Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas
Pastor Chuck Trusty — Wednesday evening service, September 23, 2026 The Great Commission · Matthew 28:18-20 · Matthew 10:7 · Acts 8:1 · Acts 13:2 · 1 Peter 3:15
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This evening we are going to talk about the Great Commission . . . and if we were going to give a title to the lesson, it would be “The Go That Never Stops.” And I will tell you up front - I am going to be man enough to admit some mistakes that I have made about this passage in the past. I am not going to hide my error and sweep it under the rug . . . I am just going to come right out and say it - I was WRONG about this.
Now this is the kind of question that anybody who has been in church for a while has at least thought about in his own mind. The Great Commission of Matthew 28 says GO. The church at Jerusalem was told to go - and history shows us that God even used persecution to pry them loose when they began to drag their feet. But the gospel has already arrived at Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church . . . we are HERE, and we have no other address. So where - and when - does the command in the Great Commission to GO stop governing us, and stop governing our church?
Well, some will answer that question the way I did before I learned better. I have been quoted in the past as saying the Greek really says “as you are going” - so it is not really a command that we reach back and bring into our present day. Or we could answer the question with a guilt trip, and say that every believer who does not pack his bags and move to a foreign country to do mission work is being disobedient - after all, the command does say GO. But neither one of these is entirely correct based upon the scriptures.
So what we are going to do this evening is let the grammar (the original Greek) . . . and history . . . and the Bible itself answer this question. When we answer it, this is not what your preacher thinks - and this is not what some commentary thinks. By the way, in case anybody is interested, I do not use commentaries . . . We have been learning that it is the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things if we are really interested - not a school, not a seminary, not an education. Now somebody will say, well preacher, you are just saying that because you have never been to the seminary - no, I am saying it because that is what the Bible says. I do not care if you take a person who is as dumb as a box of rocks - if he will humble his heart before God, he can outshine any Bible scholar that has ever been born . . . because it is the Holy Spirit - and the Holy Spirit is who we do not give enough CREDIT to. You will notice that the authors of MOST of the commentaries that are available – do not have the same type of Baptism that we have in this church… They do have education – but outside of proper baptism – they do not have “spiritual education”. Well, that rabbit caught my attention - let’s go back to the text.
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power (authority) is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” - Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV)
So we are talking this evening about the GO that never stops . . . it does not stop - but it does change address.
The GO never stops - but it does change address . . . and today the GO is living at OUR address here in Dardanelle.
What the Greek Actually Commands
Now the grammar is going to tell us what the Greek actually commands - not what we think it is saying, and not what we have always been told it is saying, but what it ACTUALLY says.
The word “teach” in verse nineteen is mathēteusate (ma-thay-TYOO-sah-teh) - and it literally means MAKE DISCIPLES. And here is what I discovered from the grammar first . . . the verb “teach” is the only command-form verb in the whole Commission. So the center of gravity in the Great Commission - if you will - is not packing our bags to travel . . . the center of gravity is DISCIPLE-MAKING. Baptizing and teaching are how the disciple-making gets done.
However - the command to make disciples does not make the GO optional . . . and here is where a common mistake is often made - and I know this because I am one who has made it. Some say the text really reads “as you are going.” But the fact is, “Go ye” is poreuthentes (por-yoo-THEN-tess) - a finished-action form of the verb - and it is standing right in front of a command. And in the Greek, when you have this form standing right in front of a command, that is a very common pattern – and it means that the going is what takes on the FORCE of the command it is standing in front of. GO - and make disciples.
Well preacher, how is the church supposed to make disciples? By GOING with the gospel into other places.
Now this is not something we have to guess about, because Matthew uses this exact same construction several different times. For instance - seven verses before our text, we see an angel at the empty tomb:
“And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.” - Matthew 28:7 (KJV)
Now those women at the tomb were standing STILL . . . the word is what created the going. They were basically being told - leave here, and GO tell the disciples. And that is the same form that we find in the Great Commission.
And here is the clincher - Matthew KNEW how to say “as you are going” . . . and he used it when he meant it. Go to Matthew chapter ten, and there is the exact phrase that I mistakenly attached to the GO in the Great Commission:
“And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” - Matthew 10:7 (KJV)
“As ye go” is poreuomenoi (por-yoo-OM-en-oy) - and I know I am butchering the pronunciation, but that is the way it is . . . this is the ONGOING form of the verb, as opposed to the finished form. Now Matthew had both tools available to him - and at the Commission, when he was recording the Great Commission, he picked up the COMMANDED go. That is what the Bible indicates.
So - the grammar gives us both of the truths we are talking about this evening, and each truth is found in its own verse. In Matthew 28 the going is genuinely COMMANDED - just like the ladies at the tomb. Leave here and go tell the disciples that you have seen Jesus . . . leave Jerusalem, God told the church, and go to these other places and tell them the gospel. If you picture a horse carrying a rider - the command to go is like a rider that has hopped up on the back of a horse named MAKE DISCIPLES . . . the going is literally riding on the back of make disciples. And in Matthew 10 there is also an “as ye go” - which is what I have in the past mistakenly assumed was the same kind of command we find in the Great Commission . . . but it is NOT.
Comfort, a Crowbar, and Antioch
For several chapters of the book of Acts, the Jerusalem church stayed HOME - stayed right where it was first established. Thousands were saved . . . the apostles were busy preaching . . . and everything was comfortable for them. Now what I am describing is their comfort zone - and it all took place in the one city where they were commanded to START . . . the one city they were commanded to go FROM, instead of hibernating and staying in their comfort zone the way they had.
“And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.” - Acts 8:1 (KJV)
Now I noticed the fact that they were all scattered abroad - the church and everybody - “EXCEPT the apostles.” The men who had actually been commanded to go and make disciples were the LAST ones to leave. And God used persecution as a crowbar, for lack of a better example, to pry the church loose from the place where obedience had begun to drag its feet.
But here is the part that actually answers our question. When does the GO stop - or does it stop? If we follow those who were scattered by the persecution from Jerusalem, we will follow them to a church at ANTIOCH - a city that had received the gospel as a direct result of the persecution against the church at Jerusalem. You see, Antioch was a church that had already arrived . . . just like our church in Dardanelle is a church that has already arrived.
“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” - Acts 13:2 (KJV)
Now Antioch became a SENDING church. If you read about all that Antioch did, it is looked on in just about all your research material as the place where missionary work actually began. The arrival of those who had been persecuted at Jerusalem did not allow the church they went to - to retire the Great Commission . . . but what it did do is to make that church a new STARTING place.
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” - Matthew 24:14 (KJV)
So - the GO is not something that stops when the gospel reaches our country, or our state - it only stops when the end of the age finds us.
Now I believe it is landmark number seventeen - of “those things most surely believed among us” (I think there are twenty-one of them). We believe that Jesus Christ established His church during His personal ministry on earth . . . we believe that the church is in a covenant relationship with Jesus to carry out the Great Commission . . . and we believe that Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission to the New Testament CHURCHES only. Now notice - in this landmark of what we believe, it is not church singular, it is the plural form, CHURCHES. So our own landmark number seventeen pretty much settles the question of whether the Great Commission was given only to the church at Jerusalem, or to other churches in addition to that first church at Jerusalem.
The GO never stops - it does change address . . . and the GO in the Great Commission is living at OUR address today.
That is the second time I have said it - and remember the significance of saying something three different times . . . the third time means it is PERMANENT. The Go we are talking about has never stopped being in effect, and it still governs our church here in Dardanelle.
The Rope - How an Arrived Church Goes
So if the GO governs our church, like I am saying it does - then what does the GO look like for a church whose members are settled in the community and obviously are not going anywhere?
Well, I thought about a rope - and I think I have mentioned in a lesson or two before how “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). The GO of an arrived church - a church that already has the gospel and is not going anywhere - is just like a cord with three strands . . . and we are already holding all three strands of that cord in our church this evening.
The first strand is SENT. Every month this church sends money to the Philippine Islands to support young churches/pastors on the islands – in their efforts to spread the gospel.
“Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” - Philippians 4:17 (KJV)
Now the key phrase in this verse is “your ACCOUNT.” When those missionaries in the Philippines stand at the judgment seat of Christ - fruit from the islands of the Philippines, fruit that you and I have never laid eyes on . . . at least part of the fruit of their labors will be credited to OUR ledger in the judgment. Whether it is a missionary, or whether they have organized into a regular church - that is all beside the point.
Part of our name is MISSIONARY Baptist - and that is one of the reasons we claim to be Missionary Baptists instead of some other kind of Baptist, because there is no board that directs us regarding what missions we should support and what ones we should not. Again, it goes back to that Holy Spirit that we so often do not give proper credit to . . . the Holy Spirit is who leads us and guides us to endeavors like this. So the sender GOES in the sent, if that makes any sense . . . this is Antioch’s strand of the cord - and we hold ‘that particular strand’ in our hand every month - when we send support to the Philippines.
The second strand is SHOWN. Now this might make us uncomfortable, but it is the truth - every single member of this local church is on display before this town every single week. We are on display if we go to the co-op . . . if we are at a ball game, or at the funeral home, or in the checkout line at Walmart or wherever - we are ON DISPLAY.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” - Matthew 5:16 (KJV)
This is Matthew chapter ten’s strand - this one actually fits the “as ye go” phrase. The world reads a church the same way it reads a lighthouse. I mentioned in a previous lesson that a lighthouse does not fire cannons - it does not make a lot of noise to call attention to the light shining up at the top . . . a lighthouse just SHINES. Well, our church is to be a lighthouse in this community - we are told to shine, and the shining is what saves men from the rocks.
And that leads us to the third strand - SPOKEN. This is the strand that actually finishes the three-strand rope we are talking about, because the people who are on display - the church members - have to be ready to SPEAK.
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” - 1 Peter 3:15 (KJV)
Be ready always to what? To give an ANSWER. Now notice the order - the shown life is what brings on the question . . . and if our lives are on display, then according to First Peter 3:15, our mouth needs to be ready to do something.
“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” - Romans 10:14 (KJV)
Faith comes by HEARING. Now I think it is fair to say that a lost person is probably not going to be saved simply by watching how kind a Christian is to other people. Watching that Christian’s behavior will no doubt get the lost person’s attention - but for him to seek Jesus as his Saviour, there is probably going to have to be some talk going back and forth . . . there is going to have to be an explanation of WHY we as Christians are being kind to those who are not kind to us in return. A lighthouse is what draws a ship close to the shore - but somebody still has to explain where the harbor is. Yes, I see the light on the lighthouse over there, and I will go toward it . . . but somebody needs to tell me where I need to dock this boat once I get past these rocks.
So there are three strands - and if we braid these three strands together, then the Great Commission is still ALIVE, even in a church like ours. Now the rope does not break the very instant we cut one of the strands - a three-strand rope with one strand cut is still going to hold for a while. So the church that cuts a strand does not fall apart that same Sunday afternoon . . . but the rope is strained, and it continues to fray - and it may take several YEARS before it finally snaps and the whole thing falls apart.
So let’s cut each one of the three, one at a time, and look at what will happen.
Cut the SENT strand - we are just not going to send anybody anything. Well, after it is cut, we can still behave the way we should behave . . . and we can still answer anyone who asks what the reason is - that we have the kind of faith that we do. But if we cut the sent strand, the Great Commission takes on a PERMANENT address. It basically stops - it is not carried any further. The Great Commission goes exactly as far as our conduct can be seen, and only as far as our lips can be heard . . . part of Yell County, maybe a little bit over into Pope County and a little bit into Logan County - and that would be the permanent address of the Great Commission.
Now cut the SHOWN strand. You remember we talked previously about how our behavior is the badge that we wear - it identifies us as Christians . . . love, even for those who do not love us in return. This is the one that really does the most damage - because now we are still sending money across the ocean to the Philippines, and we are still ready to talk the talk . . . but when we open our mouth on Sunday about the Lord, what we said at work on Tuesday is LOUDER than what we are saying in church. You see what that means? The Philippines gets a missionary - and Dardanelle gets a hypocrite. That is just the plain truth . . . nobody is going to ask about a badge that they have already seen dragged through the mud. You see, if we cannot get along with one another, how in the world are we expected to get along with those out in the world? If I cannot get along with Brother Kenneth, how in the world am I going to get along with my neighbor? I am supposed to love Kenneth - and I am supposed to love my neighbor too, but not to the same degree as we love those in the house of God.
Now let’s see what happens if we cut that third strand - the SPOKEN strand. I think most people would feel safest cutting this one, because after all, we are still giving money to the Philippines . . . and we are still living the way we should live, practicing love toward those who do not necessarily love us in return. But that is what gets us caught in a TRAP. We become a good, decent and quiet people that nobody ever gets closer to God around. The one who has been watching us - be ready always to give an answer to those who ask a reason of the hope that is in us - that individual finally works up the nerve to ask . . . and all we can think to do is to talk about the weather, or talk about hunting season. He walked right up to the door of the gospel - and we never OPENED the door.
Now of the three strands - which one is in our grip the loosest? Which one do we have a lighter grip on than the others?
I was raised - and I have always been taught – that you have the door knockers, but that you don’t want to force the gospel on anyone . . . and I think that intent is in the scriptures. Because we cannot get past First Peter 3:15. Now what does it say? It does not say go to the airport and witness to everybody you see - but if you are at the airport, be READY to answer. Why do you worship the way you do? Why do you have the faith that you do? Be ready to answer when someone sees a difference in the way you live your life than how they live their life. And that is kind of what got me off the truth about “as you are going” . . . I thought, well, as I go through life I will be a witness - and when somebody recognizes Christ in my life, they will ask me. So - you can see how a man can make that mistake - but that is not how the Great Commission is written. Matthew knew exactly what that phrase was . . . he used it in Matthew chapter ten, and he did NOT use it in Matthew chapter twenty-eight.
Check Your Grip
So where does the command to GO actually stop governing us? Well, the answer is - it never stops being our responsibility to obey it.
The GO never stops - it changes address . . . and today the GO is living at OUR address.
And one last example - and I made a conscious effort to trim the length of my lessons, my first go at this one was a little bit longer, so I am just about done . . . the mail carrier does not stop his route because the mail has already gotten to HIS house. Oh, my mail is in the mailbox, I can just stop and go home - that is not the way it works. Even after he gets his mail, he still continues to deliver to others.
So our homework this week is aimed at the strand that most of us are holding the loosest - which is typically the last one, the talking part. This week, write out our answer on a piece of paper. Pretend someone has just asked - “explain to me why you have the faith that you do.” A little short paragraph, one or two sentences - it does not have to be elaborate. Write out the reason of the hope that is in our heart.
Write out what we were before God pulled us out of that pit . . . write out what the Lord did for us when we repented - that is a good reason to explain to somebody . . . and write out what God is to us. What I mean by that is - write out the kind of relationship that exists between us and God that gives us more PEACE than yielding to temptation gives us. I am just like anybody else - I do not have to read in the Bible that there are “the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25) . . . I know that. But I also know that a proper relationship with God outshines the pleasure that is found in sin.
When we get it written out, read it over and pray that it is ready to share with others - because somebody in this town has been watching our rope, and probably watching us longer than we are aware of. And the day that we are finally asked a reason for the hope that is within us is the WRONG day to start composing an answer. Be ready always . . . be ready BEFORE.
I do not know why - when we are asked about God or something spiritual, all of a sudden we get tongue-tied . . . but I could be asked what my favorite hobby is, or who my favorite quarterback is - oh, no hesitation at all, I could go on for days and days. So be ready - rehearse the answer. There is nothing wrong with that. We do not want to come across as being ashamed of God when somebody finally asks us about our relationship with God.
Scripture Used
Matthew 28:18-20 · Matthew 28:7 · Matthew 10:7 · Acts 8:1 · Acts 13:2 · Matthew 24:14 · Philippians 4:17 · Matthew 5:16 · 1 Peter 3:15 · Romans 10:14 · Ecclesiastes 4:12 · Hebrews 11:25 (all KJV)
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