 So he wasn't able to prepare the Sunday school. So that means most of you are getting to sit in on Essentials class today because that's what I was preparing. So there's some of us here who are regularly part of the Essentials class. And so this class is mainly for us. But you guys get to sit in. OK, so if you have gentry be handing out the class outline, I'm just going to try and keep the class interactive. And so what we've covered so far in the Essentials class has been the doctrine of man, the doctrine of sin. We've covered creation. What is creation? We've covered who is Jesus Christ and His person and His work. We've covered how we respond to the gospel. We've covered the golden chain, sanctification, election, justification, sanctification, glorification. We have covered regeneration. And now we're getting into, we've concluded on salvation. We had a couple lessons about what is a church. So from Emily, can you say something? Remember a point from last week, one of the things we covered about the church? The church discipline is one. So we talked about the church universal and church local, the true church. And Michael, can you add something about what we covered about the church so far? So we've covered about how the church is the pillar in the ground of truth. If you want to know what's true about God, about life and death, then you go to church. The church, we also covered about how you can't say you love God and don't love His people. An old phrase is, you can't say, God is my Father. If you're not willing to say the church is my bride, or Christ's bride. If you're not willing to say you don't have that relationship with this church, then you don't have that relationship with the Father. OK? Somebody would say, well, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. Nobody would ever say that, right, Jack? Maybe they would say it, but it's not right. So if somebody would say that, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. And that's like saying, well, you don't have to spend time with your wife to be married. That's true, right? You don't have to spend time with your wife to be married. But how long is the marriage going to last? It's going to be really short. It's going to be really short. It's a bozo no-no. So somebody who says, I'm going to follow God, love God, and I'll be part of the church. So this week, what we have is then what is the mission of the church? OK? So what is the mission of the church? And I encourage you, like if you need a outline, then go ahead and raise your hand and Jen can get that to you. OK, so we're going to read Matthew 18. And we're going to begin to focus on the mission of the church. Since I'm the one with the mic, I would have somebody else read it, but since I'm the one with the mic, I'll read it. So Matthew 28, we'll read verses 16 to 20. Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. 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 have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. OK, so Oliver, who is given this command in Matthew 28, 16 to 20. OK, the disciples. Now, how many of the disciples? The 11, and now Jack says over 500. Tom, possibly the 500. OK, so let's, how do you know that from context? Let me be, oh, Anya. OK, so the command is to be given to all the disciples, but the first question was, who is the command given to here? And so we're looking at, how can you know that from the context? Because we're thinking, maybe it's a 500. And what's the reference to the 500? Let's look real quick in 1 Corinthians 15. What are the, it was Jack and Tom talking about, is 1 Corinthians 15. And Wilson, would you read verses 3 to 6 of that chapter? I'm going to be calling out our essentials people. So you can't hide, even though there's a big crowd. OK, that's good. So we see that there's a reference to over 500 people at one time. OK, so when is this happening? Do you remember in Pastor Rick Sermon, he said that the Lord is around in his resurrected body for 40 days? So in that 40 days, it's got to take place at some time in the Bible where over 500 people see him at once. So let's look back at Matthew 28 and notice, earlier in the chapter, in verse 5, but the angel answered and said to the women, were any of the apostles women? No, OK, thank you. Pastor Rick's got the theology right. OK, so don't be afraid. So Jesus is not speaking to the disciples, that's the point. Don't be afraid, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen. And as he said, come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. Indeed, he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. So who is he speaking to there? The women are going to see him at Galilee. Behold, I have told you. So they went quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, rejoice. So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid, go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. So the brethren in verse 10 could refer to a larger group, or at least it refers to the 11 disciples. So we know that, and then you see in verse 16, then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain, which Jesus had appointed for them. So multiple times in the same chapter, they're talking about Galilee. Let's meet up at Galilee, let's meet up at Galilee, and tell other people about it, that we're gonna meet up up in Galilee. So this meeting up in Galilee fits into where the 500 would come, because we know it's more than just the disciples, it's also the ladies here. So it makes sense in the chronological order of the story, that this is where it happens. So Jesus is here at Galilee. The area where he grew up, the area where a lot of ministry was done, over 500 people there, seeing the resurrected Lord. What is he gonna say? He's gonna summarize the mission of the church. He's gonna summarize what we're to be doing. Now let me ask another question. What is the goal of the church? Make disciples, glorify Christ? What about, so are those two things different, they're different ideas, right? Make disciples, glorify Christ. What is the ultimate goal of the church, is to glorify, they're both right, to glorify Christ by making disciples, okay? So those two are not at odd, but they go together. So that's the point of this little, my little arrows, you know, go to glorify Christ, okay? So your purpose of being here, of being in the church, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. So then you do that, you're gonna glorify him by obeying the great commission. And the great commission is gonna be, go into all the world, is gonna be making disciples, is gonna be baptizing. And everything we do, maybe you've seen this analogy before, everything we do, is gonna be like, this is supposed to be a wheel, sorry about the, you know. Maybe you thought it was an eyeball, somebody who didn't get sleep. Instead, it's supposed to be a wheel. I heard Shadrach is good with art, so maybe I'll have him do the drawing next time, right? So in this spoke, you know, this wheel, the spokes are supposed to represent everything we do as a church. We have a nursery over here, we got somebody to clean the seats, we have this building, we have a copier machine in the other room that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. We have a sound system here. We have all of you here. We have people watching online. We, what do we do throughout the week? We get together for group, like as a church. We get together for group, we pray together, we go evangelizing together, we meet each other's homes, we're friends with each other, we love one another. All of those things are spokes for the purpose of making disciples, helping each other to grow in all the commands of the Lord. It's going out into the world. It's for, we're doing this in the context of the local church. Okay, so all of that purpose is supposed to be leading us to obey the Great Commission. And the Great Commission is a three-legged stool, right? It has three parts to it. It's not just evangelism. It's not just training. And it's not just, it's evangelism. It's making disciples. And it's including that in the local church. It's all part of the local church, baptizing them into the local church. Okay, so there's the summary. Let's think now some about the details of our texts in Matthew. Someone would say, this is just a command just given to the apostles. So it doesn't apply to us. It's just for the apostles. And we looked at how it's not just the apostles, but how else could you refute that in the text? How else is that idea wrong, Andy? Okay, so I think that's what Anya's point was, right? The command goes to the ends of the age and there are no more apostles around. Peter, James, and John, they're all gone. Okay, they're with the Lord, so they can't be obeying it now. Very good. So the disciples are to pass on the command. Who are they to pass on the command to? Somebody else who passes on the command and passes on this truth and this practice, right? Okay, so it's got to be continuing throughout the ages. It's not just told to the apostles. It's told to the over 500. It is in order to pass on the command, you got to pass it on through all the ages. It's something for the church. Okay, so what that means is it's for you. It's for you, it's for you, it's for everybody. So then now think today, if you're part of the church, if you want to be a part of the church, then are you involved in each of these things? Think about the next question on the sheet is, how do you plan to obey this? How do you plan to obey each of these things? And right now, could you write down on the paper what your plan is to go into the world? Your personal plan. Write down your personal plan about how you're either being discipled or you're discipling somebody else. And also, how are you involved in the church in the baptizing of believers? We'll get into that a little bit on how that application may not be quite as clear. Because we're not asking each and every one of you to immerse somebody in water, right? So we'll get there. So the point of this lesson is the thing. The church is involved and commanded for this mission. Are you doing that? It doesn't matter if you've been here a long time or a little time. Are you participating in this command that the Lord has given you if you are in his church, if you are his child? Okay, so when we see the command, we'll look at verse 18, at the command to go. And Jesus spoke, came and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me and heaven and on earth in verse 18. Okay, so the heart and the thrust of the book of Matthew is showing the kingship of Jesus Christ. We see prophecies fulfilled that he is the king. He's the Davidic king. We see in the very beginning, he's in the line of David. We see he's the rightful king for not only Israel, but then he's the rightful king for all of the world. We also saw that in when we were looking at Jesus, who Jesus is in his person, right? And that he's our prophet, priest and king. So we looked at that in the essentials class and here is an extension of his kingship that since he's the son of David, he's the true son of David. He is the ultimate king. He's crucified as the king of the Jews, but he is actually the king of kings. Here now he's speaking of that rule in verse 18. And it's important, why is that important for what he's about to say? How does it, how do the two get connected together? Grace, that's right. And the king, this is part of the kingly position is then giving those kingly commands, you know? Yes, he can rightly say this command. And it's also, he has the authority to say it, but also he has the power. He has the power to give you the ability to do it. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. It's been given to him by the Father, that he is the rightful king. Okay, so then what is the command then? But to go. Okay, so next objection is the go. If you look in the original language, it is a participle. Participle would mean ending in ING typically. You know, maybe you can, grammar teachers can kind of help us out with this, but okay, so this part of speech called a participle, typically a, in English, going. Going, walking, eating, sleeping, those are participles. So I would see this and I would say, well, it's originally a participle. So I'm just going to, as I go about life, I'm going to go into the world. What, how is that wrong? Josh? Okay, is that understood? That was very clear. Yes, Claudia? Yes. You said the same thing as Josh. Josh gave all the details of the grammar and you said it means to go, the actual word. So you both said the same thing Go ahead, Josh. Yes. Okay, so like Josh said, all this boils down to say that it's translated correctly. There's no major English translation that you can go to and find going. You look and you see go. So it's somebody who knows a little bit about Greek can get a little, can get very dangerous. Right, it's kind of like, if I know a little bit about flying airplanes, today your pilot is Mark Mudge. Don't worry, I know a little bit about flying airplanes. Is that the person you want? I'm confident enough to sit in the seat. I'm confident enough to tell you I'm going to fly it, but I'm also, I don't know that much about it. I'm suddenly the person who knows a little bit can become very dangerous. It can happen the same with Greek, be careful. But if somebody just throws out a Greek word, you have to do the study to see if they actually know what they're saying. So somebody can throw out a little Greek and throw you off and say, you don't have to go. Even though the king has commanded it, even though he's commanded it for all the ages, even though he's commanded it for everybody, every Christian to do it, they're gonna, people are gonna try and get away from this command and say it doesn't apply to you. It applies to you in the grammar, in the context, in the implications of the command. Okay, so we're to go and now the next subjection is, well, I see that it says to go therefore and make disciples of all nations. I'm not going to a whole bunch of different countries. James was the last time you went to a different country and preached the gospel. Okay, Dr. Carl, okay. Are we obeying this text? How? I know what it is, I'll send missionaries. I'm gonna obey this command by sending missionaries. Josh again? Have you got more attendant circumstance participles for us? So we see the church reaching out in the Book of Acts to all different people groups. Okay, Oliver? Yes. So Oliver's right that you can reach multiple ethnicities in your own city. Remember you're at, Jack? That's right, so Acts two is another example of how we're reaching the nations in one city. Now those things are true. The word here for nations is where we get the, is like in Greek, ethne, I believe it, I think it is. Maybe Josh can look it up. So as Josh looks it up, that word is for more ethnic groups than for geographical nations. It's not, the word is not referring to North Korea, South Korea, Sudan, or Sudan is cut in half now too. Northern Sudan, South Sudan, former Yugoslavia, Colombia. It's not referring to those geographical nations. It's referring to ethnicities. Like we would use all nations are represented here. We're not talking about, we're talking about ethnicity. So the word here is about the gospel, the going doesn't stop at Israel, like Jesus' ministry mainly in Israel. It doesn't begin and end there. He's not like the prophet Joel, who's gonna preach to the people, and they're gonna be located mostly in Jerusalem. This command now to go is for every ethnic group. There is no boundary. There's nobody you're gonna find, and no person you're gonna find who doesn't need you to go to them. Andy? Yes, we see that worked out in the book of Acts. Okay, so then, what's your plan? What's your plan to go? You have the liberty to be able to develop that, but you are under the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, how you're to obey that. To not have a plan is to disregard the command that God has given. You, to just say, I'm gonna, imagine that with your supervisor, right? Your supervisor says, like UPS, we'll take UPS. Okay, what's the command that you're giving at UPS? 150 stops. And Daniel's gonna say, well, as I go through life, I will make those stops. I'll keep them in my back of my blue vinyvan. And is Daniel's supervisor gonna be happy with that? Why not? So he's gonna press you for obedience to the command he's given, right? And what happens if you just say, who are you to give me this command of 150 stops? He's gonna begin to write you up. Okay, and then you say, who are you to have the authority to write me up? You don't wanna go that far. You know what he's gonna say. He's gonna say, I'm the supervisor. I've been given this position. I have the authority. It sounds like when the Lord says I have authority, all authority, in heaven and in earth, there is no where the realm of my authority does not extend. So because he is authority, he's given you the command, and here's the point of the analogy with UPS, is Daniel has to say, I'm gonna intentionally do this. I'm gonna intentionally plan how I'm gonna make 150 stops today. Are you told what way you gotta drive and all that? You are? Very specific, but okay, okay. Okay, so now we gotta switch analogies now to a, do it any way you want. What I'm trying to extend the analogy to is now to the freedom as well, to how to obey that command. Like with Dr. Carl, when you have somebody in your office, is there anybody telling you how to examine or prescribe? Okay, so that's a better analogy to say he has regulations on what he's to do, but he also has freedom, and that's what I'm trying to communicate. The Christian has the word of God to regulate what is evangelism. You can't say, saying God bless you is evangelism. You can't say handing out waters or sending a missionary is evangelism. You can't say that you can't make up what you want, right? I can't go into an office and say, I'm a eye doctor now. I'm gonna make up what medicine is, just wash it out with some water. Or buy some reading glasses at the CVS, and it'll be fine. It doesn't work that way. Instead, there's specifics that I don't have any idea about that Dr. Carl does about what people need with their eyes. My point is back to the, that Christ has outlined what the message is, and you can see that in the Great Commission in Luke. What does he outline, give us an outline for the message? See, see that would you read Luke 24? I think Tom began to read part of that. We're looking at how the Lord defines in Luke 24, the very end of the book, in verses 46 to 48, if you would read those, 46 to 48 of Luke 24. Okay, so the message is including how Christ has come, suffered, rose from the dead the third day, repentance should be preached in this message, and forgiveness of sins, remission of sins in his name. So that's what he's done by his work on the cross. Okay, maybe about a year and a half ago or so, some people in our church were listening to popular radio program, and they heard the idea that said, well, we are all called to be witnesses, but we're not called to be, all called to be evangelists. They said there's a difference between these two words, being a witness and being an evangelist. Yes, we're all called to be a witness. Acts one, eight, he's gonna give you the power to become witnesses, but we can be, we can, there's the assembly line idea, right? Like in the assembly line when Ford makes a car, you got somebody putting on the tire, you got somebody doing the interior, you got somebody doing the paint job, you got somebody selling the car out of the dealership. And as long as you're involved some way in the assembly line, you're completing the Great Commission. So the church works that way. We got Sharma who greets out front, and Troy. As long as you're greeting, or as long as you're doing something in the nursery, you're obeying the Great Commission. Now that argument is based on a word study, okay? How is witnesses, this is the same word here for witnesses is used in Acts one, eight. How is a witness talked about here in Luke 24? What is the witness saying? He's saying the message of repentance, that Christ has come to suffer, rise from the dead, the third day, and forgiveness of sins. So according to Luke, a basic word study, right? Is to say, you say how is the word used in the book that you're studying? And then what the next thing you do in a word study is say how does the same author use that particular word? Who wrote the book of Acts? Who wrote the book of Luke? It's not a trick question, right? How does Luke use the word witness? Does he use it as just somebody who has seen something and then they're involved saying yes. In other words, does Luke use witness and evangelize as interchangeable terms? Yes, he does. And you can see that in Luke 24. If you're reading Luke literature, you're gonna end the book of Luke and you're gonna pick up the book of Acts and it's gonna overlap completely. He overlaps and he continues part two. Here's the story part two and he's using witness interchangeably. Is that clear? This is something that an idea that was in our church a year and a half ago or so and it spread that you don't have to evangelize because you're just called to be a witness, not an evangelist and to be a witness can be just part of the assembly line. Okay, so please understand this argument and understand this because like we said, there's many ways that people run away from this command and that's one of them. Word studies, bad use of grammar or syntax, bad use of the context, who's he saying it to, the Great Commission too? Bad use of the logic and the implications. Well, if he commanded this and he commanded it to go to the end of the age, then it should be for all the church. You see? So there are many different ways that the Great Commission has said that you don't have to obey it. Okay, so if you don't have a plan, you're not intentional about it, then you're going to disobey the Lord. Go ahead, Michael. Thank you, brother. Yes, it's very clear the message that we're to say. Annie? Yes. Yes, it's not just a, the argument for witness to explain a little more, it goes that it's something you actually have to see, you actually have to, but the witness here is also like Annie's bring out, it's something testifying to these truths. Have you known these truths? What, how Christ has died for your sins? Have you known the truths of repentance and forgiveness of sins? Then you should proclaim them. You should say them to others. Okay, so are you, do you have a plan? If you don't have a plan, then you're going to end up disobeying the Lord. You need to have a plan about how to purposely, intentionally go and make disciples. Okay, so then what about making disciples? What are, to make the connection, here in Go, we set out a time to do that corporately, multiple different corporate times, because it's wrong for us, we believe it's morally wrong to say to you as a people, go in a way that's command and then not give you an avenue to do it. That would be like us saying worship the Lord corporately, and then we don't set up a time to worship the Lord corporately. That's gonna frustrate your efforts to do that, right? You're gonna do it, you're gonna try and do it, but you would say, wouldn't it be nice if we could just get a place where we could do it corporately, you keep on telling us to worship corporately? Well, wouldn't it be nice to have a place and a time where we could do it together? And it's the same with this command, so we provide ways to do it corporately. The church provides that, what are some of the ways that we as a church provide avenues for you to be discipled? Okay, this essentials class, yes, is to be a time, so we have classes, and we hope to have more classrooms come in the future so that we can have more interaction in an individual basis or a better class setting, student to teacher ratio, right? People talk about that. Okay, so how else are we doing discipleship, Oliver? Okay, so small group setting, yes, Brenda? So there's one-on-one discipleship happening with Linda and Lee helping other Davidson's, and discipling, okay, so there's one-on-one discipleship happening, there's small group happening, there is classes. So doing this corporately is how Jesus discipled, went about discipling His disciples. That would be another reason why it would be wrong for us to say, go and not provide you an avenue to be able to do that and be trained in it. So the example of our Lord, okay? Give me some more examples. Yes, so with Titus too, there is the categories of younger men, older men, younger women, older women, and they're given specific instructions about who to find a disciple or be discipled by. Okay, so, and we also have avenues of discipleship in the preaching. The preaching is a way to disciple everybody at one time. There's small one-on-one settings, and there is everybody at once settings, okay? So then let me ask you, where are you at there? Do you have somebody, if you've been here for a while, do you have somebody that you're discipling? How faithful are you in small group? If there's a time that's set aside for your specific discipleship, and it's in a smaller setting, so you can talk about it, how faithful are you to it? I imagine Jesus said, okay, we're all gonna meet up in Galilee, we're all gonna meet up in Galilee. And you get there, and there's some important things going on, life gets busy, and then you get there, and there's only one person. You're like, where's Jesus? And the guy's like, he already ascended. You got here too late. You didn't show up on time, he's gone. What would you have missed out on? So here's my pastoral application. I can just see, beloved, I can see you getting later and later and later and later and later. And what that shows is the lack, you see a lack of importance about being discipled, that when you show up so late that you miss corporate worship, or you show up so late that you miss corporate prayer. I'm not talking about when you're sick like a dog, or when you can't make it because of work. I'm talking about it when you're just late because it's not a priority to you. Making disciples, he gives a command, and like Josh said about the grammar, this is the main command, the heart of it, and the others carry the weight because of this. So that there's no, and that weight of this command shows a connection that you just don't say to somebody, evangelize them, and then not connect them with discipleship. So since you've been evangelized, since you've seen the Savior, since you've known Jesus Christ, I'm speaking to members of Cornerstone Baptist Church, then what is your, how are you making discipleship a priority to be discipled? We want to provide that for you in as many ways as we can. You need to see that this is a command from the King, and you need it, you need it. Am I right? Okay, so what remembering this does, that it's command from Christ, makes you be reoriented in priorities. It makes you say, I need to make sure that I am being discipled or I am discipling others in whatever different ways that I can do that, and as much as I can, I want that process to be happening. Somebody would say, well, I go to my family, and I'd make disciples of my family. And I would say, yes, amen. If you don't, you're a hypocrite. I mean, what kind of dad would go and disciple, go preach the gospel to somebody else, not preach the gospel to their kids? Well, what kind of dad would go and make disciples and train somebody else how to follow Christ, and then not train their wife, and not disciple their wife? Yes, of course. That should be obvious, but the command is not just to your family. Who is the command, what does Jesus say in the text? All nations, all different ethnic groups. Your family isn't made up typically of all ethnic groups. It's usually made up of your ethnicity, usually. So you cannot obey the command just in your family. Yes, you must obey it with your family. You're a hypocrite if you don't. But the command is to be with all the world. So what's your plan now? What's your plan about how to be discipled? How to not just say I'm gonna follow Jesus, but actually follow through with it and learn all his commands. Be reminded of his commands. Be taught to obey his commands. A disciple is a learning follower. Okay, so now in, back in Matthew, finally we have making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Okay, so the final command here is baptizing. Okay, so baptism is a ordinance from the Lord Jesus Christ. It's given to his church. It's not given to a parachurch. It's not given to anybody who just wants to go out and baptize. It's given to the church. And in Acts two, let's look at Acts 238 real quick. Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call. And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and prayers. Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among them all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily, those who were being saved. Okay, so the point here is the link, the New Testament idea together of baptism is linked with the church. There would be, there's many people who would say, I'm gonna do these two things and I'm gonna do them apart from the church. Baptism is the sign of your death to sin, dying to your old life, rising in Christ to a new life with Jesus Christ. It's a public declaration. It is something you are saying to the world. I remember, I can't, I think it was maybe Brian Borgman or maybe it was Mark Dever. But I was listening to some sermon, they're talking about their churches in India that they have, they're supporting. And in India, Hinduism, Islam is a higher percentage, much higher percentage than someone who called himself a Christian. And so in some of those societies, they were describing, the person was describing in a sermon that it's possible to say I'm a Christian and not get persecuted from the Hindus or from the Muslims. But when you are publicly baptized, that's when the person in the society, the people in the society began to receive persecution. That even pagan people know the difference between somebody who says I'm Christian and then somebody who publicly makes that step and identifies with Jesus Christ, that I'm turning from my old life and I am forever known as a Christ follower. That public declaration of your commitment to Jesus Christ is made together with the church. The church as a whole does baptizing. Like when we go out to Lake Mills and we do baptisms and Pastor Rick or Pastor Mark, they take somebody and they dunk them. That is not just, the person who does the baptizing is not the just the person baptizing. It is a corporate action. It is a corporate action of someone being added to the church. Church membership goes along with baptism. That's what happens happening in Acts 2. That's the point of me reading it. Did you notice those details? That in verse 41, read it again. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. Do you see the link there between church membership being added to the church and baptism? You can't make a commitment-less commitment and say I'm baptized and not be to a local body committed and part of that local body. That is something that the entire church does. It's not just the guy doing the dunking. Nowhere's in the Bible does it specify who does the dunking. Have you noticed that? It doesn't have to be priest Joe. It doesn't have to be Pastor Mark. It doesn't have to be, there's no specification. There's even an example of a guy who I think was a Presbyterian and he ended up baptizing himself because he wanted to become Baptist so he ended up baptizing himself because he didn't have a minister at the time. It was Baptist to baptize him. He's doing it with the church, if I understand the story right. The point is me just saying when you think about the baptism services do not, you need to be thinking about it as this is something we're doing together as a body and this person is being committed and joining us, joining us, being added to our number. Does that make sense? That's how you're to be involved with it. The actual dunking doesn't matter. What matters is there being commitment to Christ, their death to sin and their commitment to follow Jesus Christ with the local church. If you remember in the way that we say those phrases, we'll often say that. This person is being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. He's in your professed faith and your commitment to follow the Lord Jesus Christ with Cornerstone Baptist Church. I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit. You get the temptation to say, I now present you, husband and wife, like when you do those phrases. But the point of the phrases is to communicate a repeated idea to you, to repeatedly say to you there's a connection there. Okay, does that make sense? Yes, Michael, with some, yes, some people are less committed after baptism. A confusion or disobedience or many different factors. Let's try and set them straight now with this class, right, replied? That as a member of Cornerstone Baptist Church, you do not have to be involved in corporate evangelism. It is not a command that it is, the command is to go. The command is to have an intentional plan. I just want to be clear about that. That's why I was trying to give the analogy about structure and freedom with the jobs so that you have the freedom of how you're gonna obey that. But, and my main point, I hope that that's clear by now to everyone that you don't have to participate in corporate evangelism. But I want to speak to those who are not and say, are you, do you have a plan? If you have a plan, that's great. But many times a person who is not participating corporately doesn't have a plan, they know they're being negligent. And that's what I would, I would press upon you, the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded it for you. And the example in the church, in the Bible, is a corporate one and an individual one. So I would rather ask instead, why would you not? The question of why would I have to be involved in corporate evangelism is the wrong question. It reveals a wrong heart. What I would say instead is why would you not? And there are some good reasons, but there are many there are not. You have to examine your heart about these things and understand how you would obey them. But yeah, thank you, Clyde, for the sake of clarity. I would want to emphasize that the Lord commands you to go, but He does not command you to go in a specific manner or with another person. But it is helpful. It is the example we see in church, so we provide them for you. I hope that I made that clear and was, if you have any questions about that, I know there's been confusion before in the past. And please come and ask me and I'll, I want to make that clear and helpful. Yes, Tom? Yes, you cannot make disciples on your own. In case you are commanded to go, make disciples, baptizing, the fact that it's given to 500 people is given corporately. These things are all typically done corporately in the Bible. Typically there's not somebody off on a loan, usually a two by two. So that's the norm. That's the norm. But just for sake of clarity, because there's been so much confusion in the past that we want to make that abundantly clear that you can obey this command without going in a church assigned time. And that's not with the church. Cornerstone Baptist Church is not holding you to say you have to go to a corporate time. Okay, so you are commanded to go, to make disciples and be baptized. Please, please, beloved, think about each of these in your own life. That's why I wrote down on the paper, how do you plan to obey each of these? How do you plan to obey this? Do you, are you going to, can you answer each of those questions? And say, I obey this one intentionally in this way. I obey this one intentionally in this way. I obey this one intentionally in this way. I'm being part of bringing people to be included in the church. I am being discipled. I am discipling someone else. I am going and here's my plan and how I go. I'm doing it intentionally. Every one of you who professes the name of Christ should be obeying the kingly command here. That's the mission the Lord has given us. When we say you need to obey the commission, it's not just evangelism. It's a three-legged stool. Don't associate great commission with only evangelism. Otherwise you will end up saying, my goal is to evangelize. My goal is to evangelize and great commission means evangelism and that's the purpose which I'm here for and that's the mission of the church that alone, that makes it so narrow of a scope that you will disobey other commands. The wide scope that Christ give is a three-legged stool. The great commission is discipleship, evangelism in the setting of the church. These things all go together. The three-legged stool is just a way to say, if you take one leg off, you're falling down on the stool. You need all three legs. So that's the command of the Lord and I plead with you to not neglect this command, not become disobedient, not become late, not become this is not a priority anymore, but to obey it. Okay, let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you that all authority has been given to you. We thank you that you've given us this command. What a blessing to be able to participate in going out into the world to make your gospel known. What a joy to be able to make disciples and help people to grow. I wanna thank you for each and every person you've brought to this church and I ask that you would help us as pastors to disciple them and I pray, Lord, that you would help them to be discipling one another, help them not to rest on good works they've done in the past, but to grow in fervency and love. I thank you, Lord, that you've given us baptism to make it clear who is in the body of Christ and who were to be devoted to. Thank you for making your church visible in that way and who we can be committed to be discipled by and disciple. I just pray, Lord, that we would not grow cold as a church, but instead we will grow in fervency and love for you as the time goes on. We love you, Lord, we don't deserve to know you. You're so kind and gracious to us. Thank you for commissioning us. Thank you for giving us a plan for how to glorify you. Amen. Next week shows class we will be covering.