THE GREAT COMMISSION

The Great Commission

A couple years ago the D.S. gave a statistic that 64% of our churches in Canada and the United States in the entire year of 2019 did not report having a salvation take place in their church! NOBODY got saved in 64% of our Nazarene churches in the United States and Canada for one whole year.

If that doesn’t convict you and hurt your heart and light a fire under you to motivate you to be better in your walk with Jesus and see that stat change, there is something wrong with you! There’s a little over 5,000 Nazarene churches in Canada and the United States, but to simply do the math, I rounded down to 5,000. 64% of 5,000 is 3,200. That is 3,200 churches that in one whole year has not seen someone give their life to Jesus and that’s our whole purpose, that is the point of the church – to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

The church does a lot of other things but it’s mission and goal is to share the gospel to help people give their life to Jesus. The Great Commission - the last marching orders that Jesus gave before He ascended into heaven.

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Let’s look at the definition for the two words, Great and Commission. The definition of Great says an extent or amount of intensity considerably above normal or average.

The definition of Commissionsays an instruction, command or duty authorizing a group of people to do something.

We just read what Jesus said in verse 18 that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him! So Jesus having just told us that God the Father has given Him all authority in heaven and earth, then commands and authorizes us to live our lives telling others the gospel with an intensity considerably above normal.

The Jonathan Glover dictionary says, “Tell People About Jesus Like Their Soul Depended On It. Tell People About Jesus Like It Is The Difference Between Eternity In The Presence Of God Or Eternity Burning In A Pit Called Hell. Tell People About Jesus Because Of The Burden You Have For Lost Souls” because of how lost you were, blind you were, empty you were, before somebody showed you who Jesus was and you prayed immediately becoming found, having your eyes opened and your void filled.

You see Christians when 64% of churches in two countries do not see a soul saved by Jesus Christ, I think it is time we take a look at ourselves and our priorities. I think it is time for us to reflect and remember how very blessed we are and were that a sanctified saint was burdened for our soul and they told us and showed us the gospel of Jesus with an intensity and sense of duty that changed our lives forever!

I pray that you have forgotten that and that God will remind you because if you haven’t forgotten that means you are just lazy and selfish because if you remember the joy and love and freedom of sin Jesus gave you, then you would be telling this lost and dying world all about it with an intensity above the norm!

Almost every day on my Facebook page I see something that reminds me of how lost my generation is and how worse off the generations behind me are! I pray that God will give me a burden for lost souls. That God will give me a hunger and thirst for righteousness so that I cannot just talk about a man named Jesus, but I can be an example of Jesus; that I can represent the love of Jesus, that I can show the compassion of Jesus. That I can have the mercy of Jesus, and I can be sensitive to the Spirit of Jesus, and look through the eyes of Jesus; not so I can be holier than thou, but so I can be the salt and light to the earth I was created to be; so I can be a doer of the Word; so when God gives me a chance to witness to a lost soul, I am a surrendered vessel being used by Jesus so that lost soul does not see Jonathan, they see the light of Jesus, and that lost soul doesn’t hear Jonathan, they hear the Holy Spirit that lives in Jonathan, and because Jonathan has been obedient to the Holy Spirit and obedient to the Great Commission, Jesus was able to use Jonathan to help someone find what helped Jonathan change his life so drastically.

So I say all that to make a point that before we, as a Christian, can obey the duty and command of Jesus known as the Great Commission. We first must follow what Jesus says here in verse 20. He says in 19, go making disciples and baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Verse 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. So we must become a disciple and then learn and observe everything Jesus commanded us.

So first we must become a disciple. The word Disciple means follower of, student of, which is pretty broad, so I looked up qualities or characteristics of discipleship. The very first thing it said was sharing the good news or gospel to nonbelievers, teaching, loving God, loving others, standing out, denying ourselves, being firm in God’s Word, fellowship with other believers, imitators of Crist, dedicated, steadfast, investing in missions.

So roughly half of the qualities or character traits listed had to do with others and sharing Jesus with them, but the other half were about having yourself right. So in order to live the life Christ calls us to live, we have to learn and observe everything Jesus commanded us. So how do we learn everything Jesus commanded us? We study the Word of God! Y’all thought you were going to hear me preach without talking about studying the Bible…huh? You thought wrong because it comes up in just about every topic that pertains to the life of a Christian.

So let’s look at the commands Jesus is referring to. I’m going into this because we have to become a disciple and learn how to live like Jesus in order to do what He has given us the authority to do. So Jesus told us the greatest commands were to #1 to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all your soul and with all your mind; and #2 love your neighbor as yourself!

The key word is ALL; love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, with ALL your mind and ALL your strength. Does it matter how strong you are? No! It matters that you put ALL of the strength you do have into loving Him.

Does it matter how smart you are to the Lord? No! What matters is that you love God with ALL the smarts you have and are capable of using your smarts to love Him.

There’s so many people out there that have an abundance of talent in various different things and could be a pro football player or baseball player, but they don’t use what they have, and they waste their talents.

But there is also the people who don’t have a tenth as much talent as others, but have the ability to give their ALL and they accomplish 10X more than the person who had way more talent simply because they gave it their ALL and that’s what Jesus is talking about here.

Love Me with ALL you have and I’ll take your minimal ability and magnify it times 100. When we love God with our ALL, we are accomplishing so much more than we really can comprehend.

See, when we love God with everything we’ve got, we’re also surrendering and by surrendering, we’re aligning ourself with God’s will for life, and by aligning ourself with God’s will for our life, we’re carrying out our divine purpose on earth and that means we are being used by God the way He sees fit.

If you can follow this first and most important command, you will automatically carry out the second command because when you love God you love people and you have a burden for people to know the God you love so much.

When you love God with your ALL, you find your identity in Christ and your worth thus enabling you to function as the son or daughter of God that you truly are and you are set free from the lies and deception of this world and the evil one!

See loving God with everything you have is so important because it has all these different effects on our lives. When you obey that first command, it is what enables you to uphold the second command, because see when you love God with ALL you have you begin to get a speck of understanding of how much God loves us and He gives us the ability to care about our neighbors.

See the church is the people and we are all commissioned to show God’s love to others by #1 helping them experience that love for themselves by salvation.

The very fact that we have 64% of churches not having one person saved says to me that we have a bunch of people playing church, playing Christian, because if they truly loved God, they would love their neighbor; if they truly loved God, they would have a burden for lost souls.

If they truly loved God, they would live in a way that made lost sinners want what they have. We can’t say that we truly love God if we don’t have an ounce of burden or love for the eternal salvation of our neighbor, who by the way is anyone we come in contact with.

That’s why Jesus made this one, the most important commandment, because unless you uphold the first one you can’t uphold the second! But when you uphold the first one, everything else in your life begins to fall into place.

There are 5 points that help us keep the first commandment Jesus gave us and there are 5 points that will help us keep the 2nd most important commandment.

In 2nd Timothy, the Apostle Paul gives a very vivid example of how important He and the early church took the spread of the gospel.

2 Timothy 2:9–10 CSB

for which I suffer to the point of being bound like a criminal. But the word of God is not bound. This is why I endure all things for the elect: so that they also may obtain salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

In 2nd Timothy, Chapter 2, verses 9 & 10, Paul says “According to my gospel for which I suffer to the point of being bound like a criminal. But the Word of God is not bound. This is why I endure all things for the elect so that they also may obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

Paul’s willing to be bound by chains like a common criminal so he can help his neighbor be exposed to the gospel and receive eternal life! We’ve gotten so comfortable and lukewarm that we are afraid of a little rejection or being uncomfortable for a few seconds in front of someone we’ll never see again. The Christians in Paul’s day, and also Paul himself, were literally willing to be locked up, tortured, and killed to help their neighbor get saved!

Matthew 22:34–40 CSB

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: 36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

3 7 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.[l] 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.[n] 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

So Jesus simplifies the entire law into two commandments. These two commandments have 5 points each to help us fulfill them. The first commandment is LOVE GOD WITH EVERYTHING.

1. Have No Other Gods

2. No Idols

3. Don’t Take The Lord’s Name In Vain

4. Remember The Sabbath

5. Honor Father & Mother – this one goes on both because God is our Father.

#2

6. Love Your Neighbor

7. Honor Mother & Father

8. Don’t Murder

9. Don’t Commit Adultery

10. Don’t Steal

11. Don’t Lie

12. Don’t Covet

So by keeping the 2, you’re keeping the 10. I’ve started with what Jesus says we must do to become a disciple, because we all start here. We have to love God with everything…we have to get the burden in us that God inserts to love others…and then we have to put the burden to work.