The Presbyterian Church
of Manchester

PCM VISION STATEMENT

Being confident in the power of the gospel to save sinners, compelled by the love of God in Christ, and committed to the great Commission:

We desire, by the grace of God, to be a disciple-making church. We seek to glorify God biblically through fervent prayer, biblical instruction, obedient service, loving fellowship, God-honoring worship, and gospel evangelism, in order to extend the victorious kingdom of Christ in the greater Manchester area and to the ends of the earth.

Mat 28:16-20: "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 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 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.' "

In order to understand the context in which the Great Commission came to the 11 disciples I want you to imagine that Manchester Church doesn't exist. I want you to imagine that the PCA doesn't exist--that there are no seminaries, that there are no Christian institutions of any name or any sort anywhere in the world. Imagine that we, in this place, today, are the only disciples of Jesus Christ. What should we do? We're all that there is. What should we do?

That was the 11 disciples' situation. There were a few more, about 120 in the upper room, so it wasn't much larger than this crowd here today and they were asking themselves this question: what should we do? Originally the disciples were hiding; there was persecution and they were afraid. Jesus had just died and it might happen to us, so their first reaction was to go into hiding and perhaps that's our natural reaction, as well. It's difficult to be a Christian in the midst of a pagan society, but that is where we are. So what should we do? Jesus tells them.

"This is what I want you to do. I want you to go and make disciples of all nations." Now imagine: this is 11 people he's talking to. "I want you to go and make disciples of all nations." They wouldn't be asking, "Well, then what, God?" That was an awesome commission and we need to have that engrained in our minds. We need to take ownership of that vision, take ownership of that commission as if we were the only Christians alive. Ask yourself this question: If Christianity depended upon what we did in this church in the next 10 years would there be Christianity in the next generation? The next generation depends on what we do in our day and in our generation to make disciples of the nations. Christianity could, relatively speaking, die out in one generation if the people of God failed in this commission.

What does this small group of early Christians need to attempt this great commission? They need to be confident in the power of God. We are not alone. God is at work in us and through his gospel and on the promises of his word. We are confident that the gospel is the power of God to save sinners. They also have to be compelled by the love of Christ to do something, to sacrifice something. And thirdly, they need to be committed to this Great Commission; they need a single-minded focus on making disciples. That's what the Church is all about: we are a disciple-making factory.

There are many misunderstandings regarding the Great Commission. First, some people think of the Great Commission merely as fire insurance--that we are saving a soul from hell and that is our purpose. We save people from the flames of hell and if we can do that then we have completed the Great Commission. But that's only the first step. Yes, we seek a living and true faith in Jesus Christ but there is more. Look at the rest. Once we go and find them then we baptize them, initiate them into the church, give them ownership in the vision--in the commission--and then , "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you." You need to make disciples to complete the Great Commission, not merely sell fire insurance from hell. We have something to do before we reach heaven. The church has something to do today. I told somebody from another church that we were putting together a vision statement and the first words out of his mouth were, "Ah, you're making disciples." That's right. That's what we are to do as a church now, between our regeneration and glory are to be making disciples. That is our calling and our commission.

Secondly, the Great Commission isn't focused on individuals. It doesn't say, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of individuals." What does it say? It says, "go and make disciples of all nations." Think about that for a minute. The church should be impacting individuals--true or false? Well, that's true. The church--being salt and light in our world--should have an impact on nations--true or false? True!! Our commission includes taking the gospel to all nations. Our impact reaches beyond the merely individual. Once the individual is saved and is walking with Christ and enjoying the wonders of his grace that person will have an impact upon the people around him. Faith changes the whole person and all his actions; changes in his family, community, and nation will follow. We change the nation by changing individuals. So we are not content with a few saved here and a few saved there. Our goal is to have this impact on the nations and that is what we say at the end of our vision statement: to extend the victorious kingdom of Christ in the greater Manchester area and to the ends of the earth. Our vision statement is broad because the Great Commission is broad.

Thirdly, the Great Commission is not given to us to attempt. If we shout, "Jesus is Lord!" at the top of our lungs and expect no response except anger and rejection we have not fulfilled the great commission. We are not merely witnesses. We are not to be content with merely saying, "Jesus is Lord," to everybody. Our mandate is to change them. Our desire is not merely to witness to the nations, our calling is to make disciples of the nations. You can't say we have accomplished our task if we haven't made a disciple. We need to be making disciples. The church fails if we don't have an impact on the nations. The church fails if we don't disciple individuals as part of the nation.

There is a promise of success. God doesn't call us to fail. He doesn't say, "Go out there and fish but if you don't catch any fish, that's fine." No, he says, "go out and make disciples--be fishers of men--catch them!" There actually is a promise of success. God's word will not return to him void. It will not return to him empty or in vain. When we preach the gospel we are to have an expectation of success. We expect people to come to know him, to become disciples and if they don't we are disappointed, not proud that we've done our duty. Isaiah 9:7: "Of the increase of his government and peace..." That is, Jesus Christ's--the government of his church, the Kingdom of God, "Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end." The Kingdom should be increasing. Perpetually throughout time God is calling people to himself and we, as the church, are the instrument to make that call and to encourage people to come. There is a promise of success. This is speaking about the Kingdom of Christ that would one day come and would overcome the nations.

Daniel 2:35b, 44: "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold [those were all representatives of the most powerful kingdoms of the earth] were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock[the kingdom of God] that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth....In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever."

The Kingdom of God will be successful. 1 Corinthians 15:25: "For he [Christ] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." So the Kingdom of God is successful. The preaching of the gospel will make disciples. We are to expect that to happen. We are to pray for that to happen. We are to labor for that to happen. He has not called his church to be impotent. He has called his church to bear his grace to others. So there is a promise of success.

The fourth misunderstanding is limiting the Great Commission to missionaries overseas. If you really want to fulfill the Great Commission you'll sell all that you have and you'll take a boat, go overseas and start witnessing for Jesus Christ. For some reason we have that in the back of our minds. We think that that's more holy, more spiritual and more faithful to the Great Commission, but really, it isn't. Now, they are a very important part of the Great Commission and we ought to be supporting them and encouraging them and praying to God that he would raise up more laborers for the harvest, even in our midst, but the Great Commission begins right here, right now, right where you are. You as an individual Christian ought to be seeking to fulfill the Great Commission where you are. It is your commission. You are the body of Christ. You are the church. This commission is yours. This is what your Lord Jesus Christ has commanded you to do--to be part of this church which is making disciples. So it is not merely somebody else's responsibility. It is ours.

A fifth misunderstanding of the Great Commission is that it is given in only one place. We always refer to it here in Matthew 28 but it is talked about in all the gospels. This isn't just a pastor picking out one verse and saying this has to be the center of the church. As the time came for Jesus to leave and to thrust forth his church into the world he said the same thing in all four gospels.

Mark 16:15,16: "He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.' "

Luke 24:46-49: "This is what is written: [this is what will happen] The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

John 20:21 "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; [as the church] and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Go back to Isaiah, the "gospel" of Isaiah. Not only is the Great Commission given in all the gospels, and even in the book of Acts, but the Great Commission was hinted at even in the Old Testament. The seeds were already there for those who have eyes to see them.

Isaiah 55:5: "Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor."

The nations will come. There will be nations called one day through Christ and the ministry of his church. There will be nations called to faith.

Isaiah 62:1-2 "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow."

Doesn't that excite you? One of the things that grieves us right now is that the nations--the rulers of the nations--don't recognize our Lord, don't recognize our Christ and their decisions are destructive. We can say, oh, if they could only have the light of the glorious gospel dawn upon them. If they could only see things from a Biblical perspective. If they would only begin to think Christianly. If they could only behold the righteousness and the glory of our God, how things would be different, how things would change. But look what's promised. There's a promise of gosel success, that the Kingdom of Christ will be victorious. When we go out and preach the gospel we are to expect success. We are to pray for success. We are to be disappointed if people don't believe. Yes, we know it's a work of God but God has promised to do something through us. We are to be excited, we are to be expectant, we are to be sitting on the edges of our seats as to what God is about to do. The Great Commission was given more than once and was given with a promise of success, even to the nations.

Secondly, what is the power behind the Great Commission? Matthew 28:18: Some? "...authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.'" No, it doesn't say that. It says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Therefore, because I have all power, because I have all authority, I'm sending you forth to make my glory known, to make my kingdom effectual, to bring my kingdom rule to bear, wherever you go, in every nation to where you are sent, you are to bring my kingdom with you. You are to plant my kingdom, to nurture my kingdom, wherever you are. Jesus Christ rules in law--de jure--already now and we are laboring to bring his rule to bear in fact--de facto--to bring his righteous reign to all nations. Therefore, on the basis of his authority and command, we are to go and to make disciples.

How many of you pray the Lord's prayer? What do you pray in the Lord's prayer? "Your kingdom come..." What does that mean? It means that we desire to see the Kingdom of God come. Very simple. Well, how do we want this Kingdom to come? We want your Kingdom and your will to be done, "on earth as it is in heaven." Well, how is God's will done in heaven? It's done perfectly and without opposition. Well, how do we want it to be done on earth? We desire the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, perfectly and without opposition. That's an awesome goal, isn't it? Sometimes we bear witness to our friends and neighbors and nothing seems to happen. But our goal is to make disciples of all nations. So in the Lord's Prayer when we say, "Your Kingdom come..." do we really mean it? Are we really praying in faith that God would bring his Kingdom to bear upon those that we talk with, witness to and walk among? Are we really expecting God to really do something in their lives or are we only praying like some people go out and fish, just to pass the time. We are to be seeking and desiring to make disciples.

Another point: look at verse 19: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Now what is it that constitutes the Great Commission? What's the most important part and how do you know? Is "going" the most important thing? It says "go" and that comes first so it must be the most important. Or maybe it's baptizing--the sacraments and being part of the church--or teaching them, that's the most important. The thing that you have to realize, with a little understanding of Greek, is that there are four verbs in that verse: going, making disciples, baptizing, and teaching. But in the Greek sentence there is only one main verb and all the other verbs hang on it and the main verb here is make disciples. OK, the main thing we are to do, the main this the Great Commission consists of, is making disciples. How do we do it? We make disciples by going, baptizing and teaching. Those three elements must be included in order to make a disciple. So the most important thing in here, the main verb, is to make disciples and the rest of the verse says how you're to go about doing it.

What are the three things we have to do, then, to make disciples? First, we have to go. We can't stay. We can't sit on our hands. We have to go. We have a commission, a calling, a responsibility. We have to go. But what does that "go" mean? Going means we must go out and seek potential disciples and we do that in two ways. We do that by evangelism and by covenant nurture. You know what evangelism is: you take the gospel to all nations--you bear witness to those round about you. We have special messages on evangelism or we go out and bear witness to our friends and neighbors and invite them to church. There are a million things we can do but we have to be active and forthright in going forth to make disciples. But also, in covenant nurture we are to be discipling our children. That's part of "going," too, and we are to take that responsibility seriously to disciple our children in the faith.

So we have to go, and go in a way the Old Testament didn't have to go. If you've read the Old Testament, God sort of put a fence around the people of God in the Old Testament and said, "This is where I want you to stay. This is the Promised Land and I want you to be my people in the midst of the nations right here. And I want you to bear witness to the nations round about you by staying and living as an example of what God can do with a people." That was their calling, their commission: be my people in the midst of this land as a testimony to the nations. They will see what a marvelous God you have because of your laws and rules.

Deut. 4:5-6: "See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'"

The evangelism in the Old Testament was primarily come and see. Maybe in Presbyterian circles that's the main form of evangelism now: come and see. We don't want to go to you, you come and see us, and that is a witness to other people but that's the Old Testament way. In the New Testament it says we are to go and to tell. We are no longer within the covenant boundaries anymore. We are to go forth into all the nations. That's one of the glories of the new covenant that anybody can be invited into this covenant community and to enjoy the blessing of God. We are to go and tell. There are no borders anymore; the earth is the Lord's and we are to bring the gospel to all nations. So first, to make disciples we have to go and seek them out.

Secondly, the church must receive disciples: "baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son," they are to become part of the church. That may seem like a small thing to a lot of people but it really isn't. We are to baptize them into the church. We are to give them the sign of initiation into the covenant. We are to give them the sign that their sins are washed away--that they are now one with Christ and they have union with him--they are part of the people of God now. They are part of the covenant community and they--as baptized--are to take ownership of the Great Commission. There really shouldn't be any Lone Ranger Christians. "Oh, I don't need the church. The church isn't important to me. I can worship in my home and I don't have to go to church, to be under authority, to gather with other believers." It shouldn't be that way. The Great Commission requires that there be an institutional church so we can baptize them and bring them into the church and there train them as disciples.

Thirdly, the church must thoroughly teach all disciples. That's what verse 20 says. Matthew 28: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them..." a few things, so they might be pretty good...it doesn't say that. Listen again. Verse 20: "...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Just as the Great Commission must have sounded like an awesome thing to the original eleven disciples when they heard, you're thinking, we have to baptize and teach all nations, everything,--that's awesome! Sometimes, as your pastor, looking out on this congregation, I think the same thing about this last thing: I've got to teach you--or the church has to teach you to disciple you--to obey everything that Christ has commanded. I look down at my own life and I see many ways that I fail. How can I teach anybody else to obey everything that Christ has commanded?--but that's the commission--to obey everything, not just to know it. No, "...teach them to obey everything that I have commanded." That's how we make disciples. By teaching them everything. John 15:14 "You are my friends if you do what I command."

Matthew 5:18-20: "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

It is an awesome responsibility to which God has called us: to be disciples in every area of life--to take the commands of God and to put them into practice in every area of life. That is the process of becoming a disciple. We are disciples when we believe and are baptized and initiated into the church. We are disciples when we strive to obey all that Jesus commanded. We become better rounded disciples, better informed disciples. We understand more of the law and the commands of Christ and we begin to put more and more of these things into practice. That whole process is becoming a disciple. That whole process is what the church is called to do: not only to go and make disciples, not only to evangelize, but to train up, to disciple, to nurture, to teach and it is a never-ending loop which we go through over and over again. Notice that the Great Commission is given in educational terms. Therefore, Christian education is absolutely essential in the church, to teach them to obey everything that Christ has commanded and we need to own ourselves as disciples.

Children, what happens if you have an empty bucket. It's a perfect pail and you keep pouring more and more water into this pail. You keep pouring more and more water into this pail and what's going to happen? It's going to overflow. What's going to happen to all that water? It all will be wasted. Now here's the catch in the Great Commission. We are always teaching you how to be a disciple. We are going to be filling up that bucket--your bucket, the bucket of your heart and your soul, the bucket of your being a disciple--we're going to keep pouring stuff into that pail but it's going to overflow unless something happens. We're going to waste all of that teaching unless something happens. What? "...teaching them to observe the things that I have commanded…" In a sense you have to find an avenue of escape for the things that you are learning. If you learn something you can teach it to somebody else. If you learn something you can put it into practice and be a better example and witness to others about you. But you have to take the instruction that you are given--the preaching and the teaching of God's word--and put it into practice. If you don't do that your bucket will overflow and the teaching will just be wasted. You have to find an avenue of service.

Well, what am I doing with all the information that is coming my way, with all of the blessings that are coming my way? I am becoming a better, more thoroughly informed and better practicing disciple. What do I do with all of this blessing I have received? Well, I realize, when I am baptized and made part of the church that the vision of the church is my vision; that the Great Commission is my Great Commission; that I have to in some way use the gifts and the knowledge that I have been given for the glory of God and for making disciples. Well, this is easy. I knew this before. But have you done it? Are you consciously using your time and your talents and your treasures for the benefit of the church to the glory of God in making disciples? Can you trace what you do in the church to the making of disciples somehow? Are you actively doing something in the church to the glory of God? Do you have an avenue of escape for all the blessings God has showered upon you? They weren't intended only for you? Did you know that? They are meant for others. The gifts that you have are meant for everybody else in the church.

We are to find a way to encourage disciples--to make more thoroughly informed disciples. How do we do that? Sometimes when we think of making disciples we think, well, I don't have the gift of evangelism. I don't have to go out there and talk to everybody, do I? Well, as opportunity arises, you ought to be able to give an answer for the hope that is in you, yes. But there are countless ways to make disciples. In Sunday School class, if you're teaching these children, you're teaching them to be disciples. If somebody calls you on the phone and asks you for advice, or for prayer you're helping make them a disciple. It doesn't only have to be two people sitting down together, one teaching and one learning all the time. We can make disciples by having Christian fellowship and Christian conversation with one another. We can be making disciples by asking one another about the sermon, about what we've been learning. We can spread the wealth of the knowledge of what we have received to others. There are countless ways, formal and informal, that we make disciples and encourage others in the body of Christ.

So, if the purpose the church is to make disciples, and everyone who believes and is baptized has ownership of that Great Commission, what are you doing to make disciples? What is your area of service in the Kingdom of God in this place. Do you have something you do in the church to make the church run? To allow the church to be a disciple-making factory. I just visited Steve last week and I saw his saw factory. He took me through the whole place and there were a lot of people doing a lot of different things, but the end product was that this company sold saw blades and they sold a lot of them and made a lot of money, but everybody in that entire company had a hand in that final product. There were people in marketing that never went inside the factory a day in their lives, but they were part of that company and they had a hand in the final product. Even Steve, who plays with computers all day, had a hand in sending these things out. He is a part of the company. We need to see ourselves that way--as a disciple-making factory. It may not mean that you, yourself, go out and evangelize, or that you, yourself, are actively teaching, but you have a place in the church, that you make the church run, and without you pulling your own weight, you're hindering others. So, do you have a place of service in the church? Are you contributing to the war effort?

Secondly, if the church is to be a disciple-making factory, are you being discipled? By the preaching of the Word, by the teaching of the Word, by nurture groups, by having a friend in the church that you pray with on a regular basis--is there some way that you are discipling one another? Or that you are being discipled? Again, sometimes being a disciple means that you go to somebody and say, "You know, I don't have it all together and I have a question on this issue that I can't really answer and I need some help." Sometimes being a disciple means we are to go to one another and ask for help. That's what members of the body of Christ are for. When is the last time you asked your brother or sister or elder or pastor for help? For direction? Saying, "Please, disciple me." I remember saying a year ago that the ideal for the church was that everyone is discipling someone and everyone is being discipled. And I heard that some people stepped forward and said, "I really need to be discipled. Would you disciple me?" and that really encouraged me. And now that I've said it again I'll be waiting to see if anybody else comes out of the woodwork and says, "I need to be discipled. Would you disciple me?" That's what the church is for. "Would you teach me how to obey the law of God in every area of life. Would you answer my questions?" But, you need the humility to say, "I need help. I need someone to teach me--to guide me--to show me what these things mean." And have the humility and desire to be a more thorough-going disciple to ask for help.

But then, secondly, a lot of you people say, "I need help," but then at least half of you need to be to discipling someone else, as well. "Oh, but I haven't been a Christian that long. I don't know everything. What can I offer?" You can offer something to someone. Maybe it's your own children. Maybe it's someone else. Maybe it's the visitors that come. But you have to find an avenue of service in order to pour out the blessings that you have received upon other people. The church is about making disciples. Maybe we should ask the obvious question: are you becoming a more thoroughly informed disciple? Are you discipling someone? Have you found a place of Kingdom service?

Maybe we ought to ask the obvious question: are you a disciple of Christ? Or are you here for some other purpose, rather than to be a follower of Jesus Christ?--to lay down your heart and your life for him in service to him, out of gratitude for what he has done? Perhaps you're still here as a guilty, hell-worthy sinner; you don't really believe. Oh, I'm here, I enjoy the sermons once in a while, I enjoy the people of God but I don't really believe. I haven't really committed my self without reserve. I haven't really committed myself in total surrender to say, "Jesus Christ is Lord and I'm not. I am a sinner and I need a savior and Jesus is the only one and I'm going to rest in him." Perhaps you haven't believed and perhaps you need to, to be a disciple of Christ. For if you come into the church for any other reason, the church is for making disciples. That's what we do. If you're not a disciple you're not going to get anything out of the church. So are you really a disciple of Christ and are we really as a congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ committed to the Great Commission, confident and expectant as to what God is about to do--because his power is so great and all authority on heaven and earth have been given to him--and are we committed as the people of God to learning to obey everything that Christ has commanded? Not to increase our guilt, but to increase our obedience and our gratitude to give our hearts in expression for the love that we have in return for what God has done for us. The church is to be making disciples. Amen.