PREPARED FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION
Nate Wilson - 10 June 2002
ILLUSTRATION – Toddler at the wheel
One of my most terrifying memories as a little boy in Alabama was when I was playing inside my parent's dar in the driveway of our house. You know how kids do, twisting all the knobs in fascination with the complex mysteries of the automobile. Well, somehow, I managed to knock the car into neutral, and the car started rolling. I still remember the sheer terror of careening out of control down the driveway, seeing the panicked looks on the faces of my little brother and my mom as she came screaming out of the side door, and me sitting helplessly in the car, not knowing what to do. I remember the sickening crunch as the car hit the wall of the house and brought an end to my little drive. That experience gave me recurring nightmares. But now when I get behind the wheel of a car, I enjoy the experience. I like to be able to skillfully maneuver the car and watch the scenery going by and feel like I'm really going somewhere. Now what makes the difference? Why was it a terrifying experience for me as a kid, but now, driving is enjoyable? It's because my Dad trained me in all the ins and outs of how to drive when I was fifteen, and I gained skill from experience at driving. Being thrown into a situation where you are responsible for something important, yet you have no training or skill, is a scary experience for anybody.
DID
JESUS LEAVE DISCIPLES SIMILARLY UNPREPARED?
You know, many people
think that’s kinda the way it was with the disciples when Jesus
gave the Great Commission. It seems that when Jesus reached the end
of His ministry, just before He ascended to heaven He said, “Oh
yes, by the way, I want you to go into all the world and make
disciples while you’re at it. Sorry I didn’t tell you
sooner. Bye-bye!” It seems the Great Commission was so
overwhelming and the disciples were so unprepared that the Great
Commission was kinda ignored by everybody except Paul and maybe
Peter… But was it really like that? Were the disciples as
unprepared and ineffective with the Great Commission as a toddler
driving a car? Let’s see what the Scriptures say:
1.
JESUS PREPARED DISCIPLES THROUGH EXAMPLE OF MINISTRY TO
FOREIGNERS
Let’s look at the ministry of Jesus and see if
Jesus did anything to prepare His disciples to make disciples of the
nations. It’s true that Jesus’ ministry centered on the
Jews, but His disciples watched Him do some pretty amazing
cross-cultural outreaches to Gentiles.
a)
GREEKS - GADARENE DEMONIACS
Take for instance the time in Matt. 8
when He crossed the sea of Galilee to the Greek-speaking Decapolis
area for no other reason than to heal a man who was demon-possessed.
They couldn’t have been Jews because they were upset when they
lost their pigs! So, early on in His ministry, Jesus took his
disciples on this little excursion just to heal a Gentile!
b)
SAMARITANS - 10TH LEPER, WOMAN AT WELL (John 4)
Jesus was not only
kind to Greeks; He also ministered to Samaritans. Samaritans were
descendants of the Persian peoples that the Assyrian king moved in to
Samaria after deporting the Jews (2 Kings 18). They were idol
worshippers who accepted part, but not all, of the Jewish scriptures.
These Samaritans were the ones who opposed Nehemiah when he tried to
come back and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Their religious system
was all mixed up. Samaritans and Jews had nothing to do with each
other, yet Jesus reached out to Samaritans throughout His ministry -
one of the ten lepers was a Samaritan, and the woman at the well was
also a Samaritan. The disciples marveled when they saw Jesus reaching
out to these Samaritans.
c)
CANAANITES
What about Canaanites? Yes, Jesus reached out to
Canaanites, too! In Matthew 15, Jesus is not even in Israel; He’s
up in Phoenicia with His disciples. Here He meets a local Canaanite
woman, complements her for her faith, and heals her daughter. (By the
way, He says some pretty mean things to her at first, but I believe
the things He said about her being a dog and all were not intended to
be taken at face value. These were phrases commonly said by Jews, and
He was merely using them facetiously to test the faith of the woman
and to test His disciples to see if they had yet gained a desire for
cross-cultural ministry. His disciples failed the test, but Jesus
commended the woman for passing her test!
d)
ROMANS - COMPLEMENTS CENTURION
Greeks, Samaritans, Canaanites…
Surely not Romans, though! The Romans were the bad guys, right? They
were the “evil oppressors.” No, Jesus reached out to
them, too. In Matthew 8, He actually marvels at how much more
faithful a Roman centurion is than all the Jewish believers He has
met. He goes on to say that “many will come from east and west
and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the
kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast into
outer darkness.”
2)
TEACHING - a) HOUSE OF PRAYER
Was Jesus preparing His disciples
for cross-cultural witness? You better believe He was! He was very
systematic about it. He spoke many times throughout His ministry
about other nations participating in the blessings of His kingdom.
That’s what made Him so mad at the temple. In Mark 11, He steps
into the court of the Gentiles and says, “My house shall be
called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a
robber’s den.”
b)
PARABLE OF VINEGROWERS
It’s in the parables, too. Remember
the parable of the vineyard? (Matt. 21) The landowner plants a
vineyard and puts vine-growers over it and leaves. The vinegrowers
represent the Jews in the parable who kill the messengers and finally
kill the landowner’s son. Then what does Jesus say? “The
kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to another
people!” He said the same thing at His hometown synagogue in
Nazareth in Luke 4. Was Jesus preparing His disciples for Gentiles to
come into the kingdom?
c)
MATT 24:14 - SIGNS OF THE END, d) FAMOUS WOMAN
He communicated His
expectations clearly to the disciples that He expected the Gospel to
be preached in all the world. He stated it explicitly in Matthew 24
among the signs of the end of the age, and He stated it implicitly in
the encounter with the strange woman who washed his feet, saying,
“wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this
woman has done will also be spoken of” (Matt. 26). The
disciples knew that the message of Jesus was going to go out into all
the world!
e)
GREAT COMMISSION
So, you see, when Jesus gave the Great
Commission, His disciples were prepared for it. And He didn’t
give the Great Commission just once; He repeated it several times.
How many different times do you think it’s recorded? I count
five:
1.
Matthew 28:18-20 (Mountain in Galilee)
And Jesus came up 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 the Son and the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
2.
John 20:21-23 (Upper Room – 10 disciples)
So Jesus said to
them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I
also send you.”
3.
Mark 16:15-16 (Upper Room in Jerusalem – 11 disciples)
And
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel
to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be
saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.”
4.
Luke 24:46-49 (Upper Room in Jerusalem – 11 disciples)
and
He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would
suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that
repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to
all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these
things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon
you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power
from on high.”
5.
Acts 1:6-8 (Mt. of Olives near Jerusalem)
So when they had come
together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this
time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them,
“It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has
fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest
part of the earth.”
WHY
DIDN’T APOSTLES QUOTE THE COMMISSION?
Now, here’s
another question: If Jesus gave the Great Commission five different
times, why didn’t any of the apostles refer back to it? I mean,
this was pretty significant, wasn’t it? Why didn’t they
make it a major tenet of their faith? Well, let’s look at what
the apostles did when they talked about the subject of preaching the
Gospel to gentiles:
PETER
- ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
Turn in your Bibles to Acts 3:25. Here Peter
is preaching his second sermon in the temple at Jerusalem. He says,
“you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made
with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring
all peoples on earth will be blessed. When God raised up His servant,
He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from
your wicked ways.” Where does Peter go? To the Covenant with
Abraham in the Old Testament.
The Abrahamic Covenant is where God promised to bless Abraham and to make him and his descendants a blessing to the whole world. Interestingly enough, the Abrahamic covenant was given on five different occasions just like the Great Commission. And, just like in the repetitions of the Great Commission, there are different words indicating who would be blessed. Two of the repetitions of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 12:3 and 28:14) use the Hebrew phrase “all the families of the earth,” and this is the phrase Peter picks up on in Acts 3 - “all the families of the earth.”
PAUL
- ISAIAH’S SERVANT AND ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
What about Paul?
He had his own form of a commission on the road to Damascus, but He
also refers back to the Old Testament to explain his call to preach
the Gospel to the nations. In Acts 13:47, he refers back to Isaiah
49. He says “the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set you for
a light of the Gentiles that you should be for salvation unto the
uttermost part of the earth.” In Galatians 3:8, Paul also
refers back to the Abrahamic covenant, picking up on the three times
that the word “nations” or “ethnic groups”
(instead of “families”) is mentioned, “And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying, 'In you shall
all the nations be blessed.'” Paul, too, saw the Great
Commission as a continuation of the Old Testament promises.
JAMES
- AMOS
James, the brother of Jesus also uses the Old Testament at
the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 to justify preaching the Gospel to
Gentiles. He quotes from the prophet Amos.
JESUS
TAUGHT FROM O.T. - LUKE’S G.C.
Now, tell me, where did the
apostles get the idea to use these Old Testament passages to support
preaching the Gospel to the nations? It wasn’t from the
synagogues! Do you remember what we read in Luke’s account of
the Great Commission? “Jesus opened their minds to understand
the Scriptures… that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in His name unto all the nations”? Jesus not only
prepared His disciples through His example of reaching out to
Gentiles and through His commissioning, but also through His teaching
of the Old Testament Scriptures! He is the one that put all those
scripture references into their heads, so it’s only natural
that the disciples referred back to those scriptures when they spoke
of world evangelism!
APOSTOLIC
WORK IN ALL THE WORLD
And they took all this seriously: We read in
Acts of how Paul preached the Gospel in all of Asia and made inroads
into Europe. Peter and Phillip converted masses of Samaritans. There
are communities of believers in India who trace their spiritual
heritage to Thomas. Matthew and Mark are said to have gone to
Ethiopia (which became the first Christian nation), Andrew went to
Scythia and as far north as Russia. Bartholomew evangelized Arabia.
John spent much time in Turkey and others took the Gospel to Syria
and Persia. In their lifetime, the apostles made tremendous headway
in preaching the Gospel in all the world! By the time they died,
there was a church in every province of the Roman empire, and one
sixth of the population of the world had heard the Gospel!
IS
IT FOR US?
The Great Commission was not at all an afterthought,
nor were the disciples ill-prepared for it. It was the driving force
of their lives. But is it still that way today? The Great Commission
was given to the Apostles, not to us, right? Only a very small
percentage of Christians has the kind of gifting it takes to be a
missionary, and besides, hasn’t the Great Commission been
pretty much fulfilled? Is it for us today? Well, let’s look at
it.
1)
YES, BECAUSE IT IS NOT FULFILLED
Although there are churches now
existing in every political nation in the world, the Great Commission
was not given merely in terms of political nations. It was given in
terms of “all the families of the earth,” “all the
peoples of the earth,” “all the ethnic groups of the
earth.” If we look at the Mark account which frames the Great
Commission in terms of preaching the Gospel to “every
creature,” a third of the world’s population today has
never heard the Gospel even once, which puts us at 66% fulfillment.
It’s not as good as that if you look at it in terms of ethnic
groups: The World Christian Encyclopedia estimates that there are
12,600 different ethnic groups in the world, which is what the word
“nations” means in the Great Commissions recorded by
Matthew and Luke. Currently 30% have not been evangelized, much less
made disciples of. Now, I’m not God, so I can’t tell you
for sure when the Great Commission will be fulfilled in God’s
eyes, but I am a missiologist, and these statistics certainly
indicate that there is a lot of work ahead of us. There is plenty for
us to do yet to fulfill the Great Commission!
2)
YES, BECAUSE WHAT APPLIED TO GOD’S PEOPLE THEN STILL APPLIES
NOW
But is the Commission still for us? The Abrahamic Covenant was
not given to the apostles, yet they recognized that it obligated them
to spread the blessing of Jesus to the nations. Remember Paul’s
statement in Acts 13? He quotes a passage from Isaiah which was
obviously speaking of the Messiah and inferred that the thing
commanded of the Messiah was also commanded of Him! The statements of
God’s intention to bless the nations through His grace way
pre-dates the apostles. It was what He was doing in the Old
Testament, and it’s still what He is doing two thousand years
after the apostles. It is still for us today!
3)
YES, BECAUSE THE NATURE OF THE COMMISSION IS SELF-PERPETUATING
In
Matthew 28, Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples of all
the nations... and to teach them everything He had commanded. What
was the last thing Jesus commanded? To go make disciples and teach
them everything that Jesus commanded, Right? Which means that the
disciples of the original apostles were also to be given the Great
Commission to go make disciples of all the nations. Then those
disciples in turn were to be given the Great Commission along with
all of Jesus' commands. You see, the very wording of the Great
Commission creates an expectation of every generation of disciples to
fulfill the Great Commission and pass it on to our disciples! So, the
Great Commission, by it's very wording still applies to every
Christian today!
BUT
ARE WE PREPARED?
Even if we’re convinced that we are
commanded to participate in spreading God’s glory to the ends
of the earth and that there are great gaps still out there, it can
still feel pretty overwhelming. You might feel like a kid being asked
to drive a car – with no idea what to do! I’m not
prepared for missionary service.
I believe that if you look back through what God has done in your life you may just be surprised. The disciples may not have realized it at the time when they watched Jesus interact with foreigners that Jesus was preparing them to spread the Gospel to the nations, but when the time came, they looked back and realized that Jesus has prepared them after all. Here are some ways God has prepared you:
* He has prepared you by giving you the Holy Spirit. John 16:13 promises that “when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all the truth.” We haven’t been left alone to fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus promised to be with us always in the Great Commission of Matthew 28, and He is doing that through His Spirit. You have the Holy Spirit to guide you!
*
How many of you speak English? Guess what, you are all experts at
the most sought-after language in the world! That’s quite a
resource. I could place you in any country in the world teaching
English within a matter of months! Maybe you’d need a little
orientation - no problem, there’s plenty of 6-week certificate
courses you can take to get you ready. In fact, you don’t even
have to leave this city to teach English to foreigners. You can work
with a local immigrant community. Hmm, I wonder what text to use?
(Hold up a Bible.)
* Finances. You may not feel all that wealthy, but you are some of the wealthiest people in the world. God has uniquely blessed you with a great measure of financial resources. Invest them in God’s kingdom rather than in building your own kingdom. Support missionaries and mission projects!
*
How many of you have a complete Bible? You’re better off than
most Christians! There are plenty of Chinese evangelists who have
nothing but a couple pages of hand-copied Bible verses! The thing
I’m consistently hearing from Christian leaders in Asia is
requests for Bibles and for theological training. America is
fabulously wealthy in terms of theological knowledge. How can we
share this?
*
Do you live in a home? You’ve got a tremendous resource right
there! Practice hospitality! Invite your neighbors for dinner, and
also invite international students to dinner. There’s
thousands of them studying right here in our city. Do you know that
most International Students never see the inside of an American
home? What a tremendous opportunity to share God’s love with
Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, and Muslims who have come to our city!
*
What about your children? They are the most valuable resource you
can share with the world! You have a golden opportunity while they
are in your home to prepare the ideal missionary candidate. Ask God
to help you dedicate one of your children - or grandchildren - as
missionaries!
* You also know how to talk to God. Prayer is a tremendous resource you have to fulfill the Great Commission. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come on this earth, and in Paul’s epistles, he gave all kinds of examples of how to pray. Use these templates to pray and watch God move!
*
There may be other ways God has prepared you: perhaps you work at a
company that has international branches, or maybe you are a leader
in an international company and can partner with missionaries who
need jobs in countries that don’t offer missionary visas.
Maybe you have a special interest in a certain area of the world,
and when that country comes up on the news, your ears prick up.
Maybe God placed that special interest in your heart because He
wants you or your children to go there.
FUTURE
CERTAINTY AS SEEN IN REVELATION
Yes, God has prepared you in a
unique way to advance His kingdom among the nations in some way! And
you know what? He will see to it that the Great Commission gets
fulfilled. He wouldn’t have given it if He didn’t expect
it to get done. He gives glimpses of the fulfillment of the Great
Commission at the end of time to the apostle John.
Rev. 5:9 - “And they sang a new song, saying, 'You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals of it: for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred, and language, and people, and nation.'”
And two chapters later Rev. 7:9 - “After this I beheld, and look, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and languages, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes”
We can engage in this enterprise with full confidence that God will make it successful. We’ve already seen the end. We have the sure hope that there will be believers from every tribe and tongue and nation before the throne of God worshiping Him.
God has prepared us and commissioned us just as Jesus prepared and commissioned the disciples, So let us “go into all the world and make disciples of all nations!”
BENEDICTION
Psalm
67:1-2 God be merciful to us, and bless us; and cause Your face to
shine upon us. That Your way may be known upon earth, Your salvation
among all nations.
