WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN'S COMMISSION
AND MESSAGE TO THE WORLD?
SERIES: JESUS, SAVIOR OF THE LOST
by Ron Ritchie
A headline in the November 3, 1992 issue of Christianity Today reads,
"Moscow Opens its Heart to the Gospel." And who was in the center
of all this good news but Billy Graham! This wonderful and faithful servant
of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ held a spiritual crusade in the
capital of what was formerly called the "evil empire" at the end
of October. His message was on the cross of Jesus Christ. It was a message
of love, hope, and salvation for all who place their faith in our risen
Lord. On the last Sunday some fifty thousand Russians jammed the stadium,
and twenty thousand watched the program outside in the cold on large TV
screens. Officials said this was the largest crowd to ever hear the gospel
at one time in the former Soviet Union. One official said, "People
are tired of history [tradition] and want to personally experience the presence
of God in their lives." Reflecting on his visit, Graham said, "I
have never seen such a hunger in people for spiritual things. Over there
there's been a spiritual starvation for many years. I seriously doubt that
there is a place in the world so open to the gospel." When Graham invited
people to come forward to give their hearts to Jesus Christ so he could
become their personal Lord and Savior, he had to appeal to the inquirers
surging forward to walk and not run. There was no music playing, and the
article said that the only sound was the muffled beat of thousands of feet
making their way to the front.
It is because of the crucifixion and then the resurrection of Jesus Christ
that those Russians have now been placed into the spiritual body of Christ
along with the millions upon millions of other believers throughout the
ages. The crucifixion of Jesus deals with the sin of mankind, and the resurrection
of Jesus offers each believer the hope of eternal life, beginning at the
moment they invite him into their life. None of this would have happened
in Moscow if Billy Graham and his team had not been obedient to our risen
Lord's great commission and faithful to the message of the crucifixion and
resurrection. So let's turn to Matthew 28:16-20 and look at his commission,
and then we will turn to Luke 24:44-49 and find out what is to be the content
of our witness.
The Great Commission
Matthew 28:16-20
But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain
which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but
some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All
authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded
you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
After the disciples arrived in Galilee in obedience to the Lord's command,
he appeared to seven of them on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and over
a breakfast of love he challenged Peter's love for him and then encouraged
him: "Shepherd My sheep" (see John 21:1-19). Now our risen Lord
appeared to the eleven disciples on a mountain slope and gave them their
commission for ministry within the age of the Spirit. This occurred between
the events of Luke 24:43 and 44.
In Galilee, home for most of the disciples, they were safe from the ever-present
religious and political forces around the temple area. This was where Jesus
had told his disciples to meet him as he broke bread at their last supper
with him before the cross: "But after I have been raised, I will go
before you to Galilee." (Matthew 26:32.) Now on the mountain Jesus
had designated, as the eleven men looked at their risen Lord, their hearts
and minds were filled with mixed emotions. They worshipped him as their
Lord and Savior, the Son of God, their long-promised Messiah and King. But
in their humanity some of them were doubtful. I don't believe by this time
that Thomas, Peter, or John doubted what they were seeing and experiencing,
but nevertheless some still did. They had seen, touched, and eaten with
their wonderful risen Lord, but they were having a hard time getting used
to him. They were in the process of becoming mature.
"And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been
given to Me in heaven and on earth.'" When Jesus had been in his body
of humanity his authority had been limited as he submitted to the will of
his Father. "...He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:8.) He had done nothing
but the will of his Father. Now the risen Lord Jesus was standing before
them because his Father had "...highly exalted Him, and bestowed on
Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the
earth...." (Philippians 2:9-11.) Since his resurrection our Lord Jesus
Christ had been given unlimited power and authority over sickness and death,
over political and religious powers, and over visible and invisible "world
forces of this darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places" (Ephesians 6:12). And since he had been given all authority
over the visible and invisible universe as the one and only sovereign Lord,
he now intended to offer redemption to the world, for our Lord's ministry
had not changed: "...the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that
which was lost." (Luke 19:10.) The disciples needed to be assured of
this spiritual reality when they were given their commission to move out
into the fallen and devilish world with his message of redemption.
Jesus then gave them their great commission: "Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded
you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Let's examine this statement in detail. He said, "Go therefore [in
my authority]...." The verb should read, "In your going,"
or "Having gone." Evangelism is assumed. "...And make disciples
of all the nations." Making disciples is a command. This is the heart
of our Lord's great commission. In the very beginning of his ministry on
the shores of the sea of Galilee we found him walking along the beach. He
called out to two local fishermen, Simon and his brother Andrew, who were
casting a net into the sea. "...Jesus said to them, 'Follow Me, and
I will make you become fishers of men.' And they immediately left the nets
and followed Him." (Mark 1:17-20.) He then invited James and John to
follow him, and soon he had twelve men.
Over the next three years he began the process of making disciples of these
men so that when he left this earth and returned to his Father the same
wonderful message of redemption would continue until he returned to set
up his kingdom. He encouraged these men with words like, "If you abide
in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine...." (John 8:31.)
"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love
for one another." (John 13:35.) "By this is My father glorified,
that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples." (John 15:8.)
When the disciples began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the message
of spiritual redemption, God moved the hearts of the listeners to place
their faith in his Son as their Lord and Savior. And once these new believers
declared their faith in Jesus as their Lord, the disciples were commanded
to spend time with them to "make disciples" of them in turn, to
teach and prepare those new believers to walk in the truth of Jesus Christ.
Yesterday I met a beautiful Christian who told me, "I belong to a church
where I can't get anyone to disciple me. I went to my pastor, and he had
no time for me. I'm frustrated, because I have a hunger to teach, and they
gave me a class, but I don't know what I'm doing. Every week when I show
up I'm terrified with the tension between wanting to teach and not knowing
how. Can you help me?" Well, pastor-teachers are called by God to equip
the saints for the work of the ministry. This process involves an appeal
not only to the heart but to the will and the mind. Paul, in writing to
one of his disciples, Timothy, gives us a concise description of this process:
"...the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many
witnesses, these entrust to faithful men [and women], who will be able to
teach others also." (2 Timothy 2:1-2.)
I was talking to someone else this week about Ray Stedman. It was wonderful
to hear this man say, "I hadn't seen Ray in years, but but he was really
a discipler of men, wasn't he?" Ray not only brought to us the good
news of Jesus Christ, but he just poured his life into all of us. Many of
us received his wonderful discipling.
Jesus continued, "...of all the nations...." During our Lord's
ministry on earth there had been times when he had given his disciples authority
over unclean spirits and diseases and sickness, but at those times he told
them, "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city
of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
(Matthew 10:5-6.) And on one occasion he had told his disciples that he
did not want to relate to a Canaanite woman because "[he] was sent
only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24.) But
now that Israel had rejected their King and Messiah, the resurrected Lord
of lords was setting his disciples free to go into the whole world and preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
"...Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit." As new believers came into the spiritual body of Jesus Christ,
our risen Lord instructed his disciples to have them baptized or publicly
dipped in water as a physical symbol---something they could feel---of the
inner spiritual reality: being identified with our Lord's death, burial,
and resurrection (see Romans 6). This physical witness of baptism would
clearly identify them publicly as disciples of Jesus Christ. It was to be
a one-time spiritual and physical experience. (Note: The new believers were
to be baptized in the name, not names, of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit,
showing the oneness of our triune God.)
"...Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...." A disciple
can teach a new believer only what he has been taught and what he himself
obeys. Jesus taught his disciples the facts about three relationships: (1)
His relationship with his Father. "...I am in the Father, and the Father
in Me...." (John 14:11). (2) His relationship with them. "This
is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you"
(John 15:12). (3) His relationship with the enemy. "...that through
death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is,
the devil...." (Hebrews 2:14). At this church your under-shepherds
are all encouraged by the elders to spend time discipling men and women
and teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us. In both our
private and public teaching our curriculum has these same three themes:
(1) the new covenant, which is about our relationship with God; (2) body
life, which is about our relationship with each other; and (3) spiritual
warfare, which is about our relationship with our spiritual enemy.
"...Lo [remember], I am [present tense] with you always [now and forever],
even to the end of the age." Jesus was saying, "Because all authority
has been given to me by my Father since I have been raised to glory, in
my new resurrected body I am now able to be with each one of you day in
and day out as you minister by my power and in my name until the end of
the age---until I come again. I am no longer limited as to where I can be
at any given moment in time. I can be with all of you at once wherever you
are and whatever nation you are ministering in. I will never leave you or
forsake you. At times I will be visible and at times I will be invisible,
but I will always be present."
A great example of this is when the apostle Paul some twenty-five years
after our Lord's Ascension moved into the wicked city of Corinth on his
second missionary journey. At one point he became so fearful that our risen
Lord appeared to him in a vision and said, "Do not be afraid any longer,
but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will
attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city."
(Acts 18:9-11.) This is a wonderful encouragement for us, for no matter
what situation we get into as followers of Jesus Christ, the Lord, who used
to be limited in his humanity on this earth and could be with only twelve
or so at a time, now can be with each one of us in great intimacy, and he
promises he will never leave. We are never alone. And in that intimacy he
protects us, guides us, instructs us---meeting whatever our need is at the
moment.
Now according to the Harmony of the Gospels [Moody Press] our risen
Lord told his disciples to go back up to Jerusalem, where he appeared for
the last time before ascending to the Father. They had been commissioned
to move out into the world with the gospel of redemption and the command
to make disciples. In Jerusalem he would give them more clarity from the
Scriptures that he was their Messiah as well as the content of the message
they were to preach once the Father sent to them the Holy Spirit of promise.
The Great Message
Luke 24:44-49
Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke
to you while I was still with you, that all things which are 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 He said to
them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again
from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins
should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise
of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed
with power from on high."
Jesus had been "...appearing to them over a period of forty days, and
speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God." (Acts 1:3.)
In the holy city our Lord taught the disciples again from the Scriptures,
showing them that all that had happened to him during Passover week was
the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Then he encouraged
them to proclaim the good news of salvation to all the nations, beginning
in Jerusalem.
"Now he said to them, 'These are My words which I spoke to you while
I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the
Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.'" In
this he was affirming to them that he was the Messiah, not merely because
he proclaimed himself to be, but because he fulfilled the Scriptures. These
are some of the same words and certainly the same ideas that our risen Lord
had communicated to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Easter afternoon,
but now he added that he and his suffering and resurrection were spoken
of in the Psalms.
"...He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures." The two
disciples on the road to Emmaus had said later, "Were not our hearts
burning within us...while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"
(Luke 24:32) (Probably all of us have known people who read the Bible and
could not understand it. But even the disciples could not understand how
Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures until he opened their minds.) He opened their
minds to understand his death, burial, and resurrection, saying, "Thus
it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead
the third day." Psalms 22, 34; and Isaiah 53:1-9, for example, show
that Christ must suffer for the sins of mankind. Psalms 2, 16, 68, 110;
Jonah 1:17; and Hosea 6:2 show that Christ must be raised from the dead.
Some sixty years later the apostle John, then the only living apostle left
on earth, would write to the spiritual children in western Turkey, "And
we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in
order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true,
in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." (1
John 5:20.)
As a result of this amazing truth our Lord then commissioned the disciples
to preach the good news that "repentance for forgiveness of sins should
be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
This brings a poignant episode from our trip to Germany to mind. By the
second night we were with the Ukrainians, they had started to trust us (Carl
Gallivan, Ray Cookingham, Anne Marie, myself, and others). And one large,
handsome man, after talking with us over dinner, came up to me and said,
"I've been watching you. If you were my priest, I would confess all
my sins." (He came out of a Greek Orthodox background.) He wanted to
confess his sins to somebody and to be forgiven. I couldn't do it, but I
told him that in Jesus Christ he had a great High Priest, and that he could
confess his sins to Jesus right then. You know, the whole world is crying
out in a variety of ways, "I have sinned, and I need to confess to
somebody! To whom can I confess?"
The forgiveness of sins that the disciples were to proclaim was based on
our Lord's willingness to go to the cross, take upon himself the sin of
humanity, and save us all from the wrath of God. Because of that, Jesus
our risen Lord and Savior could now forgive us of our sin---and he was the
only one who could. John later wrote, "If we confess our sins He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9.) And Peter said to the Jewish supreme
court, "...there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other
name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved."
(Acts 4:12)
The disciples were the witnesses of all these events: the life, death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Now by the power of their risen Lord
they were to finally understand the fulfillment of all the prophecy of the
Old Testament. So our risen Lord set the stage to move his men out into
the world with the good news of redemption in the name of Jesus---except
for one thing: They needed the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was promised by the Father in such Old Testament passages
as Isaiah 44:3; Ezekiel 36:27; and Joel 2:28. Now Jesus told them, "And
behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are
to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."
At our Lord's last supper with them in his humanity, he had been preparing
his disciples for the difficult days ahead when he encouraged them with
the promise, "...I will ask the Father, and He will give you another
Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but
you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you." (John
14:16-17.) He also encouraged them, "...the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance
all that I said to you." (Verse 26.) For this reason the risen Lord
told his disciples not to begin their ministry until after they were empowered
by the Holy Spirit.
So often in my own life I feel a certain natural adequacy because I have
some experience and background. But I notice that every new situation I
get into, the Lord reminds me of my inadequacy, and I am brought back to
him so I can say, "Unless you fill me and control me, there may be
some activity here, but it will have no eternal consequence. Please express
yourself through me. May I have your power to make this come alive? May
this be a situation where you are greatly blessed!" If I don't do that,
it will just be religious flesh all dressed up, and it will really have
no effect for eternity. We need to guard against that. Our lives are designed
by God to be filled with him and empowered by his Spirit so that his eternal
message can penetrate the community we live in.
Because of the resurrection mankind had the hope of having their sins forgiven
and beginning a new life in Christ. But just as the crucifixion was a stumbling
block to the Jews (because Deuteronomy 21:23 says, "...he who is hanged
is accursed of God..." and they did not understand that Jesus hung
on the cross for our sins, not his own); the resurrection of Jesus Christ
would become foolishness to the Gentiles. After the Day of Pentecost and
the healing of the lame man in the temple area, Peter and John were preaching
that in Jesus was the resurrection from the dead when the Jewish priests
and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly disturbed by this teaching, and
threw them in jail. The Gentiles also thought that the resurrection was
foolishness as we later find out when Paul went before the city fathers
and philosophers of Athens. "[Some were saying], 'He seems to be a
proclaimer of strange deities'---because he was preaching Jesus and the
resurrection...now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
began to sneer...." ( Acts 17:18, 32.) But Peter would later write
the greatest words of hope to the Christians of Western Turkey: "Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great
mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead..." (1 Peter 1:3.) And Christ by his
power can overcome that resistance in people's hearts.
Finally in Luke 24:50-51 we find: "And He led them out as far as Bethany,
and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came about while He
was blessing them, He parted from them." Acts 1:9-11 continues, "And
a cloud received Him out of their sight...and...two men in white clothing
stood beside them; they also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking
into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will
come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.'"
Luke concludes, "And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and
were continually in the temple, praising God." (24:52-53.) Within ten
days, during the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon all of them
who loved the Lord, and the great adventure of the Age of the Spirit began
and continues to this very hour.
So the disciples were given the great commission: "Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded
you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Behind
that commission was the message, in Paul's words, that God the Father "...delivered
us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His
beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
(Colossians.1:13-14.) And behind both the commission and the message was
the power of the wonderful Holy Spirit, who would and now does empower all
of our Lord's disciples to fulfill our ministry.
Luke would later pen the first words in the book of Acts: "The first
account [that is, the Gospel of Luke] I composed, Theophilus, about all
that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after
He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen."
(Acts 1:1-2.) As part of those orders, we, having inherited the commission
and the message from the apostles, are to go and make disciples, preach
the gospel, and be a witness of Christ to the very next person we meet when
led by the Holy Spirit.
This is a sad day for me---we've finished Luke! I've loved Luke. But I'm
happy that many you of have heard these sixty-nine messages. We have been
in Luke for so long that some of you thought I was in a rut. That's not
really the case. I wanted us to take our time because Luke has really shown
us who Jesus is. He has shown us that Jesus is our wonderful Savior, Lord,
and Shepherd---this lover of tax collectors, sinners, and blind beggars.
Everywhere he went he just kept walking among the people (except for the
religious class). Everyone wanted to be around him. He would walk and talk,
touch, pray, care, and rebuke. He loved everyone, didn't he?
Every week we have heard about Jesus and have been greatly encouraged, motivated,
rebuked, and built up. Jesus is our only hope, the only one who can give
us eternal life. Once he gives us life and heals us of our sin and brokenness,
and once he penetrates our life with his Holy Spirit, he doesn't want us
to ever stop talking about it. He wants us to talk about him everywhere
you go, share him in deed and word, until he comes again. And we can, because
we have his Holy Spirit. So we need to constantly ask the Lord to set us
free to be bold.
What a wonderful and commissioned life our risen Lord and Savior has called
us to! And what a wonderful message of love and hope for a fallen humanity:
Our sin can be forgiven in Christ Jesus because he was willing to go to
the cross on our behalf, and then we can have the living hope of eternal
life because of his resurrection from dead.
Catalog No. 4284
Luke 24:44-49
69th Message
Ron Ritchie
November 29, 1992
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