Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount by telling His disciples what they were, salt and light. At the very end of Matthew's Gospel, just before He ascended to heaven, He told them what to do about it. His final words were not a gentle wish or a hopeful idea. They were a commission backed by all the authority in the universe.
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:18-19)
Read that opening claim again slowly. All authority. Not some. Not most. All. The command to go and make disciples rests on the total authority of the risen Christ, which is why it has never been optional for those who follow Him.
Not a Suggestion, Not an Omission
We have a habit of softening this passage into something more comfortable than Jesus intended.
"It's not the great suggestion. And for far too many, it has become the great omission."
For many believers, the Great Commission has quietly slipped from a command we obey to a possibility we admire from a distance, and then to something we simply leave undone. But Jesus did not offer His disciples a suggestion to consider if it suited them. He gave them a mandate, and that mandate still echoes to us today, because Jesus never rescinded what He said. He still intends it to be our purpose. At Warren, that commission has been distilled into four simple practices you cannot miss on any campus: to lead people to worship, to connect them in community, to equip them to obey all Christ commanded, and to send them out, because He is with us always to the end of the age.
Freedom That Accelerates the Mission
Here is where the gift of freedom becomes so significant. We are blessed to have more opportunity to obey this command than any generation in history, simply because we have been given this gift called freedom. Freedom for the believer is not an indulgence or a destination; it is a platform to glorify God. And that changes how we should think about the liberty we enjoy.
"Freedom should never limit or inhibit our missionary zeal. It should accelerate it."
Just as a river flows most effectively when it is unobstructed and clear, the gospel flows most freely through a people who refuse to let their freedom make them complacent. The opportunity in front of us is not a reason to relax; it is a reason to move. The very liberty that could tempt us toward comfort is meant instead to remove obstacles from the mission, so that more people in more places can hear the good news.
Every Believer Sent
The Great Commission does not divide the church into senders and spectators. It sends everyone. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said that every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter, and the sharpness of that statement is meant to wake us up. There is no neutral category, no way to belong to the risen Christ while remaining indifferent to His final command.
The privilege of freedom carries an obligation to seize every opportunity it opens for the kingdom of God. We do not engage in the mission because politics or programs save people; they do not. We engage because Christ has all authority, because He has commanded us to make disciples of all nations, and because He has promised to be with us as we do. The Great Commission is not the great suggestion, and it must never become the great omission. It is the mission Jesus has entrusted to every one of His people, and the freedom we hold is one more reason to give ourselves fully to it.
Adapted from the message preached at Warren Baptist Church on June 14, 2026, in the Foundations of Freedom series.
