Focal Passage: Matthew 28:18-20; II Corinthians 5:16-21
Everyone living today who has accepted the free gift of grace and found salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ has done so through the testimony of others. None of us experienced the physical presence of Jesus as the disciples did. We didn’t see first-hand the miracles He performed. None of us heard Him speak or walked by His side.
Everything we know and everything we believe about Jesus we learned from someone else. That is not to say that Jesus was not in it because He most certainly was. But He was working through someone else as He spoke to our hearts.
Someone might say that they came to accept Christ just by reading the Bible and not by someone’s preaching or testimony. But even in Scripture, God used men to make His revelation known. This was just not by happenstance, but by design.
Today we call this design The Great Commission. In this study we are going to look at The Great Commission and what it means to us.
Nimmo
In Matthew 28:18-20, we find ourselves on a mountain somewhere in Galilee. We are not told exactly where but it could have been a number of places. We find the 11disciples are there as they had been directed by Jesus. They are filled with joy when Jesus joins them. I find it a little strange that Matthew states that some doubted. I don’t think he meant that they still did not believe He was really alive, but I think he was saying some were still having a problem getting their head around this whole resurrection thing.
At any rate, Jesus begins His conversation with them by saying all authority had been given Him. He was not saying that at some point before now He didn’t have all authority, but that the fact of His authority had now been authenticated by the resurrection.
With that He then commissions His disciples under His authority to go unto all the nations of earth and make other disciples. They are to teach those new disciples about everything He had taught them. Under His authority they are to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus reminds them they will not be on their own, but His presence would be right there with them at all times.
As disciples in our day, His commission extends to us also. We, too, are to continue in His command.
As we turn our attention to II Corinthians 5:16-21, we find the Apostle Paul affirming the fact that the Great Commission extends to every disciple throughout every age. He talks about how God has transformed our lives. We are no longer just people of the earth, but now we are new creatures in Christ with a heavenly calling. Once we were lost in our sin. But now God has reconciled us through Jesus Christ.
Paul says now we have a responsibility to help others find that same reconciliation. Paul is saying that the message of reconciliation has been committed to us to share with others. We become God’s ambassadors acting on His authority to speak on His behalf. What a glorious opportunity. What a marvelous privilege. B&R
