THE GREAT COMMISSION

Theme: “All believers are commanded to have a part in the Great Commission that the universal Church has received to go and share the good news with every living person on earth.”

Sharing the gospel is not just the responsibility of full-time ministers.  Every believer is to have a part in it.  Jesus’ command to us is sometimes referred to as the Great Commission.  Let’s see what we can learn about it from different Bible passages:

Matthew 28:18-20:
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Amen.

First, we see that Jesus has all authority.  That’s good to know, but what does that have to do with going and making disciples, and what is the “therefore” there for?  Why does it follow that we are to go make disciples because all authority has been given to Jesus? Because He has turned around and shared that authority with us. As we saw in Lesson 14, Jesus said that He will do whatever we ask in His name. We have “power of attorney” on the earth to use His name.  He is the Head and we are the Body, and the Head shares his authority with the Body.

Next, we see that Jesus did not say to go make converts. He said to make disciples. A “convert” would still make it to heaven since he converted from sin to a living relationship with Jesus. But a “disciple” (a “disciplined one”) follows Jesus closely and is careful to obey His teaching.  A “convert” gets to heaven, but a “disciple” will be a shining light who leads others to heaven along with him.

Making converts is relatively easy.  But making disciples requires one commodity that is very precious in our day – time.  There is no way to make microwave disciples.  The only way to do it is to spend time with the people you’re discipling.  We have to be willing to give of our time to people who know a lot less about the Good News than we do.

Then we see that Jesus expects people to be baptized after they are saved.

Then we see that Jesus wants us to teach others what He commanded us.  Again, this takes time.  This is not just accomplished by having someone walk an aisle and fill out a “decision card.” He wants people to know the fullness of the Good News, not just the “fire insurance” part that keeps you out of hell.

This also points out something that is little recognized in the Body of Christ, namely the role of the Teacher. We’ll get into the ministry offices more in Lesson 20, but many churches only recognize the roles of Pastor and Evangelist, and if you’re not the pastor of a church, they assume you must be an Evangelist, the working definition (for them) of an Evangelist being “a guy who’s in the ministry who travels and isn’t a pastor.” But there are also people called to the office of Teacher. While anyone in ministry should be able to teach (that’s a Bible requirement, as we’ll see), some people have a special grace for it.  When they teach, the light just goes on in a lot of people. They are gifted for it.  Anyway, I said that to say this:  Most people think of missionaries as evangelists who have huge outdoor meetings.  Thank God for missionaries who have large outdoor meetings. But when those people get saved, someone needs to teach them something other than “You must be born again.” There is a need for Bible teachers overseas as well as evangelists!

Finally, He is with us always! He has not left is here to share the Good News and told us, “Have a nice time! See you when you get here! I’ll be watching you from a distance!” No, He is right here with us, and IN us, helping us share. We are not just laborers for God; we are laborers with God (2 Corinthians 6:1). There’s a big difference!  And it’s a good thing Jesus IS with is, because He said that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Of course, He means nothing of eternal significance, since even a sinner could blow his nose, replace empty toilet paper rolls and eat way too much at an oriental all-you-can-eat buffet without Jesus.

Mark 16:15-20:
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these things will follow those who believe:  In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

This passage all logically flows together, so it is appalling how many churches have sliced it up and stopped after “he who does not believe will be condemned”, leaving out the whole section about miraculous signs following those who believe.  This is known as the Great Omission.  Well, actually, that’s what I call it; it’s not an official designation. But the point is, who has the authority to say that part of this passage has been done away with and not the other?  If signs are not for today, how can “go into all the world” be for today? If we are to go into all the world without any signs following, why is the Lord handicapping us by denying us the most effective advertising tool there ever was for the gospel?  Has he changed so that He no longer works with us and no longer confirms the word through the accompanying signs? NO!  This is all for today!  God does not change (Malachi 3:6) and neither does Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:8, Hebrews 1:12), so if anything has changed, it’s been on man’s end of things.  Signs and wonders are normal; lack of signs and wonders is abnormal.

We see from here that Jesus wants every person in the world to hear the gospel.  Now, before you get a Messianic complex about it, YOU personally are not responsible to tell billions of people the gospel. The Body of Christ, of which you are a part, is collectively responsible.  But this requires each of us to take part in it.

Angels are not allowed to preach the gospel; only people can do it.  An angel told Cornelius where he could go to have a man tell him the gospel, and similar stories can be told in some countries that didn’t have much gospel preaching at the time.  But the angel didn’t preach the gospel because it isn’t up to them – they weren’t commissioned to preach the gospel, we were.  (In Revelation, there is a reference to an angel with the gospel, but we won’t be around during the judgement on the earth that will be happening at that time, thank God.)

We see that tongues will be a sign for unbelievers; we already covered that back in Lesson 13. Then we see that believers (not just ministers, but any believing one!) will cast out demons.  In fact, you have authority to command Satan himself to flee from you in the name of Jesus, and he has to go too! Then we see promises of divine protection. They do not mean that you have to get on a bus to South Carolina and go to a special service where they handle snakes. That’s silly.  But IF you were bitten by a deadly snake, as Paul was in Acts 28, you can claim divine protection and not be hurt, just as Paul wasn’t hurt.  This was a sign to everyone on the island where he was at the time!  IF you were to drink something deadly, you have the right to claim exemption from poisoning!  This does not authorize you to drink a bottle of Drano to try to prove a point, but it does mean that you’re safe if someone tries to poison you. Finally, we see that believers, not just world-famous healing evangelists, are authorized to lay hands on the sick in the name of Jesus and see them recover.

You may wonder why you don’t see people recovering everywhere. It’s because people are not laying hands on the sick in the name of Jesus everywhere!  Jesus said it works and it does work. The Son of God did not lie about this.

Notice before we go on to Luke’s account that believers aren’t supposed to be following after signs; signs are supposed to follow believers. You shouldn’t have to bop from one revival service to another, looking for signs and wonders. Signs and wonders should be following you, because you have God Almighty on the inside of you working with you. Then note that if you sit on your duff and do nothing, there’s nothing to follow.  If your car is parked, I can’t follow you because you’re not moving. Signs and wonders follow those who believe, and that implies that those who believe are obeying the command to GO and then the signs follow them as they do.

Luke 24:46-49:
Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  And you are witnesses of these things.  Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Again, we see the Lord’s command that all nations would hear about Jesus. In this account we see something we didn’t see in the other two, namely that they were to stay in Jerusalem and NOT go everywhere preaching the gospel, until they were endued with power from on high, which (as we shall see below) means until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit.

The book of Acts is really Luke II – the sequel! Luke wrote Acts as well as the gospel of Luke, and Acts just picks up where the Gospel of Luke leaves off:

Acts 1:4-8:
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

If it was so critical for the job of evangelizing the world that they waited until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, can it be any less urgent today that believers go out baptized with the Holy Spirit instead of without the power of the Spirit? This tells me something about canned witnessing programs. There will never be a canned witnessing program that will reach everyone.  Besides, Jesus didn’t say we would go out and do witnessing; He said that we would BE witnesses. Real Christian witnessing is being a living witness. That’s easier when you have the power of the Holy Spirit backing you up and miracles happen when you minister to people.

Signs, wonders and miracles are the best form of gospel advertising there ever has been or ever will be. No cute bumper sticker campaign, telemarketing campaign, door-knocking campaign, etc., can ever substitute for what was known to get whole cities turned on to the gospel in a matter of no time in Acts.  Do you have a plan to reach people? If it can be done without the power of the Holy Spirit, I challenge you to take a second look and see if there might be a better way than what you’re planning to do.

Now what about world missions? Everyone is to have a part in reaching the unreached.  It’s nice to share the gospel in a comfortable country where most people have already heard the message, but what about those places where they kill preachers?  What about countries where ungodly fake religions dominate society? They need to hear, too.  As Oswald Smith said, you must either go or send a substitute. If you’re not going yourself – and not everyone is called to be a missionary overseas – you can provide financial support for overseas missions to help those who DO go.
 

Question 18-1: I was thinking of going on a short-term mission trip to Islamistan, but I don’t feel called to be a missionary.  Would it be a mistake to go?

In view of the Great Commission, God would have no problem with having you go on a short-term mission trip anywhere! You don’t have to be “called” to do it because you already have the Great Commission that authorizes you to do it! While you can’t set yourself in the Body as a full-time ministry gift if that’s not your calling, there is nothing wrong with helping spread the gospel in person somewhere else in the world on a short-term basis.

I once went on such a trip because my pastor and my church urged me to go, and I went partly with the idea of assuring myself for the rest of my life that I was not called to travel overseas! When I preached, I saw miracles in a way I’d never seen them back home and it was a rush!  The people were so hungry and open to the Spirit!  I BEGGED God for a chance to do more mission trips after that, and within a few years I had invitations to 27 countries.  I look forward to doing more mission trips!  My point is that you just might be surprised if you step out and go!  Come to think of it, I didn’t want to be a preacher, either, and I didn’t want to move to Maine and I didn’t want to pastor a church, and so on, and I’m doing it all now and LOVING it! God knew what would fit me better than I did!

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