Mission-Minded (Matthew 28:16-20)
The town of Northhampton, about 100 km north of London was the site of a famous gathering of pastors in the 1780’s. Gatherings of that sort were certainly not strange, these were ministers not affiliated with the church of England, and they would time to time for prayer and encouragement. This particular gathering among other ministerial business would usually allow time for someone to propose a topic for discussion — no doubt often about theological debates and the great challenges of the day, that sort of thing.
It was chaired by a very eminent pastor and author John Ryland, well respected and dignified. On this particular day he called upon his colleagues to propose a topic, and a young minister named William Carey rose and asked them to discuss “the duty of Christians to attempt the spread of the gospel among the heathen nations.” Those who were present describe the moderator as being genuinely taken aback, surprised, astonished at a such a strange suggestions. Eventually with a loud voice he rebuked Carey by saying “young man sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid or mine.”
Ryland’s sentiment was quite normal in England at the time — and I think it is fair to say through much of church history. The idea has most frequently been that it is enough for the believer to focus on the duties right around them, their life and work and church and their immediate surroundings. For what is beyond we trust the sovereignty of God but it is not our affair, it is not our concern. It is not our duty.
The meeting is famous, of course, because Carey did not sit down. He did not let go of his idea. Soon thereafter he wrote and published his book “An Enquiry into the obligation of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen.” And it would be just a couple of years later he would preach what is called “the deathless sermon” because of the enduring impact it had on the hearers. In it, he told them that owning missionary call of God was for all Christians and should lead us in his words to “expect great things, and attempt great things.” He would soon after board a ship to India where he would spend the balance of his days, more than 40 years. For those things, and for his effect on future generations he is called “The father of modern missions.”
But I want to return to the essence of the man’s argument. He used the word “obligation” in the title of his book. Our duty. When someone wants to tell us that something is our obligation, our duty to do, or they attempt to put a “must” in front of some action, we have to sit up and pay attention. He is not saying that we might do this or we could do this, but that we have to do this.
His claim is that it is not enough for you and I to live our Christian lives in a bubble, with our circle of friends and our comfortable routines. We cannot be satisfied with meeting minimum expectations and checking off the religion box once a week. That is not even enough for us to be an active part of our church, and for our church just to work to improve its overall quality. No on top of all of that, William Carey claims we have a greater duty, a greater purpose, a greater calling.
Was he right?
One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain, you’ve probably heard me say it before. The two most important days in a man’s life are first the day he is born, and second is the day he figures out why. I have no idea why an atheist like Twain was would presume that there is a grand “why” behind anything. Maybe he just meant what so many people today mean when they speak of “finding yourself” or “finding your purpose” or “finding your truth.” None of those last anyway, we eventually see through our own attempts at self-creation.
But the Christian discovers there is a why. When through Christ we are reconciled to God we find there is a an intent, a purpose for which He made us. We are beginning 2024 with a short series on the church Jesus wants — trying to reset our vision on what He wants for us. We said first that Jesus wants a church founded on the truth — the true confession of who He is as the Christ, the son of the living God. Then we said that He wants a church that reflects His holy love. That we will love the lost sinner and straying saint enough to tell them the truth about their sin, and love a watching world enough to clarify the gospel.
Jesus the king sends His disciples on a mission to the world, trusting in His presence.
In our third message today we are going to consider that Jesus wants a church on a mission to the world.
Jesus the king sends His disciples on a mission to the world, trusting in His presence.
It’s my prayer that we as a church would take this mission as our mission.
Jesus the king
When last the disciples were together they were running for their lives as Jesus was arrested. They would have watched the events of the crucifixion from various distances, perhaps some of them were hiding and only heard about it. Grief, darkness, despair would have been theirs. And the fact that there are only eleven mentioned here reminds us of Judas betrayal. So a cloud hangs over this reunion.
Matthew 28:16-20 is the second post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew’s gospel, the two Mary’s had encountered the risen Jesus as they were returning from the empty tomb, He met them as you can see up in Matthew 28:9-10, He sent them as messengers to His disciples telling them to meet Him in Galilee.
There is a time lapse here, maybe a couple of weeks allowing for travel and synchronising other gospel accounts. So interesting that Jesus has them go back to Galilee for this meeting. That is where it all started for them, where He first called them to follow Him, and told them He would make them fishers of men. Also interesting that He wants to meet them on a mountain — perhaps He wants them to remember the Sermon on the Mount where He first taught them what it means to be His disciples.
Matthew 28:17 recounts the reunion, and remember their last glimpse of Him. He was dying of asphyxiation and loss of blood on a Roman cross. We read that when they saw Him they worshiped Him but some doubted. This is a bit jarring and unexpected, isn’t it?
If you are a religious skeptic it is worth noting 2 things here — one is that these first followers of Jesus were not dumb or gullible. They knew as the old saying goes that dead men tell no tales. Dead people stay dead — it is often the case in Jesus’ post resurrection appearances that the people don’t at first understand what they were looking at — in part because nothing in their experience could prepare them for it.
The other thing to note is that Christianity does what no other religion does — to my knowledge. And that is go out of its way to point out, to highlight, even to celebrate in a strange way the frailty and fallibility of its first leaders. The apostles struggled to believe. One of the things about the truth is that it needs no propaganda, no spin, no dressing things up. The only reason to record it this way is because it was actually the way it happened, and Matthew knew it because he was there.
Now to dig into the doubt for a moment — the word “distazo” here means something more like “hesitated” or “wavered.” And it is another one of these themes that Matthew has been highlighting throughout the book — the “little faith” or wavering faith of the disciples.
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, He taught them not to be anxious about food and clothing, He asks them, “why do you worry O you of little faith. (Matt 6:30)”
When they were caught in a storm on a lake in Matthew 8, they thought they were going to drown and die, when He awakens He asks “why are you afraid, O you of little faith. (Matt 8:26)”
When Jesus walked on the water in Matthew 14 and Peter jumps out with Jesus permission but starts to sink and Jesus says, Jesus “O you of little faith why did you doubt? (Matt 14:31)”
As Jesus came down the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17 and there is a man whose son has seizures and the disciples couldn’t heal Him — Jesus says it is because of your little faith (Matt 17:20).
Little faith, or hesitating faith is enough faith as long as it is faith in Jesus.
What is interesting in all these times is that while having little faith is not a thing to be celebrated — often Jesus rebukes it, at the same time it is not disqualifying. Another way to say it is that little faith, or hesitating faith is enough faith as long as it is faith in Jesus. These men were not faith superheroes, indomitable men of unwavering conviction. But what little faith they had they put in the right place. They doubt, but they still showed up.
What about you friends? What do you do with your doubts? Take a lesson from these men and take them straight to the Lord. Stop focusing on the amount of your faith and start focusing on the object of your faith.
That is just what Jesus wants them to do. He speaks right to them and says: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (Matt 28:18)”
Now we should realise a transformation here. The disciples knew Him in the state of His humility, a penniless preacher and healer, harassed and opposed by many, ultimately captured and killed — they knew Him as the man of sorrows, the man who was stricken smitten and afflicted. But in His resurrection from death He now displays something else. His authority over life and death and over all things in heaven and earth that the Father was pleased to give Him.
To say it simply, He is the king. Friends, most of our troubles in life come from this one failure — the failure to see Jesus as the king with all authority in heaven and earth and that definitely covers little old you and me. It covers all the areas of our lives. So many are confused about what it means that Jesus has all authority. I am Christian — but I don’t go to church on Sunday. What? But He says you should. I am a Christian, but I have my own view of sexual ethics. What? I am a Christian, but I do what I want with my money. When we think those ways we are engaging in a sort of selective amnesia. You didn’t make yourself, you couldn’t redeem yourself. When we think that way we are losing sight of the most important fact of the universe, it is more important than gravity or breathing or eating. Jesus is the king.
So let me ask you, do you live like it? Do you live like Jesus has authority over you? That question makes all the difference for what follows…
Mission to the world
These two verses in Matthew 28:19-20 are what is known as the great commission, that is the right word for what is happening here — Jesus is sending His disciples on a mission. These familiar words are remarkably brief and clear —He covers the what, the where, and the how.
What? The mission is to make disciples — many have observed that grammatically “make disciples” is the main verb, one word in Greek. The surrounding verbs are all participles or “ing” verbs going, baptizing, teaching. You can’t see it with “go” in most English translations — because they rightly want to preserve that it is part of the command —“go and make disciples.” The key is to realise that it is not go and get people to make decisions for Jesus. We are not counting statistics or satisfying ourselves with hands raised or walking an aisle, or intellectual agreement.
A disciple is a learner or a follower of Jesus. In the first century the word disciple often literally meant to walk around with a rabbi to listen to what he taught and copy his manner of life. Here the idea is extended to those who in this life don’t come into physical contact with the incarnate Jesus — instead His disciples learn from Him and follow Him by faith and not by sight. And here they are commanded to tell other people about Him and so “introduce” them to who he is, what he teaches.
So the goal here is to persuade others to follow Him like you have. Think about your own story of becoming a disciple of Jesus, how many people helped persuade you. Some spoke to you individually, maybe a family member or a friend. Others taught you more formally perhaps — a Sunday school teacher or a someone preaching a sermon. Still others did things that you saw and watched. I love hearing testimonies of how word and deed combine. We also print the testimonies of new members in part to celebrate these stories of faith. Take notice of all the different efforts people made in helping a person become a disciple.
So “Make disciples” is the “what”.
Where? The phrase is “of all nations” — “panta ta ethne”. “Ethne “is where we get the word “ethnic” in English, it refers to not to modern nation states, political entities, but rather to the smaller ethnicities, tribes, families. We should connect it in our minds with the promise way back in Genesis 12 to Abraham that “all the families of the earth” will be blessed through him.
So the mission is not just to persuade a few people in a few places to be His disciples, but to keep working until people in every place and among every people are following Jesus.
So the mission is not just to persuade a few people in a few places to be His disciples, but to keep working until people in every place and among every people are following Jesus. It is therefore a global mission. Think about the fact that for these first disciples living in a time when information technology was not a thing — their ability to know the status of the spread of the message was limited to letters and word of mouth. But that didn’t keep them from an organic bent towards wherever they heard the need was. I love the Philippian church because basically these people hear the gospel and believe from Paul, but then Paul is on his way down the Greek peninsula towards these other places to plant churches and in spite of their poverty they start sending him money for the work. Paul even says in 2 Corinthians 8 that they later begged him to take part in the work financially. No fund raising campaign was needed — they just were leaning in to a place they knew needed a church. They had a church, over there was no church — so they took it as part of their mission to do something about it.
There is a great inherent challenge for us here at GBC. We are surrounded by some of the neediest places on earth for Gospel outreach. This church has a history of supporting missions and missionaries, but It would seem to me that there is more that we could do here as a church.
I think our great danger has to be getting comfortable and complacent here. It is quite easy to be a Christian in Singapore, I am thankful for favourable laws and security and wealth, and a comfortable building here — but we are stewards of those blessings. Friends our primary geographic concern is not first and foremost where can I take my next vacation. Our heart should beat for the planting and flourishing of the gospel in these places. Why don’t you begin by praying for them?
How? How do we make disciples of all nations? Well we’ve already said that telling people about Jesus is inherent in persuading them to be His disciples. So we are going to have to tell people who He is and what He has done — telling the good news about Jesus is the first step in the “how”. Telling people that He is the eternal son of God who is one with the Father and the Spirit and in the fullness of time became incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary, He is the singular God-man. That He lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death for sin. That on the third day He rose from the dead and now sits enthroned in heaven at the right hand of the Father. That one day He will return again to judge the living and the dead. And that any person, anybody here today can repent of your sins and believe in Him and be forgiven by God. By believing you take Him as your Saviour and Lord.
Proclaiming that good news is the first step to making someone a disciple. This might be a person right next to you. We are to first look right around us. Our family, our neighbourhood, our school, our office, our favourite hawker centre stall, our NS batch. Don’t make this rhetorical, make it practical. Who do you aim to talk to this week? Jot down the names of some people you encounter in your life — and ask them simply, do you know about Jesus Christ?
The mission begins there but doesn’t end there — we move outward because the “all nations” pushes us that direction. And we need help to think and plan — this is where the church comes in. Somebody is organising block visits, so we join in that. Another person has an idea for using badminton as an outreach, we join that. Others help us think about how to engage students with the gospel, some needy sector of Singapore. So we engage in local outreach with our church, we support it and pray for it.
And then we have to think even further, beyond our borders. Places where somebody is going to have to physically move, perhaps using their job to work and live somewhere more needy for the gospel, or perhaps being sent there to use their full time and labor to share the gospel and plant churches. This is what we call a missionary. A person sent to an unreached people or place for the purpose of gospel proclamation and church planting. We pool our money together and join other churches to send people to go. Make it your goal to get to know the missionaries we support and pray for them, send them messages of encouragement.
So going and proclaiming we can pair together in this “how” of making disciples. But there are two more pieces to the puzzle.
To going and proclaiming we add baptising. The word in Greek is not a religious word, it simply means to immerse in water. You baptise your clothes when washing for example. But John the Baptist and even other Jewish religious teachers had popularised baptism as a symbol of being washed clean from sin and renewed through a heart of repentance and trust in God. And so Jesus adopts it here as the sign that a person has become a disciple. It is an initial act of faith and obedience — notice that this baptism is in the one name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19). The word trinity is not found in the Bible, but its teaching is abundantly clear. There is only one God, the word “name” here is singular. But we can rightly speak of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for the three are both united and distinct. So the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Father. This 3-in-1 ness is indeed beyond our comprehension, but we should not be surprised that the nature of God is in many ways beyond us. And yet faith in God’s nature as tri-une is what a person is being baptised into. It is what they must believe for the baptism to be real.
And that is why we, and other gospel preaching churches always baptise in the triune name.
If you are here and a believer in the Lord Jesus, and not baptised, come and be baptised. Grab one of the pastors at the door afterwards, or contact us later and just let us know that you want to follow the Lord Jesus by being baptised.
So this is the essential initial sign that a person is indeed a disciple, they get baptized in the name of the tri-une God. One more thing we should say as we consider the meaning of this sign is that in Old and New Testaments there is always a sign of God’s covenant with His people — it is circumcision in the Old Testament, baptism in the New. In each case the sign of the covenant includes you as a member of the covenant community. You do not take the sign of the covenant and then live as a lone ranger, free agent. This is why Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 says that we are baptised by one Spirit into one body — he then speaks of us as one body many parts — in the church.
This is why it makes the most sense of the Bible’s teaching on baptism for it to happen in the local church. There are exceptions on the mission field of course where there is no church. But I think it is unfortunate in our day that the initial covenant sign of baptism and the ongoing covenant sign of the Lord’s Supper are used by many groups and organisations independent of any ekklesia, any church. They shouldn’t do that, itempties the sign of much of its meaning.
So baptising is a beginning, but Jesus tells us to build upon it by “teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. (Matt 28:20)” Notice there is a comprehensiveness to the command — everything I have commanded you. Not just the explicit words of Jesus in the gospels which are just a small fraction of Jesus’ teaching. The rest of the New Testament is what Jesus taught the apostles, and the Spirit helped bring to their remembrance as they wrote inspired scripture. Teach it all. Paul told the Ephesian elders he endeavoured to teach them the whole counsel of God.
So much of our labor here is in trying to pour into this Sunday service as much biblical teaching and content as we can, and trying to do it systematically so you learn Exodus and Hebrews and Isaiah and Matthew. And sing songs filled with truth, and pray meaningful prayers. And in Equip classes we pick up a more topical teaching to cover the great questions of Christian living how to spend our time and money, and raise kids and do evangelism. And then Community Groups we try to get each other conversing over the scriptures and connecting it to our lives.
And that is the goal — not information transfer but life change. He wants us to observe, to do, what he commanded. Maturity for us is both knowing biblical truth and living it out in the power of the Holy Spirit. Have you learned that Jesus came not to be served but to serve — well are you a servant? In your house, with the chores? In your office, if there is a bit extra that needs doing?
Have you learned about the second coming of Christ and glories of heaven as a place of eternally increasing joy? Wonderful! Are you then putting off anxiety about economic downturns and possibilities of retrenchment — because you are resting in the security of your future?
This is the commission — the what, the where and the how. Let’s keep it clear in our minds. It encompasses the outreach that we do locally and further afield as we try to learn where the needs are and ask what resources we have that can be bent towards those ends. And it encompasses the building that we do here as we try to take disciples from baptism towards observing all he has commanded.
Friends this is our mission, and it can’t be outsourced. He didn’t give it to parachurch organisations — though Christians are free to form them to gather information about unreached peoples and places and facilitate the training and sending of missionaries. That is wonderful stuff as long as we remember they are not the point. Jesus didn’t promise to build any organisation. He didn’t invest His authority there. It is not the display of His glory.
No this commission is for us. For a gospel believing, gospel preaching church like ours. A global mission. Make disciples of all nations, going, baptising, teaching. It’s a high calling and one which requires us to focus on the source of our strength.
Trusting His presence
Just a few weeks ago at Christmas, we thought about what it means that Jesus is “Immanuel” God with us. Last week we marvelled at that promise of Jesus in the context of church discipline that where two are three are gathered in His name there He is there among us. At the close of Matthew, we are again promised the presence of Jesus always (Matt 28:20).
His presence means we are never alone when we do His work.
His presence means we are never alone when we do His work. Have you ever been asked to do something at work and then not given the support you need to do it? Not given the resources? Jesus doesn’t call us to do something and then not give us the resources we need to accomplish it.
You and I have no reason to live like orphans, like those alone. That is what we are doing when we do not pray. God doesn’t need our prayers, and He isn’t trying to see if we can pass some spiritual exam. We pray because we believe He is with us and He sees us and He hears us and He answers our prayers with help and strength and wisdom and disciple making.
If you are not a believer, I wonder how you make it through without prayer. Without knowing that you are not alone. You didn’t make yourself, that is clear enough to you I assume. Where will you go? And is anyone with you? Well your Creator is there if you will cry out to Him.
Beloved, that is what this gathering should be like more than anything else. A celebration of the presence of God with His people. Where we gather in his name, there he is with us also. So let’s gather in His name. Not virtually. Not occasionally. Not sleepily. Not as in interlude in between other pastimes.
He is with us as we fulfil our mission, and He is with us always…
To the end of the age. That puts an end to things. There is a great weariness to our age, because secular culture views history as a neverending and ultimately pointless series of events. That is why people tire of the news, it is always more of the same — economies rise and fall. Nations war against nations, they also rise and fall. Our lives take on this personal weariness when we don’t realise where history is heading. We feel like the preacher in Ecclesiastes 1:7-9: “The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it…What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
Vanity of vanities says the preacher, all is vanity (c.f. Ecc 1:2).
That is the conclusion you will come to if there is no end of the age. But Jesus reminds us that this time of walking by faith and not by sight has an end, for the believer it is not the end of His presence, for He went to prepare a place for us in heaven. Heaven is a place of even greater togetherness with Him, for there we will see Him face to face.
And until that day He will not leave us alone. The problem with life is that people keep leaving you. Parents do, friends do, kids do, church members, pastors — in one way or the other those who are by your side are not there anymore. Jesus is the one constant, the one who will never leave.
This is the great strength and encouragement meant to bolster us for the mission. Jesus the king sends His disciples on a mission to the world, trusting in His presence.
We began by thinking about William Carey, much could be said about the faith of a man who did much to remind the church about its mission. He himself described himself in very low terms, as a plodder not a visionary. But he was a man who believed in the mission. He once put his life in this focus: “I am not afraid of failure, I am afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.” Friends when you follow the Saviour on the mission He has given, you are focusing on the only thing that matters. Let’s pray.