Our focus will be on the Great Commission in verses 18 to 20. As we are having a baptism this morning of Mrs. Wilma Faber, it's a good time to remind ourselves concerning the commission that Christ gave to the church in terms of disciple-making and baptism and then instruction of those baptized disciples. So I'll begin reading in chapter 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.
But the angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. He is not here for he is 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. 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 worshipped 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 soldier 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. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, thank you for the written word. Thank you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit who gave us the word. And we pray even now that he would guide us as we consider that word. Help us to see the importance of the commission for the life of the church.
Help us to see the blessings of the commission in the life of the church. And God, help us as well to appreciate the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. For God, we know it is not up to men. It is ultimately God who is sovereign.
And we pray that as this word goes forth throughout the earth, it would run swiftly and be glorified, that you would be honored and praised in the salvation of sinners and in the strengthening of your saints. And we ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, as I said, verses 18 to 20 contain what's called the Great Commission. It's Christ's parting words to his church, not that he's absent, not that he's vanished, not that he's gone. He is still connected to the church from the right hand of the Father. He is enthroned on high, and by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is in the midst of the lampstand even now, and we rejoice in that.
But this is a formal command to the church to function in a particular way with reference to this time until he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And I think just by a preliminary observation, it is important to understand that this is a pretty limited scope. Jesus doesn't say the church is to be about everything in the world. Rather, she is to focus specifically on the mission at hand.
She is to honor and obey her head in a way that is consistent with his revealed will. It's not the case that she's supposed to figure out new ways to serve Jesus. God doesn't want us to be innovative. He doesn't want us to be creative.
Rather, God wants us to be obedient. And with reference to the commission, the church needs to be about what is specified in verses 18 to 20. So essentially, what we have is the Great Commission in verses 18 to 20. The first thing you see is the authority behind the Great Commission.
We won't spend a lot of time there. Secondly, the specific focus of the Commission. That's where we will spend our time in verses 19 to 20a. And then finally, the assurance provided for the Great Commission in verse 20b.
Authority Behind the Commission
So first, look at the authority behind the commission in verse 18. What a glorious statement. When we obey Christ, we obey the one who has the authority to in order compliance. He grants the grace, He grants us the strength, He grants us the resources of the Holy Spirit and the Word, such that when He calls us into service and activity, He is the power behind it.
We're not acting in our own strength, we're not acting in our own ability, we're not trying to conduct things according to our own whims or fancies, but rather we are responding to the One who has absolute authority. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. This is a present situation. It's not like we're waiting for Christ to be invested with authority.
There's some types of teaching out there that seem to indicate that, that we have to wait until the return of Jesus before He begins His reign as King. That's not what the text says. He possesses presently all authority in heaven and on earth. In the book of Revelation, in chapter 1, when John greets the seven churches of Asia Minor, he does so in terms of the Trinity, from the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
And he describes the Son as being ruler over the kings of the earth. That's most important for the book of Revelation. If you read through the book of Revelation, you will know there's a lot of animosity toward the church on earth. There's this beast from the sea and a beast from the land, and they target the people of God with destruction.
So John, knowing that, writes from the very outset or from the vantage point that Christ is King, He is head over all these things. So when it comes to the church's mission on the face of the earth, we work according to His power and to His authority. Again, it's not up to us, it's not how we figure it out, but Christ has the authority and Christ gives the commands.
Focus of the Commission
Now notice the specific focus of the commission. With that authority, He then delegates it to His church. Notice in verse 19, go therefore and do what I tell you to do. So based on the fact that he has all authority, based on the fact that he is the ruler over the kings of the earth, he then tells his church to go out in his name and to function on his behalf in this world.
And with reference to the church, there are four things that she must be about. In the first place, the disciples of the church must go. Secondly, the disciples must make disciples. Thirdly, the disciples must baptize them.
And fourthly, the disciples must teach them to observe all things that Christ has commanded. So look at those four things in a bit of detail presently.
The Church Must Go
In the first place, notice he says, go therefore. Not stay, not sit, not just vegetate, not stagnate. That doesn't mean that every single member in every single church will go and be about this particular task. He's addressing his apostles.
He is addressing those men that will go out, preach the gospel, make disciples, and found local churches. But the church as a whole, until Jesus returns, must be about this. Again, it's not this comprehensive list of everything the church in a society must do, but she must go and obey her master in this particular focus. So the going here isn't suggestive.
The going here is rather command. Some take it as if it's this way. In your going, while you're going, do this particular thing. And they argue that it's what's called a participle.
For most of you adults, you don't know what that word means, but for you kids, you've seen that in your English grammar lessons. A participle typically isn't an imperative or a command, but there are times in the New Testament where a participle has imperative function. It functions as a command in this setting. Christ says, go.
Churches must be about disciple-making. Churches may be about a whole host of other things, but they must be about disciple-making. That is crucial. One of the most exasperating things I've heard as a pastor over the years is when persons will say, the gospel wasn't preached in my last church.
Why not? That's what's supposed to be preached in churches. The gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord, the life, the death, the resurrection, the glory of Christ, the majesty of Christ, the power of Christ, the person of Christ, the work of Christ. What else are we talking about if we're not preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord?
So Christ commands this going. Christ commands the necessity of churches to function in this capacity to make known the glorious name of Jesus Christ.
Make Disciples of All Nations
Now notice secondly, they're commanded to go, but then notice what they're commanded to do when they go. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Make disciples of all the nations. We don't do this with military might.
Brethren, we are not Muslims. We do not convert people with the power of the sword, the physical sword. It is the sword of the Spirit. It is the word of the living and true God.
Disciple-making, in the language of the commentator John Broadus, is simple. 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. So that's the meaning of discipleship. What's the means?
I've already mentioned it. The preaching of the gospel. How do we make disciples? Again, not with the physical sword, not with military might, not under coercion, but through the proclamation of the truth, attended by the Holy Spirit, such that sinners see themselves rightly before a holy God, and then see Christ as altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand." Because the Bible tells us very clearly, there is none righteous, no not one.
The Bible tells us very clearly that all we like sheep have gone astray. The Bible tells us very clearly that all men everywhere are justly liable to God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come. So the means by which we make disciples is to preach that message, that blessed message we call the good news. that blessed message concerning Jesus Christ. The glory of the gospel isn't that men and women make themselves a little better and fit for reception into heaven.
The glory of the gospel isn't even that sinners accept Jesus into their hearts. The glory of the gospel is that God Almighty, in His grace and in His mercy, reaches down raises up dead men and women, puts new hearts into their chests, spiritually speaking, grants them the gifts of faith and repentance so that they may see Christ, the way the Bible presents him, as the one in whom there is salvation. So the making of disciples hinges first and foremost upon the preaching of justification by faith alone. The reality is, if you're not a believer here this morning, you are under God's wrath and curse. both in this life and in that which is to come.
Think about it for a moment. Are God as holy as the Bible tells us? The prophet Habakkuk says that God's eye is too pure to approve of any evil. What about those of us, which is all of us, those outside of Christ, as whom I'm addressing specifically, who are nothing but evil?
All of us are given over to sin. All of us die in Adam. All of us are under that just condemnation of a holy God. So apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, apart from that good news, apart from faith in Him and repentance unto life, there is a certainty of judgment at the end of our lives.
If you're not a believer this morning, don't congratulate Mrs. Faber because she made good decisions, Praise God that in Him there is forgiveness. Praise God that if He were to mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared.
Understand there is hope in the gospel. Understand that Christ is good. Understand the implications of John 6, 37, wherein the Lord Christ says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. If your theology has suggested an unwillingness on the part of Jesus to save sinners, may I suggest you find a new theology?
Because that is faulty. It is wrong. It is bad. There's a theology out there that teaches that the prodigal, when he was a long way off, would hear the insults and the condemnation of his grieved father.
But the Bible tells us just the opposite. The young man, when he's a long way off, the father runs to him, the father falls on him, not ready to smack him and not ready to beat him up and not ready to do despite to him for his having gone into that far country, but he falls on him and kisses him. He falls on him to receive him. He falls on him and brings him into his house and puts a ring on his finger and a robe on his back and has the fatted calf slain because this son who was dead is now alive.
This son who was lost is now found. That's what the Bible teaches concerning Jesus. He's not an unwilling Savior. He's not one that holds at distance sinners who rightly seeing themselves before a holy God come to him for salvation.
That's the purpose for which he came into this world. It's what he says in Luke's gospel in Luke 19. After he calls Zacchaeus down out of that sycamore tree, everybody there kind of grumbles and whines and moans and complains. Why?
Because Zacchaeus was a wretch. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. They didn't like tax collectors in the first century any more than we like tax collectors in the 21st century. Even worse is that Zacchaeus was likely a Jew working for the Roman government collecting taxes from fellow Jews.
So when Jesus invites that wee little man out of the sycamore tree and says, I'm going to go have dinner at your house, everybody whines, everybody grumbles, everybody complains. How does Jesus counter that? He says, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's not a new theme in scripture.
When Adam and Eve sin against God, they're not the ones that run after God. They run away from God. It's God who comes after them. When the tower builders at Babel raise this big piece of construction up into the heavens to make a name for themselves, God confounds them and then immediately on the heels of that calls Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans Because in Abram, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
In other words, the whole Bible is about God being glorified in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ. So if in your head you think, well, I could never come to Jesus, the Bible doesn't authorize that. The Bible commands you to believe on the name of his son. And that's what by grace some in this church have done, or those who are in this church have done.
It's not owing, again, to our works, or our merits, or our obedience, or our goodness. There ain't none of that in any of us. It's God's grace that's on display, and as our sister goes into that water, that's who we praise. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not our sister.
So the first aspect or the first means by which disciples are made is through the proclamation of the cross. Christ and Him crucified. You see this in the book of Acts. We're studying the book of Acts in our morning worship.
Remember Paul and Philippi. He's thrown into the slammer. There's this earthquake and all the people are going to escape. And this jailer is going to plunge a sword into his heart because he has been deficient.
He has been derelict in his duty. And Paul the Apostle and Silas caution him not to do that. And then this man runs to Paul and Silas, not the other prisoners, but to them, falls before them and says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What do they say?
Don't even ask the question, because our God is so harsh and so vicious, He'll never receive one like you. No. They said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. That's why it's good news.
It's not bad news, it's not mediocre news, it's not kind of somewhat okay news, but it's the good news of Christ and Him crucified and resurrected for sinners. One more text. Romans 4.25, Paul, in summary statement, gives us the gist of the gospel. He says that Christ was delivered up because of our offenses and he was raised for our justification.
What a blessed and a beautiful statement that does hopefully put everybody's mind to rest that God is, in fact, willing to save sinners.
Baptizing the Disciples
Now thirdly, notice what the disciples do after they make disciples. So the text says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, not just Jews, but Gentiles. This was prophesied, as I said, to Abram in Genesis 12, re-ratified or reiterated in chapter 13, chapter 14, chapter 15, chapter 17, chapter 22. I mean, it's a recurring theme in those early chapters of Genesis in God's dealings with Abraham. that in Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
Why? Because Abraham was virtuous? No, because Abraham stands at the head of the line of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the seed of Abraham in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen.
And so the nations are to be evangelized, the nations are to be preached to, the nations are to be told the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. So go therefore, make disciples of all the nations, now notice thirdly, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Now the subjects of baptism isn't the nations, it's those disciples from the nations. It's those who've heard the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Those who by God's grace have believed that gospel, they're the subjects of baptism. They're the ones that are to be immersed in water as a public declaration and identification with this glorious God. It's not the case that baptism saves, but baptism is the external demonstration of the internal change brought out by God in His grace. It is that initiatory rite into the Christian church.
It is that blessed transaction that God has given to the souls of men, such that it ought not to terrify them, but it's embraced happily and joyfully, and they go into that water with great thanksgiving to their God. It's a beautiful and a wonderful thing, but some have described it as baptize the nations. In fact, I think it was the papists that would just sprinkle people and, you know, welcome them to the church. That's not how the text reads.
Make disciples, baptize disciples. Listen to John Gill. Not all nations, for the antecedent to the relative them cannot be all nations. Since the words for all nations are of the neuter gender, whereas them is of the masculine.
Again, this is more for the young people among us, but I think you'll get the point. Nor can it be thought that it should be the mind of Christ that all the individuals of all nations should be baptized as heathens, Turks, and Jews, but disciples supposed and contained in the word teach or make disciples. such as are taught and made disciples by teaching or under the ministry of the word by the Spirit of God." So disciples are disciples by grace. They believe the gospel and then they are baptized as, again, an external sign or symbol of what has transpired inwardly. It's not the case that baptism saves.
You don't see that emphasis in this passage and you certainly don't see it in the book of Acts, but rather it accompanies it. It's not the case that as soon as somebody is born, you simply baptize them and receive them into the life of the church. I know that may sound offensive, and I don't want to go there in terms of offending needlessly, but brethren, the grammar of the text does not indicate that's what's in play. It is those who believe the gospel, those who understand their sin, those who understand the graciousness of the Savior, those who by grace come, they're the disciples that are to be baptized in accordance with this great commission.
And then we ask the question, if you haven't, I'm going to ask it for you, what is the significance of baptism? Why this? Why this emphasis or why this sort of watery grave in which a person goes into, you know, death with Christ, burial with Christ, and resurrection with Christ? I think that's all typified or demonstrated there in Romans chapter 6.
But why? Why baptize? I think our confession summarizes the question or answers the question well. It says, baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized, a sign of fellowship with him in his death and resurrection, the Roman six motif.
He dies, buried, resurrected again in that watery grave. of His being engrafted unto Him, that means union with Christ, it also represents remission of sins and of His giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. That's why we baptize. Well, we baptize in the first place because Jesus commands us to baptize. But when we search the scriptures, we see there is a rationale.
There is a reason behind it. It's not an empty religious rite that we just do because that's what people do. No, it's like the Lord's Supper. We don't do that just because that's what people do.
There is significance attaching to it. There is symbolism attaching to it. And God, being Creator, knows our nature. He made us.
We're creature. And we tend to resonate with physical things that help us understand spiritual truths. That's why baptism, that's why supper, for the glory of God and for the health and good of His people.
Baptism and the Trinity
Now before we leave this point, look at the name into which these persons are to be baptized. It's a beautiful statement telling us concerning or teaching us something concerning what we call the doctrine of the Trinity. Notice, baptizing them in the name singular of the persons plural. 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." They're baptized in the name of that God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Again, it's a public declaration. It is to identify with. It is to say, this is my Lord, this is my Master, this is my King and Savior, the one who has conquered me and brought me out of darkness into marvelous light. But what an ascription to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
Name singular, persons plural. That reflects the historic discussion concerning the Trinity. God is one in one sense. We call that essence or substance.
And then he's three in another sense. We call that person or subsistence or hypostasis. And so the Christian doctrine of the Trinity was not hatched at the Council of Nicaea. It's not owing to Constantine, the emperor of the Roman Empire.
It is what the Bible teaches us. It is what the gifts given to the Church have recognized the Bible teaches us and have formulated in the ancient creeds and confessions of the Church. Again, I'll turn us to our confession when it describes the persons of the Trinity. In this divine and infinite being, the oneness of God, there are three subsistences, or persons, the Father, the Word, or Son, and the Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided, distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations.
The Bible does that. Again, it wasn't Constantine, it wasn't the creed at Chalcedon, it wasn't Nicaea that established this. Those men recognized this. Those men discussed this.
Those men battled for this. Those men articulated it in the creeds and confessions, but not without biblical warrant. Baptized in the name singular of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And think about the claim that Jesus is making precisely here.
This Galilean preacher, this man that had been brutalized publicly, this man who had been crucified, this man who had been hung, not on a throne, but on a cross, now equates himself to Father and Spirit? It is an amazing claim on the part of one who is able to make the claim because he's the second person of the glorious Trinity who came down for us men and for our salvation, who assumed our humanity with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof and yet without sin. Christ can say this because He's the real deal. He's equating Himself with Father and with Spirit and saying that in terms of baptism, persons that are saved by grace identify with the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Not three gods, not part of God. not 33% God, Father, Son, Spirit, but one glorious God existing eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now incidentally, this isn't the only place in the Bible that teaches this. The Old Testament teaches it. The Bible, in the Old Testament, highlights the three persons of the triune God.
It may not be as clear as it is in the New Covenant, but it's certainly there. The psalmist, reflecting upon the creation account, gives us a Trinitarian reference in Psalm 33.6 as he muses on Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. How does he do that?
By His Word, Christ is the Word, the Son of God. And the Spirit is brooding over the waters at that time of creation. So the Trinity is present in the book of Genesis. The Trinity is present throughout the Old Testament.
The Trinity comes to full light in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Not that they weren't present, but they come in blazing glory in this new covenant setting to show us who our God is. And Jesus tells us that baptism is to be done in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 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. Christ would never have us be baptized in the name of a creature. We're baptized in the name of the living and true God, whose Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So when we baptize, brethren, that is a confession of our faith in our triune God.
We're not modalists. Those who teach that God was the Father, became the Son, and now is the Spirit. That is connected with a heretic by the name of Sibelius, and it's wrong. It is outside the confines of Christian orthodoxy.
We're not tritheists. It's not the case that there's three gods. Remember, one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As well, there's no subordination within the persons of the Godhead.
It's not that the Father is the big G God and Jesus is the little G God. No, there's no gradation among the persons of the Trinity. They're all God. They have that common undivided essence.
And so this passage is a blessed statement concerning what Christians have confessed from the very beginning, that our God is but one only, the true and living God. And then we ask, how many persons are there in the Godhead? There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
It's a blessed, blessed thing when we consider who our God is.
Teaching All Christ Commanded
And then the fourth aspect, with reference to the focus of the commission, is that the disciples must teach them to observe all things that Jesus had commanded. Notice, we have the statement, go therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptize the disciples that were made from the nations in the name of the triune God, Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Now notice the emphasis in verse 20, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. We're sort of back to that whole aspect of disciple making.
So in the first place, we preach the gospel for justification by faith alone. Tell needy, desperate, degenerate sinners that there's hope in the Lord Christ, that all those who look to Christ in faith will have everlasting life. When a sinner believes the gospel of Jesus Christ, that sinner amazingly is forgiven of his sin and receives the righteousness of Christ that he will be able to stand before God with. It's a beautiful thing.
But then once that person is justified, what should they do? Go back and lay on their couch and just wait till Jesus returns? Eat Cheetos and, you know, wipe your hands on your shirt? No!
They should be in churches like this so that they can engage discipleship in the sense of sanctification, growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, learning, understanding, receiving truth, being conformed more and more unto His image. Brethren, this is a very high church emphasis in this particular passage. Jesus is not envisioning that mavericks, these men, will just go out and do their own thing and be sectarians. No, this is corporate exercise of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 3 identifies the church as the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
And it is the church which engages in this particular activity, such that when disciples are made, those disciples enter into the life of the church, so that those disciples can learn more about their Savior. They can learn more about the Redeemer.
Justification and Sanctification in Matthew 11
In fact, turn to Matthew 11, where you see both these aspects in sharp display. Matthew chapter 11, one of those passages in the gospel narrative. that hopefully warms our hearts every time we read it. Matthew 11 at 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. I want to make sure that we're all singing off the same page here.
I think at times we dealt with this a bit on Wednesday night in our Bible studies in Exodus, because you find these statements along the way in God's dealings with Pharaoh, where God hardens Pharaoh's heart. And some modern readers and probably ancient readers didn't like that. They didn't like the thought that God would harden Pharaoh's heart. That seems contradictory to his purposes relative to Pharaoh.
Well, we need to remind ourselves that Pharaoh was a sinner. Pharaoh was a wretch. Pharaoh was benefiting from the slave labor of the Jews. Pharaoh was a totally depraved man who already had a bad heart.
For God to harden his heart is an act of justice and righteousness and judgment on the part of our God. The same is true here. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent. Perhaps it will arise in the soul of men to say, well, that doesn't seem fair.
You would think that he wants to show it to every man everywhere. It's judgment, it's righteousness, it's justice. The Lord Christ in doing this is not not being merciful, rather He is being just. But it's not the case that these things, gospel truths, are just hidden from the wise and prudent, but they are revealed to babes.
That's the beautiful thing. Why do we never celebrate that part? We whine and grumble about the justice of God and then in the same sentence there is a great display of the mercy of God that goes unnoticed for the most part. He does reveal these things.
He is in the business of saving sinners. He is about redemption through the blood of Jesus. So then notice in verse 26, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. In other words, it's God's sovereignty that is primary in the salvation of sinners.
That's a humbling truth that the creature needs to get his mind wrapped around, but that's the way it is. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight, or thus it was well-pleasing in your sight. 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 notice, verse 28, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
I've heard a presentation of this text recently and the person that presented the text makes it sound like this labor and this heavy ladenness are the anxieties of the world that we live in. They're the pressures, they're the struggles, which we all have, right? If you haven't recognized the world's kind of a mess right now, I don't know if you need me to sort of remind you of that, but this person takes this text and preaches it that way. That, you know, if you've got anxiety, if you've got restlessness, if you're confused about the days in which you live, then this text is for you.
I'm not suggesting that peace with God doesn't produce or bring cessation of anxiety. Not completely. cessation of some degree of depression. I mean, we still got our issues. We still got our challenges.
But the gospel of Jesus Christ brings that kind of peace to the conscience of people who've been conquered by it. But that's not Jesus' point here. The weariness and the heavy ladenness is because of sin. It's because of rebellion against the living God.
It's akin to David in Psalm 130. Out of the depths, I have cried to thee, O Lord. That's what Jesus is addressing here. The reality that there is a thrice holy God and that we have offended him at every step of the way.
That's the burden, that's the heavy ladenness that Jesus bids us come. Come to me, he says, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He does that when we believe the gospel. He does that when we look to him, we live.
But then notice he doesn't stop there. He continues in this same sort of two-fold emphasis. It's not just justification, but it's also sanctification or growth in grace. He says, 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. It's not the case that we just come to Jesus, get our forgiveness, get our righteousness, and go back to living the way that we always had. No, when he changes our hearts, when he gives us that view of Christ, he gives us a new disposition, new desires. 2 Corinthians 5.17 is a reality.
All things are new to that new creature in him. Again, not perfectly. not sinlessly, not spotlessly, there is still remaining corruption, but there is the reality that there's a new disposition, a new wherewithal, a new desire for those things that at one time we despised and disdained. So back to our text, the emphasis is not only on get them saved, but get them taught, get them grounded. get them stabilized, get them secure, get them mature, get them to that place where they're able to deal with the various onslaughts against their faith that comes from the devil, that comes from the world, that comes from their own remaining corruption. And notice that Jesus wants comprehensiveness.
Not just teach them the things that they like, not just teach them the things that you have a brain to teach them about, but teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you. The Bible's a big book. 31,000 verses, I think. We ought to be about teaching those things to the disciples of Jesus Christ so that we all find ourselves engaged with 2 Peter 3.18 where he says, So the commission is about disciple making. The commission is as well about disciple grounding and building and maturation and growth such that churches will be places where God is glorified, where God and Christ are exalted, and where the people of God are what they ought to be.
This is what we ought to look for in terms of church life with reference to the mission of the church.
Assurance for the Commission
So that's the focus. Let's look quickly at the assurance provided for the commission. Notice what Jesus says at the end of verse 20, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. What a beautiful thing.
So when we engage in this, we're not alone. When we engage in this, we're not just individuals, but rather Christ enthroned at the right hand of the Father, where He is ruler over the kings of the earth, is head over all things for the church, according to Paul. in Ephesians 1, 20 to 23. So when we go about this task, we're not in our own strength. There's a Holy Spirit that Jesus sends to aid, to assist, and to bring success.
Not success the way we think of success, but success the way God defines it, that His Word is preached, the means are employed, such that sinners are saved, and such that saints are made more holy and grow. Again, John Gill says, and that he would be with them in a spiritual sense, to assist them in their work, to comfort them under all discouragement, to supply them with his grace, and to protect them from all enemies and preserve from all evils, which is a great encouragement both to administer the word and ordinances and attend on them. And I think this summarizes, well, kind of an emphasis in Matthew's gospel. It's a lot of emphases, or a lot of themes, or a lot of subjects that Matthew covers in the space of 28 chapters.
But chapter 28 ends where chapter 1 begins. Remember, concerning the birth narrative of our Lord, what was the name to be given to him? Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. But in accordance with the prophet Isaiah, you'll call him Emmanuel.
What does Immanuel mean? It's translated for us by Matthew. God with us. In Matthew chapter 18, when Jesus teaches the church concerning the necessity and the importance of church discipline, he talks about where two or three are gathered together.
There am I in the midst of them. Now, I think we take that verse into our living room and say, oh, our brothers are here, so Christ is with us. I think that's true, but not from that text. I think that text indicates that when the church is obeying her head, carrying out church discipline, Christ's in it.
It's not a group of, you know, salty elders trying to force people out of the church. No, Christ is about the purity of his church. So at the beginning of Matthew's gospel, we have Emmanuel. In the middle of Matthew's gospel, we have Christ with us in the church when we engage in discipline.
And at the end of Matthew's gospel, what do we have? Christ with us when we're undergoing the commission, the going therefore, the making disciples, the baptizing those disciples that are made, and the teaching of those disciples. We have the assurance that our Lord Jesus is present with us. And in this brief context, notice at least two perfections of our blessed Lord Jesus.
We have his omnipotence in verse 18. He has all authority. And we have his omnipresence in verse 20. He is ever with his bride while they are undergoing the task that he has called them unto.
Conclusion: Four Alls
Well, in conclusion, just a few thoughts, and that really is the case in conclusion. You've heard about the man and his son that were at the service, and the preacher said, finally, and the boy leans over to his dad and says, what's finally mean? And the dad says, nothing. It's just preacher talk, doesn't mean anything.
But I really am coming to a head, coming to a close. This really is a conclusion. First of all, we ought to appreciate the four alls of the Great Commission. The word all comes out four times in the span of these few verses.
Four alls. In the first place, the commission is grounded in the all-authority of Jesus Christ. Secondly, the commission is directed to all the nations of the earth. In accordance with the Psalter, Psalm 2.8, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.
It's no accident that Christ as Messiah, Christ as mediator, tells His disciples to go to all the nations. Because according to Psalm 2.8, the Father has given Him all nations. Thirdly, the commission is tasked with teaching all the things that Jesus commanded. And fourthly, the commission is conducted by the church who has the presence of Christ with her for all the days.
So it's a comprehensive emphasis by our Savior on the mission of the church. Secondly, we ought to appreciate in this brief text the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity must be known and believed because that is who God is. Sometimes you meet people that will say, oh, you know, that's so confusing.
That's so hard. I just can't get my mind wrapped around it. Well, you need to try harder. It's an amazing thing to me how lazy we become when it comes to God's Word, when it comes to Christian doctrine.
The psalmist says, great are the works of the Lord, they are studied by all who delight in them. You see that in the world sometimes. You see bird watchers. That's not my thing, but hey, hats off to you.
They're appreciating God's creation. You've got people that like to look at the stars. You've got people that enjoy botany. You've got people that enjoy a whole host of things.
Great are the works of the Lord. They're studied by all who delight in them. We see that. It's pretty commonplace, except for in the church with blood-bought children of God that don't study the bestest of all works, which is the redemption of their hell-deserving souls.
Certainly that demands our careful attention, and who our God is is most excellent for our instruction. Listen to the Athanasian Creed, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. Calvin says, thus we perceive that God cannot be truly known unless our faith distinctly conceive of the three persons in one essence. And then a successor to Calvin by the name of 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 as to the persons as he presents himself to be known by us in his word.
He goes on to say, hence, whosoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father. That's 1 John 2.23. And he that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. John 5.23.
Now listen to Turretin's application. Therefore, God has revealed himself as one in essence, three in persons, vis identification, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then he says this, 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. Brethren, this is important.
This isn't sort of a corollary that someday we might get to. How does Jesus define, describe, or indicate the essence of eternal life in John 17, 3? And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. If the very essence itself of eternal life is that knowledge of God intimately, experientially, then what want we to be about on this side of heaven?
Studying God, learning who He is, understanding the doctrine of the Trinity, blessing Father, Son, and Spirit for the salvation of our guilty souls. I love that our confession, after highlighting the doctrine of the Trinity, gives this practical statement. It says, the doctrine of the Trinity must be known and believed. That doesn't say that.
But then it says, because, quote, it is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him. That's how we relate to Him, Father, Son, and Spirit. We come to the Father through the mediation of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit, such that God is all in all. It's most glorious and most excellent and not obscure the way that some persons would have you to believe.
The Bible is Trinitarian to the core, and that is our God, and He is to be believed, trusted, and worshipped accordingly. And then with reference to baptism, I don't want to forget our dear sister. Baptism is important. It is a commanded activity.
If you're kind of, I don't know about baptism. If you're a believer in Jesus, you need to be baptized. That's what the New Testament pattern is. They believed and were baptized.
They believed and were baptized. Our brother is going to laugh if I say it's a conspicuous pattern. But it's a conspicuous pattern. All throughout the book of Acts, they preach the gospel, sinners believe the gospel, and those believers of the gospel are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
And then four, Wilma, I want to exhort you the way that our confession does. This is going to be a sign of your fellowship with Christ, a most glorious testimony and external confession. It is a sign of being in union with him. He is yours and you are his.
It is a sign of remission of sins, which I think we all agree who have been forgiven of our sins. That is one of the chief boons of the gospel of free grace. As well, it is a sign of your giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. That's what the tank preaches.
That's what the act preaches. And that, I hope, is a great encouragement to our sister. It will be a great encouragement to all of us and a great provocation for those who are still in their sins to look unto the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe on Him and to be saved. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for the clarity of the Great Commission, and we pray, God, that the church would be about this task, preaching the gospel for the making of disciples, the planting of other churches, and the teaching of people to observe all that Christ has commanded. And we thank you for this sure promise that Christ is with us even to the end of the days. God, I pray that as the word goes forth throughout the earth today, it would run swiftly and be glorified. and that you would be magnified in the salvation of sinners and in the strengthening of your people. And we ask this through Christ our Lord.