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A Great
Commission?
by Lieutenant Xander
Coleman
This idea of a world-saving mission is part of the Salvation
Army's psyche. It
almost defines us: The name, in Chinese, for The Salvation
Army is literally translated as 'The Save-the-world Army'!
Not that this mission is in any way the exclusive task
of the Army. God
has commissioned his whole church to take the good news about
Jesus Christ to the whole world:
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some
doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching
them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.”
(Matthew
28:16-20, NIV)
So, in this text, the scene is set.
The disciples have had an intense time recently and
their heads are spinning – their Master, dead and buried, has
come back to life, and has appeared to the disciples on a
number of occasions.
He calls them to a specific mountain at a given time
and appears to them for the last time recorded by Matthew.
And as a parting gift, you could say, although he is
not really leaving – by His Spirit he is with us always – he
bestows on them this mission to bring the whole world to
discipleship in Jesus Christ.
The Great King
But the very first thing that the disciples needed to
understand as they received this world-changing mission is who
Jesus is. They
had to understand – really understand – that Jesus wasn't just
some rabbi, not just a prophet, not just a holy man.
The disciples needed to recognise that Jesus was God
incarnate, the King of glory come down to earth.
And many of them did – verse 17 says that 'when they
saw him, they worshipped him'.
God alone is worthy of worship – to worship Jesus was
to recognise his divinity, to recognise that he is God.
'Worship was the natural response to the realisation that the
Jesus who had meant so much to them throughout his earthly
ministry was stronger than death and was alive again' (Morris,
1992: 744).
And yet, verse 17 continues, 'some doubted'.
Other translations say that some hesitated.
They weren't quite sure, weren't quite convinced.
They knew that Jesus was a good man, a godly man.
They had seen the miracles he had performed, heard his
inspired teaching.
And yet they hesitated.
If Jesus was worthy of worship – if he really was the
God of heaven come down to man – that changes everything.
Nolan Clark says 'the Jesus that you see is the Christian that
you'll be' (2002: 3).
In other words, if we see Jesus
merely as a good man, then the best we can hope to be
as Christians is a good person.
If we see Jesus as 'gentle Jesus meek and mild, riding
on a donkey', then we will be gentle, meek and mild
Christians. But
if we see Jesus as a passionate lover of souls, then we will
passionately love souls!
If we see Jesus as the Saviour of the world and all
those in it, then we will work and pray and believe for and
see the salvation of the world and all those in it!
So, how do you see Jesus?
Is he King of your life?
Or is he simply a good man that it's a good idea to
follow? Have you
worshipped him truly, recognised him as God come to earth?
Or have you hesitated?
Do you still have doubts?
If you do, that's okay – even amongst the disciples themselves
'some doubted'.
Doubting is a very real and often necessary stage than many
Christians go through at various times in their lives.
But that is never where God leaves us.
And it isn't where Jesus left the disciples.
Jesus said to them, as he now says to you, 'all authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me' (verse 18).
This is the glorified, risen Christ.
The one seated at the right hand of the Father in
glory. 'He has
supreme authority throughout the universe' (Morris,1992: 746).
He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, King of all the
earth. This
Jesus, whom the disciples had learnt from and spent time with
and seen rejected, persecuted, crucified, is now alive,
proving that he is who he claims to be, the son of God.
It is the Great King who gives the great commission.
The Great Task
And it is 'because he is who he is and because he has the full
authority he has, [that] they are commissioned to “go and make
disciples”' of all nations (Morris, 1992: 746).
This is a matter of kingdoms.
The disciples have recognised that Jesus is the king of
heaven and the king of the whole earth, and he tasks them with
establishing his reign throughout the whole earth.
Jesus spent his earthly ministry teaching about the
kingdom
of God,
and here he stands before them, all authority in heaven and
earth given to him, and he charges his disciples to make this
kingdom – God's kingdom – a reality on the earth.
The command is to go!
Patricia King makes the point that Jesus commanded us
'go ye into all the world', not 'stay ye inside the church'.
In Acts 1:8 Jesus says 'you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth'.
It starts where they are – in Jerusalem – and expands ever outwards so that this kingdom of God encompasses all nations.
Colonel Janet Munn describes the kingdom of God as an ever-expanding circle of
inclusion. Isaiah
9 talks about Jesus' coming – 'Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulders...of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end'!
This kingdom keeps expanding, gathering momentum!
This great commission is a Great Task, but is starts with
disciples like you and me choosing, deciding, making the
conscious effort to go. To
leave our comfort zones and share the good news of a coming
kingdom with a people who desperately need to hear it.
The Great Relationship
Finally, we need to understand what exactly Jesus is telling
his disciples to spread throughout the earth.
The command is to make disciples.
Jesus never said make converts of all nations, he said
make disciples, and I hope you can see the difference.
Christianity is not membership of a religion, it is not
even saying the sinners'
prayer in a moment of emotional vulnerability.
'The apostles are called not to evoke decisions but to
make disciples.
And that is an altogether tougher assignment' (M. Green,
quoted in Morris, 1992: 746, footnotes).
Christianity is a path of discipleship, where we place
ourselves under the tutelage of our Master Jesus Christ.
And as we learn from him, his teaching and his Spirit
transform us into his image.
We become like Jesus.
That's why we were first called ‘Christians’ – the word
was used disparagingly, meaning 'little Christs'.
Jesus said, 'make disciples...teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you'
(Matthew 28:20).
I wonder if we really know what Jesus commands are.
If we really know what he commands about money,
about marriage, about anger, lust, justice, the poor,
forgiveness, prayer, the Sabbath?
I wonder, how often we measure ourselves by Jesus'
commandments.
And yet an obedient relationship with the risen Christ is what
changes us, transforms us, and brings about his kingdom in our
lives, our contexts, our spheres of influence.
This is the transforming relationship – the Great
Relationship – that he commissions us to spread throughout the
whole earth. As
we submit ourselves to the reign of Christ in our lives, and
make disciples of all nations, and they submit to the reign of
Christ – well, that's how we change the world and establish
God’s kingdom on earth.
'And surely,' Jesus says, 'I am with you always, to the very
end of the age' (Matthew 28:20, TNIV).
This is our task.
This is our mission; the great commission.
To 'go and make disciples of all nations, baptising
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything' Jesus has
commanded (Matthew 28:19-20).
We want to see the world saved.
We want to see the world changed.
But the reality is that we can only give what we have.
We can only offer the world salvation and
transformation in the measure that we have experienced
salvation and transformation.
We can only inaugurate the
kingdom
of God in
the world to the measure that we have allowed Jesus to
inaugurate his kingdom in our own lives.
And that happens when we recognise who Jesus is – God
come down to earth.
Bibliography
2005
The Holy Bible, Today's New International Version.
Grand Rapids, Zondervan
Clarke, Nolan
2002
The Army of the Lord. CD, track 3.
Williams Lake,
Salvo Songs
Morris, Leon
1992
The Gospel According to Matthew.
Leicester, IVP
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