Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:1–20
Matthew chapter 28 will use this occasion of the baptism of our sisters to reflect upon the Great Commission. That's found in Matthew 28 at verses 18 to 20, but I do want to read beginning in Matthew 28 at verse 1. Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it.
His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.
Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word.
And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, rejoice. So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me.
Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers saying, tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and did as they were instructed, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and 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." Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Father in heaven, we thank you for the written word. We thank you for the gospel of our salvation and for the fact that Christ not only died in our place, but he was raised the third day. We thank you that he is seated at the right hand of the Father. We look forward to that day when he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
And may it be the case that all of us would be found clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, ready to meet him on that day when you usher in a new heavens and a new earth. We ask now that the Holy Spirit would help us as we look to this passage of scripture. We pray again that you would strengthen us and encourage our hearts. We pray that you would forgive us for sin and its darkening influence in our minds and hearts, and help us, God, to take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ our Lord.
And we ask in his most blessed name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, if you had read through the gospel according to Matthew, you would see Jesus. Obviously, he's the emphasis or the focus in this gospel narrative. And Jesus only ever did good things. Jesus went about doing good things.
Jesus raised the dead. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus cured people. Jesus fed people.
Jesus walked on the water. Jesus was able to still the waves and the winds. And then you get to the latter part of the Gospel of Matthew and you see that Jesus is taken by lawless hands and he's crucified. And I think at times, again, I try to put my mind or try to put into my head those who had never read the scriptures.
They would be perplexed by that. They would be puzzled. Why this innocent man? Why this good man?
Why is he taken away, ripped from the friends that he loves, and is ultimately crucified in the worst form of punishment, the worst form of execution the world has ever known? Well, all of that is in response to what you read at the very beginning of Matthew's Gospel. When the angel announces the coming of Jesus, he tells Joseph what he is to name Jesus. And he says, you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins.
Well, the cross, the death, the crucifixion of our Lord in concert with his life of obedience is the means by which he saves his people from their sins. And here we see him raised from the dead and he has all this authority and now he tells the church how they're supposed to function until he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. So that's the broader context.
The Focus of the Great Commission
Let's look specifically at what we call the Great Commission. It is found, as I said, in chapter 28, verses 18 to 20. And essentially what you have are three things. We're not gonna look at all of this in detail, but you have the authority behind the Great Commission.
That's stated by Christ in verse 18. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Then you have the specific focus of the Great Commission, where we're going to spend our time this morning. And then finally, you have the assurance provided for the Great Commission.
Notice how he ends this in verse 20. He says, In lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So the omnipotence of Christ, that means His power, His sovereignty, His ability, is asserted by Him in verse 18. But then the omnipresence of Christ is given to the church in verse 20.
In other words, Christ is always there with her while she's engaged in this blessed task of disciple-making. Well, let's look specifically now at the focus of the commission. Notice what the church is commanded to do. Verse 18 Jesus says all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth as a result of that Jesus now Delegates that authority to his church to his Apostles and he says go therefore 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 So those are the specific focus or the specific focus of the Great Commission
First: The Church Must Go
So in the first place we observed that the disciples must go The disciples are not told to stay. The disciples are not told to just sort of hole up, find a place, and hide from society. But rather, the disciples are commanded to go. Now, it's what's called a participle, but it has imparitable force.
In other words, Jesus is saying to them, you must go. You must be about this. The church in the world has this function. The world is structured in such a way that there's an agency of violence, that is the civil state.
They are to execute God's wrath in history against criminal offenders. But there's an agency in healing, of healing within the context of the world, and that's the church. And so the church needs to take this gospel out. The church needs to preach the truth.
The church needs to be like Jesus, who announced, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then he went about doing good, extolling the glory of God, and preaching the grace of the kingdom. The church must be about this. And then as we follow out what Jesus says here, it's very delimited.
We have a theology meeting every other Saturday morning, and yesterday we were talking about this sort of stuff. And my argument is that when the church tries to do everything, she doesn't do what she's supposed to do well. In other words, what she's called to do is clearly defined in this passage. She's to make disciples, she's to baptize disciples, and she's to teach those disciples.
She's not to entertain people. She's not to try and ameliorate all of the problems for the downtrodden and poor. Certainly she does that in obedience to the second great commandment, but her primary mission in the world is to make Jesus Christ known. Her primary mission in the world is to preach Christ and Him crucified.
Her primary mission is to call sinners to repentance and faith. That's what's defined for us in this Great Commission. The church that tries to do everything will not do the specific she's called to do well. She's to be the pillar and the ground of the truth.
She's to traffic and truck in sound doctrine. She's to proclaim Christ, not only for the salvation of sinners, but for the growth in grace and in knowledge of the people of God. It's really a beautiful commission and it's very simple as well. Sometimes churches and people of God seem a bit confused about their task or their role or what are we supposed to be doing?
How about we go back to Matthew 28 and listen to the voice of the Master and seek by grace to obey His blessed Word? Because He knows what's best. He knows what people desperately need, both inside the church and outside the church. We're not smarter than the Master.
We're not more proficient than the Master. We're not more excellent in wisdom than the Master. We ought to listen to the Master. So the first aspect that the church must engage in is to go.
You see this in the book of Acts. Jesus tells his church, first, you'll witness to me in Jerusalem, and then Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. But for the most part, in the first few chapters of the book of Acts, they're located staunchly in the city of Jerusalem. It was through the persecution of the church, specifically the martyrdom of Stephen, that the church then was scattered out.
She didn't do what the master said, and as a result now of this persecution, she goes out and she testifies in Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. So Jesus calls his people to engage in going. Now, you may not be a missionary, you may not be a pastor, you may not be a preacher, so how can you participate? Pray for those who are.
Pray that your churches will be faithful to the commission. Pray that your churches will be consistent with reference to the commission. Pray that God would indeed let the nations be glad vis-a-vis Psalm 67. Pray that God would raise men up and send them forth as pastors, as preachers, as church planters.
If you can't necessarily go, you can certainly pray for those who are going.
Second: Make Disciples
Now notice, secondly, Jesus says, while you are going, you need to make disciples. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." What does it mean to make a disciple? Well, it means to call them to faith and repentance in the Lord Jesus. We can't make them believe, we can't make them repent, but the God that we serve is able to make men willing in the day of his power.
And so God, or the scripture says, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. So the church is obedient to her master. She preaches the gospel of our salvation. God in his grace saves sinners as he does with Carrie, as he does with Catherine, as he does with the rest of us who have a credible profession of faith in Christ.
He saves us by that grace. and then he conforms us unto the image of his beloved son. That's discipleship. One commentator, John Broadus, defines it this way, to disciple a person to Christ is to bring him into the relation of pupil to teacher, taking his yoke of authoritative instruction, accepting what he says as true because he says it, and submitting to his requirements as right because he makes them. If I could just sort of read between the lines with our dear brother, he means that discipleship means the disciple doesn't say, what do you mean I have to do that?
The disciple doesn't say, what do you mean Jesus says I have to do that? What do you mean I have to go to church? What do you mean I can't go there? What do you mean?
That's not discipleship. The Apostle John says the commandments of God are not burdensome. If you find that the commandments of God are burdensome in your heart, if it's a bondage to you, if it's something that vexes you and grieves you, you ought to believe the gospel and repent, because the true people of God find the law of God as their delight. The only thing that bugs them or grieves them is their inability to actually keep that law the way that pleases God.
So they cry out with the Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?
Discipleship in Matthew 11
This idea of discipleship, it's viewed in Matthew chapter 11. You can go there. Matthew chapter 11. Jesus says, the church must go, and as the church is going, she must make disciples.
Matthew 11, 25 to 30 shows us something about discipleship. Verse 25, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. It goes along with what I was saying previously. We can't make people believe.
We're not Muslims. We can't make you convert by the power of the sword or gun. We don't have that coercive power to bring men into discipleship. We are at the disposal of a sovereign God.
And this is what Jesus highlights. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and prudent. Now, some get offended by that notion of God's sovereignty. They say, well, that's not fair.
God's not dealing with a race of innocent people. God's not dealing with people driven like the white snow. God is dealing with what looks like it looks now. You know when the snow first falls, it's all beautiful and it's white?
My wife said everything gets quieter. I just kind of mused on that the other day. She was right. It does seem a bit quieter.
I don't know if everybody's now sipping hot chocolate in their houses and they're not out making a bunch of noise, but everything seems quiet and the snow is beautiful and white. We tend to think God's dealing with that when it comes to people. He's dealing with what it looks like now. After a few days when there's slosh and mud and dirt and all that icky stuff, that's what God's dealing with.
For Him to hide gospel truth is not unfair, it's justice. Christ praises the father for that but thou didst reveal them unto babes Praise God Almighty that he shows gospel truth to those whom he purposed to do So now notice what Christ says on the heels heels of this says even so father verse 26 for so it seemed good in your sight It was well pleasing to you verse 27 All things have been delivered to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father Nor does anyone know the father except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him Now if you're familiar at all with what's called reformed theology, this is a great passage It highlights that God's absolute comprehensive universal sovereignty But one of the bad implications drawn from this is that because of that we don't preach the gospel No, that's not the way Jesus follows through on the heels of this declaration of the absolute comprehensive sovereignty of his father in verse 28 Jesus says come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Isn't that great? That's the good news. When he speaks about being heavy-laden, when he talks about needing rest, he's not talking about your weariness from your job.
You may be a ditch digger and you come home at night and your sciatic hurts and your lower back hurts and your shoulders hurt. He's not talking about that kind of weariness. He's not talking about that kind of burden. He's talking about the weariness and the burden that sin brings.
Y'all know that, don't you? You ever wake up after a night of sin or after a week of sin and say, boy, I feel good. I feel so robust and excellent. Sin is such a blessed taskmaster.
It always leaves me satisfied. That's not your report. The report is, I need to change the way that I'm living. I need to reform some things.
I need to get rid of some things. I need to imbibe some things. You see, it's Christ who gives relief. It's Christ who gives rest.
It's Christ who is able to afford forgiveness for sin and to give us a righteousness that will ultimately avail with his Father. And so Christ invites sinners to come to him. It's a beautiful thing. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Now notice in verses 29 and 30, here's discipleship. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You see, with reference to discipleship,
Justification and Sanctification
we have this initial coming to Christ for what's called justification. And then we have this continual staying with Christ in what's called sanctification. That's discipleship. Again, we can't make people believe, we can't open their hearts, but we trust in the sovereign God who is able to do that, who reveals these things to babes.
And once they come in faith to the Lord Jesus, we seek to instruct them, we seek to encourage them, and we seek to build them up in their most holy faith so that they'll be what Christ has purposed for them to be. That's the church's function, to make disciples. The means by which this is done, again, gospel preaching. Salvation is by grace through faith.
If you're new to Christianity, you don't typically come to churches, you don't know what all of the rigmarole is about, let me tell you, People that are going to heaven are not going to heaven because they deserve it. They're not going to heaven because they're good They're not going to heaven because they perform well or they have an edge over you They're going to heaven because of Jesus Christ Christ obeyed the father at every point. He always did what the father commanded him He always fulfilled the law and Christ going to the cross went there not for his sins because he didn't have any But he went for the sins of all those who believe in him So on that cross, Christ is punished for the sins of His people. That's what the angelic reference in Matthew 121 means.
For He will save His people from their sins. It's a beautiful thing. Discipleship by grace through faith in Jesus. So again, if you're new to all of this, you've come either out of a curiosity or a courtesy to family members, and you want to see what happens in the waters of baptism, this ain't magic.
There's no potion in the water. Once it's over, we're going to open a spigot and that water is going to go right out into the parking lot. It's not magic. It doesn't convey anything, but rather it symbolizes what God Most High has done in the lives of these two people.
He has saved them by His grace. He has forgiven them. He has washed them from all their sins, and He has united them savingly to His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The way into that baptistry tank is not through their efforts or through their merits, but through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord.
Disciples from All Nations
Now notice what Jesus goes on to say. Well, before we move on, because we've been in the book of Genesis, because we've been rehearsing the promises to Abraham, because we read Psalm 2 at the outset of our worship, notice what Jesus says in verse 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. So there's this idea out there that all roads lead to heaven.
They don't. That's a lie from the pet. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
That is exclusivistic. And yet here Christ says, go, as you go, make disciples, and your target audience is not just Jerusalem, is not just Judea, Samaria, but it's the uttermost parts of the earth. It's Chilliwack, British Columbia. It's Abbotsford, British Columbia.
See, God made a promise to Abraham way back when, and he said that in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Well, that promise is made good because of the seed of Abraham, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. What we read in Psalm 2, Jesus rehearsing what Yahweh says to him. He says, ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth as your possession.
So Christ has this absolute authority. Christ calls his church to engage in this, and he tells them, don't leave anybody undealt with. Go to every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation. You want the foundation for the missionary enterprise?
It's right here. Go to all nations. Don't just sit in Jerusalem, but rather testify wherever there are sinners who stand in need. So we must go.
We must make disciples.
Third: Baptize the Disciples
Now, notice thirdly, we must baptize them. We must baptize them. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them. Now, who's the them?
Who are the subjects of baptism? People in our church are going, okay, here he's gonna get a little controversial, and my friend or my neighbor's not gonna like this. I hope to not be too controversial, but I think this is the paradigm for the way the church functions. Notice the specific, not conspicuous, the specific order.
He doesn't say, baptize and then make disciples. That's not the way it goes. He says, make disciples, baptize those disciples, and then teach those disciples. This shows the pattern followed out in the book of Acts.
It's not patal inclusion in the covenant promises of God. It's rather preach the gospel of free grace to Jerusalem sinners and their seed, and whoever believes the gospel should be baptized, join churches, and be taught everything that Jesus Christ said. See, there is an order here. Go, make disciples, baptize.
Some have seen baptism as the means by which disciples are made. That is to invert the Great Commission. And it's not just the sacks. It's not just those people that teach a baptismal regeneration.
Again, I think this is fundamental in terms of a paedo-baptist approach. We sprinkle them as babies, and then we disciple them, and hopefully someday they'll confess faith in Jesus Christ. That is to get the commission backwards. So there's the controversy.
If you're upset, you can complain to your neighbor who invited you or your friend. Actually, you can call me or talk to me. It's an old debate, and it's one that I'm certainly not going to put to rest. But we need to take heed to what is written on the pages of Holy Scripture.
And we all talk about the infallible and inerrant Word of God. Yeah, not only in terms of six-day creation and young earthism, not only in terms of, you know, justification by faith alone, but for matters of church polity, for matters of order, for matters of discipline. Do we make or rather baptize and then make them disciples? You know, in my own personal experience, I've known Carrie Lawson since she was born.
I visited her in the hospital before, the new Abbotsford Hospital that used to be on, I don't know if it was Cowlin or whatever, but the hospital there. Notice that we did not, or I did not, visit her on the Tuesday. I don't know if she was born on a Tuesday. I'm not that good in the memory game at this point, but we didn't have an infant baptism on that following Sunday.
And not to be disrespectful, but a lot of infant baptism seems to me to be an expression of one's hope that God will, in fact, save this child. And I'm not discounting that hope that we as parents ought to have. We should all have that in spades. and act upon that and preach the gospel to our precious little ones. But if we ask the scriptures, what is baptism?
Baptism isn't a sign of hopefulness, but it's rather a sign of confirmation. Not in the Roman Catholic sense of confirmation, but rather affirmation. When these sisters go into that water, this is a visible representation of what God has done inwardly. No hope.
Now, there's hope that they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but baptism is a sign of the new covenant given unto the party baptized and their specific significances to it. And one of those is they have remission of sins. One of those is that they are engrafted into the Lord Jesus Christ. One of those is that they promise to walk in newness of life.
Why? Because that newness of life has been conveyed through the power of the Holy Spirit in what we call regeneration. This is an outward sign or seal or symbol or affirmation of what God has done inwardly. And in that sense, it's most beautiful and most glorious, and I hope that our sisters are greatly encouraged today as they go into that water.
And I think the text sustains this. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them. The text is clear. We don't just indiscriminately baptize nations.
I mean, that would be an easy way to accomplish the Great Commission, wouldn't it? We just get helicopters or planes and sprinkle water over whole bodies of people, and we have baptized them. That's not what it is. Those within the nations that believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are the ones who ought to be baptized.
They're the subjects. They're the persons, they're the ones that ought to be immersed in identification with the triune God. That's the emphasis. And again, the order of activities, we see disciple making, and then baptism, and then teaching.
I referenced the significance of baptism. Our own confession of faith says baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ. That's very important. was ordained by Jesus Christ. Whatever covenant you're in, you ask the covenant head, who do we baptize?
Who do we circumcise? You ask the mediator of the covenant for the terms of the covenant. And in the new covenant, Jesus Christ is head. And in the new covenant, Jesus Christ is said to baptize believers.
Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized, assign a fellowship with him in his death and resurrection. What's that Roman VI significance? Isn't it a beautiful thing? Paul tells you to reflect upon your baptism.
Some say, well, baptism is just this empty rite. It's just this symbol. No, we're supposed to reflect back on our baptism. We're supposed to think in terms of being dead and buried and raised again with our Lord Jesus Christ, which baptism splendidly displays.
We won't get much into the mode of baptism. The subjects are clear in the text. It's those who believe the gospel. The mode is immersion because it pictures that significant event in the life of the master.
He died, he was buried, he was raised. And this watery grave symbolizes that for the people of God. And the confession goes on to highlight significances with reference to baptism. As well of his being engrafted unto him of remission of sins and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life.
Now notice the text again. Verse 19 says, go therefore make disciples of all the nations baptizing them.
Baptism and the Doctrine of the Trinity
Now note, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is most important that we understand this. This is what we call Theology proper. It's the doctrine of God.
It's who God is. And I think there's some misunderstanding in terms of who God is. At times, I think we see God as just a bit of a better version of man. He's just a bit of a more accomplished man.
He's sort of a superman. That's not how the Bible pictures him. It's not how the Bible describes him or how the Bible demonstrates it. God and man do not share a genus.
God is creator, and we are creature. It's not the case that you have man, and then you have angel, and then you have God. God is separate from us. And the scriptures highlight the separateness of God in a whole host of ways.
Our confession gets at this by telling us that God is without body. He's non-corporeal. He doesn't have a body like men. God is spirit, according to Jesus in John 4.
He's without parts. Now, that may seem a bit odd, but it simply means this. It simply means that he is not composed. That was actually a pun for anybody who's following here, and one of the brothers got it.
The doctrine of divine simplicity. It just means God's not composed of stuff outside of God. There's not God parts out there that have come and formed and become God. It would mean there's something more ultimate than God.
It would mean that God is like the creature. He's composed, and he's not. So our confession says he's without bodies, without parts, he's without passions. This idea of without passions doesn't mean he's stoic, doesn't mean he's static.
It means he's most loving. He can't get more loving. I think if anybody gets their minds wrapped around what without passions means, their hearts are going to explode in love for God. Because it means He can't get more loving to you.
Isn't that good news? It's not like you're living your life, and on Tuesday I failed a bit, or I engaged in some remaining corruption, so I sort of went down the love meter in terms of God. But by Thursday, I really got back into my step. I stopped doing the things that I was doing on Tuesday, and I increased in terms of the love meeting.
And no, he's most loving. He has no variation, no shadow of turning with God. You see, this God is what scripture testifies, and this God as well is triune. That means he's three persons, one God, three persons.
And you see that reflected in the text. Notice what Jesus says here. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, singular, I'm sorry, baptizing them in the name, singular, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes people hear this doctrine of the Trinity.
They say, well, that's a contradiction. How could something be three and one? Well, it can be three in one sense and one in another sense. We're not saying God has three essences and one essence.
We're saying God is one essence or substance in three persons. So he's three in one sense, he's one in another sense, and this text specifically highlights that. Baptize them in the name singular of the plurality of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. See, this is absolutely crucial that we understand this.
When these two sisters go into this water, they're not just kind of engaged in some religious enterprise. They are identifying with the triune God of Holy Scripture. They are identifying with the true and the living God. There ain't a whole host of gods out there.
There's one true and living God, and Scripture reveals to us that He's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, from everlasting to everlasting, most high, most glorious, most wondrous, and most worthy to be praised and worshiped. That's what Jesus emphasizes. There's been a lot of heresies in the context of the church. There are those who say that there's three gods.
That's the heresy of tritheism. That's not what the Bible teaches. There's the heresy of what's called modalism, that God just appears in different modes at different times. No, that is to denigrate what the Scripture teaches concerning God.
And probably one of the most popular ones today, within confessing Protestantism, is what's called subordinationism. That there's gradation within the Godhead, and that the Son is not as God-ish as is the Father. That's rank heresy, and yet it's being published by supposedly evangelical publishing houses. One man was once asked, what do you think is wrong with the Church's doctrine of God today?
The answer was, the Church's doctrine of God. I don't think that was a stretch. I think we've got some big problems in terms of theology proper, and this is the most important thing. What does Jesus say with reference to eternal life?
You ever met those people that perhaps they're bowling fans, and they think that heaven is going to be one big bowling alley in the sky? Or they love football, and when they die, they're going to go to that big football field in the sky. Or they're fishermen, and they say, when I die, it's going to be like one big fishing hole in the sky. I realize those were all man-oriented.
Maybe, I don't know, woman. I don't want to do that. That'll be bad. That's not it.
It's the essence of eternal life. And this is eternal life, Jesus says, that they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Brethren, do your hearts throb with that reality? I'm going to heaven because my sins are forgiven.
I'm going to heaven because I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ. All that is true and all of that is an amen to be sure. But I'm going to heaven and I get to be with God. I get to see him as he is.
I get to be in the presence of Father, Son, and Spirit for all eternity. I mean, the Lord's Day is great. Gathering together in public worship, singing these hymns of praise to God is fantastic. But they're simply glimpses of that eternal state.
This is, to use the language of the Puritans, the market day of the soul. But that day is going to usher in to eternity when Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. What's going to make heaven heaven is God. Isn't it?
It's not bowling, it's not fishing, it's not whatever it is you think is a great hobby here on earth. It is the knowledge of God Most High. The prophet hits on this in Jeremiah chapter 9. Don't let the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength.
I don't think that's actually one of them, but that's the gist of the prophet. Don't let the rich man boast of his riches, but rather let him who boasts boast in this, that he knows me. It's everything, isn't it? Why do we come to church on Sunday?
Is it to charge our batteries and see how each other's doing in their week? That stuff happens by way of corollary, but we're here for Him. Church has lost that. Church is about coming for you.
We're gonna tailor everything for you. We're gonna make everything palpable for you. That's not how the scripture sets it forth. The scripture says it's God's house.
The scripture says he is the householder and he is the one to whom we bring worship, praise, glory, and adoration. So Christ says, baptize them in the name singular of the three persons of the Godhead. Now, if you think about this in light of the larger gospel context, who was Jesus according to his humanity? He was a carpenter who became a preacher, who hailed from Galilee.
Now, the Galileans were looked down upon by the Jerusalemites. They were the hillbillies. You think I've used it before. They were the Eastern Kentucky to New York City.
They were, you know, just the guys that you really didn't take seriously. So this Galilean preacher has now received worship, having been raised from the dead and associating himself with that name that persons are to be baptized into. It's truly amazing that he would say this. Who could say this but God of God, light of light, true God from true God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father, this one who is worthy to be worshipped and glorified.
Only Christ could say what Christ says here, because no creature ought to have, we ought never to be baptized into the name of a creature. The Lord Jesus is the second person of the triune God, and what he says here is normative for the church. John Gill says, hence a confirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity. There are three persons, but one name, but one God, into which believers are baptized, and a proof of the true deity both of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and that Christ as the Son of God is God. since baptism is administered equally in the name of all three, as a religious ordinance, a part of divine instituted worship, which would never be in the name of a creature."
Fourth: Teach Them to Obey
And then notice what the disciples must do. Four things in terms of the specific focus. They must go, they must make disciples, they must baptize those disciples, and then the disciples must teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you. See, that's why churches do what churches do.
That's why they're not about entertainment. That's why they shouldn't be about all the things that civil government's supposed to be doing, which isn't actually all the things. There's very few things civil government should actually be doing. But the Church of Jesus Christ should make disciples, baptize those disciples, and teach those disciples.
As I said at the very outset of this sermon, it's very simple, isn't it? Church has become a bit complicated, it's become a bit difficult, it's become a bit hard to sort of figure it all out. There's all these different denominations, there's all these different types of worship, there's all these different approaches in terms of how do we do what we do. Well, let's go back to Scripture and ask the question, what are we supposed to do in light of Holy Scripture?
And the church's marching orders are very delimited, very narrow. She can do more. I'm not suggesting she can't, but she must do these things. She must make disciples, she must baptize those disciples, and she must teach those disciples.
And notice what he says, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. He doesn't say, just have Bible studies and inform them what the law of God says, but they're free to live in any old way that they like. No, discipleship does mean taking His yoke upon us. Discipleship does mean following the Master.
Discipleship does mean putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Notice that great statement in Matthew 121 again. You will call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from what? From their sins.
Not to continue in their sins. The people of God are taught the law of God, and they, by the Spirit of God, are supposed to obey it. Now, thankfully, there is forgiveness when we disobey, but the garden variety, ebb and flow of the Christian people of God ought to be a trajectory of obedience. John says in his first epistle, my little children, I write these things so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. So on the one hand, John is an idealist. I don't want you to sin. On the other hand, John's a realist.
But when you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Brethren, as professing believers in Jesus Christ, we're supposed to do what Jesus Christ said. I know that's a revolutionary statement today, but that's the way it is. You know, we're told the church has to tailor its message.
The church has to change this up. The church can't insist upon the things that the church used to. Why? Has the Word of God changed?
Is it a wax nose that we mold and shape and fit the modern society around us? Or do we stand fast? Martin Luther said way back when, here I stand, I can do no other. The Church issues, or the Word of God issues, a particularly declarative message that we're not in the business of changing or tailoring or fitting or helping to be accepted by the majority of men in our society.
No, we as God's people are to be taught what Jesus says, and we're supposed to obey it.
The Assurance of Christ's Presence
Now, I had said we wouldn't look much at that last bit, but just let's look at this by way of conclusion to the exposition. Notice, "...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." Now, this is most encouraging, because when the church does what's specified here, she has the encouragement, the consolation, the comfort, and the realization that Christ is with her in this. It's not about, well, if we have this many people, or we have this much money, or our budget is this... No, no, that's not how we quantify the effectiveness, or the obedience, or the legitimacy of a particular church.
Is she doing what God says? If she's doing what God says, then we have the promise from the God-man that He is with us. and He will be with us even to the end of the age. It's promises like these that get preachers out of bed on Sunday morning, or even worse, on a Monday morning. The reality that Christ is with His people.
The reality that He is Emmanuel. See, that was another name given according to the prophet Isaiah in Matthew chapter 1. Yes, you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save us, or he will save his people from their sins. But he's also identified as Immanuel.
You know what Immanuel means? It means God with us. How does Matthew's gospel end? It ends on that high note of Christ's presence with his church when his church is doing what he commissioned her to do. most simple, most excellent, most beautiful, most glorious.
And even if we disagree about the subject of baptism and the mode of baptism, hopefully your heart resonates with the reality that this is what it's all about. Disciple-making, baptizing them, teaching them so that they may be obedient to the master and shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation and hold forth that word of truth. You see, our generation is messed up, isn't it? All you got to do is look at any news site ever or one millisecond of exposure to what's going on out there.
What does out there need? They don't need to come here to be entertained. They don't need to come here to be amused. They don't need to come here to be pandered to.
They need to hear of Christ and Him crucified. That's what the church is supposed to be. That's what the church is supposed to be about. Not only declaring His absolute regal sovereignty, but saying, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
That's a promise from the Savior to sinners today. Come in faith and Christ will receive you.
Application
Well, in terms of some application, we'll close in just a minute. For those of you new to our congregation, there was a boy and he was listening to preaching and he asks his father after the preacher says, finally, the boy says to the father, what does finally mean, dad? And the dad said nothing. It means absolutely nothing, son.
Forget about it. But my finally isn't that. There is an end. There is a terminus.
But just a couple of thoughts in conclusion. There's four alls in the Great Commission. Four alls. It's about all authority.
It's about all the nations. It's about all the things commanded. And it's about all the days. This ought to occupy the attention of God's people in churches.
It ought to narrowly define what her purpose is in the world, and it should shape her prayers. It should affect the way that she gives, should affect the way that she lives and moves and has her being. If Christ's concern is the discipleship of the nations, then that ought to be our concern as well. Secondly, we learn something in terms of the glory of the triune God, baptized them in the name singular of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The doctrine of the Trinity must be known and believed because that's who God is. The doctrine of the Trinity must be known and believed because that's who God is. You can't say, well, I have this sort of defective understanding, but that's okay. Now, again, somebody brand new converted unto Jesus Christ, they're going to have defective understanding.
But if you've been a Christian for 20, 25, 30, 35 years, you ought to be able to formulate, at least along the lines of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, that there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. I don't think that's a lot to ask from somebody who's confessed the faith for 25 years. I'm not asking you to confess the Chalcedonian Creed, though that would be very good, or the Athanasian Creed, or Reed Turretin and Bovink and all the great Reformed writers on the doctrine of the Trinity.
You need to know these things, the name singular of the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Athanasian Creed says, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. It's a great statement. John Calvin said, thus we perceive that God cannot be truly known unless our faith distinctly conceive of the three persons in one essence.
What do you think these guys would do with the sort of theological shallowness and ignorance expressed in so much of Christianity today? I mean, there was a time when persons taught the subordinate nature of the Son to the Father, but those persons didn't teach at evangelical seminaries. They were branded as Sassanians and heretics, and they were termed as those outside of the church. We've got problems in Zion, brethren, and somebody needs to sound the alarm.
Francis Turretin says, for it is not sufficient to know that God is, as to existence, or what He is, as to His attributes, but we must know also who He is. Of course you need to know those other things, that He is, what He is, but who He is. He goes on to say, as to the persons as he presents himself to be known by us in his word. Hence, whosoever denieth the son, the same hath not the father. 1 John 2, 23.
Do you understand the implications of that? This idea that every road leads to heaven. No, if you don't have the son, you don't have the father. If you don't have the Son, you aren't going to heaven.
That's what Jesus taught. That's what John the Apostle taught. So back to the quote. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.
And he that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. And I think this is a great statement by Francis Turretin. He says, Therefore God has revealed himself as one in essence, three in persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, he who does not acknowledge and believe the Trinity has not the true God, but has erected for himself an idol in the place of God.
Now, that's hard, I think, for moderns, but for those who are familiar with Scripture and the cradle confessions of the church of Jesus Christ, we say yea and amen to that, because they're to be baptized in the name singular of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And then the doctrine of the Trinity must be known and believed because, and this is where our confession of faith, which is patterned after the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Savoy Declaration, this is where our confession, I think, shines a bit brighter. Because the last statement in the treatment on the doctrine of the Trinity, the Second London Confession of Faith says that this doctrine is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him. So you get this idea that the doctrine of the Trinity is for the theologians and the seminary and it's for the pastors.
It's for us. It's the foundation for our dependence upon God, for our comfortable dependence and our communion with God. So if you have this idea that that's only for the seminaries, I would suggest to you, you're not reading your Bible properly. It's supposed to come to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that God may be all in all.
And then a second observation, in terms of practical application, in terms of Christian baptism, I don't think that it is the most important doctrine in the Bible. But I don't think it's the least important doctrine in the Bible either. Because notice that Jesus, when he commissions his church, tells them to go make disciples and baptize those disciples and teach them. So the mind of the Savior, baptism, is something absolutely crucial in the context of the local church.
It is important. If you have not been baptized and you profess saving faith in Jesus Christ, you need to get baptized. You need to come You've come to the Savior. Now you need to come to the water to publicly identify with this one God who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It is important. Can you go to heaven without being baptized? That's the wrong question. You get that.
Can I go to heaven without being baptized? Why would you even ask that? Ask the scriptures. What do you say in terms of baptism?
I say get baptized. Okay, that's what I need to do. This whole idea, can I go to heaven without being, can I go to heaven without, your mind is needing some reform here. You need to go back to scripture and say, well, is it biblical?
Is it what Jesus wants? If it's what Jesus wants, then I want to do that. That's the mindset of the believer, isn't it? You know that your wife hates something.
You don't say, well, I'm going to get that something and parade it in front of her. No, you don't do that because you're not ignorant. You love her. You care for her.
You know that she doesn't want something. You don't make her have it. You know that she does want something. If it's in your means, you try to provide that for her.
Why? Because you love her. You obey Jesus because you love Him. But as well, we see the subjects of Christian baptism, again, delineated in our text.
It's made disciples, baptize those disciples, and then teach those disciples. I don't want to go over that again because that'll bring controversy back in at the very end, and I don't want you to have poor thoughts about the sermon this morning. But to Carrie and to Catherine, I want to encourage you. Where's Carrie?
I can't see her. There she is. All right. It's not these that I need.
But as I mentioned earlier in terms of the confession of faith, those things are true. And one of the things that our confession highlights that I think we don't always appreciate is that baptism is for the party baptized. In other words, that Ethiopian eunuch wasn't in a church. Don't go out and say, well, I can go get baptized anywhere because of the Ethiopian eunuch.
For the most part, it's good to get baptized in the church. But the baptism of these young ladies, younger, youngish and young, ladies this morning, younger than me, these ladies today, it's ultimately for them. We get to witness this, we get to praise God alongside of them, but it's for them, and it underscores those confessional truths that are biblical in nature. It is a sign of your fellowship with Christ, it is a sign of your having been engrafted in Him, it is a sign of the remission of sins, and it is a sign of your giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life.
It's for you. It ought to be an encouragement. It ought to be a blessing. You ought to be able to say with C.H.
Spurgeon, as he mused on the day of his baptism, he said, Oh, blessed pool. It was that blessed pool wherein I entered and I came out identifying with the triune God Almighty. It's for them. May it be a means of grace and may it be a means of encouragement and may you be able to look back on this day and say, praise God for the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is altogether lovely, that one who is chief among 10,000, that one who conquered my soul by sovereign grace.
May it be a blessing and may it be a hope-filled day for each and every one or for the two that are baptized and for all of us as we witness this. And if you're not a Christian this morning, it's a beautiful thing. God save sinners. I would imagine if I was somebody that just wandered in to this church, I would see people that dress up, and they're somewhat polished.
I mean, we don't wake up in the morning, fall out of bed, and come here in jammies. That's just not the way it happens. We clean up a little bit, run a comb through the hair, and put the tie on, and do all that sort of thing. So I've often wondered, what do people see when they come in to a place like this?
And they might see people that are different than me, or they do things differently than me. We're all the same. Every single one in here, we've all sinned against the Holy God. We all lived in rebellion against Him.
We all raised our fist at Him. He said, do this. We did the opposite. He said, don't do this.
We went ahead and did it. We were vile, guilty, vile, helpless, we. Spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement, can it be?
Hallelujah, what a Savior. So as you look around you, if you say, well, you know, I don't know that I could ever be a Christian because I don't own a suit. You don't need a suit. I don't know that I could be a Christian because I don't engage in this particular activity.
Well, you don't necessarily have to engage in that particular activity. The way to become a Christian is by looking unto Jesus Christ in faith. That's the way, that's the means by which sinners enter into heaven. Sinners even with deficient understandings about all things that were covered in this particular lesson.
Sinners saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, having that precious blood wash us from all our rebellion, all our transgression, and all our sin, and then receiving from God that righteousness that is Christ's. so that one day we'll be able to stand in the presence of a holy God and hear, not, get away from me, you horrible, vile, wretched sinner, but we'll hear, well done, good and faithful servant. It's not because of our well-doneness or our good and faithfulness, but because of the Master whom we have believed in. That Master takes sinners, even now, That master receives sinners even now. You don't need to come forward.
You don't need to sign a card. You don't need to shoot your hand up in the sky. You need to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let us close in a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this commission given to the church.