Introduction: Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Welcome to Exploring Missions, connecting mission needs with those equipped by God to meet those needs across the world or across town. And now the host of Exploring Missions, Bert Harper.

Bert Harper: In that introduction, you'll find a word that you may have missed, but it is so important when it comes to missions, discipleship, church planting, and it is "equipping." Matter of fact, when you read about the purpose of a pastor, teacher, it is to equip the saints that the saints do the work of the ministry. So one of the things that we do here on AFR is to try to equip. We do that on Exploring Missions. On the other program that I do, I love Exploring the Word, and we try to equip you. I'll talk about, if you're going to do a Bible study, look at this, look at that. And that's part of the ministry that the church has. Matter of fact, it says the older women to teach the younger women, and it talks about the men sharing it with the younger men. And so all of that has the idea of equipping.

By the way, this is Bert Harper along with Nathan Harper. And Nathan, sometimes we don't get so excited about the equipping process, do we?

Nathan Harper: No, you know, you don't go to a ball game to watch the equipment manager run around taking all the, you know, all the stuff he's doing, right? But sometimes I am curious, you know, when they have a water break and the guy or the lady runs out on the field with the with the Gatorade bottles, and they'll hold it up to one of the athletes, you know, and and sometimes those guys like refuse and turn it away. I'm like, you know, you're taking away the the glory for this equipment manager. That's the only thing they're doing, and you don't want to use it.

Bert Harper: I have a friend and he may be listening, you know him well, Andy Dozier, and Andy was one of the finest I I love that guy more than I can tell. But Andy's wife, they started having babies and he said, "I've become the equipment manager." He was talking about how he'd put everything. So equipping is important and even the material. Just like we're in this studio, okay? And we had people that came in, ran the wires, got the microphones set up, got everything ready, and even here before we started broadcasting, Mark O's, who is the producer today, brought up he had to set everything of the equipment to get it ready. I think one of the failures may sometimes of missions is not being properly equipped.

Nathan Harper: Right. Or expecting someone who is already equipped to just do the work. And and, you know, the the person who is equipped, you know what their work is, is to equip others, right?

Bert Harper: It is.

Nathan Harper: So that's hopefully what we want to do a little bit today.

Bert Harper: That's what we do. On Exploring Missions, this is We take time out sometimes, we give you the the possibility of missions, we interview missionaries, we tell you what's going on, but a lot of this is sometimes equipping. And hopefully that's what Bible colleges and seminaries are about, to equip them as well. But that's what we do here on Exploring Missions. You did that for part of your living for a while when you were in Atlanta to equip those people that came to Atlanta to be trained, and part of your job was equipping them.

Nathan Harper: That's right, yeah. And there's several of them on the mission field today and and guess what they're doing? They're equipping others.

Bert Harper: Amen.

Nathan Harper: So it just kind of multiplies and continues. Well, what are we looking at today, Nathan? Yeah, so we actually listened to Matthew's version of the Great Commission given out of Matthew 28:18-20, and we don't have to read it all again. Most of you possibly even have it memorized. But one thing I was doing as I was listening to our introduction, I was going through and remembering when we recorded the introduction to this program, what, seven years ago at this point. And where where the people were from. And so I don't know if you remember, but I can give you the countries. So the voices that you hear in the introduction to the show, they're from Bosnia, from Brazil, from Ethiopia, from Burma or Myanmar, and from Nepal. So we didn't have to travel around the world though to get those, so.

Bert Harper: They were right there. They were right there. And so today we want to look at Matthew 28:18-20.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, so what we want to do as we look at this is kind of debunk some myths. You know, you've heard of MythBusters?

Bert Harper: Yes.

Nathan Harper: So we're going to be some we're going to do the MythBuster thing today. We're going to dispel seven Great Commission myths, okay? So seven myths that are maybe commonly some of these commonly held, maybe by some of us as we listen. We want to look at these myths and and really look at look at the truth behind Jesus' words behind his words here in Matthew 28. So the first myth is the misunderstood "you" myth. Now in English, which I know is maybe not your best subject, but in English, when a sentence starts with a verb, what do we call the subject to that to that sentence?

Bert Harper: You're asking me, the great English guy?

Nathan Harper: Yeah, we can play crickets, right? Um, it's the understood "you." So if if if if you were set if someone said, um, "Be seated." Yeah, "Be seated," who are they talking to? They're talking to you, it's the understood "you," okay. Well, in the Great Commission here in Matthew, we we tend to have the misunderstood "you," and that's a myth. In other words, who is Jesus talking to? Okay, well, obviously in the text, he's speaking to his disciples, his followers, those that had gathered there at this mountain that he had appointed, and he was going to teach them for the for basically for the last time before he ascended into heaven and he gave them this this mission, this commission. But we can't, or can we, can we just say he was only talking to those 11, those 12? Um, and that's where it was supposed to stop, and why is it recorded in the text if if the "you," the understood "you," doesn't include others? Who does this include? Who is Jesus' audience?

Bert Harper: It is. This is present and future. This is not past, definitely, but it's not just present. They they were there, but as you read the context of this and all authority being given to me in heaven and earth, that authority has not stopped. And guess what? The authority to rule our lives has not stopped. He is still the King of kings and Lord of lords over our lives. And when we say "Lord," you know, that means right now and for me, so there is a futuristic atmosphere to this, the present and the future.

Nathan Harper: Okay, so some would say that, okay, Jesus is speaking to the church, like the universal church, the collective church. So everything that he's telling the church or the disciples here to do is not necessarily for me as an individual, but it's for the church as a collective, as a group.

Bert Harper: And and the parts that make up the part of the whole thing.

Nathan Harper: Okay, so it's not just the whole, but it's also the parts individually.

Bert Harper: It is. Isn't it both/and?

Nathan Harper: I think it's a both/and. So let's not misunderstand the "you" here. Basically, what I'm trying to say is the Great Commission, if we're going to be obedient to it, we have to take ownership personally for this, right? We can't say, "Well, it was for those guys 2,000 years ago. Well, it was for the church as a whole." And we try to get ourselves off the hook, right, for being obedient. And we must we must understand the "you" when we do that, and we're disobedient when we do that. But I think we should take ownership and say, "Okay, Jesus is commissioning me. He's giving these commands to me, even as an individual." There might be parts of it that are hard or parts of it that I have to be equipped and grow in, but it's for me.

Bert Harper: You know, when I hear that, I could not help but think of Isaiah 59. And it's Isaiah through God, God through Isaiah, reminding them of all the things God had done. And he said God's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, his ear is not dull that it cannot hear. But then the second verse says, "But your iniquities have separated you from God, that God chooses not to hear you." Now, why why would I bring that up? Because of it's personal. It was personal. And unless you take the Great Commission personally, it's for somebody else. But Jesus, he he didn't leave it for just anybody else, he left it for his followers in each generation.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, I mean think about this. If we take salvation personally and we want to have that for ourselves, we want to experience that for ourselves, we want to know it and even if you want to say own it, then we have to also own the responsibility that goes with sharing about the salvation that's found in Jesus. Amen. So, all right, the Great Commission then, myth number one busted. The Great Commission is for each of us, right? All of us and each of us. All right, the second myth you might call it the "all means some" myth. The "all means some" myth. So if you read through Matthew 28:18-20, you come across four different uses of the word "all," a-l-l. Now, again an English question for you. What does the word "all" mean? Does it mean "some" or does it mean something else?

Bert Harper: Now, I know the answer to that one. It means all.

Nathan Harper: Okay. So, first, all authority has been given to Jesus, right? You see that in verse 18. And then verse 19, "Go and make disciples of all nations," not just some nations, not just some authority, but all. "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit." Verse 20, "Teaching them to observe everything," or sometimes it might say "all things," or all the things, all the commands I have given you. So not just some of the commands or some of the things that we like to obey and then the others we can we can ignore.

Bert Harper: Pick and choose?

Nathan Harper: Yeah, picking and choosing, yeah.

Bert Harper: It doesn't have that in there, does it?

Nathan Harper: And then, "Remember," Jesus said, "I am with you always," okay. That was a little stretch there, it was a-l-w-a-y-s, yeah. But at all times, his presence is with us through the Holy Spirit as we are obeying his commands. So let's not neglect the "all"s, the four "all"s here in the Great Commission and make them into "some"s, right? They're they're "all"s.

Bert Harper: You know, when I hear that again, you go back to Paul's writings in Ephesians and the equipping part of it that we talked about. And a lot of times people hire quote hire, not call, the pastor, hire the staff to do the work of the ministry when it says in the verse following that, that all the saints should be involved in the ministry. So part of that ministry that we're talking about is what? It is missional because if you remember that, he gave some. The first one that he gave was apostles, which meant sent ones, which are the idea of what? Missionaries, that's exactly right. So he's he's it's all of us, not some of us.

Nathan Harper: That's right. So we've busted myth number two, the "all means some" myth. Myth number three: the "wrong emphasis" myth. Have you ever put the emphasis on the wrong syllable before?

Bert Harper: I'm afraid my wife, who is pretty good at English compared to me, she is superior in every way, but she'll say, "Bert, how you pronounce enunciation, some words, you're putting the emphasis on the wrong word, you know, on the wrong syllable."

Nathan Harper: Yeah, why is pronunciation such a difficult word to pronounce, right? It is. So an example of of emphasizing the wrong thing, I've got a friend, and I won't give his name, but he's Arabic, he's an Arab man. And his name, if you pronounce it incorrectly, you're actually not saying his name, which has a its own meaning, but if you mispronounce it, it's the word "horse." So one time I went to I went to when I first had met him and I was trying to learn a little bit of Arabic, even challenging to say I was trying to learn it, but I was trying to, you know, at least get his name right, and after after being with him for a couple of hours, the person I was with who who did speak Arabic was telling me the whole time I was calling him "horse" right to his face, you know, and how shameful that was. So the next time I had to make sure I was saying it correctly. But yeah, how would you like to be called "horse"?

Bert Harper: Yeah, that would be You know, the wrong emphasis, we're talking about in enunciating, we're talking about names, but what about in jobs and responsibilities?

Nathan Harper: Yeah, yeah, you don't want to do highlight the the thing that should not be a priority, right? You want to prioritize the the main thing. And so as we look in Matthew 28:18-20, you know, we notice the four "all"s, those are sort of easy for us to pick out, but there's also four verbs that might be a little bit more difficult. And one of the four verbs has the primary function. So if you if you read through, especially in 19 and 20, the four verbs are going to be "go," they're going to be "make disciples," "baptizing," and then "teaching." All right, those are the four verbs you find in those in those verses. One of those takes the emphasis, the proper biblical emphasis, just in in in Greek, but also in the flow of thought. Do you want to take a a guess at which one is the most emphatic command and verb given by Jesus here?

Bert Harper: Okay, I have a multiple choice here, right?

Nathan Harper: Right, so you've "go," "make disciples," "baptize," or "teach."

Bert Harper: It's not two, it's just one?

Nathan Harper: It's just one that has the primary function.

Bert Harper: "Make"?

Nathan Harper: Yeah, that's right. Make, "make disciples." Disciples, obviously, is the is the noun, but the idea of in in Greek, it's one word. So it's "make disciples" is the primary task that Jesus has given his followers. The other three function sort of like as a modal in a modal sense. In other words, how do you go about making disciples? Well, you've got to go, and you've got to teach, and you've got to baptize. And so let's not emphasize the wrong thing. And typically, which one of those probably gets emphasized?

Bert Harper: I'm afraid baptisms do a lot. I've baptized 60 people or, you know, going. It's a tough topic.

Nathan Harper: I went here, I went there.

Bert Harper: Yeah, yeah, going. Yeah. How many places have been?

Nathan Harper: Yeah, when you hear this taught and preached a lot in churches, the emphasis is on going a lot of times. But we'll get to that a little bit more as we break these down. But that's the wrong emphasis myth, and we want to make sure we're emphasizing the correct the the command that is given is to make disciples.

Bert Harper: So that, it starts with that.

Nathan Harper: Yes.

Bert Harper: You go, and the way it says the go is "as you go." And so as you go, what do you do? You make disciples. After you make them, you follow up. Isn't that right?

Nathan Harper: Exactly. So let's look at the "make disciples" part, and we're going to bust another myth. This is the conversion myth, okay? The conversion myth. So what Jesus said here in verse 19 is to make disciples, not converts. He doesn't say make converts, make Christians, make church members, make whatever, fill in the blank. It's disciples. What would you say is the biggest difference between a disciple and a convert?

Bert Harper: Well, a follower. Disciple means a follower. It's a follower of Christ. The word convert has the idea of going from and coming to. I would say this: you've got to be converted before you can become a disciple. You catch what I'm saying? But the goal is make disciples. If you're just doing the conversion, you're not completing the task.

Nathan Harper: Yes, it's incomplete.

Bert Harper: It is incomplete, exactly.

Nathan Harper: So think about this. When you go from one country to another, okay, and you fly over with your American US dollars in your pocket, and you get to that country and you're going to stay there for a period of time, what do you have to do to your currency?

Bert Harper: Got to convert. Go to the conversion store! You got to get it converted to the local currency, right? The airports usually have that.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, that's right. And so just as an aside here, all right, let me test you. We'll get off of the English questions. Let's go to, I don't know, would this be economy or geography? I don't know what kind of questions these are. Of course, the US is the US dollar, right? Do you know what Mexican currency is called?

Bert Harper: I can't remember.

Nathan Harper: All right, it's the peso, right?

Bert Harper: That's right, that's right.

Nathan Harper: All right, what about, remember when we went to Nicaragua? Do you remember what that currency was called?

Bert Harper: Nathan, come on!

Nathan Harper: All right, so I'll quit asking the questions. So Nicaragua, it's Córdoba.

Bert Harper: Oh, yeah!

Nathan Harper: Córdoba. We would just call it a cord for short, right? Now, you go over to Europe, they have—

Bert Harper: I know the euro, I got that one.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, you got the euro, right? You go to Turkey, it's the lira or Lira.

Bert Harper: Is that right? Okay.

Nathan Harper: Japan.

Bert Harper: Yen.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, the yen. So, if you go to these places, you have to convert your currency. But that's a whole other conversation. You got to do that, right? But you don't want to just go and convert your money and say, "Hey, got my money converted." What you really want to do, especially if you're a businessman, you want to make money, right? You want to invest, you might have to spend, but you want to eventually get some return on that investment. You want to make money. There's a whole difference in having your money converted than actually making money.

Bert Harper: Okay.

Nathan Harper: Jesus is talking about making disciples, not just converting. So, a whole different conversation. So, the conversion myth, if all you do is focus on making converts, well, they're incomplete, right? And imagine the person's life, we're not saying they're not saved, and they won't go to heaven when they die, and they're not—we're not saying it's not a true experience of salvation with Jesus. But what are they missing out on if they're not being discipled, taught to follow Jesus in order to look like Jesus, right? That's the end result of discipleship is to become like Christ.

Bert Harper: Right.

Nathan Harper: So if that's not happening in someone's life, what is the result?

Bert Harper: We're not doing the Great Commission. And you know, I've said this, I've heard myself say it, I repeat myself: if all God was interested in was converts, He'd have taken us to heaven immediately after the salvation experience. But He's left us here to make disciples, that we might what? Make more disciples.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, it's back to our first conversation of equipping, right? That's what discipleship is, equipping the next generation, the next person, so they can become an equipper, one that can make other disciples.

Bert Harper: That's right.

Nathan Harper: So, let's bust the conversion myth and focus on making disciples. Let's also bust this next one called the intentionality myth. It goes back to what you just mentioned about going, or the verb actually you could translate it as "as you go." So as you go, make disciples of all the nations, right?

Bert Harper: So the expectation is we're going to go. We're going somewhere, right? Yeah, so as you go, make disciples.

Nathan Harper: Yeah. So, it's more intentional, however, than that. The emphasis is not to go; the emphasis is to make disciples. Who are you making disciples of? Some of the nations? No, all of the nations. So as you are making disciples of all the nations, you have to focus on, you have to see which nations are not being discipled. You have to see what people groups, what ethnic groups are being neglected or being forgotten.

Bert Harper: So you got to be like Paul and listen when the Holy Spirit used the man from Macedonia to say, "Leave there and come over here."

Nathan Harper: Yes, yes. And so you don't want to leave anybody out of having a witness of who Jesus is, having the opportunity to worship Jesus for who He is. So you want to go to them to preach the gospel. You want to go to them to make disciples. And so as you go, the idea is you're going to go. If you're going to be obedient, you're going to go somewhere, and so you want to go where God sends you.

Bert Harper: The three missionary journeys that Paul went on were so intentional. But then the fourth one on the ship, but guess what he did? You know, the first three you would expect him to do it, but guess what he did while he was on the ship? Again, there were those he made disciples that became followers of Christ when he was on the ship as well as on the land.

Nathan Harper: That's right. So wherever it is you are and wherever it is God sends you, know that you are sent by God to make disciples of all the nations. So the next myth is the knowledge myth, okay? The knowledge myth. So look at verse 20. It says, "teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you." We like to take the word "observe" out and put the word "know" in its place, K-N-O-W. We just want to know what Jesus said, like in our heads, right? But that's not what Jesus said. Why are we teaching people the commands of Christ?

Bert Harper: Yeah, there's an old hymn that expresses that better than anything: Trust and Obey, for there's no other way.

Nathan Harper: That's right. It's not trust and know.

Bert Harper: It's not trust and know; it's trust and obey.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, and scripturally, you can't really know something unless you do it, unless there's activity and action. So it is obedience-based discipleship, not knowledge-based discipleship.

Bert Harper: That's right.

Nathan Harper: So we're really bad at that in the American church.

Bert Harper: We're horrible. "Oh, take this 13-week study and you'll be ready, you'll know it." No, you got to go out there and do it.

Nathan Harper: That's right. So it's about obedience.

Bert Harper: Yes.

Nathan Harper: And the last myth, we'll save the can of worms for the last, the authority myth. The authority myth. Look at the idea about baptizing: "baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." So who then, kind of almost going back to that first question, who is this given to? Who is supposed to baptize? Well, let me ask the other questions. Who is supposed to make disciples?

Bert Harper: I am.

Nathan Harper: Who is supposed to go in order to do that?

Bert Harper: I am.

Nathan Harper: Who is supposed to teach them once they follow Jesus? Who is supposed to teach them to obey?

Bert Harper: I am, again.

Nathan Harper: So then who's supposed to baptize them?

Bert Harper: I am!

Nathan Harper: We like to say, you know, pastor so-and-so or brother so-and-so.

Bert Harper: "I've got to be ordained first."

Nathan Harper: Oh, they've got to show some credentials before they can put somebody under the water. But I will say, just for myself, if God gives you the privilege to lead someone to follow Jesus and you start making disciples, that discipleship process, you've been given the authority to baptize them. Now, the church that you are a part of might have a little bit of a different take on it. That's between them and the Lord. But as for you, I would encourage you and equip you to—hey, you have been given that sent call and that commission to make disciples, which includes baptizing.

Bert Harper: I remember when you and I were on staff together and we started doing that, especially fathers leading their children to the Lord and them baptizing them. I want to just tell you, as a pastor who normally would have done that, it gave me great joy to see the father baptizing their child that they had brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That was such a blessing. And so again, the authority is by God, and He gives it to those who are following Him, making disciples. So what we're saying: we need to be on mission for God. We need to go and make some disciples, don't we, Nathan?

Nathan Harper: We do. We are sent. You are sent, and you've been sent with the authority that is in Jesus Christ. So as you are sent and you are obeying that, then He also promises that His presence will be with you wherever you go. Wherever He sends you, He's with you in His authority and His power, yes.

Bert Harper: "I am with you." Those are great words! "I am with you." What a great joy! I pray that you know that God is with you, and He is working in your life so that you can equip others that they may become followers of Jesus Christ. Thank you again for listening to Exploring Missions.