The Great Commissions
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I thought I’d share with you a mission I just recently accomplished, actually this week. I can’t tell you how consumed I was by this, to the exclusion of my husband, my children, my friends, the maintenance of my home. It’s been weeks on this mission! And this may sound terrible but it was worth it. I spent hours on research and development, I spent time in the field so I could become intimately familiar with the local environment, and it all culminated to Wednesday evening. When I finished the mission, when I put that last coat of blue paint on my basement wall, I knew I’d accomplished what I’d set out to do. I found the perfect blue. It was agonizing to wait for the paint to dry so I could give the wall a hug, but when I did, it was like the fulfillment of a dream, the culmination of a life’s work.
This week I want to talk more about the most important mission of all. Yes, even more important than paint colors. Two weeks ago we talked about God’s mission to bless a people so they would bless all the peoples. Last week we spent time on the purpose of this mission. The Story of His Glory. Today, we turn to the New Testament and look at this same mission, given to us by Jesus, in five Great Commissions.
I’m sure most of you are familiar with this first Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20
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.”
Now this verse alone seems pretty darn clear. Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples of all the nations. Are we disciples of Jesus? Then GO! But the command is not just to go about your life, do your thing, and if the opportunity presents itself drop in Jesus’ name and see what happens. This isn’t something that will happen organically for most of us. Rather it is something that needs to be practiced with discipline until it becomes the very essence of who we are. We need to have a complete change in thinking. Instead of talking to our co-workers about Jesus when we go to work, how about we go to work so we can talk to our co-workers about Jesus. One is incidental. The other is intentional and drives what we do. Do you see the difference? It seems kind of extreme doesn’t it? What if my reason for everything I do is so I can tell people about Jesus? I do the dishes so the next time I eat I have a clean plate because if I eat from a dirty plate I might get sick with food poisoning and if I’m busy vomiting then I’m not busy going and making disciples! It sounds ridiculous!
And there’s more, we can’t leave it at “Go and make disciples.” There’s a second half to that sentence… “of all the nations.” Now this is where we, and I mean we because I have done this and I’m assuming/hoping you have done this too or I’m just going to look like a terrible person; this is where we start making excuses. I’m going to worry about my nation, others can worry about their nation. I don’t need to literally go to all the nations. When Jesus says all the nations it’s more like an over exaggeration to get the point across that He wants us to be intentional about going and making disciples of the people around us.
Hmmm, maybe that could have been true, except this scripture in Matthew isn’t the only place in Scripture Jesus uses this language. Remember this is a sermon about the Great Commissionssss. So let’s take a look at Mark 16 verses 15 and 16.
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
This is even more expansive. We’re not just talking about the nations, we’re talking about all creation! Jesus says again in Luke:
and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
And now turn to Acts. It’s more of a promise than a command.
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.”
These Great Commissions in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts could very well be four accounts of the same event, or could be four different occasions where Jesus used these words. Whether it was the same event and the hearers interpreted it differently or totally different events the language and interpretation is pretty clear and when taken all together I don’t think we can make the argument that Jesus meant something other than what he said. So in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts we have some pretty compelling language:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” -Matthew 28:19a
“… Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all creation.” - Mark 16:15
“…proclaimed in His name to all nations...” - Luke 24:47
“…witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” - Acts 1:8
In these 4 great commissions there is no denying that Jesus has in mind more than just the Israelites. He’s thinking global. He is in fact continuing the mission of the Father as we saw in the Old Testament. Remember what we talked about in week 1? God chose a people whom He would bless, so that they would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Now Jesus is commissioning His disciples to do the same thing. To bless all the nations by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the nations.
That sounds pretty daunting doesn’t it? It would be much easier to sit on the sidelines and just wait for Jesus to come again. But here’s the problem. Jesus will not come again until this mission has been accomplished. I’m not claiming to know the day and hour, no one does except the father, But here’s what I do know. Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
You see it’s not going to happen until the gospel is proclaimed to all the nations. And guess who’s supposed to do the proclaiming? You and I! Now we could ignore this and leave the work to others. It’s not like we aren’t doing anything worthwhile, we’re just busy doing other things. But folks, I’m standing here before you for this very reason. I truly believe based on these Scriptures that we are called to be a people that have the end in sight, to be on mission until it is accomplished.
Peter tells us in his second letter what our mindset as Christians should be. Its not a defeated attitude, “what can little ole me do?” It’s not fatalistic. “The world is too far gone I’m just trying to ride it out to the end.” Listen to Peter’s words in 2 Peter 3:11-12
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
Okay so all this dissolving, setting on fire, melting and burning business is the way Peter describes the end of days, which is creepy and also not what I want to focus on. We’re looking at what sort of people we ought to be. We ought to be people who wait for Jesus to come again, and people who hasten His coming.
This word hasten is the Greek verb, speudo, which I prefer to pronoun speedo, and it literally means to do quickly, to hurry. Rarely it can mean to eagerly anticipate, but in most occurences it is translated as hasten. And this word hasten, it almost sounds like our actions, or lack thereof, actually effect the timing of when our Lord comes again.
Now I know I just made some of you feel uncomfortable or maybe even angry, just bear with me. Like I said only God knows the day and hour because only He is sovereign. And I don’t believe there is anything you or I can do to somehow manipulate Him or the timing of all this. So this idea of us hastening alongside God’s all-knowingness is just too complicated for my puny mind to understand. However, I did read several commentaries on this and their not as puny minds put it into words better than I could so I’m going to use this quote by Michael Green from the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries:
2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary g. The Ethical Implications of the Second Coming (3:11–14)
the timing of the advent is to some extent dependent upon the state of the church and of society. What a wonderfully positive conception of the significance of our time on earth. It is no barren waiting for Finis to be written. It is intended to be a time of active co-operation with God in the redemption of society. Our era between the advents is the age of grace, the age of the Spirit, the age of evangelism.
Wow! Listen church, what we do or don’t do matters. And I’m not talking about how it matters to me and my own life and my own little world and can I say I’m a “good” person. It matters on a much larger scale! We, somehow, can actually hasten the day Jesus comes again! Can I get a show of hands, who here is looking forward to the day Jesus comes. The day Satan is utterly destroyed, not just defeated but completely destroyed. The day when all things are made new. All brokenness is gone. Complete restoration. We can hasten that day by working in cooperation with God on His mission. Now, Pastor Dusty is the one who pointed out that this might be a controversial topic and so if any of you would like to discuss this in more detail I’d be happy to point you to him, and he would be happy to discuss all of this with you. He’s another one who’s mind isn’t quite as puny as mine.
So my question for us is: How desperately do we want that day? I think for most of us, not desperately enough. We’ve filled up our time with other things, some of which are bad, many of which are good, and maybe none of which are pointed toward accomplishing God’s mission. Once again I hope I’m not offending any of you because I’m absolutely 100% including myself in this. My life is good. I’ve got a great family, comfortable routine, I do good things to serve others, and I’m so busy that in the comfort of my own home and all my blessings to surround and comfort me and a place where I am queen of my own little kingdom, I honestly don’t have a desperation for Jesus to come again. At least, I don’t feel desperate enough to do much to hasten His coming.
I’ll be honest, I spent a good many days trying to figure out what to say next as I was writing this sermon. I don’t want to make anyone feel bad. And I don’t want to get backs up by implying that all the good things you do to serve others and bring glory to God don’t matter. That they aren’t important because they aren’t what I say you should be doing. But I also don’t want to skirt around topics just because they are potentially guilt-inducing or pride-inducing.
This is what I finally settled on, after days of thought. Your feelings, whether desperate for the day Jesus comes or ambivalent, whether you’re excited to go to the nations, scared, intimidated, dreading it, whatever. Guess what? Your feelings don’t matter. Because here’s the deal: you remember Brandon’s sermon from last week? What did he say over and over again? God gets the glory. It doesn’t matter if my heart is hardened and rebellious like Pharoah’s was, or if I act in obedience like the Israelite slave girl in the story of Naaman, God is going to get the glory regardless. And this business of going to the nations, it’s not a matter of do I feel like it. It’s a matter of obedience to God’s Word and command to take part in His mission. He is going to get the glory no matter what I do, its my choice, it’s your choice, to work in cooperation with Him or against Him. And in case anyone is wondering, doing nothing is working against Him and that just really seems like the wrong side to be on. You may not be convinced by my words, which is great. Don’t be! Don’t be convinced by Brandon or Pastor Dusty either. Be convinced by searching God’s Word for yourself. By praying that God would reveal His heart to you and the part He wants you to play in the story of His glory.
And here’s what I suspect. And I really do mean suspect because I don’t have this figured out. I’m still working out my selfishness and pride in the light of His greater calling, but here’s what I suspect. The more we seek God in His Word, the more we pray and listen for Him to speak, the more we align our thinking and desires to His heart, the more we submit ourselves to His kingdom authority, the more He in turn changes our hearts to love what He loves, hate what He hates, desire what He desires, until we are desperate for that day when Jesus comes again. But while He is working that change in us with the power of the Holy Spirit, we still can choose to obey, even when the feelings aren’t there.
Jesus says in Matthew 24 that the end will come when the gospel of the Kingdom has been preached to all nations. And the Great Commissions we talked about tell us that we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, are called to be the ones to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ to all the nations. So… we have work to do. And it seems overwhelming and the outlook is bleak, but listen up. It’s not. There are some really smart Christians out there, which isn’t to say there aren’t any smart Christians in here, but there are Christians who have looked at this analytically, strategically, almost scientifically and have come up with a pretty darn clear picture of the task remaining.
The Task Remaining
The Task Remaining
And those Christians that have missions knowledge and experience have come up with some pretty darn good methods of how to accomplish that task. Now we can’t spend this time going over the wealth of experience and knowledge that is out there. But I wanted to introduce a few key words to help us think about this in a way that is not overwhelming and nebulous. We need to start thinking practically not just hypothetically.
Here’s what it comes down to. There is a 10-40 window. This is a geographical area between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the equator. This area, very, and I mean very, generally, represents the area of the world that has the greatest poverty, the lowest quality of life, the least access to Christian resources and the least access, for us, to the non-Christian communities living there. Note the distinction, it’s not necessarily the least amount of Christians, percentage wise, it’s the least amount of access for Christians to reach non-Christians. As in these are areas that are either remote and too difficult for people to get to practically, or areas that are hostile to Christians. It’s the general area where the most unreached people groups reside.
So here’s another term: unreached people groups.
Unreached People Group
Unreached People Group
This definition is from a website called the Joshua Project: An unreached people group is
A people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance.
The Joshua Project
A people group, whether reached or unreached, is basically what scholars think is the best way to define the word families, when God tells Abraham that all the families of the earth will be blessed through Him. This is also the word we think of when God says to go to all the nations. We’re not talking about how national boundaries are artificially defined today. These are groups of people that are uniquely defined by geography, culture, language, traditions, politics, etc. so that any outreach done toward even a neighboring people group would NOT reach them.
An unreached people group is just what it sounds like. They have not had the gospel shared with them. Can you image a place on earth where no one has ever heard the name of Jesus. There are no Bibles. No Chosen tv show. They have zero knowledge. Listen I get that this is super uncomfortable and it’s not my intention to lay guilt but here’s the truth. Without the saving power of Jesus, these unreached people groups are not saved, and they have no idea. But we do. If you think that’s heart breaking then image how God’s heart hurts.
I encourage you to take a look at this website called the Joshua Project. Remember how I told you there are some really smart Christians out there? Check this out!
Globally there are over 17,000 people groups, and just under 7,400 are unreached. This is what’s hard, take India for example. You might say, even though there aren’t a lot of Christians in India there are still some and so the nation is a reached people group. But in India alone there are almost 3,000 people groups and all but 200 are unreached, and by the definition of people group, they are each unique and each of the remaining 2,800 unreached people groups requires it’s own outreach effort. Listen, there are unreached people groups here in the U.S.
This is a lot to take in but it’s exactly what it says. The mission of the Joshua Project is “Bringing definition to the unfinished task.” You may look at this and think Holy Cow! What can I even do! The answer is “Honestly I don’t know!” But he has commanded us to go to the nations so we’ve got to do something!
I want to end with the last Great Commission, and maybe even more that the other four we went through, this one can help guide our next steps. In John 20:21 Jesus says to His disciples, John 20:21
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
This commission speaks more to the way in which the disciples are sent, not just the purpose for which they are sent. I think we get the purpose, right? God has blessed us to bless the nations by proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ to all the nations. His ultimate purpose is the vision John sees in Revelation, to receive worship and be glorified by every tribe, peoples, and language on earth. Now the question is, how? How do we go about accomplishing this? The verse says as the Father sent Jesus. That’s how Jesus is sending us. So if we look through scripture here is what we find:
Jesus was sent not to do his own will but the will of the Father who sent Him (Matt 26:42; John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 8:28; 17:4)
Jesus looked for what the Father was doing, then He did it (John 5:17, 19)
Jesus bore witness to the Father and the Father worked though Him (John 14:10)
Jesus’ words were spoken not on His own authority, but rather the Father working in Him (John 4:10-11)
Jesus’ actions were based on what the Father revealed to Him (John 17:6-8)
This may sound like what we’re supposed to do is learn all we can about Jesus from the Bible and then imitate his behavior. That’s not bad. But it’s not enough. Jesus emphasized His ever present, ongoing communication with the Father. It’s not a matter of imitation, it’s about the commingling of His life with ours. It’s about deepening our relationship with Jesus. It’s actively listening for His words, the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It’s praying and seeking His will. And then it’s doing it.
A “Sent” Life
A “Sent” Life
Jesus lived a “sent” life. This was part of His identity. He is the sent one. He lived a life of purpose, to do the will of the Father who sent Him. Do you think He ever had mundane tasks to do: put on His sandals, wash His clothes, fix His dinner? Of course! He was human too. But do you think He ever lost His sense of “sent-ness?” Of being sent? Of His purpose through it all?” No way.
What about us? We know the mission, to go into all the nations. We know the ultimate purpose, so that there will be a people from every tribe, nation and language to worship Him. And we know that in the same way Jesus was sent, He is sending us on this mission, for this purpose. The question for each of us is then: Am I living a “sent” life? Listen, I know most of you. I know some of you intimately. I love you guys. You are good people. I know this. I know many of you sacrifice hours, blood, sweat and tears, you sacrifice time away from your families, you sacrifice “me” time all to do wonderful things not for yourself, but for others and for God. What I’m asking is, in all these ways, in all these things, do we still have the ultimately goal in mind? Are we still on mission?
Can I have the worship team come forward?
Do we live lives such that even when we’re doing the dishes it’s all for the purpose of doing the will of God? It’s kind of ridiculous sounding isn’t it? I’m standing here telling you even the most mundane tasks can be accomplished with the purpose of doing the will of the One who sent us. And yet I can’t escape the conclusion that that is how we’re supposed to live! So I’m going to leave it here. A completely unsatisfying conclusion to this sermon. No guidance for how to practically accomplish the seemingly impractical and ridiculous. Because I want you to sit in this for this week. I want you to think about it while you’re doing the laundry, doing your math homework, running endless errands, filling out meaningless paperwork, watching tv. You may be satisfied with the way things are. To work for the purpose of living comfortably enough. To buy more stuff to be more happy. To eat healthier and exercise to have a better quality of life. To do and say the right things so more people like you and think your life is awesome.
I’m not saying this stuff to make you feel guilty, this is from my own life, and I’m telling you I’m getting tired of it. I’m not satisfied with the way things are. I’m getting desperate for more. To live a life that’s not for myself but for the One who sent me aligned with the One who sent me. To participate in His mission to go to the nations and to figure out what exactly that looks like with all of you. I’ll tell you right now, I don’t think that means everyone here needs to be planning their next missions trip to somewhere in the 10-40 window. I do think that means everyone here needs to be thinking about how their lives can be used to accomplish the mission. It may be a complete overhaul of priorities. It maybe a subtle change of mindset. What does it look like for you to live a sent life. Next week Brandon is going to give us some practical insights on how to go about this business and I want you to come ready.
So we’re going to take a minute right now. And please, think about this, pray about this as you go through your week. You know the mission. You know the purpose. Living it out, whatever it looks like, will be uncomfortable, will require a life of sacrifice to the One who sent us. Will require some hard work on our part to live not for ourselves, but for the Glory of Jesus Christ. And if you’re with me, we’re going to sing this song, as Pastor Dusty says, aspirationally. We’re going to sing these lyrics with a desperation to truly and faithfully mean it and to live it out. So we can say, The only thing I want in life is to be known for loving Christ. To build His church to love His bride, and make His name known far and wide. Amen
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