Matthew 28: 9 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
A few years back “mission statements” were all the rage in
corporate America. It seemed that almost every business, school, or organization
formulated a mission statement and posted it on their wall. People were even encouraged to make personal
mission statements. And, like nearly
everything else from the world, this eventually trickled down into the
church. So, churches large and small
created mission statements.
The truth is that we do not need to create a man-made mission
statement to tell us what the church is to be about. We do not need to be creative or articulate. We have a mission statement that has been
given to the apostles by the risen Jesus himself and recorded in the final
verses of Matthew’s Gospel. We call this
passage the Great Commission.
One of the beautiful things about this mission statement is
that it is timeless. It works for the twenty-first
century church as well as it did for the first century church, and it will work
for the church in generations to come, should the Lord tarry. It works across cultures, for people of every
race, tribe, and tongue. In fact, it was
written down before the English language was ever even invented. It is written for the church in every
condition and circumstance, whether prosperous or in need, whether strong or
weak, whether at peace or persecuted. It
is written for the local church of whatever size, large or small.
You may know that grammatically speaking this commission has one
main verb: Teach (make disciples). And it is supplemented by three participial
phrases: go, baptizing, and teaching. Let us look at each of these four directives:
Go:
The Christian faith is a going faith.
It is a centrifugal faith. It is
an evangelizing faith. It is not an insular
faith. There is a place for family care,
for pastoral care for those who are already part of the family, but this faith
is always sending us out to a lost and dying world. Every time we gather on the Lord’s Day we gaze
in three directions: We are looking up
to God; we are looking around at each other; we are looking out at the world.
Teach (make disciples
of) all nations: The verb is matheteuo. In has in it the
noun mathetes, disciple. The verb means to make disciples, to make
students or scholars. We recruit those
who desire to enroll in the School of Jesus, who desire to learn from him, and to
take him as their Lord and Master.
Notice
the object of this command: all nations. Christianity is not limited to those of one
nation or of one ethnicity. Though
national and ethnic distinctions have not yet passed away as they one day will,
there are already no ethnic distinctions, spiritually speaking, in the Body of
Christ (Galatians 3:28). There is,
therefore, no room for exclusivity in this faith. The gospel is for all people.
Baptize: We are to baptize those new disciples. Few things bring more joy to us than to obey
this command. Baptism is the Biblically
mandated manner for men to make a serious and public profession of faith (see the
Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:35-38).
It
speaks to who is authorized to baptize: the
appointed officers of the church. It
speaks to the proper subject of baptism:
a believer or a disciple. It
speaks to the mode of baptism: by full
immersion (inherent in the verb baptizo). It speaks to the doctrinal integrity of
baptism: It is done in the name of the
triune God.
Teach Obedience: Disciples are expected to love God with their
minds. We want to learn more and more
about Jesus and his Word. Every true
church must be a teaching church. The
Bible as the whole counsel of God must be thoroughly taught and exposited. And the goal of that teaching is full
obedience to Christ.
So, we
have a mission statement. Let us strive
to live it out.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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