Revisiting the Great Commission
Rev. Dr. Martin Alphonse
The church universal had been under heavy attack in the twentieth century by two combined forces. They have even more intensified their assault on Christianity in the twenty first century. On the one hand, there is the intellectual attack on the Christian faith by forces of post-modernity such as secularism and religious pluralism which repudiate the Church’s claims of the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, there is the direct, organized, physical assault on Christian workers, particularly on missionaries and church related property, by fanatic anti-Christian religious extremists. Despite the escalation of the twin attacks on Christianity world wide, the opportunity for fulfilling the Great Commission in this generation is still unlimited.
New frontiers have been reached with the gospel and the horizon of missionary activity keeps expanding everyday. Hundreds of new churches are being planted among un-reached people groups every month. Mission and Evangelism have become vital topics of discussion in churches and Christian homes, and as specialized subjects of study and research in theological institutions. A number of international conferences and consultations have been held in several nations of the world in order to mobilize a global task force for expediting the cause of World Evangelization with an unprecedented intensity. New mission efforts have been exploding at a global level resulting in the emergence of thousands of indigenous and self-financing mission agencies even in a number of economically disenfranchised nations of the world. Tables have turned and tides have changed in terms of the locus and the potential of the sending bodies. The West is no longer the sole sending agency, and the so called Third World nations are no longer the receiving ends exclusively.
In this context, it is a matter of enormous joy and celebration to note that the Diocese of North America and Europe of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church has established a mission field in Mexico. The enthusiastic participation of the Mar Thoma youth in the Mexico Mission is of significant encouragement and challenge to the whole Mar Thoma Church.
What does motivate the church to move on with a mission so enthusiastically? Of course, traditionally the Great Commission has been singled out as the most significant motif for mission. The Lord has so commanded us in Matthew 28:19-20. Hence we must obey Him. However, for argument’s sake one might like to ask: “What if the Lord Jesus did not give the command to his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’? Does the absence of a command exempt or excuse the church from getting involved in mission? Absolutely not! Even if for some mysterious reasons the Lord Jesus did not command the church, we still have to be involved in mission to reach the world for Him. As Dr. E. Stanley Jones, that legendry missionary to India, and a distinguished evangelist who preached for more than 45 years in the celebrated Maramon Convention once passionately challenged the church saying:
“As far the ‘Great Commission’ … it is not based on a command, but upon the very nature of the gospel, upon him. Last command or no last command, we must share him, for the very necessities of human life demand us to give a Savior such as Jesus. Out of the deep necessities comes the imperious voice, “Go into the world and preach the gospel.” If we hold our peace, the stones- the hard, bare facts of life - will cry out.1
As Dr. Jones has pointed out, the Great Commission is not centered on a command. Ii is centered on the very person, character and ministry of the Lord Jesus. I also see the Great Commission is not just as a command, but as a summary statement of all that the Lord Jesus had been doing in those three and half years of his public ministry even as He was teaching and training His disciples along the same lines.
The Nature of the Great Commission.
“16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20and 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)2 NIV.
Let us briefly examine the nature of this command or commission.
1. It is a Categorical Commission.
The word categorical means “unconditional, or non-negotiable”. It is binding on all concerned. We can see two striking features of non-negotiability embedded in the Great Commission.
a) The cosmic authority with which the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples.
The Lord Jesus said, as quoted in verse 18: “All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. Therefore go …” This statement is a conclusive revelation and a compelling affirmation of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ that demands an immediate obedience. It was a profound sense of obligation to the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus which motivated the early church to move on aggressively with the task of evangelization amidst great opposition and persecution. The members of the early church became simply unstoppable in their zeal for evangelistic witness. They kept on moving all the way to martyrdom which thousands of them embraced very willingly.
Therefore, the commission to ‘Go’ is categorical, unconditional, and non-negotiable. The church is never exempted from carrying it out in full measure under any circumstance whatsoever. The sovereign Lord has commanded, and we must obey Him at any cost, anywhere and in every generation.
b) The nature of the audience to whom the sovereign Lord Jesus had given the command.
The Great Commission was given originally to a mixed band of ‘believers and skeptics’. In verse 16 we notice that the eleven disciples had promptly gathered on the mountain of Galilee where the Lord appeared to them. However their response to His appearance was not unanimous. Verse 17 says, “When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” It was a mixed band of worshippers and doubters, believers and skeptics. Instead of admonishing a few skeptics who were among the apostles, the Lord Jesus straight away commanded the entire group of mixed responders to “Go and make disciples of all nations”. That is to say, He “entrusted” the commission to both believers as well as skeptics because He “trusted” that they would eventually understand, change and obey Him.
This is the paradox of mission the Church Universal is suffering from even today. Churches all over the world are filled with both believers and skeptics especially when it comes to interpreting and obeying the Great Commission. Despite the paradoxical mixture of believers and skeptics in the church, the Lord Jesus has once and for all “entrusted” the Great Commission to both believers and skeptics because He still “trusts” that the Christian skeptics of today would also eventually understand, change and obey Him.
2. It is a Continuing Commission
Verse 19 and 20 read: “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.” (NIV)
The grammar of Greek language in which all the books of New Testament were written employs two types of imperatives. One is aorist imperative denoting a one time command. Another is present imperative which denotes a repetitive or continuing command. Apostle Matthew has employed the present imperative to describe the command of the Lord Jesus: “Go”. Given in the present imperative the word ‘go’ means that the apostles, and subsequently the church, must keep on going. The Lord Jesus said: “make disciples”, meaning that we must keep on making disciples. He said: “baptizing”, meaning that we must keep on baptizing, (by that of course not at all meaning baptizing the same people over and over again), but continuing on with the activity of baptizing new peoples as they are being saved. He said: “teaching them”, meaning that we must keep on teaching the people generation after generation until His triumphal return to the earth again.
3. A Comprehensive Commission.
Verse 20 says: “and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
Evangelical Christians, by and large, have been placing a strong emphasis on two aspects of the Great Commission as central to it, namely, the ‘going’ aspect and the ‘disciple-making’ aspect. But as we see in this verse, the Lord Jesus has made the Great Commission much more comprehensive in nature which obligates equality of emphasis on all of its aspects. So to say, the task of evangelizing an individual or a people group or a community is not completed until the initial receptors of the gospel are able to intellectually comprehend the demands of the gospel in its entirety, and are clearly taught to obey ‘everything’ the Lord had commanded the apostles themselves to do. Being able to evangelize a people group and subsequently planting a church among them successfully does not bring the act of evangelization to its completion. It still continues on with the inevitable need for teaching the converts to obey everything the Lord has commanded.
4. A Covenantal Commission.
In verse 20 we again read: “ … And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” When the Lord Jesus gave the apostles the command He knew the fulfilling of the task was not going to be an easy one. In fact, throughout His training of the disciples in the preceding three and half years He had repeatedly predicted the toughness of the task that was awaiting them. Anticipating all the struggles, hardships, oppositions, persecution and martyrdom they would be facing, and of course subsequently millions of Christians through the generation also would be facing, He made a covenant with them saying: “ I am with you to the very end of the age.” By His promise to be with them the Lord did not at all mean that they would be spared of all suffering for the sake of the gospel, but that He would be by their side at all those terrible and fatal moments sustaining, encouraging and enabling them to complete their mission.
True to His covenant, the Lord Jesus has always been with His suffering and persecuted church to this very day. Persecution against the church is on the increase in an alarming scale in several nations of the world today. For instance, who would have ever imagined that in India, globally reputed to be the nation of Mahatma Gandhi the Apostle of Ahimsa, religiously fanatic elements would gruesomely burn to death a dedicated missionary to the lepers as Graham Staines and two of his innocent children. Even as I am writing this article, I continue to receive news from India reporting the ongoing persecution against Christian workers in several parts of India.. Although persecutions against the church continue to escalate world wide, the Lord who made a covenant with the church is always with us. And He will continue to be with us to the very end of the age.
5. A Consummate Commission.
Finally in verse 20 we read: “ … And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” We are living in an age in which there is so much of renewed interest among Christians in the topic of the parousia or the Second Coming of Christ. To cite just one example, the book series called “Left Behind” jointly authored by Tim Lahaye, have consistently hit New York’ best seller list. There is a renewed curiosity in churches to study the Book of Revelation in order to check if we are almost at the end of the age. The rapidly changing political scenario in the Middle East are being watched closely by biblical scholars to find out how end-time prophecies concerning Israel are being literally fulfilled in our generation, thus heralding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ any time now!
Mere curiosity aside, one of the definite signs of the return of Jesus Christ is the responsibility assigned to the church by the Lord to complete the process of World Evangelization as He himself predicted it in Matthew 24 in which the Lord explained to his disciples various signs of the end times. He concluded it by saying candidly: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the while world as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.”’ (Matthew 24:14) NIV.
We are indeed living in a most exciting generation as far as completion of the process of World Evangelization is concerned. Unprecedented in the church’s history of mission evangelical Christians around the world have intensified their combined efforts to expedite that process in our generation. A great motivation for this combined effort comes from the promise of the Lord Jesus to be with us to the very end of the age. The process of World Evangelization as embedded in the Great Commission is indeed moving steadily forward to its consummation.
Conclusion:
How did the Lord Jesus send His disciples when He said,”Go”. How were they to go into a hostile world? What model of going were they to follow? Of course, the Lord himself was their model. Earlier on, on the very day He had resurrected the Lord appeared to His disciples and said: “… As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21) (NIV). And how did the Father send Him? As a prelude to uttering those powerful words the Lord had first made a dramatic presentation of His wounded body in John 20:20 “… he showed them his hands and side, …” (NIV). We could possibly draw two conclusions from this dramatization, namely: a) He presented a proof of His crucifixion and resurrection; and b) By showing them the scars on his body He meant that the cross was the way for them to do mission just His Father had meant it for Him. The mission of the church is inseparably linked with the cross of Christ. The Lord has made it crystal clear that there can be no Christian discipleship without our willingness to take up our cross and follow Him( Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27;).
To the Lord Jesus, the cross simply meant an absolute surrender to His father’s will.
So it is with us today. We have to be on the move with mission in absolute obedience to what the Lord has commissioned us to do. Come what may, we will meet the consequences squarely in the great confidence that He who said He will be with us till the very end of the age will certainly be with us just He said.
End Notes:
1. E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road (London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.,
1925), p6.
2. All scripture quotations used in this article are taken from the New International
Version and used here with general permission by Zondervan, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, USA.
Editor’s Note: Rev. Dr. Martin Alphonse is a native of India, an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church. Beginning his ministry in India He has served the Lord globally including as a missionary to Singapore, and as a pastor in several churches in USA. He currently teaches mission and evangelism at Multnomah Bible College at Portland, Oregon, USA. Since 1978 Dr. Alphonse has been a frequent speaker in several of Mar Thoma Church conventions, family conferences, youth conferences both in India and North America including his preaching every alternate year at the Maramon Convention, Kerala since 1998. He is looking forward to speaking at Maramon again in February 2009. Phone: (Home) 503-653-8838, (Office) 503-255-0332 or at e-mail: malphonse@yahoo.com
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