Read the Verses
The Great Commission
prints and framed art include these verses:
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.
Matthew 28:19-20
What should I tell
people
about Jesus?
In our post-modern culture of relativism, cynicism, and
liberalism, it has become increasingly difficult to share one's faith
in meaningful ways. Our circumstances differ from the early church,
but the Lord's promise to be with us has held true for every
generation of believers. In the Great Commission, the Lord's clarion
call was that His disciples tell others about Him, that they take his
message to "all the nations." and Christ's command applies
today as true as when He first spoke these words. And so it is the
Lord's expectation that we will not only evangelize, but that we will
take the next step to teach new believers and thereby make them
disciples of Christ.
After His
triumphal resurrection, we find two features in the text of the Great
Commission that tie Jesus' command to His universal authority. It is
precisely because Jesus now has this authority that his disciples
were to go and make disciples. In essence, the onset of the new age
of messianic authority changed the circumstances and impelled his
disciples forward to a universal ministry He himself never engaged in
during the days of His flesh. Jesus' promotion to universal authority
serves as an eschatological marker inaugurating the beginning of his
universal mission. Because of that authority, His followers in every
generation may go in confidence that their Lord is in sovereign
control of "everything in heaven and on earth" (reference
Romans 8:28).
In the Greek, the
word "go," like "baptizing" and
"teaching," is a participle. Only the verb "make
disciples" is imperative. Some have deduced from this that
Jesus' commission is simply to make disciples "as we go"
(in other words 'wherever we are') and constitutes no basis for going
somewhere special in order to serve as missionaries. While we are
impelled to make disciples of those in our immediate surroundings,
from the perspective of mission strategy, it is important to remember
that the Great Commission is preserved in several complementary forms
that, when taken together, can only be circumvented by considerable
exegetical ingenuity (see Luke 24:45-49; John 20:21; Acts 1:8; cf.
Matt 4:19; 10:16-20; 13:38; 24:14;).
The main emphasis,
then, is on the command to "make disciples," which in Greek
is one word, matheteusate, normally an intransitive
verb, here used transitively. As such, "to disciple a person to
Christ is to bring him into the relation of pupil to teacher, taking
Christ's yoke of authoritative instruction (11:29), accepting what He
says as true because He says it, and submitting to His requirements
as right because He makes them" (Broadus). Disciples are those
who hear, understand, and obey Jesus' teaching (12:46-50). The
injunction is given at least to the Eleven, but to the Eleven in
their own role as disciples (v. 16). Consequently, they are paradigms
for all disciples. It is possible that the command was given to a
larger gathering of disciples and yet it is binding on all Jesus'
followers, in every generation, to make others what they themselves
are, disciples of Jesus Christ.
Sources:
Expositor's Bible Commentary, New Testament: Zondervan Reference
Software; Class Notes, 4 Gospels and Acts; Dr. Philip Powers, Capital
Bible Seminary, (Lanham, Maryland).
Photo Credits: FreeStockPhotos.com
