We’ve been in a series called The Bible Doesn’t Say That, walking through the resurrection appearances of Jesus. In the first week, we were on the shore of Galilee, where Peter had gone back to his nets and his old life, when the risen Christ showed up, cooked him breakfast and restored him in his ministry to the church. We learned that the Bible never said that because you failed him, he is finished with you.

Week two took us on the road to Emmaus, where two disciples were walking away from Jerusalem, walking away from everything they had hoped for, when a stranger fell into step beside them. They did not recognize that it was the Lord Jesus until he broke bread with them that evening. We learned that the Bible never said God cannot meet you in the middle of your discouragement, even when you are walking in the wrong direction.

Last week brought us back to the upper room, inside, with the doors locked, to a man named Thomas who had convinced himself that he would never believe unless he could put his hands on Jesus' wounds. Jesus walked through that locked door a second time, specifically coming for the one who doubted. And we learned that the Bible never said God is done with you if you doubt.

Now, today, in the final message of this series. We are moving from the upper room to a mountain because the risen Christ doesn’t keep his disciples in hiding. He calls them out into the open; he sends them, and the big idea that closes this series is that the Bible never said that faith was a private matter.

I want to start with a question that sounds innocent enough until it sinks in.

Is it possible to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ and keep that faith completely to yourself?

In other words, to believe in your heart, to love God sincerely, and yet never let anyone around you know it? You go to work on Monday and give no indication whatsoever that anything happened to you on Sunday?

There may be some of you listening right now for whom that question makes you a little uncomfortable. You have faith, you believe, you pray, but almost no one in your daily life knows it. You have kept it quiet, kept it personal, kept it between you and God. And there is a real difference between personal faith and secret faith. Personal faith goes deep, but a secret faith goes nowhere.

You may remember a man named Nicodemus, the Bible says,

"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night" (John 3:1-2).

In other words, he didn’t want anyone to see him. He was drawn to Jesus, beginning to believe, but he was not ready for anyone to know it.

Then, there was Joseph of Arimathea, John chapter 19 tells us,

“Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews" (John 19:38).

Both men became genuine believers because when Jesus was crucified, and the other disciples had scattered, it was

"Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus" (John 19:38).

In other words, he went to Pilate publicly, with his name attached, putting his reputation on the line.

"He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes" (John 19:39).

to prepare the body for burial. And so the same men who had come secretly to Jesus in the darkness of the night were now standing at the tomb in the full light of day.

Both Joseph and Nicodemus had kept their faith hidden while Jesus was alive, but after his death, something changed. They could not stay in the shadows any longer, and if that cross had that effect on secret disciples, consider what the resurrection does.

You see, it’s one thing to quietly admire a teacher, but it is something else entirely to believe that the same man who was nailed to a cross, wrapped in grave clothes, and sealed in a tomb walked out of that grave on the third day. That kind of faith is too big to keep to yourself. It will not stay quiet, it can’t, it demands to be declared.

Turn with me now to Matthew, chapter 28, verse 16. This is the final resurrection appearance in Matthew’s gospel, the one that closes the story and opens the mission.

"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" (Matthew 28:16-20).

I want you to notice where this happens. Not in the upper room with the doors locked. Not in a dark garden with hushed whispers. But on a mountain in Galilee, out in the open, where Jesus had done much of his public ministry. In other words, Jesus brings the disciples to a mountain where crowds had followed him and where he was known. It was there that he gave them the most far-reaching assignment in human history. And he does so publicly because what he commissions them to do is, by its very nature, a public act.

Now, before we go any further, I don’t want to pass over three words that Matthew quietly slips into verse 17, saying, “but some doubted.” That is an interesting comment because Matthew doesn’t tell us who; he doesn’t name them, and so we don’t know if he is talking about the eleven who went to Galilee, who had already seen the risen Christ, or if he is talking about a larger gathering like the apostle Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:6, where he writes:

"Jesus appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time" (1 Corinthians 15:6).

What we do understand, and what Matthew acknowledges, is that there was doubt, but then Jesus commissioned them anyway. In other words, he did not wait until every last one of them had resolved every question before he gave the assignment. He stood before a group that included worshipers and doubters alike, and he said to all of them, “Go.”

That should be a tremendous encouragement to anyone in this room who has felt like your doubt disqualifies you from being sent. Because if it did not disqualify those who saw the resurrected Christ, it will not disqualify you either.

And so, before Jesus gives the command, he lays the foundation, saying:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18).

In other words, he has authority over every spiritual power or earthly circumstance that might make you afraid to open your mouth about what you believe. All of it is under his authority, and so it is from a position of absolute authority that the commission flows.

"Therefore go" (Matthew 28:19).

Every power that could oppose the gospel has already been defeated. The only thing standing between you and going public with your faith is fear — and fear has no authority over a people whose Lord has all authority. The Great Commission is not an invitation for the bold and the extroverted. It is a command to every follower of Jesus, including the ones who were still doubting when they heard it. And he does not send us in our own strength — he gives us his Spirit to be witnesses.

Look at what he says, look at the structure: three commands, but one mission.

"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" (Matthew 28:19-20).

The Lord, who has all authority, said to go make disciples, baptize them, and teach them. He doesn’t say, "Let them have a private moment"; he says, "Baptize them," which is an inherently public act.

You go into the water before the watchful eyes of the community of faith. And then you come up out of the water as a declaration of your new life. And so, baptism is the moment when private faith goes public, and Jesus put it right at the center of the great commission. It is not optional; it is woven into the assignment.

Let’s fast-forward for a moment, from that mountain in Galilee to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, because what happens in Acts chapter 2 is the great commission being obeyed for the first time. The man leading the charge is someone we have already spent time with in this series. It is Peter, the same Peter who stood by a fire in the high priest’s courtyard the night of Jesus’ arrest and said to a servant girl,

"I don't know what you're talking about!" (Matthew 26:70).

The same Peter who cursed and swore to them,

"I don't know the man!” (Matthew 26:74).

The same Peter whose faith had sunk so low that he went all the way back to Galilee and picked up his fishing nets. The man with the most notorious secret faith failure in all of Scripture had breakfast with the risen Jesus on the beach. He was restored and recommissioned, and on the day of Pentecost, he was in the upper room when the Holy Spirit fell. And now, Peter filled with the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:

"Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say" (Acts 2:14).

In the very city where the crucifixion had happened 50 days before, Peter declared the resurrection of Jesus Christ at the top of his lungs. The man who was notorious for his private faith has gone public. The man who whispered denials by a fire was now standing on his feet before thousands, and so what changed?

Well, let’s let Peter speak for himself. He said,

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

Peter said the resurrection changed everything because we have a new birth into a living hope. In other words, an encounter with the risen Christ will not leave your faith where it was because it is too alive to stay hidden.

And so, Peter stands in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit and preaches the death, burial, and resurrection with clarity and power, delivering a declaration that cuts his listeners to the heart.

"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).

The people were broken and distraught, crying out, "What shall we do?"

"Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins'" (Acts 2:38).

There is the internal turning of the heart… to repent. And then be baptized, which is the external public declaration of that turning. And so, it’s not one or the other, it’s both of them together, the inward and the outward, and the Bible says,

"Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day" (Acts 2:41).

What Jesus had commanded on the mountain in Galilee was happening in the streets of Jerusalem. Three thousand people went public with their faith in baptism, but I want to show you that it’s more than a ritual or a membership requirement; it’s actually one of the most theologically rich acts of faith a believer can perform.

We have seen the command in Matthew chapter 28. We have seen the command obeyed in Acts chapter 2. Now, the apostle Paul is going to show us, in Romans chapter 6, what happens spiritually when a person goes into that water. He says,

"Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" (Romans 6:3).

In other words, when you go into that water, you are going into the grave with Jesus. You are declaring that your old life, every sin, every broken pattern, every weight you have been carrying, has been buried; it is done.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life" (Romans 6:4).

And so, when you come up out of that water, you are declaring the same thing the empty tomb declared on the third day, that death doesn’t have the final word, the grave could not hold him. And the Bible says,

"If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection" (Romans 6:5).

In other words, baptism is a resurrection appearance. Because you are united with him in his death, you are united with him in his resurrection, which is why we are closing this series with baptism, because for 4 weeks we have been walking through resurrection appearances, Jesus showing up after the grave, meeting his people in their failure, their doubt, and their walking away.

Now we come to the moment when the resurrection is not just something we preach about; it is something we step into. We go under the water and come back up, and in that act we declare: I belong to the risen Christ. His death is my death. His resurrection is my resurrection. I’m not the same person I was.

That’s exactly what the apostle Paul said. This was his testimony:

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Baptism is the moment you stop being a secret disciple. It is the moment you come out into the open and say to everyone watching, to your friends, your family, to this church, and to heaven itself: “I belong to Jesus. I’m not hiding it. I am declaring it.”

You see, the Bible never said faith was a private matter. Everywhere you look in the New Testament, real faith becomes visible faith. In fact, Jesus said it this way,

"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven" (Matthew 10:32-33).

To acknowledge Jesus before men is not a private act. That is not something that happens in your heart alone. Yes, it begins there,

"For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved" (Romans 10:10).

In other words, it is both the inward reality and the outward declaration. A faith that never finds its voice is a faith that is still standing by that courtyard fire, denying knowing Jesus, and hoping that nobody notices.

But the risen Christ is calling you today to come out of the courtyard, to stand up and represent him. Because he says,

“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17).

There may be someone here who has been a follower of Christ for years, genuinely saved, but you’ve never been baptized. Maybe it felt too public, too intimidating, and you kept telling yourself the time wasn’t right, and the time kept not being right. And I know that baptism doesn’t save you; you’re saved by grace through faith, but it is the step of obedience that declares what has already happened in your heart. Jesus put it in the Great Commission for a reason, and the time he has in mind is now.

There may be someone here who has never made that first decision, who knows the language and the songs but has never personally surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. You’ve been coming to him at night, like Nicodemus, and today is the day to come into the daylight. To have a new birth into a living hope.

And there may be someone here living a partitioned, compartmentalized life, with faith in one compartment and everything else in another, and the two never connect. Your faith never goes to work with you. It never sits at the dinner table. It never comes up with your neighbors. You are a genuine believer, but a secret one. And the risen Christ, standing on that mountain with all authority in heaven and on earth, is calling you to let those walls down.

Here is what I want you to carry out of this series. Jesus appeared to Peter after his failure, restored him, and sent him. He appeared to two disciples walking away, turned them around and sent them. He appeared to Thomas in his doubt and met him exactly where he was and sent him. He appeared on a mountain and sent all of them saying, “Go. Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them.”

"Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

Every resurrection appearance in this series has been moving toward this moment. The shore, the road, the upper room, and the mountain all illustrate the same story. The risen Christ meeting his people where they are and sending them out from where they were. Restored and sent. Turned around and sent. Believing again and sent. Going public and sent.

And he doesn’t send you alone. The same presence that walked through locked doors for Thomas and cooked breakfast for Peter on the beach goes with you into every conversation, every relationship, and every place where faith meets your daily life. You are sent with the full authority of the risen Christ behind you and the presence of the living Christ within you.

After we worship, some of you will step into this water and make the most important public declaration a follower of Jesus can make. You are going to go under, being buried with Christ, and you are going to come up, raised with Christ. You’re going to:

"Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11).

And every person who goes into that water today is doing exactly what Peter commanded on the day of Pentecost and exactly what Jesus commissioned on the mountain in Galilee. That declaration of faith is not made in private; it is made in front of witnesses, in front of this church, and in front of heaven itself.

 

Graphics, notes, and commentary from LifeChurch, Ministry Pass, PC Study Bible, Preaching Library, and Sermon Central. Scripture from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.