The Mission of the Church

Open up your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3.

Today we're going to get into the mission of the church. I'm very thankful to be here at Beulah Baptist Church, that we are on mission as the Bible claims for the mission of the church.

Before we talk about the mission of the church, I want to be able to get into the end state, kind of where we're going, where we're going individually, where we're going as a church, in order to understand the mission, in order to understand the now, to where we end up going. So read with me in Philippians chapter 3, first reading verse 14.

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Skip down to verse 20.

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has, even to subject all things to Himself."

Following a great prayer or great lesson, great time of personal Bible study, there happened to be a few times in my life where after I have a tremendous time of prayer, or a tremendous time of personal Bible study, or hearing a tremendous sermon, often preached here at the Beulah Baptist Church, that what is your response after that? Do you respond in a zombie-type way, where it's like, well, I'm just going to do whatever I want to do, or I don't really know what to do? And in that case, I had a great time, a great experience, but now what? What am I supposed to do with that? And there are so many "so thats" in the Bible, but we need to understand what is our response to the Lord's call.

If you're on mission, you'll respond in alignment to Christ. And if you're not on mission, you will not be in alignment with Christ. And so it leads us here into this first section here. Read with me as I read along in the blanks here.

The first part is what we've been going over with, with the definition of the church. The church is the great company of persons who Christ has saved, in whom He dwells, to whom and through whom He reveals God, and in whom He exercises spiritual dominion.

And then specific to this lesson, we continue here. United to Christ, the church is the temple of God's indwelling. That's in Ephesians 2, 21 and 22. The church's mission is to be sent. First blank, sent. The church's mission is to be sent into the world, to be witnesses of Christ, to make disciples of all men.

Now I say that real quick so we can get the blanks filled out to kind of dissect what these important phrases mean. The first blank being sent, and then the next one is witnesses, and then disciples.

Being sent into the world — another word for it would be commissioned. And to be commissioned is, in essence, to be on mission with the authority of the one who sent you.

In a way to best understand this, in personal experience, I've been in the military as a commissioned officer. I was sent on mission by the authority of the president of the United States. I was preparing for this and I kind of glanced over at my orders that I got from the president. And at the top it says the president of the United States, and it goes forward and says, commissions so and so — my name — as the second lieutenant of the United States of America. And so I was commissioned by that authority. In relationship to this, in the military you have non-commissioned officers who are not commissioned, but they still take the oath of enlistment to be in alignment with and according to the uniform code of military justice. And the NCO creed talks about the spirit of that. Really the difference between commissioned and non-commissioned is very important.

And here, the mission of the church — to be sent into the world — is to be commissioned by the authority of Christ. And so when we understand who we've been commissioned by, we can better understand the authority that we have when we are sent. And so the next phrase here is to be witnesses of Christ. Now that we are sent, what are we supposed to do? Well, we are to be witnesses of Christ. And the two things that we can do as witnesses — what are we witnesses of? We are witnesses who know the gospel and testify of His work in you. To know the gospel and to testify of His work in you.

So what do you say about your salvation? Those who are in the church, those who are believers, what do you say about your salvation? Do you say, because I did this or because I did that? Well, you're not witnesses of Christ, you're witnesses of yourself. And that's not what the church's mission is. That's not what you are on mission for if you're part of this church.

Are you responding biblically when you say "because He, because He" — this is a very reformed response. And I dare say this is a very Calvinistic response. When you say, "Because He, because He did the work in me, He redeemed me, He transformed me, oh, how He loved me before the foundation of the world, oh, how He makes me an heir of Christ."

This is going back to what we understand about who God is, about Him being in the, as the providence of God. And when we understand the providence of God, we understand Him when we read the verbs throughout the Bible about what God is doing, what God does, and He still does that today by the power of the third person of the Godhead, by the Holy Spirit. And so we are to be sent into the world. We are to be witnesses of Christ. And then the last phrase here, the third blank here is to make disciples of all men. This is a reference to reproduction, to be a father of the faith. And note here as we continue reading, the church is to preach the gracious good news of the crucified and risen Savior to all men in every nation. Nation is that fourth blank.

Every nation under the heavens. This gracious good news is not the default. This is not, as I was born, hey, this is a reminder that when you're born, you know and have the gospel. That is not the case. The gracious good news is given. It is given by God. And so that's why we must be on a mission here as believers, as the church. Those who are heirs for witness should be witnesses of Christ to be able to make disciples of all men. And we're gonna go through the how as we continue through this lesson. The spiritually dead do not know the gospel. The spiritually dead cannot testify what God has done in their life. They don't care. And they only follow their own desires. They are lost. And we must have a heart for them who don't know which way — right from their wrong, their left hand from their right hand — when it comes to spiritual matters, what comes to what really matters. They do not know where they are going. And how are they to govern their own families? How are they to govern their time in their jobs?

Hell will break loose when the lost are not reached. And so we must accomplish our mission and be on mission as we are sent into this world, be witnesses of Christ, and to make disciples of all men.

Then the next sentence here in section one is this: this mission was given by the Lord Himself who commanded His servants, who commanded His servants. And there's a couple of verses there to back that up on the Lord Himself and how He commanded in the gospel recording.

And so this leads us first to this application question: how does our church participate in the mission of Christ? The blank is participate.

Let me read for you our mission statement here at Beulah Baptist Church, and we will know how we participate in this mission.

The mission statement reads, "The goal of the church is to glorify God by bringing people to the knowledge of the saving grace of Christ through God-centered worship, biblical discipleship, loving fellowship, committed service, and bold evangelism."

So we here at Beulah Baptist Church, we train to send, we teach to send. We model worship here so that you will be able to do it in your own home and also to the outer regions from where you live.

This leads us now to section two. Read with me as I read along here. This is very important. I appreciate David putting this together. These are very important three points here. And so it's a little bit wordier than usual, but it is very necessary for us to be able to get these first few points. So read with me as I read aloud. "While the ministry of the church is broadly defined as its single-minded devotion to serving Christ that encompasses the whole life of the congregation as it participates in its union with Christ, the mission of the church is more specific. The mission of the church is part of its identity and function."

If you recall from lesson six, the first mark of a true church is the preaching and profession of the word of God. I would maybe underline that part there, talking about referring back to lesson six. The first mark of the true church is the preaching and profession of the word of God. I'll pause real quick and kind of emphasize the importance of the local church: if you think that you can stay at home and you can preach to honor Christ as is biblically required, I would highly warn and advise you not to do that, to not stay at home. You need to be under sound preaching from someone who has done the homework, who has done the studies, who has gone through many, many times and time and time again, filter after filter, to be able to present to you the word of God. This is absolutely critical and it is what the local church provides. Absolutely necessary. So I hope you're underlining that part. If you recall from lesson six, the preaching and profession of the word of God.

I'll keep reading here. Without the preaching of the word of God, the church could not exist. Get those two scripture references there. The church was quickened by the word of God and therefore breathes it out. Mission means sending. Sending is the blank.

An apostle was one that was sent to be a messenger or delegate for the master. The church is likewise commissioned — referring back to what we talked about earlier — the church is likewise commissioned by Christ to preach the gospel of Christ and to profess Him as Lord and Christ to all the nations. This sending out is intentional. Intentional is the blank. This sending out is an intentional outreach of the church, reflecting the Father sending the Son into the world to seek and to save it.

So I'll read off the blanks real quick: sending, messenger, preach, intentional, and save.

This is very much an ordinary way of carrying out the mission — the preaching and profession of the word of God. Very much an ordinary thing. One thing that R.C. Sproul has talked about when it comes to the bread and the wine, he has a quote which I think would still apply to an ordinary way of doing things, and that is that he has said, "What makes something go from common to sacred is the touch of God upon it. That one who is holy and different from the common touches that which is ordinary, it becomes extraordinary."

And so when you have just a common person, a common man, preaching the word of God, it's a very ordinary thing. There are words that are communicated and heard. It's a very ordinary type of process. But when it has the touch of God upon it, meaning it has the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a very sacred thing of grace happens during that process.

The preaching of the word is the sending part of the mission where there is truth that is being stated, and then there's the application of the "so that," and the responsibility is on your part. So that when you do hear the preaching of the word of God, you aren't just walking around like a zombie in your world, and it fizzles out. But by continually being under sound preaching and the professing of God's word, you are constantly on mission. And so we often have to be reminded of it. There are times where we miss church on a Sunday and we're not in here for preaching, and you do feel like you missed out on something. This is not being on mission. When you hear the commands of Christ, you have an action. You're gonna be able to do something. And so a very, very, very important part of carrying out this mission of the church is the preaching and the profession of the word of God.

And so when you do hear the preacher say, "Do this or do that," what is your response? Do you sit in your seat and think about yourself and say, "Oh, well, if that's convenient, you know, that may be for the guy over there, but not for me. He's not really talking to me, is he?"

You know, that's a convicting thing that we all need to hear, is that when you're under sound preaching from the word of God and you get an application of "do this," you need to do it, right?

If the preacher says, "Come forward," you come forward. You come forward fast. You come forward quick, okay?

I hope we understand that part. That is the gravity of God's word. When God says to do something, you do it, all right? And so when you think about that, that's at a very basic level, very, very, very basic level — how are you contributing to the mission of the church? How are you contributing to the mission of the church? In this particular way, are you responding to the preaching?

Or are you walking around like a zombie afterwards? Are you on mission and responding to the preaching? This leads us to the application: how can you seek and save the lost? The blank is you. How can you seek and save the lost?

We are the church. We are the believers in Christ. We are the hands and feet of Christ. We are the mouth of Christ. That's a weighty thing.

And when we carry this out, we will make disciples. We will be witnesses of Christ. And so most importantly, we proclaim the gospel. We don't just invite, we compel. We compel people to respond to the gospel. We say, this is the command, this is not an invitation. You must repent. This is not an invitation — if you like it, great; if you don't do it, it's okay. No, no, no, none of that. You relay the command. Okay, and so this is very important in how to answer this question: how can you seek and save the lost?

Section three here — first we'll break it up. And this is a big paragraph, but if you look into it, there are three main components, okay? I like to circle, when there's something like this, I like to circle the word first, and then circle the word second, and circle the word third here in section three. This will help break these down as we dig through them a little bit more. To be honest, each of these ten points are a sermon. We could go over this one week at a time, but we're gonna try to cover it here in an hour or less.

All right, the mission of the church has three main components. First, the church is to intentionally make disciples. Disciples is the blank. We've gone over this. Our focus must be missional, to make converts and faithfully disciple them. Making converts cannot — the blank is cannot — making converts cannot be separated from making disciples.

To focus on conversion while ignoring discipleship or vice versa is to fall short of the Lord's command. Discipleship will include establishing. Establishing is the third blank. Discipleship will include establishing new local churches around the world.

Wherever converts are made, there must be a local church to disciple them. Paul's ministry as an apostle, evangelist, and church planter models this.

Very important to elaborate on this relationship between conversion and discipleship. Okay, if you're taking notes, this first component can be summarized by those two words: conversion and discipleship. It is too common nowadays, and I think maybe y'all have seen this either on your social media or in hearing about some other churches, especially around colleges, where you'll hear someone get baptized — and we praise the Lord for that — but then we ask the question, what local church are they in? Who is discipling this soul? It's very, very important that this component of the mission of the church connects these two: conversion and discipleship. They go hand in hand.

It is sad to see when there are people who are compelled to be converted, but the sheep wanders and is not discipled. We need to have a heart for them as well.

The second component — if you go to that second phrase in the middle part of section three — it says, second, the church is to baptize new believers. The word is baptize, new believers. The church observes the ordinance of baptism to publicly proclaim the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and to celebrate the new believer's union with Him.

This is a component of the mission of the church. The second component is through baptism. The summarizing word is that word right there, baptism, where the church administers baptism correctly as it's biblically honoring to Christ.

When we talk about baptism, it is often paired or associated in the context of belief or receiving faith. And we see it time and time again — when we talk about baptism, it's in that conjunction. And so we must be able to, when we administer baptism as a church, teach it correctly as it's said in the Bible. And so just me summarizing this at a very high level, how important it is to be able to teach baptism correctly. And again, the importance of the local church. How many different interpretations of baptism would you get family by family, by family, by family, who are not in church? What kind of way would they interpret what baptism is, not to mention how many denominations interpret what baptism is? Then you look at all the different families who are not in church. How are they administering the ordinance of baptism? Well, this is for the mission of the local church: to be able to administer baptism correctly.

And then the third component here in the section, the church must continually teach. Teach is the blank, teach. Sorry if it's coming in a little fuzzy there — teach. It disciples all things that Christ has commanded. This is a lifelong commitment of every believer to be schooled in the ways of Christ by the church.

This word here is teach — to be able to be a component of, to be on mission with the local church. We are commanded to teach. And this isn't just for certain people. You can't just sit there and say, oh, I'm in a church that has teachers, so check. No, no, no, no. This is for every believer — to learn how to teach the gospel, to be able to articulate what the gospel is, to be able to be a witness, and then going out.

You are to be able to teach. And then when you're teaching, you are commanded to make students, to make disciples, to make learners. How so? Well, there are a variety of ways of teaching. There are a variety of ways to be able to teach. Again, this is a whole other at-least-half-an-hour topic to explain the art of teaching. You don't just stand in front of people and teach, right? There are different ways to teach: by showing an example, by putting your students into a particular experience for them to learn something as an outcome, whether it's a trial or whether it's an encouraging event, where you are guiding them along in these times — you are praying for them, you're discipling them, you are being with them and guiding them through these experiences.

If you don't take my word for it, you can imitate the elders in this church. You can imitate the apostles in scripture, but ultimately when it comes to the art of teaching, study Jesus Himself. When you look at His teaching, He went through all these experiences with His disciples. He did it over meals. He did it in crowds. He did it while He was on the cross. I mean, He's just constantly teaching. And there are many different ways to be able to teach, but it doesn't take away that the command is to teach, okay? So I hope you don't think of yourself as being in the midst of teachers, and therefore you've checked the block on that. No, the command is for you and I all to be able to teach and to make disciples, make students, make learners. And so the application for this is, what happens when a church stops making disciples?

The word stops — that kind of says it, right? When you stop making disciples, the mission stops. You're not on mission. You're not in alignment with Christ. And so are you really even a church if you stop making disciples? Are you still pointing others to Christ? Are you still seeing conversion and discipleship happen? Are you still seeing accurate, biblically accurate baptism take place? Are you seeing people learning how to teach and to be able to do it themselves in their homes and developing their personal Bible study? Are you seeing that? We are seeing that here in this church. We are seeing that being developed in Bible study classes throughout here. We hear testimonies of people at home. Very, very important to be able to stay on mission and always keep making disciples. We're never done until that Philippians 3 passage takes place, right? Until we are physically in the new body made glorious in the midst of our God.

Well, section four — read with me as I read aloud. The mission of the church is sometimes called the Great Commission. Now here's where we go. Here's where everything's kind of alluding to: the Great Commission. The second half of this handout, as we go through, we are going to break it down.

We're gonna start in Matthew and we're gonna work it down. You can see the other sections. We're gonna get into Mark, Luke, John, and also in Acts. And that's the remainder of this lesson, which is a tremendous outline. I hope you keep this. But let's get through these blanks in section four, and then we'll start digging here. The mission of the church is sometimes called the Great Commission. It is called the Great Commission because it is an urgent command — an urgent command. Command is the blank. It is an urgent command given by the risen Lord Jesus Christ to all His disciples, before His ascension to the Father's throne.

The Great Commission provides marching orders. Marching is the blank. The Great Commission provides marching orders for the church. It is so important that it is repeated five times in the Bible. And we have the list of scriptures that we're gonna go through for each of these sections here, and we will get through them as they're listed here.

But the Bible doesn't call the Great Commission great, but we understand it as great because we understand that Christ is great. The title of Christ, the title of the Messiah, what He told us to be able to do — because of who He is, this is a great commission. And the greatness of this commission is carried out in ordinary ways. And one of the ways that we talked about was just through the preaching, through the preaching of His word.

One example to be able to understand this greatness is also a veteran example, is that I honor my fellow veterans who raised their right hand and take an oath of office. And whether you're enlisted or you're an officer, you say the same thing about the first part: to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

And so here, this is a very simple oath. It's a very simple, ordinary thing — it doesn't take much muscle strength to raise your hand, bend your elbow, and raise your hand and to be able to speak words. It's a very ordinary way of doing things. But what is said, and what is done, and what is being supported — that's what makes that oath great.

And that is a very secular way of looking at things. How much more so is the commission by Christ? When we get baptized, we are receiving this commission. We are receiving this understanding about what He said to do: I will do. And you go and you carry out and you are on mission. And we get reminded about this when we come to the local church and we hear the preaching and everything about going back to lesson six of the marks of the church and understanding the benefits there of the local church.

So we're gonna get through and understand this to be able to understand the Great Commission in a little more depth. An overview of what I'm saying here is in that verse there in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20, where it says, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ." We are ambassadors for Christ.

And the application is, why is the Great Commission repeated so often? When we look at in our personal Bible study, when we look at repetition, especially in the Hebrew language, when we see repetition we see importance, we see, don't miss this. And so when we see this Great Commission that is repeated over and over again, we see that God wants us to do it. That should be enough. And it is for His glory and our good. Romans 8:28.

So we're gonna break it down here. We're gonna get into Matthew in section five here. Let me read the blanks and then we'll get into the scripture. The Great Commission in Matthew denotes the absolute authority — authority being the first blank — denotes the absolute authority of Christ over all of heaven and earth. Heaven and earth as the reason we preach the gospel. Christ's sovereign plans can't be frustrated and will not fail.

Christ has absolute authority and His sovereign plan will not fail. When I was going through this, it reminded me in Acts chapter five, when Peter and the apostles were before a group of Jewish leaders — Gamaliel, I'm not gonna pronounce it right, but Gamaliel — yeah, he says here in Acts chapter five, verse 39, "But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, or else you may even be found fighting against God."

I think as someone who is on mission from Christ Himself — which is all believers — we would have Acts 5:39 deep in our hearts, that if this is of God, as we're delivering the gospel, this person will be converted and will be discipled. Whether it's by me or someone else, this will be carried out because it's not me, it's God.

And it is very much an understanding, in Acts 5:39, that even the gates of hell would not be able to overthrow God's purpose in an individual's life as you are evangelizing and preaching the word over somebody.

All right, where are we? So let me read also back to the handout. In Matthew 28, verse 18 through 20, we understand that Christ has absolute authority, His plans cannot fail. So now this is, I think, one of the primary go-to passages when we understand the Great Commission. Matthew 28:18 through 20.

Read with me on your handout. "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.'"

The application is, what gives you more confidence — more is the blank — what gives you more confidence and peace than Christ?

When we read those words, "And I am with you always, even to the end of the age," it doesn't matter where we go. It doesn't matter how old we get. It doesn't matter how young you are as a believer. This promise applies to you as a believer: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And so we must go.

We must make disciples. We must baptize. We must teach. This isn't like, "Oh, I'm part of a good church because they do A, B, and C." No, you need to be part of a local church that does these things as a must, as an essential, as a follower of Jesus Christ Himself. Part of a local church to be able to carry out the mission that He has commanded His church to be able to do.

And so this leads us now to Mark in section six here. The Great Commission in Mark denotes God's judgment as the reason we must preach the gospel. The word judgment is the first blank in section six. It is a matter of life and death.

I don't know what other reason you might need than Mark 16:15 through 16. You know, we're either gonna be obedient or we're not. And it is a matter of life and death for those around us. And I'm speaking to this guy too as well when I say that.

Read with me Mark 16. They're on your front sheet, a part of your handout. Mark 16:15 through 16. "And he said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.'"

Flip over on the back. And there in section six on the left side of the page, kind of a third of the way down, you have John 5:24 through 29.

This is where Jesus Himself teaches about this particular subject of judgment. You know, this isn't the Jesus that you see on some television series or movies nowadays. This is the Jesus from the Bible. In John 5:24 through 29, where He says, "Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man."

And then in verse 28 in John 5, "Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the grave will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

I love the gospel of John. It elaborates the literal part that's said in Mark about the Great Commission. We know that John does not have the traditional parables as Matthew, Mark, and Luke have. And so the gospel of John records many phrases like this so that you would believe. We know at the end of John's gospel why he has written this through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so we understand this to be literal. This is not a figurative judgment. This is not a figurative condemnation. And so Mark records the actual thing that is happening at this Great Commission: that the ones who do not believe will be condemned. And then the gospel of John elaborates that in a literal teaching fashion.

In John, though, like I'm kind of changing the subject real quick — in John, there are metaphors and picture language that help explain and enhance the truth explicitly. So when we get to John chapter 10, we hear about the Good Shepherd, but it's not a parable about the Good Shepherd. It is a metaphor and an example to elaborate the truth about who Jesus is, that He is the Good Shepherd and carries out the functions of what the Good Shepherd does. And so this little thing on the gospel of John there — but in the passage with Mark, it is quite literally recorded there at the end of the gospel to understand that Christ does judge the ones who disbelieve and He condemns those who do not believe in Him.

And this leads us to the front and our application for section six here, which is: what happens after you die? The blank is after. What happens after you die?

We understand there in Hebrews 9:27 that judgment comes, that judgment does come. This is what is certain. What is not certain from our perspective is, what robes will you be wearing? Are you going to judgment uncovered, or are you going to judgment covered in the righteousness of Christ?

How's that going for you if you are on your own covering? If you're not part of a local church — I mean, my heart goes out to folks who are not in a local church. I hope this is one of the repeated things that we must understand, and not only just in any local church, but a local church who is on mission. A local church that will preach the gospel and understand the current state of things: that not in Christ, you are going to this place. In Christ, blessings are upon you. I mean, it's a very simple type of thing. It's a very ordinary type of understanding. But there are people who are not going to local churches, and the local churches that people are going to are not on mission. And so we have to get to this application question: how is that going for you? If you're not in a local church or you're not in a church on mission, how is that going for you?

We need to be on mission. And when we're on mission, we have that certainty that we are covered in the robes of Christ and we know what's going to happen after we die. And we can read the scripture passages and be blessed by those and encouraged by those as we continue to have faith in them. And so really the ultimate question for this is, have you submitted to Christ? And when you have submitted to Christ, you're going to be on mission, you're going to be part of a local church, you're going to follow Him in His commands. All right, section seven.

Now we've covered Matthew, we've covered Mark. Now we're going to get into Luke. Section seven: the Great Commission in Luke denotes the fulfilling of God's one plan of salvation for men. Those are the blanks, one and salvation. The Great Commission in Luke denotes the fulfilling of God's one plan of salvation for men as the reason we must preach the gospel.

Luke was written to a Gentile audience. And so this very much is a reason for us as Gentiles, as non-Jews, to inculcate in our hearts and minds — to be able to understand why we must preach the gospel. We must preach the gospel to those who are around us, even here, because we know that Christ saves people from all nations. That includes this country and other countries that may come here and visit. Or if we go to other countries, we know that we can do this by understanding God's word in this way.

The gospel of Luke, really quickly — the gospel has many points of evidence for the Gentile to understand if you're not of Jewish heritage. The gospel of Luke is a very great gospel to understand. It has points of geography. It goes in a chronological form. It's often a gospel that is used to say, when do these events line up? And scholars will constantly go back to Luke to be able to say, okay, this fits in here and this fits in there with this date and that date. They help us understand with our minds what Christ actually did in time and space. And He accomplished a work that was very, very important for us to be able to be witnesses of as we read God's word and we proclaim Him and make disciples.

There in Luke 24, read with me as I read aloud. Before I get into this, this is right after He is teaching and revealing Himself to the two men on the road to Emmaus. And then He is connecting them — and this is very edifying to Gentiles — to be able to say the Old Testament and all the scriptures that have been written are about Me. And so He's getting through this here. And so in Luke 24, verse 46 and 48, He says, "Then he said to them, 'Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and you are witnesses of these things.'"

This is to understand that it's all about Christ and that forgiveness of sins is available to those who are not part of a Jewish nation. And it's not just a select number of nations in that region or whatever reason — it's all nations. So that's why we have confidence to go forth and preach to whatever nation that you're in, and we know this is God's one plan of salvation. Flip over on the back to Romans 10.

It's in the middle part of the handout. Romans 10:11 through 17 — how important this is to be able to be recorded to the church of Rome. This is a non-Jewish nation, and accompanied with the Great Commission in Luke, this is a great combination to be able to understand these words in the context of you and me as a Gentile. And so Romans 10:11 through 17 reads, "For the scripture says, 'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame,' for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him." "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" — a quote from the Old Testament. Then verse 14, "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?' So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

The application — if you go back on the front, the application for number seven is, what is the God-appointed means of salvation? What is the God-appointed means of salvation? Also found there in 1 Corinthians 1:21 — we know that faith or belief is the means, not the cause, but the means of salvation. The cause is God's grace. And we read that in other scriptures. And that grace is given to — and as we have read this, it is given through faith, but also through the preaching. And faith is exercised by the preaching of God's word. That's just one of the means of grace by which faith is transmitted. I mean, it's mysterious, but God's word says it. And this is the means of salvation. And this just kind of escalates why we need to be on mission for what Christ commanded us to be able to do.

Section eight gets into John. The Great Commission in John denotes the Father commissioning the Son as the reason we preach the gospel. We are in the Son, united to Christ. In is the blank. We are in the Son, united to Christ. His mission is ours. We are co-laborers with Him, with Him.

I love it with John. John — I mean, when you read the gospel of John, this is why it's so often recommended as an evangelistic gospel, because it's so literal about belief. And here we understand by the words of Christ — and I believe it's right here in section eight — John chapter 20, verse 21. It says, "So Jesus said to them again, 'Peace to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.'"

And so we are on mission with Christ. We know through the other parts of the Great Commission He says, "I am always with you." And so when we are going out and we are preaching the gospel and carrying out the mission of the church, Christ is with us. We hold His word above us. So He is with us as the head of the church, as the head of our families, as the head of ourselves. And so we lift Him up. We proclaim and we are witnesses of what He has done. And the application for section eight is the contemplative question: are you about our Father's business? Are you about our Father's business?

Flip over on the back and in Colossians chapter one, verse 27 and 29, think about this when you're thinking about being on mission with Christ. "To them, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end, I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily."

We are to preach to every man. I hope that's understood there in that Colossians passage. This is one of the reasons why our church doors are open to the public — why we want the public to be able to come in here and to be able to hear the preaching of God's word. And we are to preach to every man, every man and woman and child. Every man, all are welcome here as we preach. Now, not all are welcome in the exclusive nature of the church — we may be able to separate that — but we proclaim the gospel in a public fashion. And then there's the process of joining the church. And then as you join the church, there are responsibilities that we have here at Beulah Baptist Church. When you read the covenant, we love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and we hold each other accountable in Christ. Just to name a very simple, simple part of that. This is the business of our Father with Christ as the head of the church.

All right, flip back on to section nine. Now we get into Acts. So we've covered Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Now we're in Acts here for number nine. The Great Commission in Acts directs that we preach the gospel starting at home and then extending outward to the whole world.

The verse here reads in Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."

We need to be excellent at home before we are effective outside the home. We need to fine-tune what we have in this church before we are to be effective outside. And it goes further in the home — we need to be effective in the home as that spills over into effectiveness in the church.

Very, very vital. We must get it right at home first before we can accomplish those other types of missions. It doesn't mean that we need to grow to the numbers. No, the power of the Holy Spirit is what we need to get right at home. We need to get the structure right in our life, in our families, here in this church. We get preached to about how we should behave with one another.

Galatians 2:20 — "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Nothing should get in between us as brothers and sisters in Christ, nothing. We should be able to get that right and make it excellent before we start being effective with the Great Commission in these outer regions around here and in the outer regions to the ends of the earth.

We need to be able to understand that. So I'll even go a little bit further and say, how can the lost understand the gospel if we cannot articulate it in a friendly Sunday school class?

How can you go out and preach the gospel if you can't do it at a 9:30 hour where there's a bunch of friendly people around you and you're quiet?

You probably can, but it's not gonna be effective. Does that make sense? Like, we need to be effective here. We need to be able to enter our 9:30 Bible study classes, speak up, learn to articulate the gospel on these things that are coming up in class. Speak up, raise your hand. You may be wrong. I mean, if you're like me, you're wrong like 90% of the time, but you learn how to be corrected, you learn how to deal with that, and you move forward. You're on mission and not afraid of failure, because the mission of Christ does not fail. And so when you are crucified with Christ, you're speaking up, you are on mission with Christ. It gets very basic really fast. It gets really ordinary — just a matter of speaking up. Some of us don't need as much encouragement as others, right? Some of you who go to the 9:30 Bible study, your hands are raising and you're speaking up. It's great. Y'all can go out, you are articulating the gospel, you are going out, you're ready for more. You're ready for mentoring, you're ready for discipleship. You're ready to go out with our street evangelists. You are ready to see how that works, but it starts very basic. It starts very ordinary. Here when we read in Acts 1:8, it starts at home. It starts wherever that home is — in your own heart, in your own personal Bible study, in your own prayer. We are teaching that in a basic way: to learn how to pray here and how to study the Bible. We need to get beyond this. We need to have experts in prayer by now. We need to have teachers upon teachers here at Beulah Baptist Church, right? We need to be able to go somewhere. And so I hope that's encouraging. We're on mission here at Beulah Baptist Church. We want to send you out, but we gotta get it right here first. And a lot of us are doing that.

And so there are a lot of encouraging things that are going on in this church, but we can always do better. And I'm pointing the finger at myself too. Some of you are like, "Oh yeah, you need to do that too." So I'm like, "Roger that." Okay? So do you pray scripture at home in words? Like I said, I know I need to do that more. Do you pray scripture at home in the words of scripture?

One of the reasons why Pastor Casey is big on PTI and training up men is because we as an eldership recognize that it is the spiritual leader in the family. If they're strong in God's word, that will ripple through the family and overflow. And when these ripples happen, the Holy Spirit will build more wells based on Christ, based on His word, in the hearts and minds of the next generation. God will build His house.

I know my mom and dad are here today. You all probably didn't know that I was gonna be here in Winter Garden teaching when we were in Maitland 35 years ago. You didn't know that, but God knew that. I didn't know. We don't know what's gonna happen in the future, but we can be faithful. We can be faithful in this: God knows where He's going. We're going to the outer regions of our home. We need to have this vision of what Christ says on the Great Commission, to be able to understand how God wants to build His church. It's very simple acts of being faithful and to be able to understand how to do this at home first and then trust in the Lord that He will do the work that He has called us to do.

All right, the application for section nine is, "Do you preach Christ at home in words and deeds?" Do you preach Christ at home in words and deeds? I kind of got a little bit ahead of myself. I also want to insert the word — do you pray Christ at home in words and deeds?

Do you sing Christ at home in words and deeds? I feel like we can always be doing this more, right? I mean, we need to be doing this. I know a lot of us are and it's so fulfilling when we're doing this. We know we're doing the right thing. We know we are in alignment with Christ. We know we are on mission. And that is a very encouraging thing when you are in alignment with Christ. Okay, point number ten.

The last point of this lesson. I kind of lost track of time. I really hope it's within what we need to be at. But section ten is, "The Great Commission of Christ can only be obeyed." The first blank is obeyed. "The Great Commission of Christ can only be obeyed by the church in the power of the Holy Spirit." Obeyed, power, and Spirit. "The Great Commission of Christ can only be obeyed by the church in the power of the Holy Spirit."

By His Spirit — here we go. By His Spirit, Christ was working with His disciples. By His Spirit, Christ empowered His disciples. By His Spirit, Christ's disciples were commissioned. By His Spirit, Christ's disciples were witnesses at home and abroad. And by His Spirit, Christ is always with us even to the end of the age. How encouraging is that? And if it can't get much more encouraging and you're like, "Well, where does it say that in Scripture as far as the effects of all this?" Well, turn over on the back. And there are two examples there in Acts where it summarizes how the early church is being in the Spirit, where the Spirit causes people to act, the Spirit causes people to speak out in boldness, and it is God doing the work. We read all through Acts that the Lord is adding to His number daily. You see a lot of God and verbs there in Acts, carried out by faith through the apostles and all that through Acts. So let that be an encouragement as you read through the Acts passage. The application for number ten is, where can you go from His abiding Spirit? Where can you go from His abiding Spirit?

I think there are some of us who have been in places where we feel like God is not here, whether it's dark alleyways or whether you've been in sin for a little bit longer than what you originally thought you might be, or you're in India or China where you're not around any familiar faces and you're thinking, where is God? And then these verses are very encouraging to understand: you and I cannot go anywhere without Christ with us as a believer. In Psalm 139, verse 7, it says, "Wherever I go, You are there." If that resonates with something that you may have dealt with in the past, or you know someone who has, Psalm 139 is such an encouraging psalm to be able to understand.

And then in Matthew 18 — going back to the Great Commission, that primary verse, I would say primary in my words, I mean all scripture is primary — but in the famous Matthew 28, verse 20, after explaining church discipline, then verse 20, Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." That means that you can take scripture and you can take two or three gathered together and you can go find that lost sheep, and Christ is with you.

You can take this and understand that Christ Himself is with you. He is our elder brother and He is our champion. So let us have faith that He will accomplish His mission. Thank you.