The Great Omission

Introduction

Have you ever gotten into your car and started driving to a destination with no directions? How many of you would get in your vehicle and just drive? With the gas prices the way they are, most people would most likely say no. Why?

If you’re going to go, you’re going to need a destination, and more so, you need instructions on how to get there.

Have you ever considered that as Christians, many of us are like cars that are going, but are not sure where we’re going and how to get there? And then we ask people to get in the car with us? It’s silly. No one is going to get in that car with us.

Likewise, this is how we look at the Great Commission.

Body

The focus of the text is often the “go.” So many sermons have focused on this word because it’s an action verb. It’s also an action that follows Jesus saying that he had been given authority on heaven and earth. Naturally, we would assume that it’s a command. If we stayed on the surface then that would certainly be the cause.

While we are to share the Gospel with all the people of the world, the focus in the Great Commission is misplaced - to the unfortunate detriment of the church.

In Greek, the original written language of the New Testament, verbs come in three main categories or voices: active, middle, and passive. The active voice is the subject doing the action. The middle voice is the subject being the agent of the action and also receiving the action. The passive voice means that the action is done to the subject.

In this case, “go,” is in the passive voice, and it’s a participle (a verb acting like a noun or adjective). While “go” certainly is a proper translation, a better way to translate would be “having been sent.” Why does this matter you may ask?

We’re told to go to the world, and while that is certainly not wrong, it leaves us with the impression that every single one of us needs to book a one way ticket to one corner of the earth and share the Gospel. There are some of you that God has placed a clear call to go serve in foreign fields. But what if you’re not? Does that make you less faithful?

Everyone whom God calls is sent. We don’t need to be guilted or coerced. The Apostle Paul put it rightly in his second letter to the Corinthians in which he says that love compels. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

As the disciples are made to go, they are told to make disciples of all nations. What does it mean to make disciples? Word that we translate disciples from is layered with meaning.

Disciple was a term that the first century hearers were very familiar with. It described someone that devoted oneself to a particular teacher, or rabbi.

Rabbis were certain men that distinguished themselves by their earnest desire to study the Torah. They would be honored by being addressed as, “master.” For the most part, these teachers did not come from wealthy or priestly classes, but from ordinary people. They could be blacksmiths, tailors, farmers, tanners, shoemakers, and of course, carpenters. Many of them worked seasonally, traveling and teaching in the months they were free. They would interpret the Torah, explain the Scriptures, and told parables while traveling from village to village, teaching in Synagogues.

Young men would often follow these Rabbis for a time, to learn from them. It’s said that they would walk so closely behind the Rabbis that they would catch the dust from their sandals. But their purpose in learning, was not to acquire knowledge and parrot it back, unquestioningly repeating whatever they learned. Instead of a sponge, disciples were to be a sieve, someone who sifts through the teaching to retain what is best. Disciples were to exercise wisdom and discernment, continually asking questions, weighing answers, seeking understanding, and grounding out their beliefs within the context of God’s word.

More so, the mission of the rabbi was to become a living example of what it means to apply God’s word to one’s life. A disciple apprenticed himself to a rabbi because the rabbi saturated his life with Scripture and had become a true follower of God. The disciple sought to study the text, not only of Scripture, but of the rabbi’s life, for it was there that he would learn how to live out the Torah. Even more than acquiring his master’s knowledge, he wanted to acquire his master’s character, his internal grasp of God’s law.

Imagine handing an instruction sheet to a five-year-old who wants to learn to ride a bike. It would be far better to begin by showing t he child how to ride and then putting on training wheels. Then, once she’s ready for the wheels to come off, she will need someone to run alongside her as she makes that first thrilling attempt. That’s what rabbi-disciple relationship was all about.

So often we focus on Jesus’ mission on the cross to save us from our sins. As marvelous as that is, it’s critical for us to grasp the importance of his mission on earth as a rabbi. His goal was to raise up disciples, who would become like him. As followers of Jesus, we are still called to live out the adventure of discipleship, becoming like Jesus through the power of his Spirit at work within us.

In short, it’s the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them. It not only involves the process of becoming a disciple but of making other disciples.

The two mistakes that we’ve made in modern-day discipleship is (1) we think that knowledge alone without example is enough to make a disciple and (2) we think too little of ourselves to make disciples.

It is because of our fundamental lack of discipleship that we’ve committed a great omission. Baptism are beautiful - but not if the newborn in the faith are not discipled. We can raise our kids in Sabbath school, send them to Adventist schools with some of the best religion teachers in the world, but they still graduate and leave. Why? They’re not discipled.

The Great Commission is not just for the privileged few, but for all who are called by His name. It’s not just found in the missionaries overseas, but in the goings of life. People want to see the Word of God make a difference, not just in the cognitive, but in your own lives. Are you becoming more and more like this Jesus that you claim to follow?

And just in case you still doubt, like some of Jesus’ first disciples, remember that Jesus is going to be with you. In the good times and the bad times. In the ups and downs. In the triumphs and the falls. Have you ever considered what people need to see is not the polished and the perfect, but the perfecting love of God?

Appeal / Call to Action

It is time for us to recover the biblical way of discipleship. Perhaps it’s time for us to make a disciple-shift. But how do we do that?

Pray and commit to studying and applying the Word of God to your own lives.

Pray and commit to being discipled - find someone whose life reflects Christ and walk with them - learn from them, do life with them, ask questions, and grow with them

Pray and commit to discipling someone - you cannot be a disciple if you are not discipling someone

Is there someone here today that is willing to commit to these three things?