Taking on the Great Commission
A God-sized purpose, a scripturally inspired plan, and a supernatural power—these three keys enabled David to take on Goliath; and I knew that I would need these same three keys in order to conquer the giant that loomed before me. Having found what I considered to be the secret to conquering giants, I next turned to the Great Commission, the giant that had set me on this quest in the first place, with the intent of seeing if Jesus might have hidden these same three clues within His directive. The first step in searching out these keys was to identify the multiple presentations of the Great Commission.
Five different times, Jesus commissioned His disciples into their ministries. Many people assume that He gave the Great Commission only once and it was recorded with different emphases by the gospel writers; however, by carefully studying the post-resurrection appearances of the Savior, we can see that they occurred at different places and at different times during the time between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension. In reality, He was constantly challenging His followers with this mission.
Matthew 28:16-20 records the appearance of Jesus to the disciples on a mountain in Galilee.
Then the eleven disciples when away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach 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.
Mark 16:14-18 describes an appearance while they were having a meal, apparently in Jerusalem.
Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Luke 24:36-49 recounts the first manifestation of Jesus to His disciples as a group after the resurrection.
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them. Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, she shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus is it written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to arise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
John 20:21-22 records the Jesus’ visit with the disciples on the evening of the first Easter.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Acts 1:3-9 documents His final conversation with the disciples on the Mount of Olives at the time of the ascension.
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times of the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
It didn’t take much searching through these five different passages to find the God-sized purpose. In fact, it was the enormity of the challenge of reaching each and every person with the gospel that had originally sent me on the present quest. But as I analyzed these passages more carefully, I discovered that there was a three-fold definition of this God-sized purpose wrapped inside these passages—the same purpose as expressed by the Apostle Paul when he spelled out the function of the ministry in Ephesians 4:12. Although many Bible teachers interpret this passage in different ways, it seems evident from the Greek structure that Paul intended there to be a three-fold delineation of the Christian purpose: for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the Body of Christ, each segment of which directly correlates with Jesus’ directives in the Great Commission. The ministry of maturing the saints is accomplished through discipleship as expressed in Matthew. The work of the ministry is accomplished through the manifestation of the signs and wonders as listed in Mark’s version of the Great Commission. The edifying—or building up and increasing—of the Body of Christ is accomplished through the evangelism implicit in every pronouncement of the Commission.
The scripturally inspired plan of the Great Commission also came in three distinct parts: witnessing (mentioned in Luke and Acts), evangelism (central to Mark’s account), and disciple-making (the focus of Matthew’s version). While witnessing is a simple testimony of what we have seen and experienced, evangelism is a presentation of the gospel message with the intent of bringing the hearer to a point of making the decision to place his faith in Christ, and disciple-making is the process of helping nurture the new converts into fully mature believers. Witnessing is not at all difficult and doesn’t require any specialized training. Let’s take an example on the natural level to help understand this point. If you were to witness an automobile accident and were to be called into court to testify about the incident, you could not claim that you should be excused from appearing due to the fact that you are not an automobile mechanic. The judge would insist that you don’t have to understand all about how an automobile works in order to testify about the collision of the two vehicles. The judge might then demand that your testimony is necessary because someone was injured in the accident. At that point, if you were to try to insist that you could not possibly testify since you are not a medical doctor, he would again disregard your request on the grounds that you don’t need to understand all about the human body to tell the court that you saw a person bleeding from cuts he received in the accident. In the same way, we do not need to be theologians to witness about what has happened in our lives. Likewise, evangelism is not really specialized either. In fact, the Bible makes the point that the early Christians were not highly educated (Acts 4:13, I Corinthians 1:26) yet they turned their world upside down with their gospel message (Acts 17:6). All evangelism requires is a heartfelt experience with God that gives you enough passion to want to share your faith with others and a simple enough understanding of the salvation experience so that you can share it with them. (Acts 4:13) As I considered how easy the first two elements of Jesus’ three-fold plan are, I realized that we have traditionally made a distinction at this point by assuming that discipleship requires specific training and special knowledge of the scriptures, limiting the number of qualified people who can fulfill this part of the plan. Yet, I instinctively felt that this assumption might just be “the fly in the ointment” that has hindered us from really being able to fully accomplish the Great Commission. After all, the commandment to disciple the nations was left to the same unlearned and ignorant men as were the other two parts of the plan. (Acts 4:13)
The third aspect of David’s success in facing the giant was that he had a supernatural power. I discovered that there is a promise of supernatural empowerment repeated throughout the statements of the Great Commission. In fact, there is more than just a promise of power; there is a promise of actual divine assistance and enablement. In Matthew’s account, Jesus promised, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (verse 28:20) In Luke’s account, He told them to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of the Father. (verse 24:49) In the Acts account, He told the disciples that they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit (verse 1:8), a promise that is apparently intended in Mark’s account even though the exact term is not used (verse 16:17-18). John’s record of the Great Commission lists the involvement of the total Trinity: the Father sent Jesus, Jesus is sending the disciples, and the disciples are to receive the Holy Spirit. When all these passages are considered at one time, we see a remarkable truth emerging—the total Trinity is involved in empowering us to ensure our success as we go forth to undertake the task Jesus left with us!