THE GREAT COMMISSION

THE GREAT COMMISSION

● THE GREAT COMMISSION IS AN INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY: 

The Great Commission is a responsibility Christ Jesus gave to individuals first and foremost and we must see it as such. There are many situations that we will encounter in which we need to collaborate but just as our salvation is a personal race we must ultimately see the call of Jesus on his disciples to evangelise and disciple others as it truly is - an individual assignment. 

Evangelism, which is our ministration in words and deeds to people to accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord or re-dedicate their life back to God is just the first step in the redemptive process God has called us into in bringing mankind back to Him.

The Evangelistic mandate we were given can be appreciated when we understand the ministry of Christ which was summed up in Matthew 9:35 thus: 

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness."

The next step is to establish such in Christ through building up the person in the knowledge of God and Christ's Jesus via the Word of God, so that the person is not lost to the world again but alive in Christ to do God's bidding. 

We need to ensure that new converts, as the adage goes, "take in the Word to keep out the world!"

That establishment programme is what Discipleship is all about. Without discipleship, we turn the Great Commission into the great omission. 

Just as we were all called to be Evangelists who teach, preach and heal, so also has Christ called us to live exemplary lives that others will desire to emulate through the Discipleship process of being Disciplers as he was while he was on earth. 

If we are truly followers of Christ we must have the mindset that Christ has called us to do all he did on earth and that he has empowered us through the Holy Spirit to do even more. 

As in Ephesians 2:10, we must believe and understand that, "... we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

There are 4 major steps in the process of Salvation of any individual and they are, namely: 

1. Being Born-again (Accepting Jesus Christ as one's Saviour and Lord), 

2. Constantly Renewing one's mind via meditation on God's Word so one can Cultivate a personal relationship with God so that one can get direct revelations from God about one's specific purpose in life - per time and run with it. 

3. Evangelising the lost and those who have gone astray.

4. Discipleship of those one has led to Christ.

It is indeed unfortunate that the physical Church denominations most of us belong to have failed in teaching us the total Salvation process that Christ Jesus ensured his disciples adhered to, and if we are his modern day disciples we must follow his footsteps accordingly.  

It is quite remarkable how we claim to be followers of Christ, accept to do some of the things Jesus Christ and his disciples have done in their lifetime as recorded in the Bible but choose to leave out the most important aspects out of convenience. 

In 2 Peter 3:9 we are made to understand that it is not God's desire that people perish in hell but that they repent of their sins and are saved to serve him and not to fulfill their earthly desires.

Since God's heartbeat is that people be saved to live godly lives, it is therefore clear that the pursuit of the Evangelistic and Discipleship mandate that most Christians fool around with at the detriment of their salvation is not to be trifled with.

We are not just called to bring new converts to Christ and the church but also to disciple them in godly living. 

There is a command that Jesus Christ expressly gave his disciples with regards to Discipleship and by extension we who are his latter-day disciples, if indeed we actually accepted him as Lord over our lives like his disciples of old did. 

The command as found in Matthew 28:19-20, is this:

19. .... go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

20. and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Duly recorded in another chapter of the Holy writ is another Command that Jesus gave his disciples with regards to the Evangelical work he was going to fully entrust into their hand before his departure in Mark 16:15-16,20, which goes thus: 

15. ..., “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 

16. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, ....... 

20. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Discipleship requires Sacrifice and if we desire to evangelise and disciple people in all the nations of the world as effectively as Christ has entrusted into our hands we need to have compassion for the lost, and prayerfully read about, understand and emulate the life and times of Christ and his disciples with regards to both ministries. 

 

● ACCOUNTABILITY: 

There's something that being a discipler confers on a believer which just evangelism cannot completely do and it is that Discipleship encourages responsibility and therefore accountability. 

Accountability in God's scheme of things is our acceptance of our responsibility for the Great Commission and its consequences. It is our acceptance to be held responsible or answerable for our God-given mandate. 

Discipleship which in a nutshell is a "follow me as I follow christ" approach to teaching one's disciple(s) about Christ by living by example, encourages accountability of a Discipler, first to God and also to his disciple(s). 

This singular opportunity makes a world of difference in helping a Christian be accountable to God and men in all his endeavours. 

● THE ULTIMATE TEST OF OUR LOVE FOR OTHERS: 

The ultimate test of our love for God and indeed our fellow man is being a follower of Christ that disciples others (a discipler). 

As Christ's true followers, 

If we have come to the understanding that we must work towards doing the works Christ did and even greater things with regards to evangelising the lost, then we can be rest assured of the signs and wonders that must accompany our obedience, so that the lost can believe and accept Jesus as a result of the miracles and be saved. 

When we have come to the understanding that we are called not just to evangelise but also disciple people as Jesus did, we can also take comfort in the truth that he that called us is faithful and he will encourage and empower us to do it, if we take the bold step of faith to join a discipleship class or prayerfully find out how Jesus did it, build up our faith that we can disciple others also and start something with the people around us that we have brought to Christ. 

Can I be bold to say that, If a man cannot take up the responsibility for his neighbour that is lost or has gone astray because God commanded him to, then such a person has failed in the purpose of his existence. 

This call to discipleship is by no means a way to hoodwink you into starting something you believe you are not ready for but to help you see the bigger picture and jolt you into taking steps to ensure you fulfil your destiny by following the exact footprints that Christ has laid out for all of us who profess his name to follow. 

In John 14:12, Jesus Christ declared this: 

"Very truly I tell you, 

whoever believes in me 

will do the works I have been doing, 

and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

You need to pray and confess this truth into your life until you begin to see it's manifestation. 

Note that Jesus Christ actually gave his disciples a blank check when he made these affirmations to them with regards to them getting what they believe in - from him when they obey the preceeding verse by desiring, believing and actually doing the works he did, as a lifestyle: 

In John 14:13-14, Jesus Christ assured his disciples of meeting their needs and wants, thus: 

13. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, 

so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

14. You may ask me for anything in my name, 

and I will do it.

● THE CHURCH IS NOT TO BLAME... YOU ARE.

The church has indeed failed in it's responsibility to preach the "Full Gospel of Christ", by building up their members to become dominion-minded enough not to depend on the Word from the pulpit but to be independent enough by thier personal relationship with God and His Word, to ensure that they experience the influence of the Kingdom of God and that it emanates from their lives to their daily evangelistic and descipleship pursuit to likewise empower the lost for dominion. 

The Full Gospel of Christ is all about the restoration of the Dominion mandate mankind lost from the fall of man, caused by the original sin of our forefather Adam. 

This mandate was retaken by Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, that sin and the influence of the devil over mankind, the world and it's systems might be done away with, so that men may enjoy the Abundant Life he promised and wrought for us all. 

The church may have abdicated it's responsibility to preach the Full Gospel of Christ in search of relevance, membership, funding or other things we tend to castigate the church for nowadays but the gospel truth is that the mandate Jesus gave was never given to the church, that is a group of people who fellowship under the umbrella of Christ, but it was given to individuals. 

It is about time we stop whinging about what the church did and didn't do and face the truth that we have all been individually tasked with the Full Gospel of Christ and we must all give account for our Stewardship or lack thereof in the fulness of time. 

● LIVING BY EXAMPLE: 

Discipleship for Christ is all about living by example. 

We are all called by Christ to live godly lives in all our endeavours and to by example teach others to do likewise. 

We have a mandate to live godly lives at home, when we go about earning a living from our businesses and indeed everywhere we go. 

We are called to be Christ Ambassadors as if God was making his appeal through us to all those who are lost in our various spheres of contact to be reconciled with Christ, when they see the exemplary lifestyle we exhibit in all we say and do, desire to emulate our unique lifestyle and begin to interrogate and ask us how we are able to do the extraordinary things we do. 

Then we can win them over into God's kingdom by letting them know the Dominion mandate, the Authority of the believer we have that makes it all possible.

As a true follower of Christ who was himself a discipler because he had disciples that he called to follow him, the best approach to being the discipler yourself is having a "follow me as I follow Christ!" approach to your disciples. 

As disciplers who ought to have also been discipled, we are lifetime students of the Spirit of God, our discipler and therefore we must always make out time to imbibe the Word of God so we can always keep abreast with the will of God for our lives, our own disciples, other people who look to us for exemplary guidance in what we say and do and indeed everyone we come in contact with because we were called to represent God as Ambassadors of Christ. 

● FINANCING THE GREAT COMMISSION:

Fear is sometimes an overwhelming factor that discourages a lot of people from going for evangelism, talk less of embarking on discipleship. 

We however must understand that when it comes to any Kingdom Advancement venture we desire to embark upon all we need do is to overcome our fear by building up our faith about the situation via God's Words that gives us the assurance we need to push ahead. 

Every provision for what God would have us do in life flows with our understanding of God's mandate our willingness to do it and our faith in God and His Word to ultimately bring it about.

God Almighty who has commanded us to fulfil his mandate with regards to the Great Commission is faithful and he will make his provisions available according to our faith in Him to do so.

In 2 Corinthians 9:8, we understand that "God is able to bless (us) abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that (we) need, (we) will abound in every good work."

From this scripture, we can be rest assured without a doubt, that God's ability to provide for all things and at all times is available but we also need to find out what will trigger his ability to work for us. 

From 2 Corinthians 9:10-11, we can be rest assured that: 

10. .... he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 

11. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

God's supply of seed to the sower refers to God's provision of His Word in season to us to build us up in faith and godliness and also to evangelise to the lost and backsliden while God's supply of bread for food refers to God's provision of what we need and want to sustain ourselves. 

So from the above scripture we can surmise that God's ability to provide for any Kingdom Advancement endeavour we commit to and embark upon will always be triggered by our obedience in actually going out to evangelise and our generosity in giving our effort, time, wealth, etc to those he has directed us to in fulfilling the Great Commission mandate. 

Just as Jesus Christ initially sent out His disciples to go in two's, commanding them not to take any purse of money, bag or sandals but to go as they are and evangelise to people we also need to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance every single time as to How God would have us actually do His work per time. 

● COMPASSION FOR THE LOST:

The engine for our obedience to the Great Commission mandate is our genuine love and therefore compassion for the lost or backsliden and our understanding of the urgency of the task at hand as we don't have all the time in the world. 

In Psalm 126:5-6, it is written: 

5. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. 

6. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

● GO IN GOD'S STRENGTH ALONE:

We must approach our Great Commission mandate in God's wisdom and strength alone for by one's own acumen and devices can no man prevail. 

As recorded in Luke 10:2, Jesus Christ told his disciples thus: 

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

This request that Jesus made of his disciples is crucial in ensuring we do not encumber or destroy God's work of restoration in the lives of those He wants to redeem to him by going about it in our own strength rather than by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. 

● SEE THE BIG PICTURE: 

We should constantly be aware that there's a heaven to gain and a hell to lose and that can only be accomplished when we fulfil God's purpose for our existence on earth. 

God has called us to Christ solely to bless us and to improve our lives on earth, and by so doing he has also empowered us to improve the lives of others around us. This is the Abundant Life Christ Jesus wrought for us by him dying for our sins and his resurrection so that we may no longer be slaves to sin but slaves to being in right-standing with God. 

Finally, as in Romans 8:11 KJV, you can say this prayer: 

(Since) the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in (me), he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (my) mortal (body) by his Spirit that dwelleth in (me)

..... in Jesus name, Amen.