The Scope of the Great Commission | Matthew 28:16-20

Well, I have to admit, when Ryan asked me to come and preach on a portion of the Great Commission, I was a little intimidated. I mean, first, to follow him a week after he starts this series. I mean, it's hard enough, you know, like when you come as a guest preacher, usually you're kind of preaching this one-off sermon, you know, and like there tends to be more grace given towards guest preachers preaching a one-off sermon.

But here I am having to follow that. Last Sunday, I feared to be measured up to the standard that he set last week. But then there's, this is the great commission, right?

Not the commission, not the good commission. This is the great commission. Kind of like, you better not mess this up, right?

And let's face it, the great commission as a whole, but especially this part of the verse assigned to me has been used in the past to hammer congregations over the head with missions. This is typically the message where I come and lay a big guilt trip on you so that by the end of the day, if you have not made plans to sell your home and move to Africa, then I haven't done my job. But fortunately, I have faith in the power of God's word and that God will speak to us in it through his spirit, even through this vessel of clay.

And the spirit does not compel us through guilt or manipulation, but through graciously giving us eyes to see the beauty and the glory of who God is and awakening in us a passion to be about his glorious purpose in the world. And so let's go now to God's word. And so if you would stand with me, if you are able, and I'm going to read from Matthew 28 verses 16 through 20.

So Matthew 28, starting with verse 16. These are the Lord's words to us. 

Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped 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. 

And so, Jesus, I am banking on that promise right now. That you are with us corporately, and that you're with me personally, to help deliver this message from your holy word. Thank you that you are pleased to speak to us through your word, and not through guilt or manipulation. And so, O Spirit, please graciously give us eyes to see the beauty and glory of Christ, and awaken a passion in us, to be about your glorious purpose in the world. And so I pray this, Lord, for your glory and for the joy of all peoples. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated. Well, Ryan gave me the title, The Scope of the Great Commission. And so I had to look up the word scope. It's the extent of the area or subject matter that something deals with, or to which it is relevant. Well, spoiler alert, the scope of the Great Commission is really great. It's really big.

In fact, it's so great in the scope of its mission, so great in the scope of its missionaries, and so great in the scope of its demands on those missionaries that only by the power of God can it be accomplished. And that was the message from last week, right? How like Jesus to give us a task so big that we can not do it on our own, apart from him.

And so this morning, I want to focus our attention on the scope of the Great Commission in order to see three things. Number one, that God's grace is magnified in it. Number two, that Christ's bride is mobilized. And three, that our faith is fortified. 

God’s Grace Is Magnified

So number one, God's grace is magnified. So in one of the last interactions that Jesus has with his apostles, he gives them an assignment. As Ryan said last week, someone's last recorded words tend to be pretty important, especially when that someone is the creator and sustainer of the world. And here's the assignment. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.

If Jesus' last words to his apostles are this assignment, then this assignment must be really important. And if it's that important, then we better take some time and make sure that we understand it. And so I want to focus on that last part first.

In other words, to whom are the apostles being called to go? And the answer looks easy enough. Well, it's to all nations, right? I'm sure some of you have heard the Greek words, panta, meaning all, ta ethne, nations, peoples, ethnicities. And so on a surface level, we could interpret nation the way we normally do as countries. And there are currently 195 recognized countries throughout the world.

And so was Jesus saying no more than taking the gospel into each recognized country of the world? If so, then our work is done. The gospel has gone forth into every geopolitical nation of the world.

But I think most of us know that Jesus was almost certainly not referring to nation in the way that we normally think about it. So the Lexham Theological Word Book defines ethnos as a body of persons united by kinship, culture, and common traditions. And then they add in the plural, which it is here in our text, it's frequently the group of non-Jews that become a central focus of the worldwide gospel proclamation.

So I'm tempted to jump back to 1974 and start talking people groups. But first, I think it's better to go back, not only to the understanding and the meaning of words, but to the God himself who orchestrated it all, right? because our mission, our assignment is rooted in the mission of God himself from the very beginning of redemptive history.

And so we see it back in Genesis 12, right? In the promise to Abraham that through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed. We have a promise right there in the beginning of Genesis that God would use, so not only to call Israel to himself, but to actually call Israel as a blessing to all the families of the world.

And we see that echoed throughout the rest of the Old Testament. And I'm not going to have time to go through all those passages. Let's just look at a couple, Psalm 67, four and five.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let the peoples praise you. Isaiah 66, for I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations in tongues, and they shall come and see my glory.

Or, Isaiah 9, verses 1 and 2. 

But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shown. 

Did you notice that? A connection to our text. Galilee of the nations. Though Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, the risen Savior asked to meet with his disciples where? Galilee. Which had always been something of a melting pot of cultures throughout its history. And even to that day, it remained a major mix of Jews and Gentiles in a land of deep darkness. And so, I don't think it's surprising that Matthew records the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Matthew chapter 4 as taking place in Galilee of the Gentiles and as the fulfillment, the beginning of the fulfillment of Isaiah 9.

And so, smack dab in the middle of a place that represented the diversity of nations, that's where Jesus chose to begin his ministry and where he would commission these 11 men to go and disciple all nations. And then this global call of God continues. It was confirmed by Jesus himself, Acts 1-8.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

And then echoed again by Paul, as he returns to Genesis 12, and the fulfillment of that promise through Abraham, that all families of the earth would be blessed. So he says in Romans 4:16, 

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, not only Jews, but to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations.

And then of course, we see it realized in Revelation by John. Revelation 5:9, where Christ has ransomed people from every tribe and tongue.

And so from the very beginning, God's plan was not just to call a single homogenous people to himself, nor was it to merely save as many individuals as possible, but to call out as his own treasured possession people from all around the world with different skin colors, different languages, different ways of doing life, all with one thing in common, without God and without hope in this life. 

So how do we think about these people from a practical standpoint? Who exactly are they? And that's where the now familiar term people group comes in. And so it entered into the vocabulary of missions in 1982 as a result of the Luzon committee meeting held in Chicago. And here's how they defined people group. It's a significantly large grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of a shared language, shared religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class, or caste, situation, etc., or combination of these.

So for example, let's say we're going to the peoples of Kenya, East Africa. Why did I choose Kenya? Many would say that Kenya is already a reached nation because on paper, a majority of the people claim to be Christian.

But the work of missiologists and the people group concept has allowed us to recognize that there's more than one people group in Kenya. And so if we consider all the people living in Kenya that have a different ethnicity, speak a different language, and are isolated from other groups due to their geography, Kenya has 108 different people groups, according to the Joshua Project, 32 of which are considered unreached. And what's the definition of unreached?

Well, an unreached people group is defined as a people group within which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to evangelize this people group. In other words, there's no church among them to continue the work of discipleship and evangelization. If that's correct, then that's five and a half million people in Kenya alone that still don't have a viable witness for Christ among them.

That's equal to the population of Nairobi, Kenya's capital. And so when Jesus says make disciples of all nations, it's likely, right, that he wasn't just talking about 195 different geopolitical countries, but rather possibly over 17,000 distinct people groups throughout the world. 7,400 of which remain unreached today, according to the Joshua Project.

That's a bunch of numbers, right? Are those numbers exactly correct? I don't know. Probably not. But, I mean, they're changing all the time. But it's not about the numbers, right?

It's not about the definitions. Those are just tools. And they're really helpful tools, because they help guide us in a very practical way to the nations.

So why bring this up at all? Because I believe in our seeing more clearly both the extent of the diversity and the extent of the numbers represented in all nations were thrown back on the scope of the glory of God's grace, of His grace. To think that there are tens of thousands of distinct people on this planet, and that within each of those thousands of groups, God has His elect sheep.

They are the culmination of what God has been doing from the very beginning. Saving a diverse people from every corner of the globe that will praise Him with every language under heaven, with a variety of skin colors and an even greater variety of clothing color. Some with shouts, some with jumping, some with dancing, some just with quiet reverence. Good old Minnesotan. They're saved too. Norwegian Minnesotans. It's a little bit different, Donna, right? A little bit different in Kenya. Donna's from Kenya. I just met her this morning. She's here in the United States now, but she knows Kenya very well. 

So, why is it better that the multitude will sing praises to the Lamb for eternity? The fact that it will be made up of every tribe and tongue. Why is that better? There are many good reasons, and I think John Piper has written a book, Let the Nations Be Glad, and he gives several really good reasons, but I think ultimately it comes down to the glory of God's grace.
And this is best summed up by Piper. And so with this quote, I'll finish this point. Listen to what he says.

It's a humbling thing to discover that God does not choose our people group because of any distinctive of worth, but rather that we might double our joy in him by being a means of bringing all the other groups into the same joy. Humility means reveling in his grace, not our goodness. In pressing us on to all the peoples, God is pressing us further in to the humblest and deepest experience of his grace and weaning us more and more from our ingrained pride.

Christ’s Bride Is Mobilized

Number two, Christ's bride is mobilized. So we've been looking so far at the beneficiaries of this commission, people of every tribe and tongue throughout the world that don't know Jesus. And so now we have to ask, who is the great commission directed to? Who are the people that are going to reach all nations? And the answer I'm supposed to give this morning is, you are. The call to proclaim the gospel to the world is clearly meant for all Christians.

Jesus told his disciples in John 20, as the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you. And so the call goes out, not only from churches, but from mission organizations and conferences, become a missionary to reach the nations. Ah, the missionary.

You know those? Known for their adventurous spirit, type A personality, boldness in evangelism, ability to build and fix anything from houses, cars, water systems, computers, run a business, home school their children, and lead a team. Also known for pleas, for financial support, and handing out prayer cards, right?

Do you know them? By the way, I have some prayer cards, and if you want to meet me afterwards, yes. And who sends these missionaries out? Mission organizations like AIM, SIM, TEAM, YWAM. Why all the acronyms, by the way, for mission organizations? I have no idea. Wycliffe, Global Outreach, many, many, many more, right? 

And then lastly, there's a church, or more probably a bunch of churches. Many provide financial support to the missionary, one that they're more connected to, you know, may have a commissioning service, provide accountability once a year, help them with housing when they're home on furlough and exchange for, of course, leading a Sunday school and maybe preaching on a Sunday.

The church might even send a short team, team to visit the missionaries. I'm no missions expert, but I've been in the missions, in missions long enough to know how it works often. My wife, Lily, is currently in Madagascar with her 86-year-old father, who also grew up in Madagascar and served as a missionary doctor and his wife as a nurse for over 40 years.

His grandfather came as a pastor to Madagascar in the late 1800s from Norway, and his father and Lily's dad's father was also a pastor to the Malagasy. Lily and I, as Ryan said, have served in Kenya at a school for missionary kids called Rift Valley Academy for a total of nine years, and we've met a lot of missionaries, and we've had insight into their families by caring for their children. And what I've concluded, there are exceptions to this, of course, but what I've concluded is that many missionaries, too many, and mission organizations, even ones that have church planning as part of their mission statement, place a low priority on the church as a whole.

We've known missionaries that have opted to just stay at home and worship with their family on a Sunday morning instead of gathering with local believers. What does that communicate to those local believers? The missionary school we worked at wanted to function as a church when it came to worship, celebrating communion and baptism, but not when it came to actually shepherding people or choosing who could preach or church discipline.

I believe that part of what makes the Great Commission great is that it was given to the church by means of the apostles, not to individual missionaries and their mission organizations, as important as they are. We are missionaries who couldn't do what we do without our organization, Global Outreach International. But I believe the importance of the church is missing from many missionary endeavors.

And so the task of the Great Commission, what makes it great and not simply good, is the fact that it's first and foremost directed to the bride of Christ. It's to be churches raising up those individual Christians and sending them out as missionaries. To do what? Go to exotic places doing what they love to do? No. To be part of establishing more local churches, more local outposts of King Jesus.

And so why do I say the Great Commission is given first and foremost to the church? Number one, because it was given to the 11 apostles from whom the church was established and grew. So we saw that in Matthew 28 verse 16. The 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain that Jesus had directed them and he gave them those instructions. 

Second, the apostles didn't merely proclaim the gospel and convert individuals to Christianity.

They planted local churches. Paul and Barnabas were commissioned and sent out by the church in Antioch. Acts 13 verse 2.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. And then they sent them off. 

And what did they do? They went out proclaiming the gospel and planting churches. Acts 14 verse 21. 

When they heard the gospel, when they preached the gospel to that city, had made many disciples. They returned to Lystra, to Iconium and Antioch. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord. 

Aubrey Malfur says this.

A careful reading of Acts reveals that the early church implemented the Great Commission Mandate, primarily by planting churches. A study of the missionary journeys recorded in Acts reveals that they, in fact, were church planting forays into what was predominantly a pagan culture. As a result of these trips, Paul and others planted high-impact churches in key cities such as Derb, Lystra, Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica, Borea, Corinth, and Ephesus.

Third, the Great Commission didn't end with the apostles, but continued to be given to the church. That would last how long? Until the end of the age.

The church takes up the mantle given to the apostles and continues to fulfill it until Jesus returns. And so, Piper states, it was not merely given to the apostles for their ministry, but was given to the church for its ministry as long as this age lasts. 

And then fourth, the central command here is to disciple. Now, Ryan's going to deal with this next week, but doesn't this at least point in the direction that this is something that the church is mainly responsible for, especially when we understand that it involves baptism and teaching. Jesus said he would build his church, his bride, members of his own body, and the gates of hell would not stop him. He's not building a loose collection of individuals around the world. He's building his body. And if that's so, then doesn't it make sense that the people being sent out by the church place a priority on the church and have as their goal, no matter what their particular role, right? No matter what their particular role, the planting and building up of the local church around the world.

And so, I love how Donald MacGavran ties this all together. He says, 

the goal of the Great Commission is the establishment of a church of committed Christians in every community, every neighborhood, every class and condition of people, where everyone can hear and see demonstrated the gospel from his own intimates, in his own tongue, and has a reasonable opportunity to become the disciple of Jesus Christ. 

Just two quick implications of this. Number one, every local church, every local church has a mandate to be about the Great Commission, to identify, to equip, and send out those to disciple the nations, whether that's nearby or far away, to partner with other like-minded churches to accomplish what they can't do alone, praying, lending time, financial resources, and wisdom to the task. So that's the church. 

Number two, the people that are sent out are sent out first as representatives of King Jesus and second as representatives of Christ's body, the church. They should love the church, and that should be evident by their actions. They should be an encouragement to the church they find themselves a part of. And I'm telling you, that's sometimes hard on the mission field.

But that's the goal. And their highest goal as missionaries is not about conversions but the planting and building up of the bride of Christ, the church, which involves conversions. 

Our Faith Is Fortified

All right, number three, last point. Our faith is strengthened. Our faith is fortified. So I want to return to something that I said earlier.

Jesus has given us a task so great that we can't do it apart from him. He magnifies his grace as he calls not only individual Christians but the church. Hundreds of thousands of local churches to mobilize and be sent out to reach all the peoples of the world with the gospel, again, to the glory of his grace.

And what happens when God's people do the seemingly impossible in his power? Our faith is strengthened and he is glorified. So there's one more aspect of the Great Commission that we're going to look at this morning, and that's the word translated go.Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. In the Greek, the only true imperative or command in this verse is to make disciples. And how do we make disciples?

By going, baptizing, and teaching. But we're just going to look at one of those this morning, the going. So, what does it mean to go? First, it doesn't have to mean traveling someplace far away. Okay, did you hear that? You don't have to travel someplace far away.

Jesus told the apostles in Acts 1-8, I've already read this, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You'll be my witnesses where? In Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Yes, they were moved, they were to move out from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. But notice where he says to begin, in Jerusalem, right where they were. And he didn't say abandon Jerusalem when they moved to Samaria and beyond.”

And so the Great Commission, I believe, is a call for Emmaus Road Church to continue to be about building the Lord's Church right here in Sioux Falls. Evidence by the bridge course. That's just one example that I noticed from this morning.

Second, go, however, does mean movement of some kind. That go still has the force of a command. That's why it's translated, therefore go. We might say, do something. Get out of your comfort zone. Don't wait for the people of the nations to come to you.

Take initiative right where you are. And Emmaus Road, every tribe and tongue are on your doorstep. Right here in Sioux Falls. You don't have to sell everything you own and move to Africa, except we would love for some of you to come with us to Nairobi. But as representatives of the Lord and representatives of Emmaus Road Church, through their example and equipping, be faithful to disciple those around you in the sphere of influence that God has given you. I assume Ryan is going to pick this up a little bit more next week.

Third, going will mean sacrifice and total dependence on the Lord. If this was going to be easy, why would Jesus bookend His command with His all-encompassing authority and His powerful presence until the end of the age? If we could have done this in our own strength, He wouldn't have added such powerful promises.

Now, we might be tempted to believe that the ones that travel across the world, man, they're really the ones that need to depend on the Lord. That's the really hard thing, right? But you know what? Sometimes it's harder to be faithful to the extraordinary things that God is calling us to in our seemingly ordinary lives. Listen to this young woman who returned to America after a time of gospel ministry in Africa. Sorry for the long quote, but I think it's worth it. She says, 

now I'm a 30-something with two kids living a more or less ordinary life. And what I'm slowly realizing is that for me, being in the house all day with a baby and a two-year-old is a lot more scary and a lot harder than being in a war-torn African village. What I need courage for is the ordinary, the daily, every-day-ness of life. Caring for a homeless kid is a lot more thrilling to me than listening well to the people in my home. Giving away clothes and seeking out edgy Christian communities requires less of me than being kind to my husband on an average Wednesday morning or calling my mother back when I don't feel like it. 

Does that resonate with any of you? I echo this woman's statement. In some ways, being back in the US for this entire year was harder and demanded more faith than living in Kenya. But for some of us, go does mean go in the sense of moving.

It might mean moving across Sioux Falls to go with the church plant or maybe across the state or even the country. But there are still peoples among the nations for which some of us will be called to leave the home and the people we know, to travel far, to learn a new language and a different culture and do the hard plowing of gospel ministry in a foreign land. 

In 2016, we sold our house and most of the things in it. Our cars said goodbye to our daughter in college and moved to Kenya with a high school junior, a seventh grader, and a sixth grader. Now in 16 days, Lily and I will say, again, goodbye, this time to all of our children, to our extended family, to our church. Get on a plane and go close to 20 hours and join the rest of our team in Nairobi to begin planting Sovereign Grace Church Nairobi. Is that hard? Devastatingly so.

If Jesus didn't have all authority in heaven and on earth, I wouldn't go. That's the reason for the therefore, right? I've got this. Go. And if I knew there was some small chance that Jesus wouldn't be with us, there's no way I'm getting on that plane. But he does have all authority.

He does, and he will be with us. We know him to be faithful, and he will be faithful. And that makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it?

You see, Jesus is the treasure in the field. He's the treasure. He's the treasure that we find when we let go of everything of lesser value, those things we find comfort in, stuff, reputation, even people we love. Leaning on him and enjoying Him, we can let those things go and begin to make plans to make much of Jesus in those difficult decisions of life. And then we find that as we move out by faith, step by step, guess what? He increases our faith and he increases our joy in him.

I can't help but think of Romans 5 verse 3, when Paul says, not only that, but we're able to rejoice, not only get through, but to rejoice in sufferings and hard things. Knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And that hope, no, it does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts.

God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. That's a hope that we can rest on. We can count on, we can do hard things because of that.

But to experience that joy and strength in faith, we have to respond, right? We have to answer in some way the call to go, whatever that means for us. And so speaking of response, let me close with just a few suggestions.

These are not going to be exhaustive. Ryan sent me a link the other day from Desiring God, that gave so many good suggestions for how to just keep us focused on the task of the Great Commission. So you can look that up on Desiring God or ask Ryan for that.

So, number one, the first response to this message, I don't think, is to pray about becoming a missionary. I think the first response is to go and meditate more on the glory and worth of God, especially upon His grace to us in the Gospel. In other words, let yourself be moved to worship by such a God that redeems us in significant sinners, transforms us and unites us into His body, and then sends us out by His power and presence to awaken other insignificant sinners spread throughout all the peoples of the world. Meditate on that and be moved to worship. 

Second, love your local church. I know you already do. Those of you who are here at Emmaus Road, you love your church, and I would just commend you and encourage you to continue in that love. And if you're not here at Emmaus and you have another church, love your local church. Foster a love for your church through prayer, by being teachable, by serving your church, because I believe it's through being connected to your local body that God can use you most effectively to reach the nations.

Number three, pay attention to how God is using like-minded churches, or in our case, what God is doing around the world with Sovereign Grace Churches. Love being part of this partnership of churches. Get the mission update emails, pray, maybe even get involved.

I'm sure most of you have been following Greg and the team as they've been in the Philippines. Did you know that Sovereign Grace Churches serve in 46 different countries throughout the world? We have right now 90 partner churches, including Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.

I'm told if this global expansion continues at the rate that we expect, that 90 turns into 240 by the end of 2028, all by God's grace. And number four, practically support the mission efforts around you, especially connected to your local church. Reaching the nations has to be a sovereign work of God.”

So it takes prayer. It takes people to go and to help, but it also takes finances. Global church plants like ours, Sovereign Grace Church Nairobi, do rely on grants from Sovereign Grace Mission Funds, and also grants from specific regions, Midwest, Northwest regions like ours.

We're so blessed to be in gospel partnership with so many like minded churches in Sovereign Grace. However, those grants don't cover the salary of those going as missionaries. And so consider finding out more of the specific needs of these partnerships, and how you can contribute directly.

Last thing, number five, finally, you know what? If you're doing all of that, especially in connection with Emmaus Road Church or your local church, then trust that God will lead you in the specific way that he calls you to go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Let's pray together