Theological term
Great Commission
49 sermons · All terms
The Conversion of Lydia
Acts 16:6–15 presents the Macedonian call and the conversion of Lydia as twin demonstrations of divine sovereignty in the advance of the gospel. The Holy Spirit's redirection of Paul's itinerary, the night vision, and the sovereign opening of Lydia's heart at the Philippian riverside together show that gospel missions proceeds by God's appointment, not human initiative or chance. Lydia's conversion illustrates the full ordo of grace: effectual calling, forgiveness in Christ's blood, and the imputation of his righteousness received by faith alone — all confirmed outwardly in her immediate baptism and hospitality. The sermon presses the church to embrace both the means of gospel preaching and confidence in God's sovereign grace as the only ground of missionary hope.
Christ's Precious Gem Collection
What does it mean that believers are 'living stones' built into a spiritual house? This sermon traces a single biblical-theological theme from Genesis 2 to Revelation 21: God gathering his elect — his precious gems — out of the scattered nations to build a temple where he will dwell with his people forever. The identity of those gems (God's chosen people), their location (scattered among every nation under the dominion of spiritual darkness), and the means of their gathering (Christ's victory over the strong man, and the church's commission to carry the gospel-light into the darkness) are each examined in turn. The sermon presses its hearers toward a missional 'spiritual gold fever' — a willingness to spend and be spent in the divine treasure hunt Christ has commissioned.
The Third Appearance by Christ to the Disciples
John 21:1–14 operates on two levels simultaneously: the ordinary scene of a fishing trip and breakfast, and the symbolic portrait of the church's mission under the risen Christ. The passage is read as a paradigm for gospel ministry — the disciples' commitment, challenge, and conviction in fishing corresponds to the church's calling to preach the gospel to all nations, while Jesus directing the catch, preparing breakfast, and eating with His disciples illustrates His abiding authority and presence with His church. The sermon applies this to a recovery of ordinary, patient faithfulness in church life against the pressure of 'radical Christianity' performance culture, insisting that Christ is sovereign over the results of gospel proclamation and that the church's task is obedient casting of the net.
The Hope of the Nations
Psalm 67 is a missionary psalm in which the psalmist first petitions God on behalf of the church — for mercy, blessing, and the communion of God's presence — and then turns those blessings outward, praying that the nations would be saved, become worshipers of the true God, and come under His righteous rule. The Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6 stands behind verse 1, and the 'that' of verse 2 reveals the logic of all divine blessing: the church is enriched by God in order to become a conduit of His saving way to the ends of the earth. The sermon closes by calling the congregation to pray with the confident expectation of verses 6 and 7 — that God shall bless His people and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him — tying the psalm's vision directly to Christ's Great Commission.
Ask FGBC #37: Why join a church?
Church membership is not optional for the Christian: Scripture commands gathering together, pastoral ministry presupposes a definable flock, and the means of grace — preaching, baptism, the Lord's Supper, mutual accountability, and church discipline — are administered within the bounds of a local, covenanted congregation. The question of why one should formally join a church is answered first by the authority of God's command, and then by the necessarily local character of the duties owed between members and their pastors. Those who have been hurt by church abuse are exhorted not to abandon the institution but to find a congregation where they can commit themselves as members.
Ask FGBC #35: Believers Baptism Before Communion?
Should believers be baptized by immersion before taking the Lord's Supper? This Q&A exchange addresses the biblical order of the ordinances as established in the Great Commission and reinforced by Paul's teaching in Romans 6, arguing that baptism by immersion properly precedes participation in the Lord's Supper. The discussion also touches on how a local church exercises pastoral grace when visitors from paedobaptist backgrounds present themselves at the table, while maintaining that credobaptism by immersion is the biblical norm.
The Commission Given to Joshua
Joshua 1:1–9 records the divine commission given to Joshua upon the death of Moses — a commission built on four pillars: the reminder of God's covenant promise, the blessing of God's presence, the charge to courageous obedience, and the centrality of God's Word. God's appointment of Joshua as Moses' successor demonstrates that sovereign providence works through human instruments, yet is never bound to them; the faithfulness of God outlasts every leader. The sermon draws a direct line from the conquest commission to the Great Commission of Matthew 28, arguing that Christ's promised presence with His church is the only sufficient ground for courage and faithfulness in gospel ministry.
The Authority of the Church
Christ's promise in Matthew 16:19 to give 'the keys of the kingdom of heaven' to the church raises two perennial dangers: authoritarian abuse of ecclesiastical power and the outright abdication of it. This sermon expounds the identity of those entrusted with these keys (apostles, elders, and the gathered congregation together), the nature of the authority delegated (binding and loosing through preaching and discipline), and the proper ground of confidence when the church acts — not sacerdotal infallibility, but the assurance that heaven ratifies the church's faithful obedience to Scripture. The practical conclusion is that the keys are exercised through the proclamation of the Word, the admission and exclusion of members, and the administration of the sacraments — never through entertainment, self-help, or moral do-goodery.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The empty tomb of Matthew 28:1–10 is not a symbol or a felt experience but a historical event on which the entire Christian gospel stands or falls. Working through the arrival of the women, the descent of the angel, and the appearance of the risen Lord, this exposition shows that the resurrection was predicted by Christ, attested by angels, and confirmed by the physical presence of the one who holds his disciples as brethren even after their desertion. The sermon closes by grounding the believer's freedom from fear, confidence in advocacy, and obligation to proclamation in the fact that Jesus was raised for our justification.
The Great Commission
Matthew 28:11–20 presents two responses to the resurrection of Christ: the fraudulent suppression of the evidence by the chief priests and elders, and the Great Commission given by the risen Lord to his disciples. The passage exposes the lie concocted by the Sanhedrin as historically incoherent and theologically revealing — a judgment of God upon covenant-breaking Israel. The Great Commission is then unfolded through its four-fold use of 'all': Christ's absolute authority as mediator grounds the command to go, make disciples, baptize believers as new covenant members, and teach them to observe all that he has commanded.
A Harvest from an Unlikely Place
John 4:7–42 records Jesus crossing deep cultural, ethnic, and religious barriers to bring the gospel to a Samaritan woman and, through her testimony, to an entire village. The sermon works through three movements in the passage: Jesus sowing gospel seed by patiently steering the conversation from physical water to living water and then to his own messianic identity; Jesus reorienting his horizontally focused disciples to see the spiritual harvest already approaching; and Jesus and his disciples reaping that harvest among the despised Samaritans. The passage is applied as a missionary mandate — to cross ethnic and cultural boundaries, to address sin honestly, to keep Christ as the centre of every gospel presentation, and to lift our eyes to the 'Samaritans' in our own communities and the changing demographics of our cities.
The Righteous Reign of the Son of God
Psalm 2 presents the righteous reign of the Son of God against the backdrop of universal human rebellion. The nations rage, the kings conspire, and the political class unites in mutiny against Yahweh and His anointed — yet God laughs from the heavens, installs His Son on Zion, and promises Him the nations as His inheritance. The decree announced in verses 7–9 is rooted in the covenant of redemption: the Father gives a great multitude to the Son, who accomplishes their salvation through substitutionary obedience, death, and resurrection, and is then exalted to universal messianic kingship. The psalm closes with an evangelistic summons: be wise, serve the Lord with fear, and kiss the Son — for blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
The Need for Gospel Ministers
Matthew 9:35–38 presents Christ surveying the multitudes of Galilee and responding not primarily to their political oppression but to their spiritual destitution — harassed and scattered like sheep without a shepherd because Israel's religious leaders had failed and become predators of the very flock they were charged to keep. The sermon traces the shepherd-and-harvest imagery through Numbers 27, 1 Kings 22, Jeremiah 23, and Micah 5 to demonstrate that God's remedy for faithless shepherds has always been the raising up of faithful men under the Messiah's authority. Christ's compassion, exercised according to his human nature, issues not in mere sympathy but in effective action: commanding his disciples to pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers, then immediately appointing and commissioning the Twelve. The congregation is called to share Christ's own compassion for the spiritually destitute, to believe that the harvest is genuinely plentiful across every tribe and nation, and to pray, give, identify, train, and send qualified men into gospel ministry.
The Ministry of Paul in Corinth
What does faithful gospel ministry look like when met with sustained opposition, rejection, and fear? Expounding Acts 18:1–11 within Paul's second missionary journey, this sermon traces four movements: Paul's strategic arrival in Corinth, his testimony in the synagogue, the fierce Jewish opposition and his response, and the Lord's night vision that commands him to speak because God already has a people in the city. The sermon argues that sovereign election and human culpability stand together — the God who predestines the elect also holds every rejector accountable for his own blood. A closing application presses believers toward faithful gospel proclamation, the planting of churches, and the catechesis of covenant children as genuine instruments of the effectual call.
The Introduction to Ephesians
Ephesians 1:1–2 introduces one of the richest doctrinal letters in the New Testament canon, and this sermon surveys the authorship, historical context, and theological purpose of the epistle before examining Paul's greeting to the saints. The apostle's self-identification as one sent by Christ 'by the will of God' grounds his authority not in self-appointment but in sovereign divine commission, while his description of the recipients as 'saints' and 'faithful in Christ Jesus' defines sainthood in purely biblical terms — all who are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The sermon traces Paul's founding ministry in Ephesus through Acts 18–19, showing how the gospel's triumph over witchcraft, idolatry, and the cult of Diana provides the backdrop for the letter's emphasis on Christ's supremacy over all powers. The epistle is previewed as a two-part structure — doctrinal foundation (chapters 1–3) followed by practical application (chapters 4–6) — aimed at grounding believers in both the indicatives and imperatives of redemption.
The Denial of the Resurrection
Matthew 28:11–15 records the fabrication of the lie that Christ's disciples stole his body — the original counter-narrative to the resurrection. This sermon exposes the willful unbelief of the Jewish religious leaders, tracing their conspiracy as one episode in a sustained, devil-driven war against the truth of the gospel. The implausibility of the theft narrative is examined on apologetic grounds, and the sermon closes by contrasting the Counter Great Commission of bribe-funded deception with the Great Commission of Christ's abiding-presence-powered truth.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the crowning proof that the Father accepted the Son's atoning work as a full satisfaction for sin. Expounding Matthew 28:1–10, this sermon works through the discovery of the empty tomb — the arrival of the women, the descent of the angel, and the commission given to the first witnesses — and then the appearance of the risen Lord to those same women. The resurrection is not myth or fable but attested history, with details such as the folded burial cloth, the terrified guards, and the forthright identification of women as the primary witnesses all serving the integrity of the gospel record. The empty tomb grounds the Christian's confidence in the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ, and it calls every hearer to seek the risen Lord without fear.
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 Second Missionary Journey, Part 8
Acts 18:1–11 records Paul's arrival and eighteen-month ministry in Corinth, one of the most morally degenerate cities of the ancient world. The sermon traces Paul's gospel strategy — reasoning in the synagogue, enduring Jewish opposition, and turning to the Gentiles — before dwelling on Christ's night vision to Paul: 'Do not be afraid, for I have many people in this city.' The doctrine of election explains how Christ could speak with certainty of many yet-unconverted people awaiting the call; the gospel, not moral reform or civil intervention, is the sole instrument for transforming a corrupt culture. The sermon closes with a call to pray for and to be men who preach Christ and Him crucified, stand under opposition, persevere in weakness, and believe the promise that Christ is present with His church in the great commission.
The Church at Antioch
Acts 11:19–30 presents the founding and early life of the church at Antioch as a model for faithful ecclesiology. The sermon traces three features of that church's first days: the gospel preaching that gathered a diverse congregation, the apostolic oversight exercised through Barnabas, and the year-long teaching ministry of Barnabas and Saul that catechised those converts in Christian doctrine. The passage is read through the lens of divine sovereignty — it was the hand of Yahweh that produced the conversions, working through the ordinary means of preaching — and closes with an application of six characteristics that every church should emulate: evangelism, converted membership, doctrinal instruction, Christ-centredness, charity, and dependence on the grace of God alone.
The Ministry of Philip in Samaria
Acts 8:5–8 records Philip's preaching ministry in Samaria — a region despised by Israel as racially and religiously impure — and presents it as the deliberate fulfillment of Christ's commission in Acts 1:8 to carry the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. The sermon traces the historical background of Samaritan alienation from Israel, the fourfold summary of Philip's ministry (his preaching, the response of the crowds, the authenticating miracles, and the resulting joy), and the theological significance of the Spirit's confirmation through Peter and John. Against contemporary debates over racial justice, the sermon argues that the cross of Christ — preached faithfully in his offices as prophet, priest, and king — is the only power that reconciles divided peoples and extends the kingdom of God across ethnic boundaries.
The Extension of Christ's Kingdom
Christ's sovereignty over persecution is the controlling theme of Acts 8:1b–4, where the martyrdom of Stephen triggers a great dispersion that advances the very mission Christ commissioned in Acts 1:8. The sermon traces the programmatic geography of Acts — Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth — and shows that the scattering of the disciples, far from being a setback, was the means by which Christ extended his kingdom. Particular attention is given to Saul of Tarsus as the chief persecutor whose subsequent conversion illustrates that no human opposition can thwart the sovereign purposes of Christ. Hearers are called to pray earnestly for gospel preachers to be raised up, to commit to biblical churchmanship with perseverance, and to hold fast to the confidence that Christ must reign until all his enemies are made his footstool.
The Great Commission
Christ's Great Commission in Matthew 28:18–20 provides the church with her complete marching orders: go, make disciples, baptize those disciples, and teach them to observe all that Christ commanded. The authority behind the commission belongs to the risen and exalted Christ, who possesses all authority in heaven and earth; the assurance sustaining it is His promise of perpetual presence to the end of the age. The sermon treats the specific focus of the commission in sequence, defending believers' baptism by immersion as the pattern demanded by the text and the order it establishes — make disciples first, then baptize — against both baptismal regeneration and paedobaptism. The Trinitarian formula of baptism occasions an extended treatment of theology proper, including divine simplicity, impassibility, and the unity of essence in three persons, with warnings against tritheism, modalism, and subordinationism.
The Prologue and Commission
Acts 1:1–8 opens with a prologue establishing that the book of Acts is not merely the acts of the apostles but the continuing acts of the risen, enthroned Christ — carried out by the Spirit, through the Word, and by means of the apostles he himself commissioned. The sermon examines what Luke signals by the phrase 'Jesus began both to do and teach,' arguing that faithful Christianity holds doctrine and good works together as an inseparable knot, neither collapsing into social-gospel activism nor retreating into a purely intellectual faith. The apostolic commission is shown to be authoritative and externally given, grounding the church's mission in Christ's own mandate rather than human initiative.
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.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 18, 2018 AM
Matthew 28:18–20 closes Matthew's Gospel with the Great Commission, grounding the church's entire mission in the absolute authority and perpetual presence of Christ. The sermon draws out three implications from Christ's promise 'I am with you always': his presence should promote appreciation for the church past and present, concern for the church now and in the future, and confidence that Christ actively equips her through a trained gospel ministry. Ephesians 4 is opened at length to show that the gifts Christ gives his church are gifted men — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers — whose threefold purpose is to equip the saints, fulfil the work of ministry, and edify the body toward mature knowledge of the Son of God. The sermon closes with a call to unbelievers, directing them to Matthew 1:21, 20:28, and 11:28–30 as the purpose, means, and gracious offer of Christ's saving work.
The Great Commission, Part 4
Matthew 28:20 calls the church to a lifelong, comprehensive teaching ministry — the fourth imperative of the Great Commission. The sermon examines this teaching activity under four headings: its simplicity (Scripture alone, not opinion or entertainment), its scope (all Christ's commands, Old and New Testaments, issuing in obedience), its perpetuity (traceable from Acts through the pastoral epistles to the end of the age), and its comprehensiveness (the whole counsel of God applied to individuals, families, churches, and civil society). The closing appeal summons hearers to the cross — the ransom of Matthew 20:28 and the invitation of Matthew 11:28 — as the indispensable foundation for any biblical obedience.
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.
The Great Commission, Part 1
Matthew 28:16–18 presents the risen Christ meeting His eleven disciples on a Galilean mountain and declaring absolute, universal authority before issuing the Great Commission. This sermon examines both the meeting itself — including the disciples' worshipful yet hesitant response — and the nature of Christ's authority, tracing it through eight observations: its prior demonstrations in Matthew's Gospel, its Old Testament background in Yahweh's sovereign lordship over heaven and earth, its active rather than passive character, its expression of Christ's triumph over earthly and demonic enemies, its grounding in Christ's mediatorial office rather than His eternal divine nature, its fulfilment of Daniel 7:13–14, its place within Matthew's kingship-of-Christ theme, and its role as the necessary foundation for the church's disciple-making mission. The practical thrust is that Christ's all-encompassing authority demands total submission in every sphere of life, and that same authority is the sole ground for the viability and confidence of the Great Commission.
The Denial of the Resurrection
Matthew 28:11–15 records not only the resurrection of Christ but the immediate counter-offensive mounted by the chief priests and elders to suppress the fact of the empty tomb. Against the backdrop of the Great Commission in verses 16–20, these verses expose a counter-mission: a bribed, fabricated narrative designed to replace the truth of the resurrection with the stolen-body theory. The sermon examines the soldiers' report to the chief priests, the wickedness and implausibility of the lie they were paid to spread, and the theological reasons — including divine judicial hardening — that such a falsehood gained traction in first-century Judea. The application presses every believer to be armed to defend the resurrection and to rest the whole of their justification on faith in the risen Christ alone.