Summer Challenge Week 4: The Great Commission

“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power on high.” “– Luke 24:45-49

This is one of the great commissions Jesus told his followers before he ascended into the heavens.

What is the Great Commission?
The “great commission” is thrown out a lot among Christians. It is similar to words like “holy”, “amen”, and “hallelujah”. We use them carelessly and tend to forget the meaning behind them. The great commission is God commanding his people to spread his message to ends of the earth of how Jesus came to save sinners and redeem a people to himself. We call this sharing the Gospel.

What is so important about sharing the Gospel?
Gospel means “good news”. The reason why it is “good news” is because we had some “bad news” before. The bad news is that mankind sins against God. With God being a holy and just God, He has to punish sin or He would not be holy. Every single person that was born after Adam inherited a sin nature. But God being a merciful and loving God wanted to redeem a people for himself and to save us from his wrath. He wants us to follow him and to obey him. So he set the Law for us but we failed miserably. So God sent himself in the person of Jesus to be our atonement and sacrifice for sin. Not only did take away the sins of humanity but he gave us his righteousness to live a life pleasing to him. The “good news” is that we do not have to be slaves to sin anymore, death is not a tragedy and we can faithfully obey the father.
So here’s the deal. It is important that we share the Gospel. First of all, God receives glory. The goal of sharing the Gospel with someone is that they would worship Jesus and make him known. There was no hope for us but God saved us from hopelessness. He deserves all praises.

Below are some compelling reasons by Pastor Mark Dever to why we should share the Gospel.

1. A Desire to Be Obedient to God’s Commands
Jesus commanded his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. That is exactly what the early disciples did. Paul spoke of a compulsion to share the gospel. To evangelize is to obey.
In Acts 8:4, we see that those who had been scattered preached the gospel wherever they went. One of the clearest examples of evangelism being commanded is in 1 Peter 3, where Peter commands believers to “always be…prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Our silence is not a matter of neutrality. You need to tell yourself that. Our silence is a matter of guilt and sin. Obedience is definitely a biblical reason to evangelize.

2. A Love for the Lost
Preachers, we have got to stop avoiding the topic of lostness—hell. Jesus spoke of God’s wrath remaining on those who don’t believe on him. God will cause terror in us if we appear before him apart from Christ. Apart from God’s grace, the sinner will never stop sinning. God’s judgment will never end. Their rejection of God never ends. God will inflict extreme and unnatural pain on them forever.
As preachers of the gospel, we have no business making God seem more humane to sinners who are in rebellion against him. Think about if hell were unleashed on you forever and tell unbelievers how horrible it is. Christians are motivated by a love to others. Hudson Taylor said he would have never thought of going to China if he didn’t know that they were lost. It’s people who are this lost, who have this fate awaiting them, that we are aiming to convert. We can confidently tell people the basic message of the gospel and trust that God’s Spirit will faithfully pick up our message and use it to save people.

3. A Love for God.
We want to see God glorified. We want to see the truth about him told in creation. The desire to see God glorified was the motivation for all Jesus’ actions. Everything exists for God’s glory (Romans 11:36). Our salvation is “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6). God does everything he does for his own glory, and we should do all we do for the glory of God. To tell the truth about some people is not to honor them, but to tell the truth about God is to honor him. God is glorified in the gospel.

**Excerpt is from Desiring God: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/3-reasons-to-share-the-gospel