17 March 2013: What is the "Great Commission" and How Are We to Execute it?
Do we execute our mission by sitting on our backsides in our own church witnessing to the choir? Or do we go where those who need the saving Grace of God are?
Do we execute our mission by sitting on our backsides in our own church witnessing to the choir? Or do we go where those who need the saving Grace of God are?
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Did the Apostles stay in the Upper Room or did they go into in the sinful world and into very belly of the beast of that day, into Rome itself?
Did they risk their very lives to execute the mission that Christ mandated, and did they stay on that mission even when the brethren were being rounded up and crucified or fed to wild beasts as sport?
And look at us, the Bride of Christ, what are we doing? Are we worthy of the rewards to which we think we are entitled? Did God call a time-out because we are living in the last days and we need a good rest before the final trump blows? Are we wasting the power of the Holy Spirit that our Lord has sent among us? These are questions each Christian has to place in self-examination and if necessary act upon with all due haste and with conviction. Surely the Lord will lead.
"Go therefore and make disciples."
So, what are the Lord's instructions on executing the mission to go and speak to others about the good news, to make disciples of other men and women?
I think it is a simple matter. Witnessing is about being an example of what it means to be a fisher of men, of being what it is that Christ has called us to be, of giving those who are as yet unaware first the good news, and then then bad news, to tell them "this" is what life can and will be with with Christ, and "this" is what it will definitely be without Him in the future.
We plant the seed and allow the Holy Spirit do His work. We do not convict, preach fire and brimstone and then force it down someones throat. We witness to the holiness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We start a conversation from common and level ground and we build it from there. Are you a Protestant, then other unsaved Protestants are who you are prepared to witness to right from the start. Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Pentecostal or you-name-it, you start from where you are, on that common and level ground and work your way up the mountain from there.
When was the last time you left your comfort zone and went to the sinner and to the unsaved on his or her turf as our church fathers did?
Did they risk their very lives to execute the mission that Christ mandated, and did they stay on that mission even when the brethren were being rounded up and crucified or fed to wild beasts as sport?
And look at us, the Bride of Christ, what are we doing? Are we worthy of the rewards to which we think we are entitled? Did God call a time-out because we are living in the last days and we need a good rest before the final trump blows? Are we wasting the power of the Holy Spirit that our Lord has sent among us? These are questions each Christian has to place in self-examination and if necessary act upon with all due haste and with conviction. Surely the Lord will lead.
"Go therefore and make disciples."
So, what are the Lord's instructions on executing the mission to go and speak to others about the good news, to make disciples of other men and women?
I think it is a simple matter. Witnessing is about being an example of what it means to be a fisher of men, of being what it is that Christ has called us to be, of giving those who are as yet unaware first the good news, and then then bad news, to tell them "this" is what life can and will be with with Christ, and "this" is what it will definitely be without Him in the future.
We plant the seed and allow the Holy Spirit do His work. We do not convict, preach fire and brimstone and then force it down someones throat. We witness to the holiness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We start a conversation from common and level ground and we build it from there. Are you a Protestant, then other unsaved Protestants are who you are prepared to witness to right from the start. Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Pentecostal or you-name-it, you start from where you are, on that common and level ground and work your way up the mountain from there.
When was the last time you left your comfort zone and went to the sinner and to the unsaved on his or her turf as our church fathers did?
