he says, By this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. The one who says, I have come to know Him and does not keep His commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected. For by this we know that we are in Him. The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. You want to say that you're a disciple? You want to live your life as a Christian? You must study and learn what it means to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. To be like Him. And so we are called to make disciples of all the nations. We do so by going into all the world and preaching the gospel, Mark 16, 15 says. We go everywhere and anywhere. Doesn't matter if you go to the coffee shop, you do it in your house, you come to the church, you're at work on a lunch break, wherever you are, wherever you go, to make disciples of all nations. And then here at the church, we baptize new converts. Again, it's an ordinance of the church. to baptize in the name of the triune God, and to teach people to follow Him, to obey His commands in order that we might become like Him. My friends, this is the Great Commission. It's not community engagement. It's not social justice. It is not political involvement. It is Christian disciple-making. That is the mission. That is the goal of our ministry. It ought to be the totality of our ministry. that all of you and myself, all of us together, are growing more and more to learn God's Word, to know His commands, and to live them out and become like Him. In the end, we ought to be able to embody the words of the Apostle Paul that we read earlier this morning. He says, of this church, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but now has been made manifest to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of His glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Let this be our theme. Verse 28. It's on our bulletins, by the way. There's a reason for that. That we proclaim Him, admonishing every man, every person, and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we might present every man complete in Christ. And I echo what Paul says in v. 29, for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power which mightily works within me. We should never tire of this commission. We should never tire of trying to come alongside others and spurring them on and encouraging and teaching. Now, there are days When just coming alongside and strengthening them and encouraging them with promises from the Lord, from the gospel. But all elements of life, all elements of Christian doctrine that you would exhort one another and teach one another and train one another. What's the motivation? to love one another. We do it because we love each other, but most of all, because we love and honor Christ. That is what he's commanded. That is what he's commissioned. We must follow. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you that you are not vague with this. We thank you that you have been crystal clear, that you do not desire us to simply sit on our hands We have comfortable chairs here, Lord, but we're not meant to sit in them very long. That you want us to go to any place and every place that we can and make disciples of all the nations so that they might become baptized into you. and be taught to obey your commands. Lord, let us never grow stagnant in doing that. Let us not be distracted away from that. Lord, there are so many outside influences that want to pull us away and distract us and pull us off mission. But Lord, let us always remain lovingly, graciously, winsomely, focused, laser locked on that mission. And Lord, why? Because you have commanded it. You have commanded us to become like you. But we must learn to do so. Lord, I understand and we understand this is not something that we can just muscle up on our own. We know that you have to be working inside the hearts of people, spirit of God, that you must compel and motivate and encourage our hearts to desire to be more like you. To study the word, to pray to you, to give in to you, to commit our life to you, to repent of sins, to walk in righteousness. You must have this work in our hearts. And so we entreat you. to stir up these affections for Christ in us. Stir up a desire to follow you as a disciple. Lord Jesus, you have made this possible because you've given your life for your church. We all can be and are disciples because you have made the way for us through your blood through the cross. And Father, we know that it is by your purposes, by your plan, that you've desired to save any of us and all of us who are here. We thank you, our triune God, that we can obey you and know you and love you. Thank you. Bring glory to yourself through this commission, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.