Great Commission of Jesus Christ and World Evangelism

 

Great Commission of Jesus Christ and World Evangelism

Rev. E. Rajan

A simple definition of the Great Commission: “The task given by Jesus to the Church through the disciples that authorize it to carry the gospel everywhere so that all peoples might have opportunity to believe on Christ as their Saviour and become life-long followers of him.”

 “Great Commission” mission statements:  Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:21; and Acts 1:8.  All five of the Great Commission passages have this intent at their core. These passages function as the hinge between the four Gospels and the rest of the New Testament.  They are the “go” command to the church. These passages contain all the essential ingredients for a successful mission.  “Without question, these five mission statements of Jesus make up the missional Magna Carta of the Church, from its inception, for today, and into the future.”

 

1.  Parting Words – Pressing Matters

“Final words of a departing loved one is always taken seriously.” “But final days of Jesus with His disciples were with instruction about the upcoming worldwide mission they were to inaugurate.  Jesus first told them about it on the evening of Resurrection Day. Then, finally, after the 40^th day of his resurrection, He gave the commission and instruction to them to carry out the mission, just before He victoriously ascending into heaven.” Thus the great commission of Jesus Christ became an important task to his disciples as they took it very seriously. Are you taking the great commission seriously?

 2.  The Model and modality of the Mission

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you.” John 20:21. Whenever God had an important task to accomplish, he sent someone to do it.  “As part of that process to transmit the good news of redemption throughout the world, Jesus sent out the disciples by way of his Great Commission statements.  His people have been on a mission ever since.  The living God is indeed a missionary God!” . “The term mission presupposes 4 necessary components.  Every mission entails:

 1) A sender and the author of the mission

2) The good news to proclaim

3) The place to go

4) A task to fulfil.

His first meeting with them after the resurrection was a teachable moment for the bewildered disciples.  Here he mentioned the bare essence of their new assignment: they were being sent.  (John 20:21).  In the Old Testament Israel “functioned primarily as a magnet, drawing the nations to the light of God through their life experience with him.”   Jesus encouraged his disciples to be witnesses as a salt of the earth and light to the people in darkness.

 3.  The Magnitude of the Mission

“Go ye into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” (Mk 16:15)

 Eight days later Jesus became more specific about the magnitude of the task and the goal of their mission.  “All” is vast inclusiveness, the entire earth, every part of the globe, every person.  This is both geographically global and individually specific.  “Unquestionably the overall goal and highest stated priority of Jesus is World Evangelization.  “Evangelism should always be considered the lifeblood of the missionary movement.  The mission of the church has evangelism as its highest priority.  Every other activity falls beneath this ultimate goal.” But Churches today spend 90 % of resources on themselves and forget the given task.

 4.  The Methodology for Mission

Matthew 28:18-20 “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."

 “His absolute all-inclusive authority was the underpinning for their engagement in world evangelization.  The right for them to go on mission anywhere, enter any country, encounter any culture or witness in any community to persuade any person to believe on him was a God-given right based on his authority.” 

 “The first step in making disciples is to go to where there are people who are not Christ-followers. … Teaching has a final goal – obedience. … Grow as a redeemed community of God with other believers to be more effective.   

 5.  The Message of the Mission

Luke 24:44-48 -Then Jesus said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. 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. "

 In Luke, Jesus clarified the message they were to proclaim to the nations.   This message is rooted in the Old Testament.  Forgiveness of sins is the very heart of the Christian message.  No other religion can offer this promise of full pardon.  It extends to all nations.  And the disciples were to wait for the empowering of the Holy Spirit. 

6.  The Means of Mission

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

 This is the final instruction, immediately prior to his ascension, which includes the means of empowerment, the strategic plan, and human instrumentality.  The Holy Spirit is the divine empowerer of missions.  “Christian missions are no human undertaking, but a supernatural and divine enterprise for which God has provided supernatural power and leadership.”   Technologies do assist in the task, but they can never replace the place and power of the Holy Spirit in world evangelization.  The empowerment of the Holy Spirit is a dominant theme in the book of Acts. 

 Acts 1:8 serves as a table of contents for the activities of the book. The gospel was preached to the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea, the mixed-Jews of Samaria and to the Gentiles everywhere else.  The text of Acts 1:8 uses ‘and,’ ‘and,’ ‘and,’ showing that there is to be a simultaneous witness in all areas as opposed to finishing one area before proceeding to the next.  Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth include ethnicity, geography, language, and culture. 

  7.  The Master’s Command

John 3:16 encapsulates the heart of it.  “The message of John 3:16 is the reason for the Great Commission.” Although all believers have a sentimental belief in John 3:16, many are confused or uncertain about what it teaches.  “Rather than affirming the exclusive message of the Cross for man’s salvation, most Christians today would prefer to believe that somehow, in some way, some people, somewhere, by some other means can be saved and make it to heaven following an alternate route outside of conscious belief in the finished world of Christ.” (127)  But Peter had heard Jesus say, ‘No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6) and he reiterates, ‘There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

 8.  The most demanding Task

“Although remarkable progress has been made on some fronts, the vast majority of the world’s peoples remain un-evangelized.”  The task before us is very great and huge. Gospel must be preached to “all the nations” including all ethnic groups or people groups.   Joshua Project estimates 16,000 people groups.  Of these 9,653 are considered “unreached,” having “no viable indigenous church planting movement with sufficient strength, resources, and commitment to sustain and ensure the continuous multiplication of churches.”  

Conclusion: The Great Commission spells out the central purpose of all believers. Jesus’ words in the Great Commission reveal the heart of God, who desires “all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). The Great Commission compels us to share the good news until everyone has heard. Pray and start involved in God’s mission.