Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Introduction

Our second message in our Prep for Action mini-series today is going to be very straightforward.

I believe it necessary because we can get so easily side tracked from obeying Christ’s commands.

My aim today is simply to remind us to remember the mission that Jesus gave to His original followers which now extends to us here.

I was saddened to read recently a statistic that I had come across a few years ago.

Check out this chart from Barna Group Inc.

Chart 1

https://www.barna.com/research/half-churchgoers-not-heard-great-commission/

But maybe many Christians today just don’t recognize the term “Great Commission.”

Barna also presented churchgoers with five different passages from scripture and asked them to identify which one is known as the Great Commission.

(https://www.barna.com/research/half-churchgoers-not-heard-great-commission/)

Chart 2

What this data may be showing us is that the majority of churchgoers, possibly 63%, probably don’t really grasp the Great Commission.

It is for this reason that we try to reinforce this teaching here at DPCC!

With that in mind, let’s take another look at the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 28:16-20.

II.

The Disciples Responses to the Risen Jesus

A. The Disciples Follow Jesus’ Directions

B. The Disciples Worship Jesus

C. The Disciples Have Some Doubts

III.

Jesus Asserts His Authority

IV.

The Great Commission of Jesus

A. “Go” is a participle.

Normally, by itself, it could be translated as ‘going’.

But in this case, it fits the pattern of the attendant circumstance participle which is an aorist participle preceding an aorist main verb.

As such, “there is no good grammatical ground for giving the participle a mere temporal idea.

To turn πορευθέντες into an adverbial participle is to turn the Great Commission into the Great Suggestion!”(Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 645.)

All other instances of this verb in Matthew that is before an aorist main verb is like this one.

B. “Therefore” - conjunction and inferential, denoting that what it introduces is the result of or an inference from what precedes, so, therefore, consequently, accordingly, then.

C. “Make Disciples” is the main verb and the imperative of the sentence.

Imperatives express a command, intention, exhortation, or polite request.

It means to cause one to be a pupil, teach

To disciple a person to Christ is to bring him into the relation of pupil to teacher, ‘taking his yoke’ of authoritative instruction (11:29), accepting what he says as true because he says it, and submitting to his requirements as right because he makes them” (Broadus).

Disciples are those who hear, understand, and obey Jesus’ teaching.

D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed.

Frank E. Gaebelein, vol.

8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 595–596.

D. “All Nations” - a body of persons united by kinship, culture, and common traditions, nation, people

E. “Baptizing” - of the Christian sacrament of initiation after Jesus’ death using water in a rite for the purpose of renewing or establishing a relationship with God, plunge, dip, wash, baptize.

F. “Teaching” - to provide instruction in a formal or informal setting, teach

G. “Observe” - to persist in obedience, keep, observe, fulfill, pay attention to

H. “Commanded” - to give or leave instructions, command, order, give orders

The setting suggested is that of the rabbinical teacher-student or master-disciple relationship.

This involves complete submission, devotion, and service to the Teacher as well as learning from Him.

The task of the disciples is to live faithfully and to proclaim the message of the Teacher and to bring others into this relationship.

Cleon Rogers, “The Great Commission,” Bibliotheca Sacra 130 (1973): 266–267.by

Cleon Rogers

I. Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.