The Great Commission

The Great Commission

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.” - Matt. 28:16



We have been studying the period of time between the resurrection of Jesus and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. During this time Jesus appeared to his disciples, and he gave them this command, this commission. In the last post, we talked about being disciples, and this week we are talking about making disciples. This is the job of every Christian; disciples make disciples. 

The word Christian means “little Christ. We are supposed to be like him, and we are here to continue His mission. “Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." John 20:21. We are supposed to be doing the things that Jesus did when he was here. That is the great commission. We are supposed to go out like harvesters, and bring people to Jesus. God made it clear that this message is supposed to go out to every nation, every people group, everybody. The scripture says, all creation. This good news is for everybody. 

The gospel message is just relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. The word Gospel means “good news.” What is the good news? Jesus came to save us. The promised messiah has come. Our world has no other answer to its problems. Jesus is the only way. You want to make an impact on the world? Share the gospel. We will not solve social justice problems apart from Jesus. The world has a sin problem, and Jesus is the only answer. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father, except through me.” [John 14:6] Jesus is the only way to salvation. That is not the message our culture propagates, but it is the truth. 

This generation has the same needs as every other. We all need Jesus. Nothing else will satisfy. We all have a hole inside that only God will fill. We try to fill it with other things, drugs, alcohol, power, money, attention, relationships, entertainment, anything. It will not satisfy us. It may fill it for a moment. It may distract us. But it will leave us empty in the end. Only God can fill that hole, because he created it. He created us for communion with Him. 

So let's look at this passage in Matt. 28. 
"All authority has been given to me." Jesus won the war. Adam and Eve lost the authority that God gave them over the Earth. Jesus won it back at the cross. He defeated the spiritual forces of darkness.
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” [colossians 2:13-15]

He said because he had been given all authority, we were to go make disciples. We make disciples because he has authority. There are two kingdoms out there, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Jesus has the authority so we can bring his kingdom to earth. The enemy forces that have had power over the earth are defeated. Because Jesus has authority, we can preach the gospel, we can invade the kingdom of darkness. It is all about His power. We are his instruments. He delivers people, but he might use you to be the instrument of that deliverance. Because he has all authority, people can be saved, redeemed, forgiven. 

I have to remind you that this life is temporary. We will not live here forever. Life is short. The other day, my daughter was riding with me to school and she said, “Dad, you are going to die soon.” She is five. I was surprised, to say the least. I asked her why she said that, and she said, “Well, you are.” It opened the door to a good conversation about how life is short and we need to live for God. We need to be reminded that we are going to die. Can I tell you? You are going to die. And when you do, your eternity will be determined by what you did in this life. I don’t want to scare you. I am not trying to manipulate you here. But this is reality. Hell is a real place. The bible describes it as a place of eternal torment, a lake of burning fire. And there will be a lot of people who go there. The point I and trying to make is that, if our time on this earth is so short, we had best make good use of it. And we have the potential to impact someone’s eternity. I don’t like the idea of hell. It would be really nice if bad people simply ceased to exist or something like that. But that is not what the bible teaches. That is not reality. This should place a burden in our souls for the lost. People's eternal destiny is at stake. 

So I hope that I have impressed upon you the importance of this mission. But the question remains: How do we make disciples? Here a couple of thoughts.

One biblical model of evangelism is to witness to the people God has already put in your life. We all have a group of people who we are in contact with regularly. This could be family, friends, coworkers. In the New testament there was a word for this, it is called your oikos. It is usually translated as house or household. 

These are those people you have frequent contact with, usually around 8-15 people. These are people God has placed in our lives so that we can be a witness to them. Paul taught that if someone became a believer and they were married to an unbeliever, they should stay married, because they could be a witness to their spouse. “How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?” 1 Cor. 7:16. He also taught slaves to live in such a way as to win over their masters. Parents are supposed to teach their children about the Lord. The point is, we can make disciples without meeting anyone new, there are already relationships that you have in your life that can be a way to make disciples. Your lifestyle is a huge witness to unbelievers. We are the light of the world. People should see us and see Jesus. I am not talking about putting on a show or a mask like we have no problems. I am talking about being real, loving people, just letting people see your faith, see what God is doing in you.

In every case where Jesus is talking about send out the disciples, the great commission, he talks about the Holy Spirit. They are tied hand in hand. The Holy Spirit empowers us to fulfill the great commission. He told the disciples “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." [Luke 24:49] They could not start the mission until they had the Holy Spirit empowering them. Then it was easy. They were transformed. 

In my own wisdom, I don’t know what to say. I don’t have the power to save anybody. But the Holy Spirit can. We have to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish anything. The freeing thing is that it takes the pressure off of us. All we have to do is seek God and be willing vessels. He will teach us what to say, he will lead us to the right place and time. We must have the Holy Spirit leading us, or our work will be a failure. The only way to build the kingdom is through the power of the Holy Spirit. 
Be ready, for the Holy Spirit to use you. How can you be ready? Read the bible. Have to have the word in you. Pray, get used to listening to his voice. Look for opportunities. 
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Matt. 9:37b-38