Understanding the True Meaning of the Great Commission

Join Don Hooton as he delves into the final teachings of Jesus and their significance for modern-day Christians. Through a detailed examination of John 13-17 and Matthew 28:18-20, Don clarifies the role of the apostles in spreading the gospel and explains why the 'Great Commission' was initially a daunting task rather than a grand declaration. This sermon challenges common misconceptions, emphasizes the importance of personal evangelism, and encourages believers to share why Jesus is their King in their daily lives. Whether you're new to the faith or a long-time follower, this discussion provides valuable insights into the apostles' commission and its implications for today's Christians.

00:00 Introduction and Gratitude
00:08 The Last Teachings of Jesus
03:41 The Great Commission
05:07 Misconceptions About the Great Commission
09:12 The Role of the Apostles
22:46 Evangelism and Personal Testimonies
27:27 The Early Church's Evangelistic Efforts
31:42 Making Disciples: Baptism and Teaching
44:50 Encouragement and Exhortation
46:37 Conclusion and Invitation

Transcript

Good evening everyone. It's good to have you all tonight. And I echo again, uh, the sentiment of my gratitude, uh, that you've come to worship the Lord, learn more of his will as we try to put first in our life, these last things of Jesus, the series of lessons we've considered all spring from those conversations that Jesus had.

In the last days of his earthly life with the apostles, a large part of it is coming from John 13 through John 17, but these last things are, from my judgment, the first things that Jesus would've wanted us as disciples and followers of the Apostle's teaching to focus upon. If you think of the reality that Jesus was going to be.

In just the short 48 hours be gone from their life in the form of crucifixion, clearly affecting them by their withdrawal, from being in a public view and hiding with fear behind locked doors, and then Jesus rising again and for 40 days talking to them about the kingdom of God. But yet again, he will tell them as he says, farewell to them the last time.

And he ascends into heaven that he's not gonna be with them anymore. And so when we look at those words and recognize its significance, these first things from the last things of Jesus we've talked about, that he said to them, love one another. Saying it five times, calling it a command three times, and even putting it in his prayer that the love you have loved me with may be in them.

Commanding them to remember him in what we call the Lord's Supper or the communion, a memorial to his body, a memorial to his blood to remind us again and again and again that the salvation provided by God was not attained to by ourselves, but rather God provided it by grace through his mercy and by faith, we receive that salvation in our obedience.

And then he will tell them all authority is mine. Commissioning them to go into the world will come back to that again in this lesson tonight. But reminding them as he goes and tells them that you are to go into all the world and preach the gospel that you're, to teach them what I have taught you because all authority is his.

And then last night we talked about how he urged them to see. Unity of his father and himself and praying to the father that the 12 would be united in this unity, and that he prayed that those who would believe on him through the teaching of those 12 would likewise be united, even as the father is in me.

And as I said last night, whatever you think that unity looks like. If it doesn't look like the unity between God, the father, and God the son, it is not the unity for which Jesus prayed. He didn't ask us all to disagree. He prayed that we would all be like him united in the same truth and united in the same holiness.

Tonight we come to Matthew 28. Again, if you'll open your Bible, the text will always be on the screen coming from the Christian standard Bible in Matthew chapter 28. In verse 18, the text says, Jesus came near and said to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. This scene that we have grown up in, I've grown up in and have titled sermons. I even made a reference to it already tonight.

This scene is known as the Great Commission. And for centuries in the last two and a half, that is, it has been used as the basis for motivating Christians to the work of evangelism among the peoples. In fact, if I told you tonight I am going to preach about evangelism, you're going to assume that this is gonna be the basis of my text.

Sometimes people might think that's the only text I should ever use. And while we call this passage in Matthew, the Great Commission tonight, I wanna impress upon you that Matthew did not call it the Great Commission. It's probable that. It was not to him a great commission at all. When he first heard it, it would've been a scary commission.

How many of you're ready to move to Iraq and talk to the people about Jesus? How many of people are you are are ready to go to that crazy place called New York and tell people about Jesus? It was not a great commission to any of them. It probably was a scary commission. You add to that. It was probably crazy for him to say what he said.

Go and make disciples of all nations. The word there is not really nation. It is all peoples, that the Jews considering themselves, the people of God. Would've spoken of. Those people that we speak of as the Gentiles, as all the others, all those other ethnic groups, they are not like us. All those other ethnic groups, you can hear the prejudicial wording in that conception.

And so it would not have been a great commission when mam Matthew would've first heard it. It would've been crazy. Jesus. You want me to go talk to all of those pagans, all of those idle worshipers, all of those people who are so sexually I immoral. I don't want to touch them. I don't want them rubbing elbows with my children.

It was not a great commission to them. We have only supplied that because somewhere around the 18 hundreds. A treatise written by the Baptist missionary William Carey, an inquiry into the obligations of Christians listen to use means for the conversion of the heathens was coined The Great commission.

Ironically, once that terminology became a vernacular that preachers began to sprout out to preacher, uh, to their, to the preacher, preacher audience, all you, well, the preacher called it the great Commission. So that's what it's gotta be. And it's very possible that in your own Bible embolden above that section, it says The Great commission, Matthew didn't call it that.

But once again, we should be cautious when we come to text to scripture that had become famous with a title not supplied by inspired testimony. And in fact, it is ironic to me that once this text became called the Great Commission, and it's particularly interesting to me that when Carrie wrote this long document.

Behind the writing of that document was the application that Matthew 28 was written to every Christian about every Christian, and about every Christian's work. And then you add to that, that not only did he propose the idea that what Jesus had said to the 12 in the great Commission suddenly started bearing the fruit within the denominational world.

It was all of the beginning of missionary societies within the world, empowering the universal church to go into the world and fund all of this machinery that was going to make it possible for us to fulfill the Great Commission when Matthew never called it the Great Commission.

So tonight, what I want you to remember. Is that this commission I proposed to you? You may, you may not agree with me, and that's okay. It's not about us today. I do not believe this is a generalized teaching for Christians, that Jesus is telling you to go into all the world because while I could tell you.

I believe that it's true that if you go into that crazy world called Las Vegas, you would say, man, Don, I am in sinful territory and I am fulfilling the great commission.

But we are not the actors in this scene. We are only the beneficiaries of the actors. To speak in grammatical terms, we are not the subject of the action. Jesus is the one talking, nor are we the object of that action. It is the 12 apostles, but we are the indirect objects because we are benefiting from what Jesus told them to do.

How many of you, when we go through Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Do you not reflect upon the fact that as Americans, the reason we are celebrating those days is because we are benefactors of other people. Whether you are a veteran or not, you are benefiting from the work of other people and you don't question for a moment when you pull into Lowe's.

Well, I'm an American. I can pull into that specially assigned place, reserved for veteran. You know you can't because it wasn't reserved what for you, but you know you benefit from them. So here we are. This is not about us today, and it is not about us continuing the ministry of the chosen apostles. Guess why

you can't do it? How many of you were commissioned by Jesus to receive the Holy Spirit that would guide you into all the truth? Raise yourself, raise your hand, or you were given the power. I know there are people who claim it today, that if a snake were to bite you, that it would not harm you as you were going into the world to preach the gospel on and on.

I could talk about all the promises Jesus made to the apostles. To empower them in the work that was ahead of them, that they knew would be crazy, that they knew would be scary. They would've never thought of as as great. They would only recognize the enormity of it and that they could not have done it if God was not with them.

The 11 were the reason that we have anything. Remember what Paul said in one Corinthians chapter three, verse 11. For no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down, and that foundation is Jesus Christ built upon the apostles. And so it's very clear that we need to recognize the superiority.

I guess, let me not use that word, the supremacy. Of the role that they served in bringing about the gospel to the world. That's what this commission is about. It's about us not reading our names into those words as the actors claiming that we can, uh, get the, uh, Grammy award or the whatever award because we're doing what the apostles are doing.

We are not doing what the apostles did. They were commanded to go into every part of the world to preach a gospel that had never been heard by the power of the Spirit who would guide them. They laid the foundation that has already been laid. Paul said, however, the Apostles Ministry is repeated every time the New Testament is read or preached.

They are the foundational eyewitnesses and it, if you think of it this way, I just asked my wife if we could go to the opening night in Houston of the Houston Grand Opera. Guess what? She said?

No, there's no guitars in that. No.

The apostles were the grand entrance. They were the opening act, and all you and I are are the reporters telling the story about what they've already displayed. That's why Paul writes to Timothy. Therefore, you, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others.

Also, he puts a sequence of thought that I want to impress upon you tonight. We are not continuing the ministry of the Apostles. We are sharing the message that the apostles have been given. And we teach it as evangelists to you so that what can you do? Can you all read what it says in scripture? What does it say?

Someone speak it so that you can teach others. Also, you're not teaching like an apostle, you're not teaching like a prophet or a prophet is. You are reporting. What has already happened in the grand reveal of the truth of the gospel? And in fact, Paul will go on to say that this work has been obeyed.

Colossians chapter one, verse 22. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death to present you wholly faultless and blameless before him. If indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard, this gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.

I, Paul had become a servant of it. So when Matthew comes back to this text and says those very famous words, therefore go and make disciples. The task that was given not great, but scary and frightening, was to go and make disciples. The statement is grammatically an imperative. Like when my mom said, Dawn, clean your room.

Everybody know what that means? There's only one way for me to fulfill that task is to get up in front of, out of, from in front of the television, walk to my room, and begin cleaning it. Jesus says to the 12, go and make disciples. It's a verb, something actively done, and the word go itself,

and I'm talking about things that I have taught. By the way, I don't want you to think that I'm trying to identify anyone. So many times I've even talked about that. We look at this word go. That just means as you go along your way, like the parable of the sower, just throw the seed aside. Now, don't misunderstand.

If I'm talking about the parable of the sower, that's what the sower did in the parable of the sower. He plants the seed along as he goes, but again, in that parable, the sower is Jesus.

When Jesus commands them to go like a passage like Matthew chapter two in verse eight, Herod says to his men, go and search carefully for the child, even when he uses it in a different form. The idea of going, he is not saying, as you are going about your day, see if you can find the child. That's not what he's saying.

He's saying you need to get up and you need to go and you need to find that child. Or Matthew, chapter 11 in verse four, Jesus says, go and report to John what you hear and you see. He isn't saying if you happen to see John while you're getting safe supper later mention that you saw and what you saw to him.

No.

One king. One true king, when they speak it are commanding them to go and find. So when Jesus says to the apostles, go, everyone, that's a command that they had to do. We talk about Matthew, we talk about, uh, John and, and the rest of the apostles and, and the enormous training that they went through during Jesus' public ministry training them to try to be what they needed to be.

But when Jesus says this in the commission, he's not telling them. So as you're living a lot your life, going about your own business, just plant the seed along as you go.

This really is not revolutionary. When Jesus appeared to them even as a resurrected Lord, they still were confused about what was going to be happening. They were still hiding even through the first week. Even. Mark's gospel when it's concluded. We know the passage in Mark 16, verse 15, and Jesus said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Whoever believes in his baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark's gospel finishes in verse 20 and says, and they were afraid it wasn't a great commission. Resonated and reverberated in the muscle of their soul that they were going to become these great and mighty warriors for the Lord.

They were afraid, just like most Christians are, when the preacher gets up and says, I'm gonna talk about personal evangelism tonight, and everyone gets afraid,

be kinder to the 12 so that kindness can be shown to you.

I need to remind you again, this is their commission, not the local church at Timberland Drive, or an activated universal church. That is the product of two centuries of building structures, parachurch organizations to assist the church in becoming a catalyst for change. When in fact what it really did was destroy churches from being evangelists the way God wanted them to be.

I gave at the office is usually the way it goes when it comes to evangelism. The role of the disciples becoming evangelists and teachers is found well in throughout scripture. The inevitable outcome that causes even the 12 to become teachers of this gospel will be the thing that causes you to want to share the gospel, and that is that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead without exception with the gospels.

They conclude with the idea of Jesus taking the baton of his responsibility of teaching them. He gives it to the 12 so that they can, they can go and teach others also. So to the 12 when Jesus said, go and make disciples,

he had already modeled it.

For instance, in John chapter four, and I'm sure many times you have studied this beautiful conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. How Jesus carefully and cautiously builds a conversation with her to take her to understand what true spiritual water and life are really all about, so he could reveal to her who he truly was, the Messiah.

Then it says once that occurs, the woman leaves her water jar, went into town and told the people, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? And they left the town and made their way to Jesus. Listen to what John's record tells us in the words that she spoke that made her an evangelist.

Come and see,

come and see this man who told me everything I ever did.

I remember once when I was going to Florida College, I would travel every other Sunday to a place in north Florida called Archer and would preach for that church. In the town of Archer, Florida, I would have to leave the college before 7:00 AM so I could make it there in time. And so there was this gas station that I always stopped at because like most college students, by Saturday night and Sunday morning, I was low on gas and I needed to travel a lot of, a lot of miles.

I had to go fill up with gas and I walked into the gas station. To pay for my gas. That was before you could slide your, you know, credit card into the, that's how old I am, everybody.

And I walked in and Bob Owen, some of you may know the name was talking to the person behind the counter about Jesus.

And I know you might think, wow, well he's a preacher. That's what he does. Well, he wasn't preaching, he was talking. He wasn't standing behind a pulpit with a nice little PowerPoint. He was just talking and telling the man what was important to the man's soul because to Bob, Jesus was important to his.

That's what the woman did. As soon as she made the connection and crossed those realities about what Jesus' words were. She runs into town and she says, come and see this man. I don't really know all about it, but she was so excited that that's what she did, and the rest of the text says in verse 39. Now, many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified.

He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days and many more believed because of what he said. Now on this particular occasion, we know that John knew what had happened, but if you remember, they walk upon Jesus and question why he's talking to a woman, particularly a Samaritan woman, I'm assuming.

But the text tells us this. The people came to believe just because of what the woman said. I know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, but the woman, as far as I know, quoted no scripture. But the Holy Spirit said they believed. They believed because of what the woman said. All she testified, he told me everything I ever did.

And that was enough to bring them by the spirit's own testimony. Inspiring John to write this. They believed. And then it says that they came and they wanted to listen to Jesus too, and many more believed because of what he said. Jesus modeled what he was about to tell the 12 to go do.

It was the expected process. Look in Acts chapter eight verse three. In Acts chapter eight and verse three. Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter her house after house dragging off men and women and putting them in prison. Then notice in the next verse, verse four. So those who were scattered went on their way, and I want you to notice the spirit's choice of words preaching the word.

And Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. Who are these people who went scattering because of the persecution that was occurring in Jerusalem, returning probably to their homeland. The Bible says in verse four, they went on their way preaching the word. Even the language that Luke chooses to ride guided by the Holy Spirit doesn't even suggest that they waited until they got home and talked to their neighbor, but rather that those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word.

When you and I hear the word preaching, and I don't want to miss or dismiss the, the relevance and the importance of what preaching is. They didn't stop at every pulpit. I don't know if they stood up on a rock and talked down to everyone who was around them. The text just says they went on their way preaching the word.

Who are they? It wasn't the apostles.

I think I would be hard pressed grammatically and contextually to argue that those who were scattered on their way were just the prophets that the apostles had laid hands on. 'cause there's nothing in the scripture to tell me that that's even possibly the conclusion I have to rate. But I do know this.

Verse 14 says, when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. Someone who was not an apostle was taking the gospel to Samaria, preaching the word.

Look in Acts chapter 13 talking about the church at Antioch. The text says, now there was in the church at Antioch Prophets and teachers. Barnabas Simeon, who was called Nira Lucius. Cyrene man, a close friend of Herod, the Tera Arkansas. I want you to notice here is a church in Antioch, a church that was in an area that was predominantly Gentile, and here is the gospel going with the great commission to a place where Jesus had said he wanted the gospel to go.

Go and make disciples of all the nations. And there in a church, were teachers,

so named in this scripture I'm going to add, it says prophets. And I know grammatically, some people could say it's prophets, even teachers grammatically, but I can't find an English translation that translates it that way.

Here was a church who knew that this was their job to carry on the preaching and teaching that they had learned from the apostles. So what does all of this mean for you and mean? You go back to Matthew 28 and verse 18. Jesus came near and said to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations. So when the apostles given this commission go into the world and make disciples, Jesus articulates with quite clear clarity, intentionally worded how they became disciples. When I became, uh, I don't know when you become a preacher. When I decided to preach, I had been preaching for a little country church outside of Nacodoches called uh, Melrose.

The church no longer meets where the building is, where we met, and I had been called by a brother on a Saturday night somewhere around 8:00 PM and he said, Don, I had gone out with him once or twice to lead singing, said, Don, I have to go outta town suddenly for a family emergency, and I need you to fill in for me and preach.

I'll bring you three outlines and you fill in for me. That was the shortest sermon in history for me, and I thought all you would think, man, I wish you would deliver it here. I'm just kidding. But over time you look back and you think, I don't know if I really preached the gospel, but I taught about the Bible.

Then you start recognizing that when Jesus sends them to make disciples of all the nations, Jesus knew very clearly what he wanted the 12 to do in making disciples. They were gonna be baptizing them. That was not a new word they had already witnessed. John baptizing people into repentance. They had seen their own savior immersed into water.

So baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. A revelation of something about the father and the son and the spirit that might have been new, but baptizing them was something that they knew they had to do, and then he adds teaching them. It's a fascinating thing to me that when people look at the world in evangelism and people are trying to, uh, encourage the Holy Spirit to help people, never once do you find the apostles using the Holy Spirit to make people converted in some kind of mystical experience.

Every time you witness the 12 fulfilling this task of making disciples, they are teaching people with their words. Then finally, the teaching itself is to become something observable, to observe everything I've commanded you to keep, to obey, however you want to translate that, but it is something observable.

It is not something to be accepted. It is not something to merely be agreed in. It's something that people can see. So disciples were made by baptizing them. You know the passage in Acts chapter eight, the Ethiopian Euch is being taught by Philip, and the eunuch is reading from the prophet Isaiah chapter 53.

Of this servant who is going to fulfill God's purpose, and it is Luke who tells us that from that scripture, everybody be awakens to this. From the Old Testament, Philip is preaching the gospel to that man because the Bible says he is preaching Jesus to him. As they come along the road, it is the man who understands what to ask because of what preaching Jesus to him meant.

Because when he, Philip was preaching to him, Jesus, the man says, look, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? What's keeping me? And you know the rest of the story, Philip says, you may. They go into the water and he baptizes him. Now everybody with great respect to all of us preachers who love our PowerPoints and all of our flip charts and everything else that we do to assist ourselves in the element of teaching.

What flip chart did he pull out?

I know Philip was a prophet. I know Philip had the assistance of the spirit in that aspect. He took a scripture that was read to him in this hearing, and he preached Jesus to him. He didn't get up on a pulpit. He stood with the man where he was and talked about the king that Philip loved.

That's what we are commissioned to do, the 12. We're commissioned to go into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone all over the world. And Paul says they have done that. They have made the gospel available to everyone in the world. Certainly not everyone heard it, but everyone had access to it.

And then by the spirit's guidance they wrote so that we could understand their insight into the mystery of Christ. But our job is to tell people why Jesus is so important to us. Here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? He asked that when Philip had preached Jesus to him, that means disciples were made by baptizing them.

A strange irony that in the religious world, baptism is the most argued point among religious churches. But with clarity, Jesus says, go and make disciples, baptizing them.

Disciples were made by teaching them. Go back to that passage, passage in Second Timothy chapter two, verse two. What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses commit to faithful men, many Greek students or teachers will often argue that that word could relate to not just men in the gender, but to people.

Whatever that happens to mean or whatever significance that is. We teach others also. We are teaching them new. We aren't revealing something unknown. We are sharing what we have learned from the apostles, and I want you to open your Bible to the Book of Acts chapter 16. The text will not be in front of you, but look in Acts chapter 16.

One of my favorite stories. It's not really a story, it's historical truth, but the church at Philippi's birth,

Paul and Silas have begun doing things and they heal a certain slave girl who had a spirit of divination. The spirit caused Paul great annoyance after several days. Then finally healed the girl. Because of that, he's thrown into prison and we know the rest of the story. And then while Paul and Silas are at midnight in the prison praying and singing, by the way, that would've been dark.

There would've been darkness, there probably would've been lamps and oil wasted overnight for a bunch of prisoners underground.

And there they are singing in the dark. Praising God and an earthquake happens. All the things that contained the prisoners was set free. The jailer runs down believing that everyone has been escaped, knowing that his life was now in jeopardy through a sword to kill himself, and Paul stopped him and begins teaching him the gospel.

The jailer takes Paul and Silas, presumably to his home, and they are, he baptizes his family.

Lydia has already become a Christian. Now, I want you to notice in verse 40 of Acts 16,

and when they went outta prison and entered the house of Lydia and when they saw the brethren. My translation says they encouraged the brothers and sisters and departed.

I'm not a Greek scholar, but even in my Bible margin, if you happen to look, you might have the word exhorted as an alternative translation for that word that used there in verse 40, that they exhorted them. So immediately when we hear that word encouraged and exhorted, it's almost like we imagine Paul walking up to them, slapping them on the back and saying, Hey guys, you got this.

You're gonna be okay. He's encouraging them because in American culture, that's what encouraging is. But this word actually describes the act of sharing information, teaching. Showing the way its Jews in Acts chapter 11 of the prophets, when they encouraged the people that the word that is translated or used in your English is that they taught because this was the sharing of words and he followed up with them to observe.

Look in the book of Philippians chapter one, what was the result? Paul and Silas going to the house of Lydia on the night he escaped or he was set free from jail. Notice when he writes the church at Philippi chapter one, he says in verse three, I thank my God and all my remembrance of you always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer.

For all of you in view of your participation fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Certainly we could limit the description of that word, fellowship and partnership to the idea that they had joined hands with Paul in sharing in the message that was Jesus Christ's message. They were following that message and they had accepted that message.

But look at chapter four in Philippians chapter four, beginning in verse 10, he says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly. And now at last, you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you weren't concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want for. I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity in any of every circumstances. I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering needs. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction, and you yourselves also know Philippians, that at the first.

Preaching of the gospel after I departed from Macedonia. No church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but only you for even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Everyone knows what he's talking about, that from the first day this church started by Lydia. A jailer and their families from the first day they had fellowship with Paul and his preaching of the gospel.

That meant they sent him money. Remember, Lydia was a maker of purple and jailers. I don't know what our jailers are paid.

They're probably paid as much as our educators, but they're not as paid as much as our heroic baseball football players, right? But Rome to keep those people keeping the prisoners in the prisons paid them well. Those two wealthy affluent families shared with Paul in the preaching of the gospel. Where did they get that from?

Paul taught them from the first day, this is your part of the gospel. This is your part. This is your fellowship. So after leaving the jail, coming to Lydia's house where they saw and encouraged the brothers and sisters and departed Paul taught them, after baptizing them and teaching them, he followed up with them with observable realities of what it means for you to be a Christian.

Observable. That's what it is to make disciples. I don't want any of you to look like me.

And I don't think any of you want to look like me,

but as a Christian, the way I make disciples is to teach people to be like Jesus, to follow the king who has all authority, just like the 12 we're told, go into all the world and preach the gospel. The gospel wasn't there. The gospel was his. Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe what I have commanded you.

If we're not trying to make disciples that look like Jesus, we are failing at our responsibility as Christians, because it would've been a failure on part of the 12 to go into the world and preach the gospel and make them all like Paul, make them all like Peter and make them all like John.

Our work. Jesus articulated as the first thing and the last things that he said when he first said it to the 12.

The good news is mine for you to share to everyone. So let me conclude with this exhortation. Don't be afraid.

Can you explain how to turn on your car?

Do you know how to, do you know how to turn on your car? You know how you turn on your car? You know why? You can explain how to turn on your car because when you go out there, what are you gonna do? Turn on your car. You know how I, you may have one of the fancy push the button, turn on the car, but you know how to turn on your ignition because you do it all the time.

Guess how you learn to talk about Jesus?

How about talking to Jesus with your spouse? How about talking about Jesus with your children? How about talking about Jesus With your friends here,

can you explain to someone why Jesus Christ is your king? I didn't say why Jesus Christ is the king, 'cause he will be king whether you accept him or not. But you can explain to someone why it is Jesus Christ is your king, why you have decided to follow him. No one's asking you to quote scripture. No one's asking you to prove all denominational errors wrong.

And

can you explain to someone? Why you've done what you've done. Can you tell someone? Well, I got into the water and they immersed me into water, and when I came up, I knew that I had all my sins washed away because the Bible says so you can tell the story of Jesus. Your commission is not the commission of the apostles.

Your commission is not to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Your commission is not to go into the world and make disciples of all the nations.

You're to go into the world, your world, and be a light to the world, to be a salt to the earth and to be what God made you to be. A disciple who follows Jesus and tells people the good news. In a moment, we're gonna sing a song of invitation that encourages Christians to let everyone know of their needs, how we can pray for you.

And if in this audience you've heard this message about the good news, go into the world and preach the gospel and being baptized. Tonight, if you need to become a Christian, there's no reason for you to wait.

God has from eternity planned a way to make all of us whole. And if you want to become a Christian tonight, believing that Jesus is the Christ repenting of the sin that you've lived in your life and you want to follow him and live for him. Then today you must be baptized for the forgiveness of your sentence, and we will help you with that if you let us know as together we stand and as we stand.