Great Commission or Omission?
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Great Commission or Omission?
Matthew 28:18-20
Before Jesus ascended back to heaven, He gave what has come to be called The Great Commission. And in case you don’t know, a “commission” is “an instruction, command, or duty given to a person or group of people.”
When Jesus spoke to His disciples, and to us as well, He was giving the church her marching orders. He was telling us exactly what He expected us to do in His physical absence.
The disciples, they took the Lord’s command seriously. They went into the world and shared the Gospel and thousands upon thousands were saved by the grace of God. Their message was so powerful and their witness so effective that their critics accused them of turning the world upside down in Acts 17:6.
That was then, and this is now!
What was given as The Great Commission has turned into what some have labeled The Great Omission. When something is “omitted” it’s “left out, undone, neglected”.
Instead of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the modern church won’t even take the Gospel to the end of the street.
Most Christians have never shared the gospel with someone
We’re satisfied to be saved, but we’re not motivated to see others come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Somehow, we have come to believe that the end of our responsibility is to come to church once or twice a week, pray when we can, read the Bible every now and then, and live a life that’s slightly cleaner than the world around us.
We’ve forgotten the truth that Christianity is an active faith.
Our calling is not to endure to the end or to sit by and watch while the world drops off into Hell. Our calling is to go into the world and tell them the good news of a crucified and risen Savior Who specializes in saving souls and in changing lives.
While the church in America has wrapped itself with complacency and apathy, filled with a sense of self-satisfaction and comfort, the world around us has continued headfirst towards destruction.
21 years ago, 70% of American adults belonged to a house of worship. Now, that includes churches, synagogues and mosques. The statistic recently released for 2020 show that it has now dropped to 47%. That’s less than have the adults in America have any kind of faith. Unfortunately, it didn’t break it down by religion, but that is not good news.
So, in spite of the conditions around us; in spite of the difficulties and dangers; in spite of every excuse we give, The Great Commission still stands! God still expects His people to take His message to a lost world.
Has the Great Commission become the Great Omission in your life and mine? Are we doing everything we can to find ways to reach out to the world around us?
Let’s pray and then read our text.
Pray!
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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.”
The first thing we see is that we have:
A Mandate
A Mandate
The mandate of The Great Commission is to “Go.” This is a word of action! We can’t “go” if we are sitting still. We can’t “go” if we stay where we are. We can’t “go” if we don’t make a move.
It literally means “as you go.” As we pass through this world, we’re to take the Gospel message with us, sharing it with everyone we meet along the way.
There are two ways we can do this.
First, it involves our:
lifestyle
lifestyle
Just like salt, our lives should create a thirst in people for the Lord. Our joy, our peace, our differences from the world should cause them to want to know why we’re like we are. Our lives should be like a great big spotlight that points toward Jesus. If He is the focus of our lives, people will see Him lived out through our lives each day by day!
It involves our lifestyle and our:
lips
lips
We’re told to teach. That has the idea of “making disciples or to instruct.” We’re to live the right kind of life, but we’re also told to share our faith. We’re to tell a lost world what Jesus did for us when He saved us and what He can do for them, if they’ll trust Him as we did. It’s not enough to just show it, we need to say it!
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
We are meant to go through life and using our voice to proclaim the gospel!
The truth is that we are always proclaiming something.
Every moment we live we are proclaiming something through our actions and our words. We’re either pointing people to Jesus are we’re pointing them away from Him. We’re either saying “He is my Lord and Savior and you need to know Him too” or we’re saying “My relationship with Jesus really doesn’t make a difference in my life.”
Our job is to tell!
· If He just saved us to keep us out of Hell, then He would have taken us to Heaven as soon as He saved us.
· If He had just saved us to worship and praise Him, then He would have taken us straight home to glory.
He saved us so that we’d have a story to tell! He leaves us here so we can tell that story. He saved us to use us in this world to reach the lost!
How well are we carrying out this command?
While D. L. Moody was attending a convention in Indianapolis on mass evangelism, he asked his song leader Ira Sankey to meet him at 6 o’clock one evening at a certain street corner. When Sankey arrived, Mr. Moody asked him to stand on a box and sing.
Once a crowd had gathered, Moody spoke briefly and then invited the people to follow him to the nearby convention hall. Soon the auditorium was filled with spiritually hungry people, and the great evangelist preached the gospel to them.
Then the convention delegates began to arrive. Moody stopped preaching and said, “Now we must close, as the brethren of the convention wish to come and discuss the topic, ‘How to reach the masses.’”
Moody graphically illustrated the difference between talking about doing something and going out and doing it.
We have a mandate. We have:
A Message
A Message
Jesus tells His followers to share a specific message: “…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.…”
As we go and as we tell the world about Jesus, the message we’re to share is very clear. We’re to share the Gospel.
Jesus came into the world to make the Gospel a reality. He came to this world to die on a cross, rise from the dead and open the way for salvation.
He came to make a way for lost sinners to get to God. He achieved every purpose He had for coming into this world. He came to save us and to give us a message of salvation that we could share with lost souls.
Our message isn’t a message about our church or denomination. It’s not about the preacher, how we dress or out style of worship. All of those are important, but none of them can save the lost.
Our message is a simple message.
It’s a message of hope to hurting; of life to the dead; of peace to the tormented.
Our message is the gospel and “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”
It’s a message that every person in the world needs to hear. It’s a message that is universal in its application. It’s a message that has the potential to change every life.
Our message is this:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
Sharing the gospel is as easy as telling people what Jesus did for you and what He can do for them.
That’s it!
It’s the most powerful message the world has ever heard and it’s a message that must be delivered to a lost world. There is no other message that God will use to draw sinners to Himself and there is no other message He’ll use to save the lost!
We have a mandate, a message and:
A Mission
A Mission
Jesus tells us that we’re to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
He’s telling us that our mission is to every person in the world. And that our mission field is the entire world. He may call someone from leave this country and reach a certain people group. Of course, He may just ask us to give our money to support those He’s called to reach those in other parts of the world.
While He may never call you to go to a foreign country to tell the story of salvation, He expects you to tell it where you live. He expects us to reach out to all people without regard to their ethnic heritage, their race, their past, their lifestyle, or their economic standing.
If they’re sinners, they need to hear the message of the cross. If they’re lost, they need a Savior. If they don’t know Him, they need to and we’ve been commanded to reach them!
How are we doing reaching the world around us? Are we active in our Jerusalem? Are we fulfilling The Great Commission? Or, are we guilty of committing the great omission?
We have a mandate, a message, a mission and:
A Mentor
A Mentor
Jesus doesn’t send us in to this lost world without any resources. He doesn’t expect us to accomplish the Great Commission in our own power. We find two of our greatest resources in our passage.
We’re promised:
His Presence
His Presence
Jesus tells us, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
When you’re sharing the Gospel with that friend, that family member, even a total stranger, the Lord Himself is right there with you. He’ll help you; enable you; embolden you and use you if you’ll simply obey Him and share the Gospel.
He’ll help you say what you need to say when the opportunity presents itself.
When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Obviously, He’s talking about being arrested for your faith here. When that happens, He’ll give the words to say.
The same principle applies to our witness. When we witness, we’re on trial for our faith. He’ll give us the words we need when the time comes.
We’re promised His presence and:
His Power
His Power
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
When we’re faithful to share the gospel, we can be confident God will use His message for His glory. He’ll take our feeble words and give power to them. The Spirit of God will take our efforts and He will use the words we share to convict the hearts of the lost, John 16:7–8.
I’m not a powerful witness and I don’t have a stunning testimony, but if I’ll faithfully share what He has done for me and what He’s said in His Word, He’ll put His power on my weak message and draw sinners to Himself.
D. L. Moody made a covenant with God that he would witness for Christ to at least one person each day. One night, about ten o’clock, he realized that he had not yet witnessed; so, he went out in to the street and spoke to a man standing by a lamppost, asking him, “Are you a Christian?” The man flew into a violent rage and threatened to knock Moody into the gutter.
Later, that same man went to an elder in the church and complained that Moody was “doing more harm in Chicago than ten men were doing good.” The elder begged Moody to temper his zeal with knowledge.
Three months later, Moody was awakened at the YMCA by a man knocking at the door. It was the man he had witnessed to.
“I want to talk to you about my soul,” he said. He apologized for the way he’d treated Moody and said that he had had no peace ever since that night on Lake Street when Moody witnessed to him. Moody led the man to Christ and he became a passionate worker in Sunday school.
On a dangerous coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a little life-saving station. The building was primitive, and there was just one boat, but the members of the life-saving station were committed and kept a constant watch over the sea. When a ship went down, they went out day or night to save the lost. Because so many lives were saved by that station, it became famous.
So, many people wanted to be associated with the station to give their time, talent, and money to support its important work. New boats were bought, new crews were recruited, a formal training session was offered.
As the membership in the life-saving station grew, some of the members became unhappy that the building was so primitive and that the equipment so outdated. They wanted a better place to welcome the survivors they pulled from the sea. So, they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged and newly decorated building.
Now, the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members. They met regularly and when they did, it was apparent how they loved one another. They greeted each other, hugged each other, and shared with one another the events that had been going on in their lives.
But fewer members were interested in going to sea on life-saving missions; so, they hired lifeboat crews to do this for them.
About this time, a large ship was wrecked off of the coast, and the hired crews brought into the life-saving station boatloads of cold, wet, dirty, sick, and half-drowned people. Some of them had black skin, and some had yellow skin. Some could speak English well, and some could hardly speak it at all. Some were first-class cabin passengers of the ship, and some were the deck hands.
Their beautiful meeting place became a place of chaos. The plush carpets got dirty. Some of the furniture got scratched. So, the property committee immediately had a shower built outside the house where the victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting there was rift in the membership.
Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities because they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal fellowship of the members. Other members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station.
But they were voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all those various kinds of people who would be shipwrecked, they could start their own life-saving station down the coast.
And do you know what? That is what they did.
As the years passed, the new station experienced the same changes that had happened in the old.
It evolved into a place to meet regularly for fellowship, for committee meetings, and for special training sessions about their mission, but few went out to the drowning people. The drowning people were no longer welcomed in that new life-saving station.
So, another life-saving station was founded further down the coast. History continued to repeat itself. And if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of adequate meeting places with ample parking and plush carpeting. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.
That’s the condition of the modern church.
I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but here are the facts.
· We’ve become more concerned about buildings than about people.
· We’re more interested in having our meetings than fulfilling our mission.
· We’re more interested in our personal comfort than we are about who’s drowning in the sea of sin just beyond our walls.
· We’re more concerned about the color of a someone’s skin than we are the condition of their soul.
We want to see people come into the church, as long as they’re the right kind of people.
I’m afraid The Great Commission has become The Great Omission in many of our lives.
That can change and it must! It will change only when we come to Him and ask Him to change our own hearts!