2. New Year's Eve Conference | The Mission of the Church

Good evening. It is my pleasure to be with you. Brother, thank you for the invite.

It's a pleasure just to be here with lot -minded brothers and sisters in Christ.

Amen. And I appreciate that message, brother. I won't jab you too hard in my message being a presbyterian.

Go for it. So it is my custom to ask you to stand for the reading of God's Word.

So we are going to be in Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 28. Matthew 28, and we will be starting in verse 16.

And I have been assigned, my subtopic is the mission of the church.

The mission of the church. And so I like how you ordered the speakers, brother.

It's good. Do what I can do. Yeah, there you go. In Matthew chapter 28, starting in verse 16, the inspired

Word of God says the following. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which

Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you once again this evening and we are just humbled to be able to hear from your

Word. Each opportunity that we get is a blessing, and we take that for granted too many times.

And so Father, help us to see your truth that you have given us here in your

Word. May your Spirit continue to direct us, may it continue to lead us into all truth as you have promised.

And oh God, may you save sinners. May you use us as mouthpieces to preach and proclaim your beautiful Gospel to all the nations, all the world, that you may gather your elect in the invisible church that we just discussed.

And oh God, may you bless me in the few minutes ahead. Oh God, give me the words and may your

Spirit use those words as he sees fit. But Father, most of all, may you edify this church and may you be glorified in all things.

We say this in Christ's name. Amen. You can be seated. So after hearing the great message that we just heard about what the church is, the next question in our mind should be, what are we to do?

It's good to know who we are and that we have been purchased by the

Lamb. And I appreciate your emotion, brother. I definitely see that and agree.

But what are we to do? From the very beginning, the church has been a group of doers, not just hearers only.

We love to hear the Word, but we want to act it out. We want to go into the highways and to proclaim this eternal

Gospel to a lost and a dying world. Any genuine believer wants to serve the

Master that has bought them, that has purchased them by his own blood. The Master who has opened their eyes to the truth whenever they were blinded before and they could not see.

He has opened our eyes, brethren, to see this great truth. How can we not go and be doers of the

Word? You know, in committing themselves to Christ's work, talking about the church, no one will be able to accuse them of being a forgetful hearer.

As Charles Spurgeon said, no man can be said to be a forgetful hearer who is a doer of the work that he has been to perform.

As we can see, desire and resolve are absolutely vital for the church.

But without it, we become the frozen chosen, as people often paint us as.

We hear that caricature too many times. And sometimes it's warranted, because we don't go out enough.

We're not doing enough. We're not preaching enough. We're not going and trying to reach the lost enough.

And so, without faithfulness to God's marching orders, we will become a pragmatic emotional group that gives in to every new method of how the church is to go out and evangelize.

I see this too much out in the world. Our churches, they're too committed to, well, what does the outsiders think of this method?

What's going to work best for this group of people? Instead of what does the Bible say about how we should evangelize?

That should be the standard that we always go by. Amen? Not the ever -changing whims of the culture.

And so, brothers and sisters, we must be biblically balanced and follow the clear, simple, yet amazing instruction that we have here in the text before us.

And so, the first thing that I would like to address tonight is the necessity for divine empowerment.

The necessity for divine empowerment. Would you agree that without the empowerment of the

Holy Spirit, you and I cannot do anything? Christ himself says, without me, you are nothing to his disciples.

And the same thing applies to us. You and I, we cannot even lift a finger without his sovereign power working in our lives.

So, throughout the ministry of Jesus, we see 12 lowly, common men who are basically a band of misfits, who were disobedient at times and lacked faith whenever it was needed.

They needed to be reminded often that Jesus was going to be handed over, crucified, and would rise from the dead.

One good example of this is found in Mark chapter 8, 31 -33. And he began to teach them that the

Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

And he said this plainly. I mean, think about that for a second. He wasn't trying to deceive these people.

He was speaking clear words. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Could you imagine doing that? But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me,

Satan. I would hate for Jesus to say that to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

I think too much today we see people setting their minds on the things of man and not of God, when that is our duty.

That is what you and I as a church, we've been called to do, is to always conform our minds to God, not man.

Because whenever we conform to man, what happens? We get caught up in our culture to where we cannot be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ.

But see, even after all those things took place for the disciples, they still lacked faith.

Luke, in his gospel, tells us that Jesus had to open their minds to understand the scriptures.

Here in Matthew's account, we see that the 11 disciples were obedient to the command to Jesus to go to Galilee before him and that he would meet them there.

And the text says that they even worshiped him there. They knew the truth and they got to see the risen

Lord in his resurrected body. However, as verse 17 says, but some doubted.

Even after seeing him, after him doing that, appearing to them and doing that work in them, they still doubted the

Lord. It's astounding to me that people want to put the apostles up on some pedestal.

They were men just like you and I. They were depraved sinners just like you and I.

And apart from his supernatural work that he does in our hearts, they were just first century

Jewish men who would have remained in their sin just like the rest of them. But he showed them grace.

He chose them out of all the others and he did not have to. But he did it because he loved them just like he loves you and I here tonight.

So as we know, it would soon come this empowerment that they truly needed. It would come whenever they were gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost.

It was there that they received the power they needed from on high to accomplish the work of turning the world upside down.

You know that text where it talks about that in the book of Acts. I mean, you often ask the question, how did they turn the world upside down?

Well, it's not by how many churches do it today. You and I, the only way that we're going to turn the world upside down is if we do what the apostles did.

They did not care about their life. They follow their master's example. I mean, listen, who cares if we go out and we're mocked and we're ridiculed and we're persecuted?

We have a great purpose that we're carrying out for our Lord. We want people to know about the

Savior that we know about. May we have that boldness as these apostles did, which most of them were martyred.

This leads me to the second thing that we're going to talk about tonight, the King's instruction. So we talked about the need for divine empowerment.

Let's talk about the Lord's instruction. When you see a person who is doubting, what should you normally do in that scenario?

You say something that's going to boost their faith. You encourage them in the Lord. You make them confident.

Did you notice right after the text where it says that some doubted, Jesus tells them this, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Powerful statement. This was the perfect way to start what we call the Great Commission. The disciples, they needed to hear this more than anything.

They needed to know that the one they follow is the sovereign one. He's not any

King. He is the King. Amen. Who is in control of every single thing.

I love the quote by R .C. I can't think of the full quote, but right.

There's not a single molecule in the whole entire universe that escapes his notice, that escapes his sovereign hand.

That's, that's the God that we serve. That's the Christ that we follow. And they needed to hear this.

And you and I need to hear this tonight. He is the one, as Revelation says, has the keys of death and Hades.

He went there and I don't, you know, we all differ on our view of what happened after his death and the time period between that and the resurrection.

But we all agree to this, that he went and he had, he got the keys of death and Hades, and he had, he still has them today.

Amen. That's the leader that they could follow to the end because he has been invested with universal sovereignty.

We see that in the book of Daniel. This, uh, the promise will stand true that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church.

Never not one bit. And we can go back in church history. I love the church history, brother. We can go back and see after age, after age, after age, there's not been a single time, even when it seemed like the church was going to go down, go under, the

Lord was right there to direct, to direct his church exactly to where it needed to be. Amen. He will not let his church go under.

And with this reality in mind then, notice what the Lord says in the first part of verse 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations without a proper understanding of who

Jesus is and what he has accomplished. The mission is futile. How could 11 at that time, 11 men go out and turn the world upside down without Christ working in them, without his sovereign hand leading, without him converting sinners because only he can do it.

Amen. They did not rely upon their own skill, especially the apostle Paul. He even said that he was, uh, what, um, poor speech or something along those lines.

I mean, he was a man that if you looked at him, you say, well, there's no way that he could convert anybody.

It's because he can't. And you and I can't either. Only Christ can. And so we trust in our

Lord to do so. But our Lord, he gives the command to make all the, make disciples of all nations because he will have a group from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.

Every nation under heaven will be represented at the end. There will not be one left out.

Amen. The very statement itself is confirmation that the evangelizing of the nations will be successful.

And I'm not post -millennial. I believe the gospel will reach all the nations.

I am optimistic about that. Christ will be exalted.

He will receive his reward, that's you and I, for accomplishing the father's will.

This should then cause us to examine how we are doing evangelism. If you, if you look at a lot of churches today, you will see a very man -centered approach.

They will use carnal means to bring people in and then once they do, they will sneak the gospel in the back door.

So, okay, I got you in now. Here's the truth. When it should be, um, totally different.

It should be, here's the truth from the very beginning. We're not trying to hide anything here.

This is the gospel. It's the only, it's the power, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Why would we use anything else to save sinners?

It's foolishness. Paul Washer once said, what you win them with is what you win them to.

We have the precious gospel of Jesus Christ. It's futile to use any other message because that message will never save anybody.

That message will never change a sinner's heart. Only this message that we see in God's Word will change a sinner's heart.

It changed my heart and it can change your heart. Amen? And so, brothers, we can't for one second be ashamed of the gospel.

If we get that wrong, we get everything else wrong. If we are not willing to go out and make disciples, then who cares how theologically sound we are?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not against being bad in theology. In fact,

I would say if you're not going out and making disciples, you're not doing theology right. Amen?

Because our evangelism is a form of theology. So, after the command to go and make disciples,

Jesus tells us that we are to do, that what we are to do is to go to those individuals and call them to further discipleship.

So, we are told to baptize and to teach everything that He has commanded. Let's firstly address the ordinance of baptism.

And so, I want to say this, brother, this sermon, this message is to not exhaustively address the topic of baptism.

We can do that some other time, but we would be here all week if we were going to talk about that.

Next conference. There you go. But there are two things that I want us to notice about this text and what it addresses.

Number one, the recipient of baptism. And secondly, by what name they are baptized.

So, Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant tells us that part of discipling someone is to baptize them.

But this baptism is not the first thing we do in discipleship. I mean, it's clear from the text.

A person must initially become a disciple before they can be discipled.

That just logically makes sense. And so, how does this happen? Well, it is solely by trusting in Christ by faith alone.

It's by resting in His promises. That's how you become a disciple. Whenever we go out and we preach the gospel, that's what we preach.

Trust in Jesus. Turn from your sin. Abandon yourself. Take up your cross and follow Him. That's how we become a disciple of Jesus Christ.

This is clearly what the entire New Testament teaches about becoming a true disciple.

Therefore, it should be said, I think with confidence, that Jesus here is warranting believers' baptism.

There we go. The second thing that I wanted you to notice though in this text was the name in which these disciples are baptized.

This is a Trinitarian baptism. That's important. It's a

Trinitarian baptism. Each member of the Trinity is mentioned. And so, we have to ask the question, why is that?

Well, it for sure would have stood out to a Jewish audience, right? To put the

Son and the Spirit on the same level with the Father is to ascribe deity to the other persons, is it not?

But also, this stresses that salvation is a Trinitarian work. I mean, how else can we view this?

Each member of the Trinity has been at work in your salvation from the very beginning to the very end.

The Father chose you. The Son died for you. He purchased you. And the Spirit applied that finished work to you.

Baptism may not be essential for salvation like some say, but it is a means of grace that God uses to bless

His people. And I think as Baptists sometimes we can have a wrong view of baptism.

But hopefully as Reformed Baptists we don't. It is a means of grace.

Amen? And so, a lot of people view this as simply the last step in the

Great Commission, but this is simply not true in regard to teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

It is much more than just a step in the process. It is continually investing into the life of every single member of our local body, our local church.

Investing into them. It's a lifelong journey. It doesn't stop once we get them saved and get them in the church and that's it.

No, we continue to disciple them. We invest in their life to the glory of God. Amen? And so, hear this long quote from J .C.

Rolfe, it shows that they are, quote, it shows that they are only to be counted true

Christians who live in a practical obedience to His Word and strive to do the things that He has commanded.

The water of baptism and the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper alone will save no man's soul.

It profits nothing that we go to a place of worship and hear Christ's ministers and approve of the Gospel if our religion goes no further than this.

What are our lives? What is our daily conduct at home and abroad? Is the

Sermon on the Mount our rule and standard? Do we strive to copy Christ's example? Do we seek to do the things that He commanded?

These are questions that must be answered in the affirmative. If we would prove ourselves born again and children of God, obedience is the only proof of reality.

Faith without works is dead. Being alone, ye are my friends, says Jesus, if you do whatsoever

I command you. And so if we neglect faithful exposition and application of God's Word, we will have people in our churches who have mile -wide theology, but only inch -deep theology.

And that's not what we want, is it? We want our people to know the

Word of God so we don't hide it. We don't skip over parts. We go through it in an expositional format, in an expositional way.

We explain the text and we apply the text so the people can know how to live it out in their lives.

We will have people who would rather have their ears tickled and told how to have a better life now if we neglect this.

And we don't want those people in our churches. So let me say this, and I'll try to wrap this up here.

Pastors, be faithful shepherds. If you're a pastor here, feed your flock.

Teach and preach the Word of God to your people. Men, lead your families and teach them the precious truths found in the

Word of God. Women, invest into your children and other women. Show them how to be faithful to Christ and what

He has commanded in His Word. But lastly, we see these words from the

Lord Jesus, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

I love how Jesus ends this text. Amen? I need to hear this.

You need to hear this. We all need to hear this. The church needs to hear this. When the task seems too big, you need to understand that it is too big.

When those disciples were there and Jesus went up, He ascended back to heaven.

Do you think they were just perfect and they didn't have any doubts at all? They still had doubts.

They were like, what are we going to do? How are we going to fulfill this great commission? There's no way that we can do this.

And if we're being honest, they can't. They couldn't. And you can't either. We can't either, but it's not too big for Him.

Amen? It's not too big for Him. So, it's almost as if Jesus bookends

His commission with verses 18 and 20. If you recall, He told them at the very beginning that all authority was given to Him.

Now He tells them that I am with you always to the end of the age. He bookends it.

He wants to encourage them from the beginning and also to wrap it up at the end and say, I'm going to be with you every step of the way, no matter how hard it's going to be, no matter what you're going to go through, no matter what the people here tonight, no matter what you go through this next year,

He's going to be with you every step of the way. Amen? There will never be a point in the life of the church that her head will not be with her.

And no matter how you interpret the end of the age, we don't have time to talk about that tonight. There is one thing that we all can agree on.

No matter what end God has destined for us, He will never leave us nor forsake us.

And that's good to know. We will be, as Paul says, more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to You once again and we are grateful for this opportunity.

I thank You, Lord, for my brother, Jeff, here in this church here at Covenant.

Lord, I pray that You would bless him and bless them and their endeavors as they go to carry out the

Great Commission. And as we see, we talked about here tonight, the mission of the church, how important it really is and how we must give our full devotion, our full attention to the work that You have given us.

And Lord, may we not take the credit for ourselves, but may we fully rely upon You and give

You all the glory for all things. Lord Jesus, we love You. We say this in Christ's name. Amen.