What is the Great Commission?
It was time for one last farewell before leaving to sit at the right hand of almighty God. Jesus, after more than three years of training a small, specially selected group of men, knew it was almost time they fully entered God\'s work. Just before he ascended to heaven, he gathered his disciples together to tell them the work he wanted them to do. He gave what is called the Great Commission, found primary in Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-18 and Luke 24:47. What exactly is this Commission? Was it something meant ONLY for the apostles? Did Jesus intend the Gospel promulgated by a small set of believers who were \'ordained?\' This article will cover some of the main aspects of the mission Christ gave.
Building on the labor of others
The Great Commission to spread the truth of God did not begin with Jesus or the apostles. Righteous men and women carried out the initial hard labor of introducing God’s word to the world, explaining it, distributing it and so on BEFORE the first century A.D. The mission received by the early church is a continuation of that which came before. Jesus made it clear to his followers that they would enter into the work started long before they were born.
\'Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white to harvest . . . 38. I sent you to reap that in which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.\' (John 4:35, 38)
Who were some of those who labored before the disciples were fully engaged in the Great Commission, who planted and watered in the world to enable the New Testament church to harvest believers for God\'s Kingdom?
The Old Testament prophets who prepared the way for the coming of the Savior
Righteous men and women who obeyed God\'s commands and were living advertisements for his way of life
Those who wrote, meticulously copied, distributed and taught from the Old Testament
John the Baptist, who Christ himself called the greatest prophet (Luke 7:28)
Jesus, who taught the people and laid the ultimate foundation by living perfectly in accordance with God\'s will.
The all-inclusive message
The commission recorded in Matthew 28 catches the fullness of the task charged to the church. Christ told his inner circle of disciples the following just before he left them.
\"ALL authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples in ALL nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; Teaching them to observe ALL things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you ALWAYS, even until the completion of the age.\" (Matthew 28:18 - 20)
Did you catch how many times in three verses that Jesus used the word \'all\' or \'always?\' First, He uses them to establish his divine authority then uses these two words to lay the foundation of the next great part of God\'s plan for mankind.
God gave Christ ALL authority over heaven and earth (verse 18)
The main part of the Commission is to take the Gospel message into ALL nations (not just to Jews, or to those living in Judea and the surrounding area, or to the lost tribes of Israel - verse 19)
ALL things learned by the disciples and taught by Jesus are to be taught to others (verse 20)
Jesus promises to be with believers ALL the time (verse 20)
Go and preach the gospel
The very first thing Jesus tells his disciples in Mark\'s version of the Great Commission is, \"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation\" (Mark 16:15). However, what IS the gospel message?
In general, the Gospel or \'good news\' is a message revealing why God created mankind back in the Garden of Eden. Man\'s destiny, if he is willing to accept it, is to live forever and have a relationship with God as a member of his family, with the same perfect, sinless character as He possesses. The means of accomplishing this awesome goal is through the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, who is mankind\'s one and only Savior and the ONLY means by which humans can have a close relationship with the Father.
The Gospel contains not only information ABOUT Jesus but also concerns the great and wonderful message he brought regarding the coming Kingdom of God on earth. It includes a call to repent of sin, to accept Christ\'s sacrifice for the forgiveness of those sins, to go under the waters of baptism and receive God\'s Spirit, and to live a life of obedience to God\'s laws, ways and will. For further details regarding the Gospel message, please see our article on the \'Basic Teachings of the Bible.\'
Who should spread the Good News?
Was the Commission Jesus gave strictly and solely for those men he personally trained? If not, then were those who men would ‘ordain’ to be the ONLY means of dispersing God’s truth? A brief study of how the early New Testament church, begun on Pentecost in 30 A.D., interpreted Jesus\' words will give us our answer.
The Forgotten 108 Servants
We find as early as the day of Pentecost that \"non-ordained\" believers were doing whatever it took to serve and spread the gospel. After God poured out his spirit on 120 believers gathered in Jerusalem to keep the feast (Acts 1:15, 2:1), he also caused 3,000 people to repent and be baptized ON THE SAME DAY (Acts 2:41)! How did all these folks receive baptism? Simple arithmetic and human need tells us it would have been virtually IMPOSSIBLE for twelve apostles to baptize that many people before sunset. Each apostle would have to baptize 250 people each in the eight hours of sunlight remaining in the day. They would have to work NONSTOP for eight hours, without ANY breaks, with each apostle averaging one baptism every two minutes.
Remember, the Bible says God initially poured out his spirit to 120 on Pentecost. The 108 people who received the Holy Spirit and were not apostles included Jesus\' mother Mary, Jesus\' physical family (Mary had 4 boys and at least 2 girls OTHER than Jesus), Mary Magdalene and others (Acts 2:14). It was from among THESE people that the apostles received help handling the huge crowd of people wanting to become Christians. For more information, please see our short article entitled \'Can ANYONE perform a baptism?\'
Everyone participates
The New Testament contains MANY examples of God moving \"average\" Christians to do great things. After Stephen was martyred (Acts 7), many of the brethren fled Jerusalem but took with them the Gospel message. The Bible states they went everywhere PREACHING the word (Acts 8:4)! Some of these taught Jesus only to Jews while others preached to GENTILES. What was the fruit of their labor? God caused so many people in Antioch, both Jews and Gentiles, to repent and become Christians that those in Jerusalem (note that the \'approval\' of church leaders was NOT needed for this to happen!) sent Barnabas to offer help (Acts 11:19 - 23)!
God moved a church member name Anaias, not one of the twelve apostles or someone who was \'ordained,\' to not only BAPTIZE a repentant Saul (who later became Paul) but HEAL him (Acts 9:10 - 18)! A man named Apollos, who was \'mighty in the Scriptures,\' took it upon himself to preach what he knew of Christ. After a church couple (Priscilla and Aquila) heard him preach in Ephesus and taught him information he lacked, he expanding his preaching to other areas (Acts 18:24 - 28, see also 1Corthians 3:4).
The Apostle Paul\'s first convert in Europe was a woman name Lydia (Acts 16:12 - 15). After she and her entire household went under the waters of baptism, she was so zealous for the truth that soon afterward she was hosting a fellowship group in her home (verse 40).
The New Testaments lists no less than twenty-one fellowships where a group of believers and those interested in the Messiah met in homes to worship God and learn from the Bible. House churches hosted by members were in places like Corinth (1Corinthians 16:19), Laodicea (Colossians 4:15 - 16), Ephesus (Acts 20:17), Colossae (Philemon 1 - 2), Rome (Romans 16:3-5, 10 - 11, 14 - 15) and even Jerusalem (Acts 2:46).
Conclusion
Jesus gave the work of the Great Commission not only to his twelve personally chosen disciples but to the entire church he was building upon HIMSELF (Matthew 16:18). The New Testament is full of examples of individual church members and groups of believers seeking to fulfill Jesus\' instructions to take the gospel message to the world and spiritually feed the flock of God. Even as the early Church made a great effort to spread the good news of God\'s Kingdom far and wide, modern Christians are under the same obligation to preach and teach the word to the ends of the earth.
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