In his sermon on 'The Great Commission,' Robert Bosley explores Matthew 28:18-20, emphasizing four main points: the foundational authority of Jesus, the ultimate goal of making disciples of all nations, the means of accomplishing this through going, baptizing, and teaching, and the empowering promise of Jesus' presence. He stresses that while missions are essential, worship is the ultimate goal of the church because it is eternal. Bosley encourages believers to understand that making disciples may look different for each person and should not cause guilt. He reassures that Jesus, with all authority, is with His church, ensuring the mission's success. The sermon also addresses misconceptions about the role of missions, highlighting that the church's primary purpose is not solely missionary work but includes worship, which fuels missions. Bosley calls for encouragement amid challenges, urging believers to make disciples in whatever capacity they are able, trusting in Jesus' authority and presence.

Good afternoon. If you could take out your copy of the Scriptures and open up to the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Chapter 28. The 28th chapter of Matthew's Gospel. We heard much this morning about the mission of the church and a display of the wisdom of God and a display of the love of God.

We're going to kind of continue that theme with another mission of the church, what we commonly call the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28. Matthew 28, beginning in verse 18, we read, and Jesus came and spoke to them, them being the eleven disciples, 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 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age amen let's pray father we thank you that you have brought us together thank you for this time we can be in your word Help me Lord to speak as I ought to speak, open hearts and minds to receive these things and help us to understand what you would have us to learn from this great and lofty passage, what it means to go and make disciples of this world for the glory of your kingdom and for the honor of the name of your son. In his name we pray, amen.

So, as I said, we're gonna continue with this theme of the mission of the church and we're going to talk about the Great Commission this afternoon. Now messages and sermons on missions and evangelism can often cause more pain and discomfort than anything. Often what results from messages on the need of evangelism and the importance of the Great Commission, often what comes with that is a sense of guilt and shame because of how lacking we are in our zeal to accomplish this mission. My purpose this afternoon is not to cause anyone to feel guilt for a lack of evangelizing, though it is probably the case that we could all improve on our consistency and our zeal to share the gospel with those that the Lord puts in front of us. But my goal is to use this passage as a means of teaching us what God is doing and has been doing for 2, 000 years in His church.

And I want it to be an encouragement to us to see and rejoice in what God has been doing and is doing among his people around the world and here today. And so I'm gonna look at verses 18 through 20 under four headings. The four headings will be the foundational authority of our mission, the ultimate goal of our mission, the means of accomplishing our mission, and the promise empowering our mission. The authority of our mission, the goal of our mission, the means of accomplishing our mission, and the promise empowering our mission. The authority of our mission, the goal of our mission, the means of accomplishing our mission, and the promise empowering our mission.

But before we get to those points, I do have a couple preliminary matters I wanna get out of the way. So this passage I've already referred to it numerous times as the Great Commission. And if I took a poll or I asked almost anyone in here, What is the Great Commission? 95% of you would probably refer to Matthew 28, 19, and 20, or say, oh, it's those last couple of verses in the book of Matthew, or something like that. You would know exactly what I was talking about if I used the phrase, or when I used the phrase, the Great Commission.

Now, it's not entirely clear where this language of the Great Commission came from, though it seems to have been popularized by that famous missionary to China, Hudson Taylor. I wouldn't be surprised if he coined it himself. If not, it was almost certainly a creation of another one of those famous and well-loved pioneers of the modern missionary movement of the late 17th and early 1800s. This term is fairly new in church history, this term of the Great Commission. And to be perfectly forthright, it's actually not my favorite term.

I think it can be misleading, although to be honest, I don't really have a better alternative to offer you today. The evangelistic endeavor of the church is a little cumbersome. The problem I have with the term the Great Commission and calling this the mission of the Church is that it can, in my opinion, elevate missions almost to a place of supreme importance in the Church, as if the Church exists for the purpose of missionary work. And I do not believe that is the case. I'm not saying that missions aren't important or that missions aren't one of the main things that the church ought to be doing in the world.

But what I am saying is it is not the most preeminent thing that the church does in this world. The church does not exist ultimately for the sake of missions. In his book, Let the Nations Be Glad, John Piper helpfully puts it this way, he says, missions is not the ultimate goal of the church, worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.

When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever. And he is exactly right. Worship is preeminent. Missions is not.

As vital and necessary and important as missions are, they are not preeminent. Worship is preeminent. The church exists because the Father is seeking worshipers. God desires that men and women all over this world be made heartfelt, zealous worshipers in community together. Worship is ultimate.

Missions exist because people are not worshiping the God who made them. Missions ultimately will end. There will be a day when there are no more missions, when there are no more missionaries, but the church and her worship will remain forever. And Piper goes on in the following paragraphs after that to point out that missions is also ultimately fueled by worship. Worship is preeminent above missions and missions is fueled by worship.

So don't let anyone tell you this nonsense that the gathering of the church doesn't matter and all that matters is telling other people about Jesus. Without the gathering of the church and worship together and love in a close community of true believers united in heartfelt zealous worship, there will be no power or zeal for missions if there is no worship. Second, it has long been my conviction that when we refer to the Great Commission, we start a verse too late. When I suggested earlier, if I asked, what is the Great Commission, I said almost everyone would say Matthew 28, 19, and 20. That starts at verse 2 late.

Why? What does 19 start with? He says, go therefore. As we've heard ad nauseum, what is therefore, therefore? It's a conclusion or a result or a purpose statement.

It's generally not great exegetical practice to start with a conclusion. Verse 19 is Jesus' conclusion of what he had said. And so I propose that when we consider the Great Commission, we begin in verse 18. That's what we're going to do this afternoon. Verse 18, starting with the foundational authority of our mission.

So the foundational authority of our mission, verse 18, Jesus spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And I call this the foundational authority because this authority is the basis upon which everything that follows flows from. Without this basis, nothing else that Jesus says makes sense. We go to the nations because Jesus has the right to the nations. We go and we tell people to bend the knee to Jesus because He is already their King, no matter where they are found.

The risen Christ has been given all authority and encompassing kingdom and rulership. It is an authority that has been given to him as the great conqueror of sin and the Redeemer of God's elect. Now as God in his deity, Jesus has always had ultimate all-encompassing authority, but in the incarnation and his death and in his resurrection from the grave something new has happened that there is now the God-man who has ascended to the place of preeminent rulership in the universe. Christ has all authority and He rules and reigns over all things, all people, everywhere. The Son of God who became a son of man so that he could rule and reign and make us into sons and daughters of God.

He has been given a kingdom that touches all nations. I don't have time, but look at Daniel chapter 7, verses 9 through 14. I would encourage you to read that this evening In Daniel chapter 7 Daniel sees a vision of one like a son of man coming to the ancient of days on a cloud he ascends to the ancient of days and on this one Son of Man is given a kingdom that all peoples and languages and tribes and nations should serve him. And his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is one that will never end, never be taken away. What is happening here?

I believe Daniel's vision was the heavenly side of the ascension. At the beginning of the book of Acts, the apostles and the saints gathered there, see Jesus received by a cloud ascending out of this world to his father's throne and I believe Daniel saw what came after he saw him ascend to his father on that cloud and to that one risen ascended enthroned son of man has now been given a kingdom that encompasses all of creation. And so because this is who Jesus is and the authority that he has, We do not need to fear any ruler, any nation. We go to where the name of Christ is not yet known and we tell them to bend the knee to the one who died and rose again. Because Christ has all authority.

We do not need to be overly frightened of the rulers of this world. Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and any other ruler and all their military might are nothing before the power of the risen Christ. He rules, they do not. Psalm 2 says to the rulers of this world, kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish quickly. So Christ has this all encompassing authority and that is the foundation of the mission that he gives his church.

And in verse 19, we see the end goal or the ultimate goal of our mission. Verse 19, he says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. And we'll focus on that latter part there, make disciples of all the nations. Because the nations belong to Jesus, because as Psalm 2 says, the Father speaking to the Son, He says, ask of me and I will give the nations as your inheritance, and we know Jesus has asked, We go and we tell the nations, repent and turn to Christ. And the goal is that we would make disciples of the nations.

He has a right to their obedience. And those who follow him are now sent out into the world to bring them in to his church. Now what does it mean when he says, make disciples of all the nations? What are the nations? When we think of nations biblically, we're not talking about geopolitical states like we think of nations today, like Canada or France or United States or China or whatever, these are geopolitical entities that have multiple ethnic groups and cultural groups and linguistic groups all united in them.

When the Bible talks about the nations, the ethne, what it's referring to as linguistic groups or ethnic groups or even cultural groups. So when we think of nations, we usually think of something much larger than what is referred to here it's not just send missionaries to China it's not just send missionaries to Russia or to Uganda or wherever it is send missionaries and make the gospel known among each people group wherever men are found, whatever language they have, whatever culture they have, go to them and tell them to submit to the King of Kings. That is what it means to go to the nations. One country, as we know it, will usually be made up of many biblical nations. And as the Father sent the Son into the world, Now he sends his followers into the world to make more followers in the world.

We are on a mission to win the world for Christ. We are told to make disciples, or I think even better, disciple all the nations. It's not just the idea that you go here and there and you get a couple of disciples. The goal is you actually make the nations as a whole disciples of the Lord. Disciple the nations so that not just a handful of individuals from each place follow Jesus, but that the nations as a whole follow Jesus.

It is far more encompassing than a handful of converts here and there. We go to the nations that the nations follow Christ. And note that I began here with make disciples. I skipped over what in our English is the first command, go. There's a reason for that because this word make disciples is actually the only real verb in the passage.

It's the only actual command. Make disciples is the only command in the Greek language here in these verses. The others are what are called participles. Now, I will not bore you with all the grammatical information, but we want to follow the verbs, so to speak, a good principle of hermeneutics. Follow the verbs and to see where the action or the commands are.

And the command here is, make disciples. And note that we make disciples, not just converts. It's not just enough to have somebody check a box or repeat a superstitious prayer or even admit that they're a sinner or give a scent to who Jesus is. Conversion to facts is not our mission. Making disciples is our mission.

Those who follow Jesus. What does disciple mean? The Greek word mafetēs, it means a student, a learner. It's a school term. It is one who sits at the feet of an authority and learns from them and learns to mimic them and live like them and work like them that is what a disciple is it's not just getting people to admit to certain facts but we're making them and teaching them so that they become like Jesus.

That's what it is to make disciples. The eleven disciples here were to go out and replicate themselves to any and everyone who repented and believed in Jesus. And that's the same mission today. We are to go as disciples and make more disciples. Now when we hear about this goal of reaching all the nations so that all the nations bend the knee and follow Jesus, there can be much guilt heaped on us here if we are not careful.

Because not one of us can say that we have done everything we possibly, feasibly could to reach the nations. Spurgeon famously said that every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. I don't like that phrase. I don't like that saying. I think Spurgeon was wrong.

I think I get what he meant, but it gives the wrong impression. Yes, the church is told to go and get the nations, but that doesn't mean that you're in sin if you're not a missionary, or that if you live like a citizen of your country instead of a missionary in your country. I do not think you're in sin if you are not living like that. Because after all, our own nation is one of those nations that need to be discipled. One of the groups I believe that is most prone to this feeling of guilt over their lack of engaging in missions is a large group in our own church, and that would be the homeschool moms, housewives, who their world is wrapped up in these precious little children that they deal with every day, all day.

A sermon on missions and evangelism can easily be a burden to the mother, Who can barely catch her breath between chasing down the little ones that are? Trying to destroy the house and kill themselves in the process With all that's going on in the home How can the the the mom who hears this and takes it as a condemnation of her, how can she, between teaching the kids math and science and Latin and whatever else you're doing in home school, how can they contribute to the work of evangelizing the nations and so they are prone to feeling guilt. Well, one, you have neighbors, I'm sure, that need the gospel, but above all I want you to consider moms that your mission field is in your home. Your mission field is that house filled with sometimes cranky, whiny, sweet, lovable babies, toddlers, children and teenagers that God has seen fit to give you. That's your mission field.

Evangelize your children. Be a missionary to this nation that God has put in your own family. Teach them to follow Jesus and to love him. That's your mission field. Now, obviously this applies to fathers too.

Men, we are not to neglect these things as well. You should evangelize your children. A father's influence cannot be overstated, I think. But moms especially. With the constant stressors of home school and being a housewife, I don't want you to feel guilt for not giving up everything and being a missionary to India or someplace.

If you have children in your home, you have eternal souls that God has given you. The future of our nation and the future of this world and the future of the church evangelizes them. So the ultimate goal of our mission is to reach all the nations and to teach them to obey Jesus. What was the means of accomplishing this mission? How do we do that?

So that's the third point, the means of accomplishing our mission in verses 19 and the first part of 20. It says, Go therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. So we're to go get the nations and how do we do that? Well, the verse gives us three things that we do in order to go and make disciples of all the nations. I skipped over go because this is a means of making disciples.

Go is the first thing that we do. We go. As I pointed out earlier, this is not actually an imperative, in Greek it's not a verb, it's a participle. And because of that, you may have run into some people interpreting this or trying to translate it as, while you are going or as you go make disciples. Maybe you've seen that.

This is usually, people try and justify that by saying, well, It's not a verb, it's a participle, and again, I won't belabor the grammatical aspects of it, but it's reflecting a poor understanding of the grammar of this verse. It's not a very likely meaning. The idea is that Since it's not a verb, we can't use it as a command. But this particular grammatical structure makes that participle have the force of a command. It functions like a command.

That's why we translate it, and almost universally it's translated as, go. It's in English a command because that's the best way to translate it. Go and make disciples. And in my mind what settles this debate is Matthew chapter 9. The Pharisees come to Jesus and they criticize him for one thing or other and Jesus says to them, go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice. He quotes the Old Testament scriptures. The structure in the language is exactly the same. Go learn what this means Do we really think Jesus was saying well if you could find it in your time to go and do this You really think that's what he's saying Could you learn this if you have time Could you fit this into your busy day being a Pharisee and all? That's not what Jesus was getting at in Matthew 9, and that's not what he's getting at here.

He's not saying, if you can find it in your time, go and make disciples. While you're going through your normal life, if you could set aside some time and do this. No, it's functioning as a command. We go. This is the prerequisite.

This is what must happen first in order for us to make disciples. We must go to those people who are not yet disciples. Make sense? We are to go. We go to the nations abroad and the nations at home We go across the oceans we go across the street and we go into our own living rooms So we can tell others about Christ So the first part of accomplishing our mission is we go.

We go and tell them. Secondly, we baptize. We immerse, yes it does mean immerse them in water in the name of the triune God. This verse is one of the clearest testimonies to the Trinity in all of Scripture. It would be nonsensical for followers of Jesus to be baptized in the name of God, a creation and an impersonal force, as some try to say.

No, this is three distinct persons in one united God, one Godhead, that we are to baptize the nations in. We baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the singular name of the Triune God. We baptize them in the authority of God and into the name of God, into the name of the Trinity, a reference I think to show ownership. We baptize them into God, into the triune God as a sign that he is now their ruler. They belong to him.

In baptism you are confessing that you are not your own, you belong to another. You are identifying with the one who called you out of darkness, the one who died and rose for you, and the one who has made you a new creature, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all at work in redemption, and you are baptized into their name to show that you belong to this God. This is the covenant sign given to all believers in the New Covenant. And so we do this to those who would be disciples. We give them the sign of the covenant in baptism.

And thirdly, we make disciples by teaching. We teach them to obey Jesus. Teach them to observe or obey all that I have commanded you. Now what has Jesus commanded his people? It is not just the so-called red letters in the first four books of the New Testament.

We teach the nations to obey all of scripture because these are all the commands of Jesus. All of scripture is the Word of God and from Genesis to Revelation we find the commands of Christ to his people and so we go and we tell the nations repent believe and follow him and here's how you follow him read and obey it And then finally we have the promise empowering our mission. Verse, the end of verse 20, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The promise here is that Christ, who has all authority and who rules and reigns with unequaled might and authority, He will be with His people. He will be with His church until the very end.

Until missions are no more, Christ is with His church. Literally it's, I will be with you all the days until the end of the age Christ is not a mere human ruler who sends his soldiers out to fight on his behalf. He sends us out and he goes with us. Christ walks among the lampstands we see in Revelation 1. And we see another image of this, I believe, in Revelation 6 and again in Revelation 19, that conquering rider on the white horse, Christ going forth and conquering the nations for the glory of His name.

He is with His people. Every victory and every defeat, every advance and every retreat that the church has faced and will face, Christ is there. He is present with his people, comforting and empowering his people to do this mission, to do this great work he's called them to. So he's with us. He has all authority and he is with us and he has told us to go get the nations And so my question is if this is true if Christ has all authority and he's owed the nations by the promise of his Father and he tells us to go get the nations, how can we fail?

All his enemies will be brought to his feet. All his enemies will be made a footstool. He will conquer all opposition. He has conquered the opposition in your own heart, has he not? Not because you're better or more spiritually attuned than your neighbor, he conquered you by his power.

And so when we go to the nations, we're not accomplishing anything in our own strength. We do it because Christ is with us and Christ has all authority. And so we go with this promise and this authority and this hope that when we tell the nations to repent and believe, they will repent and believe. Not all at once, 2, 000 years and it hasn't all happened yet. But how many more disciples are there today than there were two hundred years ago or a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago?

Christ is discipling the nations. The Father said to him in Psalm 2, ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance. How can the presence of this ruling and reigning Christ with his people mean anything less than ultimate victory in this mission. I'm not necessarily saying that you have to be a post-millennialist, but the Great Commission and this understanding of it is one reason why I am. I think we will see victory in time that the nations will bow the knees to Jesus.

Maybe not our lifetimes, almost certainly not our lifetimes, but I do know that he will not grow faint or grow weary until he has established justice in the earth and the glory of the Lord will spread from all over the world as the water covers the sea. So what what conclusions do we get from these these verses in this amazing passage? Two things first. I want you to be encouraged be encouraged church in the face of growing apostasy and opposition and seemingly from every corner in our culture and in our world, be encouraged. It doesn't seem like we have much to be encouraged about, but be encouraged, Christ rules.

He is building His church. He is bringing the nations up to the mountain of God. And as I quoted a moment ago, He will not fail or become discouraged until He establishes justice in the earth and the coastlands await his law. Be encouraged because Christ's authority has not waned one little bit. He still rules this universe and everything in it with all authority and he rules and loves his church that he bled for and died for and rose again for and he will not fail to bring home every sinner for whom he died.

Be encouraged that you are a part of this great family and kingdom that God is building in the earth. This kingdom that is spreading all over the world and is filling it up and bringing the nations to Christ. Be encouraged. You are a part of the greatest story in all of history. And secondly, the most obvious application, make disciples.

Go and make disciples. But recognize that obeying this command to make disciples will probably look different among many if not every single one of us. The way that we make disciples will be different from one another. I was very disturbed years ago when I was more active in street preaching in Maryland. One gentleman I was with said that he thought only people who street preach were true Christians.

How damaging is that to the church to think that on that basis of whether or not someone goes out to the streets and preaches, you can kick someone out of the kingdom. Madness to me. The way we make disciples will be different, each one of us, and that's okay and that's good. Some of us may go to other parts of the world, some of us may move across the country, some of us will stay in our own households. But wherever God has put you and whatever burden the Lord has put on your heart to make disciples, make those disciples where you are and with whatever means God has given you.

Just as the hand cannot despise the foot or the ear, despise the eye, we must not despise or look down on one another because you do evangelism differently than me or vice versa. Do not despise one another for differences or methods. The missionary is not more sanctified because he goes to an unreached people group. And the homeschool mom is not less obedient because her mission field is in her own house. Wherever God has placed you, in whatever circumstances He has put you in, go and make disciples among the people God puts in your path.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this command from your Son. We pray Lord that you would give us the strength and the encouragement we need to obey. Give us the courage, Lord, to go and make your name known to those who do not yet know it, to those who are still in darkness, who live in the shadow of death. Lord, we pray that you would strengthen us to go and get them.

Help us, Lord, to be faithful to evangelize the lost, wherever we are and wherever you put us. Help us, Lord, to be faithful. May you grant us success. May we see souls saved. May we see our children come to know Christ.

May we see this area, Wake Forest, and Rollsville. May we see these places be brought to a greater knowledge of Christ. May our country be brought to repentance. May you make disciples through your church of all the nations until that day when missions are no more. In Jesus' name, Amen.