The Great Commission


Sermon by J. Ligon Duncan on March 26, 2000 Matthew 28:16-20

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If you have your Bibles I’d invite you to turn with me to Matthew, chapter 28. Today, we finally come to the end of our study in the gospel of Matthew, and recently as we have reviewed Matthew, chapter 27 and 28, we have seen over and over this overarching theme on the providence of God. God’s providence in Jesus’ torture and persecution. God’s providence in Jesus’ death, His burial and now in His resurrection. And even in the passage we looked at last week, where Matthew basically recounts alive, it was being spread by the guards at the instigation of members of the Sanhedrin. Even in that context we saw God’s sovereignty in vindicating His Son. For even in the story that they told, it was so self-contradictory and so patently false that they wound up actually confirming certain basic facts about the resurrection. And so we marveled at how God’s providence has been displayed.

But here we come in Matthew 28, verses 16 through 20 to the very final words of the gospel. And Matthew leaves us several very vivid pictures, one particularly of the disciples themselves, another of the Lord Jesus’ Christ and His own directives for the church. So let’s hear God’s holy and inspired word here in Matthew, chapter 28, verses 16 through 20.

“But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him. But some were doubtful. And Jesus came up 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He add His blessing to it. Let’s pray.

Our Father, many of us come to this passage having read it and studied it and heard it taught and preached, dozens and even hundreds of times. Protect us from an over-familiarity which breeds contempt. Enable us to look at this word with fresh eyes. Others of us, Lord, come to this passage with suspicions about what may be said in explaining it. A suspicion that we already know what is going to be said in terms of exhortation. And we pray that You would surprise us. Still others, O Lord, perhaps come skeptical of Jesus and His truth, and even the truth set forth in this word. By Your Spirit we pray subdue their hearts and draw them willingly into saving faith in Jesus Christ and use Your word proclaim to do it. We ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Now as we say, this passage is so familiar to all of us. It would be easy, it would be easy to read it simply through the lens of what we have known about it in the past. And so I want to suggest as we come to it today that you do two things. First, think about the fact that it is good for every church from time to time to pause and reflect and ask itself are we obeying the great commission? Have we remembered our marching orders? These are the last words that Matthew records of Jesus in His gospel. And so they are the abiding directive that He wants us to have on our minds as we finish His gospel and it’s wholly appropriate that the church pause and ask are we fulfilling this great commission? Is the focus of our ministry somehow related to what Jesus has told us in terms of our focus of ministry. Do they look like His commands? Does our ministry look like His commands in the great commission?

Secondly, as we come to this passage, I think it’s good to purpose to bring no preconceptions about what the great commission says, and to determine to simply listen to what Jesus says and commands, lest we think that we already know what He is saying and miss what He in fact does say. If we do that, we may be surprised what we find here. In fact, today I am going to propose to you that this passage is primarily about discipleship. I could make a case if I had the time to show you that this passage is primarily about discipleship. I could make a case if I had the time to show you that much of the gospel of Matthew is devoted to providing a manual of study for Christian disciples.

And there is a tremendous theme running throughout the gospel of Matthew about Christian discipleship. And I want to propose to you that this great commission that we’re going to study today is first and foremost about discipleship. It tells us about the priority of discipleship, that is the primacy of discipleship in the mission of the church, and it also tells us about the practice of discipleship. That is, how you’re supposed to do it.

Now in God’s good providence, our church has been doing some heavy reflecting about how we do discipleship. We’re doing reflecting about how we do discipleship amongst men, how we do discipleship amongst families, how we do discipleship amongst students. And so it’s wholly appropriate that we come to God’s word, and we learn something of Jesus’ own outline for what that discipleship ought to look like.

With that as introduction, let me suggest that we look at two parts in this passage today. I was very tempted after studying this to do an eight-part series. It’s that rich. It really is. But I’m not going to torture you that way. We’re going to look at two parts in this passage. The first two verses, verses 16 and 17 form the first section of this passage. There you’re going to see a description of the disciples obediently going to Galilee, but you’re also interestingly, going to be left by Matthew with a picture of the disciples still struggling in their faith. That’s going to be the first part of the passage that we look at. Then, if you look at verses 18 through 20 you’re going to see Jesus declaring His authority, you’re going to see Jesus giving a command, and then you’re going to see Jesus issuing a comforting encouragement and promise to the disciples. And so I’d like to look at those two parts of the passage with you today.

I. The disciples’ obedience and continuing doubt.

And as we look at verses 16 and 17 think of this as the overarching theme of those verses. The last picture that Matthew gives us of the church in his gospel, the very last picture that Matthew gives us of the church in his gospel emphasizes the mission to the Gentiles, the worship of Christ and the weakness of the disciples. Think of it. Look at the first part of verse 16. There we’re told that the eleven disciples obediently made their way to Galilee. You remember when we studied back in Matthew 26, verse 32 that Jesus, long before the events of the crucifixion and the burial and the resurrection had occurred, Jesus told His disciples that after those things had occurred, they were to go and meet Him in Galilee.
And then do you remember, as we studied two weeks ago in Matthew chapter 28, verse 7 that one of the things that the angels said to the female disciples at the tomb was that they were to go back to the disciples, the eleven disciples of Jesus’ especially, and tell them to go to Galilee just like He had told them to do. And then Jesus Himself in Matthew, chapter 28, verse 10, comes to those same women and reiterates and says now ladies, when you get back to those disciples you tell them that they are to meet Me in Galilee just like I told them to do many, many days ago. And so the disciples make their way to Galilee. It was where their ministry had begun in Galilee of the Gentiles, and by calling them back to Galilee I want to suggest to you that even in that action, Jesus is emphasizing the worldwide mission that He’s calling them to. He’s calling them to a mission to the Gentiles. They’re not simply to minister to the Jews.

Now this is significant friends, because you remember the first time He sent them out, He had a very restricted order for them and He Himself in Matthew, chapter 15, had said in response to the words of the Syrophenician woman, the Canaanite woman, My mission is not to the Gentiles but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He had emphasized the primacy of His Jewish mission, and this had been emphasized even in the disciples’ mission when they were first sent out.

Now, however, from Galilee, He is inaugurating an explicitly worldwide mission, as we’ll see especially in verse 19. And so Matthew is emphasizing for us here the Gentile mission, even in this last picture that he gives of the church. Then if you look at the second half of verse 16, Matthew, you’ll note, specifically mentions a mountain. Now neither Matthew 26, verse 32, nor Matthew 28, verse 7, nor Matthew 28, verse 10 mention a mountain in Galilee. All of those passages simply say go to Galilee at the predesignated place. But it may well be that Matthew is telling us here that Jesus issued this great commission from the same mountain at which He first commissioned His disciples into service. At any rate, it may be that Matthew is drawing our attention to Jesus as the new Moses. As Moses speaks to the people of God at Mt. Sinai, so Jesus speaks to His disciples at this mountain in Galilee and gives them a worldwide mission as part of the new covenant. And so Jesus is set forth as the new Moses. It’s part of Matthew’s exalting of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then if you look at the beginning of verse 17 you see the disciples’ response. When they see Jesus, they instinctively worship. Now Matthew uses this term over and over beginning in Matthew, chapter 2 and by this word “worship” Matthew means that His disciples fell down to their knees and then down on their faces and prostrated themselves before the Lord Jesus Christ in loving and humble adoration and homage. They worshiped Him with all their being. Now Matthew is telling you something there. These are good, intelligent, well-versed in the scripture, orthodox Jews. And they know above all else this one principle of religion: You don’t worship anything that’s not God. You worship only the one true God. You worship nothing else. It’s their first commandment, it’s their last commandment. If they forgot everything else in their memory banks, they never would have forgotten that. And Matthew is leaving you this impression of these eleven consecrated orthodox Jews on their face before the Lord Jesus Christ so that you will know that there was no doubt in their mind that this was God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now that’s so important, because we live in a day of skepticism. And we study under academics who are skeptical of the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you just need to remember that the early church was so emphatically convinced of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it was three centuries, friends, before a heretic within the bounds of the church got up the nerve to deny the deity of Christ. There were heretics that denied the humanity of Christ in the first three centuries, but nobody had the gumption to deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he did, Arius was so thoroughly rebutted by the church that it took fifteen hundred years for another heretic to get up the nerve to deny the deity of Christ within the church. Modern liberal academics do it all the time, but it just shows that they have not enough sense to recognize what’s happened in the history of the church.

There are many things that the church is not certain about. This is not one of them. The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is at the center of the gospels; rip it out of the gospels, you have nothing left. Just get rid the whole thing. Don’t make Him into a great moral teacher. It just won’t work. And so Matthew leaves us with this picture which testifies to the deity of Christ.

And then if you look at the end of verse 17 you see Matthew tell you something astonishing. This is not what you were expecting. This is not how you would write fiction. If you were writing fiction, you would never have written the second half of this sentence. And yet some were doubting. Now why in the world does Matthew tell you that? Well, first of all he tells you that because it happens. It’s true. It’s just another indication of the historical accuracy of the historicity of Matthew’s account. He never would have made something like this up. The idea of falsifying these kinds of claims is wholly a modern literary idea. You don’t find it anywhere in ancient religious literature. There’s nothing like this. And so Matthew is telling us this in order to indicate the weakness of the disciples. They continue to struggle in their quest to believe and understand.

Now why would he mention this? Well he mentions this first of all because he’s going to tell you in his next breath what the source of faith is, what the source of banishing doubt is, but he’s also telling you this because he knows that a tremendous, a great, a mind-boggling commission is going to be given to these disciples in a few moments, and if you think that they were able to carry out that commission in their own strength, he wants to eradicate any such misconception from your mind by telling you that even at this point, even after the resurrection, even after they’d seen the Lord Jesus Christ there were some who were still in a doubtful state, and it won’t be until Pentecost that the eleven finally are over any of that doubt.

And it reminds us my friends, that the commission which Jesus gives in this passage cannot be done in human strength. It must be done wholly and only in the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the last two actions of the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ that Matthew pictures for you in his gospel, are worship and doubt. And that speaks volumes to our generation. You know, we may think that we’re the first generation to struggle with doubt. And Matthew is simply saying, look, I’m 2,000 years ahead of you. All those thoughts and issues that you think that you’re the first generation to ever struggle with, we were fifty generations ahead of you. And we know how to banish that doubt. So if you come here today as a doubting or as a skeptical person, Matthew’s waiting for you. And if you come as a Christian struggling with issues of doubt, Matthew is saying, I know what it’s like to watch a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ struggle. It’s not a pretty thing, but I understand it and I know how to deal with it, and I know how to cure it.

And so this is a gospel and this is a passage that speaks very directly to our day and time. But it also speaks to our day and time because of this issue of worship. You know, worship clearly for Matthew is at the very center of what discipleship entails. To be a disciple is first and foremost to worship the Lord God through Jesus Christ above all else with every fiber of our being. Not just one hour or one day of the week, but every day of the week, every waking hour with all that we are and have.

And that description that he gives us here of the disciples falling down and worshiping is poignant because we so rarely do. I grew up in the church, I sensed a call to the ministry from the time I was fourteen. Even during a spiritual dry spell in my first year of college, I was in church, in the choir every Sunday, Sunday after Sunday. And one day in the midst of my doctrinal studies in Scotland in the middle of a worship service it occurred to me, the question occurred to me, have I ever worshiped? I mean I’ve heard sing beautiful music; I’ve heard people pray beautiful prayers; I’ve heard great sermons preached; and I wondered if I had ever come to church and worshiped God myself or have I depended on other people to do it for me? And that’s a question that all of us need to ask ourselves from time to time. When you have experienced the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot help but give yourself to Him in worship. That’s what His disciples did. And it’s so poignant that we so rarely worship in our day and age. And so I would suggest to you that gospel of Matthew is for us. And that’s what we see in this first section of the great commission, Matthew giving us a picture emphasizing the Gentile mission, emphasizing the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ and emphasizing the weakness of the disciples.

II. Jesus’ declaration of authority, His command, and His encouragement to the disciples.

And then I’d like you to look at verses 18 through 20. Here we see Jesus declaring His authority, issuing a command, telling us how that command is to be carried out and also giving us words of comfort and encouragement. And I want to suggest to you that the whole mission of the church, the whole ball of wax, the whole mission of the church is based upon Jesus’ claim here, Jesus’ commands here, and Jesus’ comforts here.

Notice Jesus’ word in verse 18 is juxtaposed with the disciple’s unbelief. What has Matthew just told you at the end of verse 17? That there were still some doubting disciples. What is the very next thing that he does? He shows you Jesus coming and doing what? Speaking His word. What is Matthew telling you? He is telling you that it is the word of Jesus that produces belief and worship and ministry. It is the word of Jesus that drives away doubt.

You know there are a lot of doubting Christians out there that are looking for an answer to their doubt in mystical encounters, miracles, signs, wonders and here’s Matthew saying, you have doubts? Here’s where you find the solution to those doubts – in the word of Christ. That’s where doubt is vanished – when you perceive and you receive the word of Christ. And so Christ comes and He speaks this word.

And in verse 18, the end of that verse you see the claim that He makes. I want you to stop and I want you to think of the radical nature of this claim. It is an astounding claim that He makes. He says that all authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth. Now that claim is baffling for at least two reasons. First of all, if Jesus isn’t who He said He was that is the single most megalomaniacal statement ever said by a human being. To claim, if you’re not God, that all authority in the universe has been given to you is either the statement of a power-grabbing tyrant or of a deluded mental-health recipient. You’re either Napoleon with a Napoleon complex, or you’re on the level of a man who thinks he’s a poached egg. If you think that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to you and you’re not God. Realize how radical it is what Jesus is saying. Jesus is making an absolute claim about His kingship and lordship over the universe. You can’t make this Jesus into a warm, fuzzy buddy who has some neat ideas on how to make your life better, and is one amongst many in the world religions. This Jesus will not be accommodated to that. All authority belongs to Him. If you want to be in heaven with Him, you’re there on His terms. And He’s the only way because all authority has been given to Him. That’s totally unpopular in our day and age. But that’s exactly what Matthew is saying.

But that’s not the only perplexing thing about that statement to me. It’s not the only baffling thing. Notice what He says. “All authority has been given to Me.” Now isn’t that a strange statement. Now if Jesus claims to be equal with the Father, if Jesus claims to be divine, if Jesus claims to be the Second Person of the Trinity, what do you mean all authority has been given to you. Surely, you already have it. What does this mean? Well, this is why we need the eight-part series on the great commission. But you’re going to get it in a sentence. What does it mean? Before the foundation of the world, the Father in the covenant of redemption had promised the Son, that in fulfilling Your obligations as the Mediator of the Covenant and rescuing and redeeming My people, I will place everything under Your feet. It’s what Psalm 2 is all about. And Jesus is saying, I have delivered. I’ve earned it, and it’s Mine on the basis of the Father’s promise to Me before the foundation of the world.

My friends, the implications of that are staggering. Think about that for a while. But the Lord Jesus is saying to His disciples, all authority belongs to Me. And it’s so important that these disciples understand that because He’s about to ask these eleven trembling men to become the foundation of a world-wide movement that will end up in causing the nations to bow the knee before Him and to profess Him as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. And so there’s this astounding claim. That’s the first thing we see.

And then there is this command. And I want you to notice the focus of the command. So often because of the way our Scriptures are usually translated, we first focus on go. But as you know, Greek scholars, there is one imperative in this passage and there are three participles. The one imperative is make disciples. The three participles are going, baptizing and teaching. The going and the baptizing and the teaching are how you make disciples. The imperative is what Jesus wants the church to do until He comes again. Make disciples. And this is the way I want you to make them: Going, baptizing and teaching.

Let’s think about that for a minute. He says to go make disciples. He doesn’t say go build up the rolls of your church. Go get as many names on it as possible. He doesn’t say go out and get as many people to ascent to the gospel as you can. He doesn’t say go out and get people to pray a prayer. Or go out and get people to sign a card. No, he says, here’s your aim, make disciples. I don’t want people who will merely mouth a few words. I want people who will be followers of Me. That’s your goal. Not membership expansion, not even church growth, but discipleship. I want you to make disciples. That is a real follower of Jesus Christ. Those who are consumed with a zeal for His glory. Oswald Chambers once said, “Our Lord Jesus had only one desire and that was to do the will of His Heavenly Father; and to have desire is characteristic of a disciple.” And so Jesus is saying I want people who are consumed with the desire to do the will of my Father, just like I’m consumed with the desire to do the will of My Heavenly Father. These disciples are going to have a kingdom vision. They want to see Jesus’ kingdom built up.

Look, when a good businessman, when a great entrepreneur comes across with a product or a service that he thinks is better than anything on the market, he will throw himself into the prospect of exporting that revolution. Changing the software somebody uses. Changing the product that someone uses. Changing the service that someone uses because he’s convinced of the value of the product of the service. And he’ll throw himself into exporting that revolution.

Political systems do that sometimes. In America, in the 1760’s and ‘70’s and ‘80’s and ‘90’s we felt that we had learned a secret about the way a government ought to be done that was worthy to be exported to the world. And so it became a principle in 19th century America to foster democratic republics around the world because we felt that we had understood something about the genius of government that deserved to be shared. And we were zealous about it. By the way, the Soviet Union felt the same way. Their product just didn’t last. They wanted to export the revolution themselves. How much more, how much more should a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ desire to share and invest himself in the work of the kingdom because you have understood the truth. And the world fears that you have understood the truth with a capital T. And you’ve got a desire to share and to export that revolution.

Now exactly how are we supposed to go about that? Jesus doesn’t just give a general command, He gives specifics. The specifics you’ll find in verses 19 and 20, and I want you to see four parts to it. Therefore, going, baptizing, teaching. How do we go about making a disciple of Christ? Jesus says this is how you do it. First of all, you do it in light of what I’ve already told you. That’s why you have therefore in the great commission. “Go therefore.”

Why’s the therefore there? Wherefore the therefore? Why is it there? For two reasons. First of all, you do this in light of the fact that I’m worthy of worship. What had the disciples just done? They had just worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ. You don’t go to the ends of the earth to ask people to bow the knee and to devote themselves in discipleship with somebody who’s not God. Jesus says, “I’m worthy of worship. Therefore, you go.” But he also says, “I’ve been given all authority, therefore, you go.” If I’ve been given all authority, then My word is it and, therefore, you go. In light of those realities, you go.

Then, how do you do it? How do you make disciples? First of all, going, he says. There’s where we get world missions. Notice he says going to the nations. He doesn’t mean nation states. He doesn’t mean that nation states ought not be transformed by the gospel in their culture, and society and such. But the point is not to go to nation states. The point is to go to the peoples, the nations, the tongues, the tribes. Cross every boundary of nation and people and tongue and tribe and take the gospel there. That’s where mission fits in. But note as a means to universal discipleship. So the goal of missions is not simply to get people to profess faith in Christ, it’s to make people who are disciples of Christ.

You see one of our problems in evangelism and missions is we stop short of the goal that Christ has given in the great commission. We’re satisfied when somebody makes a profession of faith. Jesus is not. He wants disciples, not just people who make professions of faith. Disciples of Christ. Why? Because missions is a means to an end. What’s our great end in life? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To worship Him. You can only worship God if you’re a disciple. And, therefore, because we want everybody to worship God and everybody to be caught up in the eternal worship of heaven forever and ever, we want them to be disciples. And so we go to the ends of the earth to disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. So going, that’s the first thing.

Secondly, baptizing them in the name of the Trinity. And this just drives me crazy. There’s so much here. I wish I could tell you more, but let me just tell you five quick things about what this means. Baptizing into the Trinity. First of all, notice what we’re told here about discipleship just in that little command to baptize them. First of all, we’re told that discipleship cannot happen without a public acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is baptism, but a public acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Whether that’s a profession of faith of an adult or whether it’s the recognition of the Lordship over the covenant children of our congregation, with a view that one day in prospect they will embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism is a profession of the Lordship of Christ. And so Jesus is saying you can’t be a disciple until you publicly acknowledge me as Lord.

Secondly, by baptizing, He’s reminding us that discipleship cannot happen without the communion of the saints. You can’t be a disciple as a lone ranger. You’ve got to be a part of the body of Christ. The communion of saints. That’s why you have that doxology that speaks about the glory of Christ in the church. That’s why Paul says that it’s with all the saints that He wants you to learn the love of God, which is in Christ. You can’t become a disciple of Christ in isolation. You have to have the communion of the saints.

Thirdly, it reminds us that the church is where disciples are made. That’s the body in which Jesus is designed there to be mutual accountability. And that mutual accountability is necessary for discipleship.

Fourthly, baptized into the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit again reminds us of the triple Lordship of God. When we are baptized, it is as if God is putting His mark of ownership on us. We belong to Him, and He is our Lord.

And finally, this little phrase baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit sets forth the doctrine of the Trinity and once again emphasizes the deity of Christ. All of that is right there in Jesus’ command; that we go, that we baptize.

But He doesn’t stop there. He says teaching them. And notice two things about this interesting command. Teaching them. He says teach them to observe. Jesus is not satisfied that all of His disciples who are part of the local church would study and learn the Westminster Confession of Faith, even though that would be a wonderful thing. He is not satisfied until we begin to live the Christian life. It’s not enough to know, it’s not enough to be intrigued by the intellectual nuances of Christian doctrine. He wants us to be transformed in our living by the truth. And so He says teach them to observe. Notice how He holds teaching, knowledge and doing practice together. They go right together, so that one abstracted from the other is useless. Teach them to observe.

And notice He doesn’t just say teach them to observe five key points from amongst all of my teaching. Teach them to observe four essentials of the gospel. Teach them to observe six major things, or seven this, or twelve that.

He says teach them to observe all that I have commanded. At RUM there is slogan that floats around, and I think it’s great. RUM says that oftentimes campus ministries have as their goal to get the minimal amount of truth to the maximum amount of people. That is, you tell the basics of the gospel to as many people as possible. Whereas, RUM is committed to the idea of giving the maximum amount of truth to the maximum amount of people. It seems to me that that comes right out of the great commission. Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. Jesus is committing us here to discipleship in a radical way.

Discipleship, you see, is more than getting to know what the teacher knows. It is getting to be who the teacher is. And, therefore, the making of the disciple means the creating of a duplicate, not just someone who agrees intellectually or cognitively with the principles of the religion, but someone who is transformed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so any form of evangelism that underemphasizes the goal of discipleship is unbiblical evangelism.

And then Jesus comes to the comfort. You’ve seen His claim to authority. You’ve seen His command for discipleship, and then He gives a comfort to the disciples. He says to them, in effect, I am with you the whole of everyday, all the days, until My coming again. The Lord Jesus Christ’s promise of His presence is designed to comfort His disciples. And I can’t imagine more comforting words than that, especially in light of the commission that He’s given to them. And I wonder if the reason that we don’t often sense that presence is because our heart is not where His is. Do we have a heart to disciple the nations? Are we ready to go to people who are not like us here, in the United States, around the world to make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are our lives caught up in that? Are we wholly invested? Are we as people like to say today, are we sold out to that?

You know, my wife’s aunt and uncle in North Carolina many years ago bought into a stock of a small grocery chain. A few thousand dollars of stock. And over a course of years it turned into millions of dollars. And I’ve known a lot of people who wished that they had bought in on the ground floor on that particular stock.

Well, think of it this way. In Christian discipleship you sell everything else you have and all your stock is in one company. Now how much interest do you have in watching the stock exchange on that stock?

In Christian discipleship, all of your hope is vested in the company of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, where is your heart? Now maybe we would experience more of the presence of Christ if our heart were more there in the company of His kingdom. May God enable us to realize the radical implications of the great commission, and may those radical implications transform the evangelical church today. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we bow before You in awe and wonder and we worship. And we ask that you would give us Your heart and that You would make us disciples. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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