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Our texts today were two accounts of the last dialogue that Jesus Christ left His disciples before He ascended into the heavens. At this point, Jesus Christ has completed His fantastic three and a half year ministry, has been crucified, has resurrected in a glorified body, and has been appearing to the disciples off and on for forty days teaching them and convincing them that He is indeed alive and well. The earthly ministry of His first coming is now closing and it is time for the disciples to put everything that He has taught them into action in establishing His church. These men and women who have gathered together to "see Him off" will be the core group of the coming Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ. And so in these passages, the disciples are gathered together to hear the final instructions of their Lord and Savior before He bodily departs from the earth. Jesus is about to ascend into the clouds and they will be the ones to carry the burden of reaching the lost world. As far as a message from the physical lips of Jesus Christ's body, this is the last message that they will hear from Him in the manner that they have become the most familiar. They realize that there is a finality and closure to what is about to take place and every one of them listened intently to what Jesus Christ would choose to make His final words of instruction for their all important task.

Because of the significance of this event, Bible Scholars have dubbed this teaching of Jesus, "The Great Commission." Because in it, Jesus Christ commissions the disciples with their duty in a nutshell. He sends them forth from this place to either obey or disobey; to either fulfill or leave undone the will of God. Because of the seriousness of the subject, God has allowed us four different accounts of the Great Commission to be recorded in scripture. The Gospel of John does not record it, but Luke records it twice, once in His gospel and the other in the Book of Acts. His records join with Matthew's and Mark's to give us a clear picture of exactly what Jesus taught as the Greatest Commission.

Let me stop and make a couple of points before we get into the actual commands of Jesus in this teaching. First, understand that the context of these verse make them very serious and very much truth. The things that Jesus will choose to include here are absolutely needful and not optional things. These are the last words that He will speak in person to His followers and so Jesus Christ is not going to mention things that are trivial or are "far out." He's going to make His final words count and so whatsoever He commands us to do in these verse, we'd better make sure that we do them because they represent His heartbeat, the core of Christianity, the core of following Jesus Christ, and the summary of what we should do in following and pleasing Him.

Secondly, let me also say that God allowed four different accounts of this event to be recorded because of it's importance. To different people, different words that Jesus spoke would stand out. And so it is only by reading and studying ALL four of the accounts that we have EVERYTHING that Jesus commanded in the Great Commission. You may be surprised to know that Matthew is not the only one that recorded the Great Commission but we have three other accounts. And ALL are important and truth. If part of them are not true, then none of them are true. And not one account is more important than the other, we read only two of them in our texts, because of the time factor. The other two accounts of the Great Commission are found in Mark chapter 16 and in Luke chapter 24. It's four versions of the same events and these are the most important events of Jesus ministry to understand and obey because He is going to be concise and to the point. He doesn't have the time that He did to thoroughly cover side issues as He did on the Sermon on the Mount (beginning in Matthew 5:1). Jesus is going to make this Great Commission short and to the point; it's going to be sort of blunt and easily understood. If He means something, He is just going to say it!

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So the Great Commission is the final commandments of Jesus Christ to His disciples and summarize what the disciples were to teach and preach. With all of this in mind, let's look at exactly what He said in a greater detail because of all the commands of Jesus we don't want to leave anything out. We live in a society where the Great Commission has become more of the Great Omission. Very few Christians really know what Jesus Christ commanded people to be taught to do, and so there are people who are trying to serve God and yet have omitted the Greatest and the foremost commands of Jesus from their lives! In order to NOT turn it into the Great Omission, let's look closer at exactly what Jesus said.

Let's begin with the Gospel of Luke's record of these events and see exactly what the Holy Spirit moved on him to write from the Great Commission. It's found in the last chapter of Luke, the 24th, beginning at the 45th verse.

Jesus began His teaching with how that His death and resurrection had to happen to fulfill the scriptures and the plan of God. He became their savior by dying on the cross and His blood is what purchased our redemption and our salvation. But notice that believing that fact and believing in Him was not all that they were commanded to teach. It was the starting point, but not the finality. Look at the next verse:

The first thing that needed to be done beyond simple belief in His work was that people needed to "repent." The word means more than just saying you are sorry. It means more than just to confess your sins to a priest who cannot forgive them. It means more than saying a prefabricated "sinner's prayer" that some minister prays for you and you repeat. You can't find examples of any of that in scripture, but you can find people repenting. To repent means to admit to God that you are a sinner and that you need to be saved from your sins. It means admitting that compared to Him, you are not all good and that you aren't perfect. The scripture says that compared to God even the best person and the person with the most goodness is as "filthy rags." To repent you must admit that you need God to help you to change some things and that you are willing to change your lifestyle and habits and some attitudes in your life. You've got to tell God that you are sorry for sinning against His Word because doing so was really sinning against Him! You've got to express to Him that you are willing to turn from your sins and learn to live without doing them but that you need His help to do so. And it has to be more than lip service and just a prayer to appease your conscience, but you've got to be willing to put some action behind your prayers. That's true repentance. And Jesus said it was absolutely necessary that it be preached. It's not trivial. It's not optional. It's one of the commandments of Jesus Christ!

The second thing that Jesus said was that "remission of sins should be preached in His name, beginning at Jerusalem." "Remission" means complete and total forgiveness and that your sins are washed away. He's not talking about Repentance, because at repentance, God forgives you in principle, but the stain of your sin is still there. They need to be washed away.

To see what He was referring to, you have to fast forward to when the disciples obeyed this commandment beginning in Jerusalem. Their first sermon was by Peter on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. There He said the same thing:

Peter first told them to Repent! He didn't lead them in a sinner's prayer, but commanded the same thing that Jesus had told him to command: true repentance! But then He next commanded them to be baptized -- meaning to be fully immersed in water -- in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins! Now we can see what Jesus meant when he commanded them to preach "remission of sins in my name beginning at Jerusalem." Peter certainly understood that Jesus Christ was teaching about water baptism in His name.

Repentance is good but it is only part of the commandments of Jesus Christ. You must also be baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ and when you do this, you do so for the "remission of your sins." Your sins are forgiven in principle at repentance, but at water baptism they are washed away! God washes away your past so that you can live victoriously over them! No matter what man's denominations may say, according to Jesus Christ, water baptism is not optional, and it must be done "in my name" or "in the name of Jesus." Notice that verse 48 says that the disciples were a "witness" of these things, because they had already repented of their sins and been baptized in the name of Jesus, themselves. But Luke didn't stop there, there was an additional step that the disciples themselves would have to take:

After water baptism, they would receive a "promise" "upon" them! They would be "endued with power from on high" while they tarried or waited in Jerusalem! And then He led them as far as the town of Bethany and left them, ascending into heaven, leaving them to decide whether or not to go to Jerusalem or not and receive this powerful promise!

To find out exactly what that promise was outlined in this step, you have to go forward when they received it in Jerusalem. It's also found in Acts 2:

The promise was the outpouring and infilling of the Holy Spirit! And it was accompanied by a presence in the room that sort of felt like wind because you could feel it and see it's effects but could actually see it, itself! It was also accompanied with a fire, or passion that fell on each of them. And when they received the Holy Ghost, they did more than just feel things, but God caused them to begin to speak in another language that they had never studied or learned and God did it through the power of the Holy Ghost teaching and changing their language as they yielded to the power that they felt and worshipped Him! The powerful promise had indeed come as they waited in Jerusalem and they had received it!

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That's Luke's Gospel, but let's make sure that we get the entire picture and the whole story. Let's return to our text and go through Matthew's account as well:

Jesus began by reminding them that HE alone has all power in heaven and in earth! In other words, they needed to do more than just believe in His sacrificial work on Calvary but they needed to acknowledge and understand that He was the Almighty God. And then He went on:

Luke had said that they needed to teach these things starting at Jerusalem. In other words, these were not just commandments for the Jewish people, but for EVERYONE in the world. Matthew removes all doubts here by recording that Jesus commanded them to go and teach "all nations!" Let me stop here and point out that these commandments of the Great Commission were not just for the Jewish people. And they were not just for a select group, but were commanded of all people everywhere in every nation!

He then commanded them to baptize in water in the "name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." It is important to note that this is the commandment which the disciples must obey. There is no one actually standing in the water here. This is not in itself a baptismal formula, but rather the commandment to baptize people. We've already read at how when Peter was the first one to obey this command, in Acts chapter 2, that He fulfilled it by commanding them to be "baptized in the name of the Jesus Christ." We've already seen that Luke recorded these words and summarized them in his account as Jesus saying "in my name." Is there a discrepancy here? No, because Jesus Christ has all power and is the Almighty God in flesh. "Father" and "Son" and "Holy Ghost" are just TITLES of God's attributes. They are not names. And notice that Jesus said "baptizing them in the NAME." Not the "nameS." There is only one name. And it is the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost and that is Jesus. Let me show you:

Jesus stated that he had come in “my Father’s name,” what was the name that He went by? What was His name? Jesus Christ. If that is true, and Jesus Christ came into His Father's name, then the name of the Father is "Jesus." If you are going to be baptized in the "name of the Father" then you would be baptized in the "name of Jesus Christ." Jesus also said:

Now Jesus says that the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, will be sent “in my name.” What was His name? Jesus Christ. So the name of the Holy Ghost is also Jesus. To be baptized in the "name of the Holy Ghost" would mean to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. But wait, there's more:

When Mary gave birth to the Son of God, she was commanded by the angel to call His name Jesus. "Son" was not His name, but His name was Jesus Christ! Therefore to be baptized in the "name of the Son" means to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ!" So now you understand why Peter stood up and commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ in Acts 2:38. Now you understand that Phillip preached the same thing to the Samaritans in Acts 8:16. And now you understand that Peter preached baptism in the name of Jesus Christ again in Acts 10:46-48 and that Paul preached the same message, even rebaptizing people who had been baptized but had not been baptized in Jesus name in Acts 19:1-6. I could go on and on but it is a scriptural fact that EVERY time someone was baptized after Calvary, they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ! The disciples did not disobey Matthew 28:19, they understood what Jesus was saying and they obeyed it exactly by baptizing “in the name of Jesus.” Rather than repeating what Jesus had said, as many religions do today, the disciples obeyed what Jesus said!

And some of you are thinking, "does it really matter preacher?" If you want to obey Jesus' words it does! And it does matter whether or not you were actually baptized in the name of Jesus Christ at water baptism. After he was arrested for preaching about the name of Jesus, Peter explained why it was so important:

The name of Jesus is the only saving name therefore it is essential that you be baptized in that name! It is His blood and His work that saved you so therefore there is no salvation in any other! Matthew finished his recount with:

In other words, Jesus said when you do these things and instruct others, do all things exactly as I have commanded you to do them! Peter and the other disciples did not disobey Jesus' commandments but obeyed them by telling people to be baptized in Jesus name! To be baptized any other way, is to turn the Great Commission into a Great Omission in your life! If you have not been baptized in Jesus' name, by complete immersion in water, you must to fulfill and obey the Words of Jesus! If you are not baptized the way He commanded, then you have not obeyed the most important commandments of Jesus Christ and His Words are only the Great Omission in your life!

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Let's quickly move on to Mark's account of the Great Commission by Christ. We have seen how that Matthew and Luke both said basically the same thing. Mark does also:

Mark begins with the same command of Matthew to go into all the world and preach this truth, so we definitely know that this is the same account of the Great Commission. But Mark summarizes it as "the Gospel." The word "Gospel" means "good news" and the "good news" of Jesus Christ, Paul later tells us is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The process of salvation begins with believing the good news about how that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again, but that is not all that you must do. You must also OBEY the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is, you must die, be buried and be resurrected yourself. If you don't OBEY the gospel, you are not going to be saved according to the Apostle Paul (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). When you repent, you are dying out to your own will and your sinful life. You obey His death by repenting of your sins. Colossians 2:12 tells us that when we are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, we are "buried with Him in baptism." We obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are buried by being baptized in His name! That is why that Mark went on to say:

It takes more than believing in the Gospel, but you must obey it and be buried with Him in baptism! You must believe AND be baptized in order to be saved. If you don't believe and act upon that belief, you "shall be damned;" in other words, you will be lost. If you don't obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ fully and don't obey the Words of His Great Commission, then you will not be saved! It is very important indeed, to obey all of Jesus' commandments! Let's move on and see what else Jesus commanded in Mark:

Those who truly believe will have certain aspects of God's Power manifest in their life. One thing that they will receive with the Gift of the Holy Ghost, if they allow it to work in their life, is power over demonic activity. We still believe this today! A Spirit-filled believer that is in submission to God's Authority and Word will have the ability to cast out the work of Satan both in people who are devil possessed and in overcoming the temptations presented by the Devil. You will have the ability to overcome the demonic oppression of sin and able to set yourself free from the holding power of sin in your life.

You will also "speak with new tongues." This doesn't just mean that your choice of words and what you talk about will be cleaner, but this refers to the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance. It is referring to receiving the Gift of the Holy Spirit just as the disciples did on the Day of Pentecost. In fact, EVERY time someone received the Holy Ghost in scripture, they always spoke in a new language that the Holy Ghost spoke through them when they yielded themselves to the Spirit of God in worship and praise (see Acts 2; 10:46-48; 19:1-6, etc...) It is a sign that God has chosen to mark true belief! When you receive the Holy Spirit, God will change your language to one that you have never spoken before! Not only has God promised to do it, but He HAS done it to many people that are here today! The scriptures talk about how that it is a regeneration and a bringing back to life of your relationship with God in the Spirit to receive the Holy Ghost. Therefore receiving the Holy Ghost is your "resurrection!" To obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ we must obey His death, burial, and resurrection by having those steps in our own life. We die out to our flesh in repentance, we are buried with Him in water baptism, and we rise to a newness of life through the resurrection power of receiving the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)! It's no wonder that Jesus commanded:

To not desire and receive the infilling of the Holy Ghost with the initial evidence of speaking in another tongue as the Spirit instantly teaches you is to not obey all of the crucial words of the Jesus' Great Commission! Without the Holy Ghost it becomes the Great Omission in your life!

And thankfully, Mark didn't stop there but he continued on with a verse that is perhaps much misunderstood:

Now these are the words that Jesus spoke at this important occasion of the Great Commission so they are obviously true. What they mean is that the infilling of the Holy Ghost brings divine protection in your life. Now, we don't go looking for snakes and we don't bring snakes into our church or drink poison on purpose or such. You can't find a "snake-handling" service in the Bible and we know that we are not to tempt God. But we do find Paul being accidentally bitten by a viper and yet it did not hurt him (Acts 28:4-5). When you surrender to God everything and trust Him, God begins to work for your protection! He will protect you from deadly things in life. The "angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and delivereth them" (Psalms 34:7)!

There is a spiritual meaning to this as well! Jesus and John the Baptist always used vipers and snakes to represent false religion and deceitfulness. With the power of the Holy Ghost you can find the truth, the Bible begins to make sense, and -- if you will let it -- it will "lead and guide you into ALL truth" (John 16:13)! What Jesus is saying is that it is not enough to just receive the experience of the Holy Spirit, but you must let it work in your life to bring power over sin and temptation and to protect you and lead you away from things that would destroy you both physically and spiritually!

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I close with this from the record of the book of Acts:

Jesus preached to the disciples about receiving the Holy Ghost! And they were not to leave Jerusalem until they received that experience. Obviously it would be impossible to really serve Him as He had commanded without receiving the Holy Ghost in their life. There were 500 "believers" who heard him give this final command, but there were only 120 who thought it important enough to obey Him and wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Ghost fell in Acts 2. For 380 believers, the Great Commission became the Great Omission because they refused to act on it and obey it. How many people today have the same Bible that you and I do, and yet don't acknowledge their need for repentance, or water baptism in Jesus' name, or infilling with the Holy Ghost with speaking in tongues as the initial evidence, or even the need to allow that Holy Ghost to shape and mold and work on their life?! Those who choose that path turn the Great Commission into the Great Omission! They disobey the commandments of Jesus by not following in their life the most prominent and important things that He said to do!

After the Holy Ghost was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, Peter made a grand statement of fact:

In other words, the commandments and promises of Jesus' Great Commission were not only for EVERY nation, but for TODAY also! The promise of the Holy Ghost, Peter said, is for "you, and your children, and even to those afar off!" God still feels people with the Holy Ghost. You must repent of your sins. You must be baptized in Jesus' name. And then the promise it to you! Yield yourself to Him and begin to worship Him and tell Him of your need for Him and He will fill you also with the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost!

And let's end with our last two verses of our other text:

After the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you will receive power, and not just any old power, but power to become witnesses for Him! For some of you that have been around here a little while, this sermon has been "old news." But let me remind some of you more seasoned saints, that there are two ways for the Great Commission to become the Great Omission. The first is not to obey the commandments of Jesus for yourself. To not do and experience the things that He labeled so vitally important and necessary. But the second way is to know these things that God has commanded and have followed them, but not allow the Holy Ghost to work through you in witnessing. Jesus ascended, leaving us with His Spirit and so that puts in our hands the responsibility to reach this world with His final message and Commission. It is our job to tell someone that they must believe AND obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you have experienced the Great Commission, then it is your responsibility to tell others about it! To not be a witness is to not obey the command of Jesus and so is to turn the Great Commission into the Great Omission in your life, even though you have obeyed it for yourself. It's not enough to experience it, but you must tell somebody else about it!

And so I end this message with a plea to two groups today: To those who have never repented of your sins, been baptized in Jesus' name for the remission of those sins, and received the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, you need to step out in faith and realize that these promises of Jesus Christ are for you! Fulfill your Great Commission today! And to those of you who have experienced this awesome experience of Apostolic salvation for yourself, you need to allow the Holy Ghost to empower you, to put a hunger and ability and desire in you, to be a witness of these things and to tell others of Jesus' words! You need to leave this place charged with the Holy Ghost and fulfill your Great Commission! That is what Jesus intended! It cannot become the Great Omission in our life, because eternity is at stake!