Summer Challenge Week 1: The Great Commission

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

These couple of scriptures have been coined as The Great Commission. There are more Great Commissions in the bible like Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:45-49, John 20:20-23 and Acts 1:7-8. All of these commissions are not contradicting one another. They are expressing the heart of God for His name to be great among the nations. Jesus is calling every Christian to make his name famous. This is what we call making disciples.

This particular commission has commands that are considered "not optional" for the person that claims Jesus as Lord in their life.

1. Jesus says all Authority has been giving to him on heaven and on earth. This means Jesus rules everything. All power, dominion, and kingdoms are in the control of Jesus. In this commission, when Jesus is telling us ,as believers, to go make disciples, he is telling us that it is impossible to make a disciple without him. He is in control of everything.
Before we move on let this point rest well in your soul, that with your efforts to advance the Gospel, Jesus is in control of the situation. To make stick, here is what Pastor John Piper would say about it:
“ The command to go make disciples is not arbitrary. It is reasonable. Jesus did not say, "Do it because I told you, and that's it." He said, "Do it because all authority is mine." Nothing is more reasonable and more loving than to plead with the rebellious creatures of Jesus Christ that they turn and give their devotion to the King of kings who will have the last say in this world.”

2. Jesus goes on to say, “Go make disciples of all nations!” I want to emphasize the “Go” part of the verse. This is a radical statement. Every time Jesus told his disciples to come follow him, he was always going towards the cross. He knew that he was going to die a bloody death and take upon the sins of mankind so that we may live an abundant life in him. If we are going to be like Christ, we must walk in the implications of what he did. We must die to ourselves!  We make disciples by teaching others to die as well to selfish and sinful desires and to put on Christ. “You can’t serve Christ, that is, you can’t make Christ look great, if you are always second-guessing the value of following him. Looking back means longing back. It means that we are not really sure he is worth following, especially to Jerusalem. Divided hearts like that are not useful in displaying the worth of Christ.” Discipleship takes precedence of all things! Discipleship demands whole-hearted and immediate commitment to Jesus Christ.

3. Making disciples is not only a local cause but also a global cause. It is important to make disciples where you live at right now but it also important for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be advanced to all the nations of the world. So let the words of Jesus rest in your soul when you think about the nations. He died for the multiethnic church. Most of you are in school and right now it may not be plausible for you to be a missionary at this moment of your life. But it may happen in the near future,but for right now there are practical ways to be apart of this global mission.

• You can give money to your local church that supports missionaries.
• You can pray for people overseas that you may know.
• You can pray for a people-group that does not know Jesus. On the side of my blog there is a people group that you can pray for daily.
• You can befriend someone from another country and show him or her the love of Jesus.

4. Baptizing the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I will post another on the trinity some time this week to explain what it means. The reason why Jesus says to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit is because all three persons of the Godhead play a significant role in people becoming Christians. The Father is the one that chooses us, the Son is the one that gets bruised and crucified for us, and the Spirit is one that gives us a new spirit to obey the Father. Now we have access to God when before we did not. Baptism is a symbolic expression of a desire to be a disciple of Jesus. We are saying we want dying to the old life and want to live a new life in Jesus. If you a follower of Jesus and you have not been baptized, please contact me so we talk more about it.

5. Lastly, Jesus says to teach people to observe his commandments until he returns. When we become Christians we are called to grow more in the knowledge of Jesus day by day. His greatest commandment is for us to love God and to love people. We are called to love God's word and to obey it. Because Jesus' finished work on the cross, he has empowered us with work of the spirit to obey the father. We will continue to grow in the knowledge of Jesus until he returns. Therefore, this Christian walk in not a race, it is for the one's that endure.

I pray that this helps you as you meditate on this scripture this week. There is of course more detail that I could go into but I pray this will give you some guidance.