21st June 2026

THE GREAT COMMISSION PART II – 21/6/26 - Martin Mowat
Readings;  Matthew 24:1-14 & Acts 1:1-11. 

Last week I talked about what we call the great commission – Jesus’ vision for his church, and I suggested a couple of things that we can do, here in Mirepoix, to lend weight to the work of spreading the gospel message, which becomes more and more urgent with every newspaper headline.  So, as you might have guessed from our two readings, we’re going to continue looking at that.

“Therefore, go and make disciples …” Matthew 28:19
Why therefore? Because he had just said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” If you think about it, that’s some statement.  All authority in heaven and on earth. It’s a statement that tells us two things:-

·  That when he tells us to do something, we should do it, but also

·  That when we go and make disciples for him, we do so with “all authority”.

When I was in the army I was a 2nd Lt and an acting Captain. I was given authority, but also responsibility.  You can’t have one without the other, they always go hand in hand.

Jesus’ commission tells us to do four specific things, and last week we only really talked about them in very general terms:-

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

4 verbs   - go
- make disciples

- baptise them

- teach them to obey.

1.   Go!  That implies getting up out of our seats and going out, maybe even out of our comfort zones.  Church is NOT just a nice quiet place for a meditation, a holy huddle, singing hymns, it’s also a launchpad. 

In John 17 Jesus prays a beautiful prayer for his disciples and then for all believers.  It would have been nice to have it as one of today’s readings.  In it he prays this:- They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

2.  Make disciples. Disciples, not just converts, I’ll come back to that, of all nations – we covered that last week. 

I mentioned newspaper headlines just now. Many of us think that Jesus said that his return would be heralded by things like earthquakes, wars and rumours of wars, and that therefore he might be coming very soon. But as we heard in our first reading from Matthew 24, and Mark 13 is almost identical, Jesus said that these things would just be the beginning of our sorrows. He went on to say “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and THEN shall the end come.” So, depending on how you interpret that, it could well be that with 4000 people groups still to be reached with the good news, the end is not going to be quite yet.

But that’s another huge discussion.

3.  Baptise them …. in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  So a vital part of the process, not an optional extra.

Let me tell you a little story. Some of you have heard it before.

Like many of you, probably, I was ‘baptised’ as a baby in the Anglican tradition. I was confirmed at the age if 12, and although that was a very meaningful experience for me, it wasn’t until a dozen or so years later that I really became a Christian.  When that happened, the pastor of my sister’s church suggested to me that I should be baptised - again.

HUGE dilemma. Huge.  I studied the subject and all the arguments about baptism being reserved for believers, I prayed, I cogitated, I procrastinated, and eventually I decided to give it a miss.  Problem solved.  Or so I thought.

Crossing a big open space at a Bible week some time later, thinking about something completely different, I heard someone say in a perfectly normal voice “Martin, I want you to be baptised.”

I turned round to see who it was who’d said that, but there wasn’t anyone, and that was when I heard it again, unmistakably. “Martin, I want you to be baptised.” Nothing else.

Charlotte and I were baptised soon after in an orthopaedic hospital swimming pool, and I can see now that that whole episode had a profound effect on my Christian walk. 

But that was me.  You can’t make theological arguments based on one person’s personal experience, but let me tell you, please, what I now believe, personally, about Baptism.

Let me say, before I do, that I am sure that if we went around the chapel this morning there would be several different views on the subject, depending mainly on our church background, so I don’t want us to fall out over this. I’m just going to share with you what I think.

Baptism is what the Anglicans call “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”  It doesn’t DO anything. It’s simply a public declaration, an acknowledgement of Lordship which logically FOLLOWS conversion. And its an act of obedience.

The baptism of babies came in gradually from the late 2nd century, in the belief that were they to die prematurely, they would nevertheless go to heaven.  But nowhere, nowhere does scripture indicate that baptism provides salvation, and that’s NOT what Jesus is talking about in his great commission.

Interestingly the word "baptise" stems from the Greek word ‘baptizo’, which stems from the root word ‘bapto’, a first-century term describing a procedure that changes the colour of a garment after it had been cleansed. Literally, baptize means to totally immerse in water.  

So yes, by all means, pour a little water on babies’ foreheads to christen them, to pray a blessing on them, and protection for them, certainly, why not, nothing wrong with that – but to my mind, that’s not baptism.

4. “teaching them to obey”.

Obey what? “Everything I have commanded you.”

Jesus had been teaching his disciples 24/7 for 3 years, that’s a LOT of teaching. But the people who come to Christ today don’t know any of it, and they need to for a number of crucial reasons:-

-       So that they don’t wander off again

-       So that everyone’s on the same page and stays united. That’s one of the reasons that we recently spent 4 weeks working through our Statement of Faith. 

-       So that they, in turn, have more confidence to share their faith with others.

Two additional comments

-       Obedience and Lordship are key

-       The teaching needs to be comprehensive – “everything”

Teaching, individually if possible, or in groups. Alpha & Christianity Explored ministries have good material. Other discipleship series – TIC – J John, others

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.  This is a beautiful promise.

So, in conclusion, realistically, what can WE BE and DO to play our part in Jesus mission?   Personally? As a church?  Seven suggestions:-

Be individuals of integrity, caring, giving, such that people actually recognise that we’re different.

Be a church where people come “to find family and friendship as they get to know God, his love and his peace”.  That’s our “vision”.

Join a missionary alliance. We just did, the Christian and Missionary Alliance in France.

Sponsor and encourage missionaries. We have Thibaut coming on September 13th, as I mentioned last week.

Regularly review which missions and charities we support financially, something that the COG does do.  

Read our Bibles.  NIV Bible app, read by David Suchet for example.

Pray for opportunities, the words, the courage, the zeal, the love, to share the joy of our faith.

So one last time. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”