Theological term
Disciple-Making
3 sermons · All terms
The Great Commission
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) constitutes Christ's formal mandate to his church for this age: going, making disciples, baptizing believers, and teaching them to observe all that he commanded. The authority behind the commission is Christ's present, universal lordship — not a future investiture but a reigning reality — and the assurance sustaining it is his promised presence to the end of the age. Baptism is treated as believers' baptism by immersion, an initiatory ordinance that publicly identifies the disciple with the triune God and symbolises union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. The sermon calls the church to be comprehensively about this single focused mission — preaching the gospel for justification, then grounding the justified in sanctification through the teaching ministry of the local church.
The Great Commission, Part 5
Christ's closing promise in Matthew 28:20 — 'I am with you always, even to the end of the age' — is the assurance that undergirds the entire Great Commission. This concluding exposition of the gospel of Matthew draws out three summarizing observations: Christ's omnipresence sustains the church in her disciple-making mission, his active headship equips her for ongoing ministry through the gifts described in Ephesians 4, and the Commission's scope demands both a love for the visible church and a concern for her future across all nations. The sermon calls believers to prize the church as Christ's bride, to train and send men for gospel ministry, and to trust that Christ's promised presence is conditioned on obedience to the Commission itself.
The Great Commission, Part 2
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) commands the church to make disciples of all nations — a task grounded not in human ingenuity but in the absolute authority of the risen Christ. This sermon distinguishes the institutional church's primary calling (gospel proclamation, baptism, and teaching) from the broader activities of individual believers, arguing that the church compromises her distinctive mission when she substitutes social amelioration for disciple-making. The command to baptize is examined in its proper order: conversion through gospel preaching precedes baptism, which is itself a sign of union with Christ, remission of sins, and newness of life — not a means of conferring salvation. Drawing on the Abrahamic covenant, the Isaianic servant songs, and the Messianic Psalms, the sermon traces the 'all nations' scope of the commission as the fulfillment of promises running from Genesis 12 through to the risen Lord's own declaration.