THE GREAT COMMISSION

THE GREAT COMMISSION

Shelby Floyd

August, 2009

It is the whole duty of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world. What we mean by that is we must take the gospel to every city and every town in every nation throughout the world. Not only must we take the gospel to every city and every town in every nation in the whole world, but also we must take the gospel to every street in every city and town in every nation in the world. Furthermore, we must take the gospel to every house, every condominium, every apartment, on every street in every city and town in every nation in the whole world. Even being more specific, we must take the gospel to every person in every house on every street in every city and town in every nation throughout the whole world.

Why Is The Commission Great?

What is great about the great commission? The great commission is not called “great” in the Bible, but I think that is a very appropriate adjective to describe what is contained in that statement. In fact, it is not even called the commission. It is from the last interview that Jesus had with His apostles before He went back to be seated on the right hand of His Father in heaven. What is so great about the great commission? Well, there are several things that make it great. It has a great author—Jesus Christ. It has a great scope—it’s universal; we are to go into the entire world. It has a great message; it’s the glad tidings of salvation. It is a great work. God has condescended to allow us to be a part of the work of taking that good news of salvation to every creature on the face of the whole earth. It has great authority—great power. It has great promises—forgiveness of sins; the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit and of eternal life. There was and are great results. The church started with great results and those results are still great in that they have spread throughout the whole earth. It had a great beginning. The Day of Pentecost, Acts 2, is the record of the beginning of the great commission being executed as Jesus had proclaimed. It demands great priority; it demands that we make that the first thing in our life. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all of His righteousness and these things will be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

We can’t talk about all of those eight or nine aspects of the greatness of the great commission. I have picked out just three. The first is the great claim of Jesus Christ when He said, “I have all authority in heaven and on earth.” The second is the great message; the great charge; the great commission--“Go ye unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16). And then, finally, the great promise. Jesus said in the testimony of Matthew Levi, “Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”(Matthew 28:20.)

Do We Need A Special Class To Explain The Bible?

Now the Bible, I believe, is a book that can be read, interpreted, understood, and obeyed by all of us. I want to strike at the popular prejudice in our world today that there must be a special order of clergy, special order of people, to interpret the book, preach the book, and explain the book. That is not the case! The Bible is written in human language. The words that are in the Bible were used even before the Bible was written. The words like baptism, church, faith, hope, love, and regeneration, were in use long before the Bible was written. Those were words that were used in common every day conversations just like we use them today. Now when God gave us the Bible, He didn’t come along and give us a new vocabulary, a vocabulary that had never been used on the earth. If He had, then maybe I would be more prone to go along with the idea that we need a special class of individuals to preach, to explain, and to proclaim the great commission. But He didn’t do that. The Bible is written in common ordinary words that were in use many, many years before these communications were made to man. Therefore, they are used in the ordinary interpretation or common understanding in which those words were used in the long ago. But now, the popular prejudice today is that you really need three revelations before you can understand God’s word. They say first that you must have the Bible. God gave us the Bible, so there’s the first revelation. They say that the Bible is dark and mysterious; it’s got a cloud over it; it’s got a veil over it and nobody can understand it unless, number two (this is the second revelation that has to come along), the Holy Spirit has to come down and in a physical act upon our minds and our hearts give us proper illumination and then we can understand the Bible. The third revelation is that there has to be some priest or the clergy or the preachers, a special class of people, and then they can read it, understand and only they can explain it to the people.

Right along with that is the false idea that grew out of the dark ages, the period from about 600 A.D. until the times of the reformation and that idea was that the head of the church is the Pope of Rome, the papacy, and only he has the right to interpret the meaning of the Bible. The idea is that he is the successor of the apostles of Jesus Christ and, more specifically, one apostle, and that’s Peter. Now that’s not right. The apostles have no successors today. When the President goes out of office, and we’ve had a lot of them, every one of the Presidents has been a successor to George Washington. But what are they called? Are they called something different than the President? No, they are still Presidents. Every senator and congressman that goes out of office and somebody succeeds them; they are called senator and congressman. Every mayor in Indianapolis that is elected and succeeds the preceding mayor is still called mayor. Every judge that has a successor is still called a judge. Therefore, if the apostles had successors today or even one successor he would still be called what? An apostle! We don’t have any apostles today and the reason being there was only one successor to an apostle and that’s found in Luke’s communications in the book of Acts of apostles. Judas was an apostle. The Lord selected him. He fell by way of transgression and the Bible says he has gone to his own place. He was a traitor and all traitors will go to their own place. He went to his own place and on the days preceding the Day of Pentecost when the one hundred twenty disciples were gathered together, Peter stood up and he said that it was necessary that one be chosen to take the place of Judas who fell by way of transgression and then he listed the qualifications. It had to be a person who had been with Jesus from the time of his baptism until his resurrection. It had to be someone who had witnessed his miracles and the words that He had taught to the people. They picked out two people, Justus and Matthias. These two had been individuals who qualified and they chose Matthias and the very last word of Acts one says that Matthias was numbered with the eleven apostles. So he was the only successor that I have ever read in the Bible of any apostle. We have no successors today, notwithstanding the claim of the Pope of Rome that he is the successor to the apostle Peter. Its nonsense and I challenge anybody to try and prove otherwise. There are no successors today because no one today has been a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nobody living today was contemporary with Jesus from His baptism until the time that He was taken up into heaven; therefore, they do not qualify to be an apostle.

Four Accounts of the Great Commission

Since we have no apostles today, the great commission is still valid because it was the commission that was given to the twelve apostles that we read of in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and Acts of the apostles. Actually, the great commission is uttered in all four of the accounts of the life of Christ. Matthew has given us his account. When Jesus came unto the apostles He said, “All authority has been given unto me in heaven and in earth, go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:18-20). Now that’s Matthew’s testimony concerning what Jesus said in His last interview.

Mark makes it briefer, more succinct, more simple. “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16). Luke, in his account, said, “Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and remission of sin shall be preached among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.” Then he said, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued, or clothed, with power on high” (Luke. 24:46-48). He promised the Holy Spirit to them.

In John’s account, John is more general in his account of the great commission, “On the evening of that first day of the week when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’. After He had said this He showed them His hands and the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you. As my Father has sent me, I am sending you’, and with that He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive any one of his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven”’ (John 20:19-23). The idea there is whatever conditions of salvation the apostles would announce, people would be forgiven on those conditions. Whatever conditions they did not stipulate, people could not be forgiven. All right, so we have announced the great commission in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

We have pointed out that the popular prejudice today that nobody can understand the scriptures and the Catholic Church says that when the Pope is setting in his chair, ex cathedra, out of the chair, he is the only one that can legitimately make law. That’s a false proposition and there’s not a word of truth in it and I’ll tell it to the whole world. But the denominational idea is just as false. I don’t have any use for the idea that it takes a special class of people to understand the Bible. The denominational idea is just as false. It is that you have to have three revelations—the Bible, the Holy Spirit has to come down in some physical act and illuminate our hearts and our minds before we can understand this book, and then there has to be a special order of clergy—pastors, preachers or anybody else they can come up with—before you can understand that Bible. They are all false. You can understand the Bible if you can understand the English language. The Bible is written in our language and we can understand it if we can understand plain English.

Has anybody got a problem understanding the great commission? I don’t know of anything that could be stated in a more simple, direct fashion that the great commission. I don’t think we have any trouble understanding it. I think the problem today is that we understand it too well and we just don’t do it.

THE GREAT CLAIM

Let’s look at the great commission and those three things that I mentioned at the outset. First, the great claim. Jesus came to these twelve apostles and said, “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.” Do you realize that if Jesus Christ were to come back this morning and appear right here in this assemble, in this worship, He wouldn’t have any more authority today than what He had two thousand years ago when He said, “All authority has been given unto me.” He has all authority in heaven. He has all authority on earth. Now can you have any more authority than all? All is a universal class and if He has all authority, He couldn’t have any more. But He was not willing just to let it rest at that, He said, “I have all authority in heaven and on earth.”

Power over Material Things

What are some of the things over which Jesus had authority when He was on the earth? He had authority over material things. When the people were hungry, He could take a few loaves of bread and a few fishes and multiply it enough that four thousand people could eat and have some left over and later with five thousand people to eat and still have some left over. He had authority over material things.

Power over the Elements

He had authority over the elements. When the disciples were rowing their boat across the Sea of Galilee, a great storm came upon the lake and they were afraid for their very lives. Jesus appeared to them and all He had to say was, “Peace, be still,” and the storm abated; the winds and the waves were no more and the lake was as calm as a sheet of glass. He has power over the elements.

Power over Disease

He had power over disease. When He would come around and people had blindness, palsy, or leprosy, all some of them had to do was touch the hem of His garment and they were healed of their disease. He had power over disease.

Power over Demons

He had power over the demons. We don’t exactly understand about the demons. The popular idea of the Jews in that day and time when Christ lived on the earth was that they were the spirits of evil men that had departed; the spirits of those evil men had gone on to the Hadean world and for some reason or another they had been allowed to escape the Hadean world and come back and inhabit the bodies of some people still living then. The Bible doesn’t deny it; it doesn’t affirm it, so I don’t know to be honest with you. I don’t know the origin of them or why they were allowed to be in people’s bodies, but what I do know is that when Jesus approached people who had demons in them, the demons knew who Jesus was. They would cry out and say, “Thou Son of David, why have you come to torment me before my time.” They knew they were lost; they knew they were going to torment, but in a temporary escape they asked why Jesus came to torment them before their time. Jesus would not allow them to endorse Him. Most of the times there was a reason for it, if you could confirm that He was God’s Son and confirm the word, the message that He had, He would command them to come out of these people.

Power over Death

Jesus had power over the material creation, power over the elements, power over disease, power over demons and He had power over death. In John 11, the dearest friends that Jesus had on this earth—Mary, Martha and Lazarus—had sent a message to Christ that their brother was very sick, even sick unto death. Jesus tarried for four days. That means that Lazarus died on the very day that the messenger left the home of Lazarus to take the message to Jesus. Because when Jesus got there they told him he had been dead for four days. So Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, he would live?” They said they knew that he would live in the resurrection and Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. If a man believes in me though he was dead shall he live?” You see He has power over death. They rolled the stone away. Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth,” and he was resurrected to life again. Jesus has all power on earth. He could walk upon the water; He could defy the laws of gravity, because He made those laws. He knows how to work in harmony with them or He knows how to suspend them or defy them. He had all power on earth.

Christ Has All Power in Heaven

But Christ also has all power and authority in heaven. In the great book of Ephesians, Paul said,

Ephesians 1:22-23

And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

NKJV

Jesus is the head of the church. No man today is the head of the church. No church should wear the name of any man but Christ. Even John the Baptist who was the best man to the bridegroom, said, “I must decrease, but He must increase. I’m not even worthy to stoop down and unleash the latchet on his shoes.” And yet there are people today who are members of churches that honor the name of John the Baptist, instead of Jesus Christ. How many husbands would allow their wife to wear the name of the best man, instead of their name? That’s exactly what religious people do. To honor any man above the Lord Jesus Christ, whether it’s John the Baptist, Martin Luther, or any other human being living on the face of this earth, is wrong! Jesus is the head of the church. The church is His body. Jesus is the bridegroom. The church is His bride. We honor Him by wearing His name. Christian is a name that honors Jesus Christ. You can’t say Christian without saying Christ. Individuals honor Christ as the head of the church, and as having all authority in heaven and on earth, by wearing the name “Christian.” And the church honors Christ by showing that he has ownership and headship—by being referred to, as the church of Christ, the body of Christ etc.

THE GREAT CHARGE

The great commission is great because of the great claim that Jesus made that He, the Son of God, has all authority in heaven and on earth. It is great in the second place because of the charge or the commission that was given to the twelve apostles and through them to us. David Livingston went into Africa to do mission work—to take the gospel to the native people of that Dark Continent. After he had gone throughout many of the cities, towns, villages and hamlets, he was ready to cross a river and go over into a little hamlet, a village, where the people were hostile. His friends, his peers, and his associates, told him not to cross the river and go over there, that those people were determined to kill him and that they had already announced that if he crossed the river and went over there they were going to kill him. David Livingston went into his tent and he started reading the testimony of Matthew Levi. He read that over and over again. “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). He looked and he pondered upon it, meditated and thought about it and finally he said, “These are the words of a gentleman and there is an end on it.” Have you ever thought about that? A gentleman keeps his word. Has God ever failed to keep His word? When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and through the wilderness wandering for forty years, when God told Moses He was going to do something, whether it was good or bad—if He blessed them when they did right and punished them when they did wrong—did God keep His word? Yes. He kept His word. God is a gentleman, if you want to use that anthropomorphism—bringing God down to where we can understand how He talks to us and communicates to us. A gentleman keeps his word. The Son of God was a gentleman; He kept His word, and He said, “Lo, I be with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” When Moses died and was buried on the lonely peaks of Mt. Nebo he was given a successor—Joshua. God said to Joshua just like He said to Moses, “Be strong, be of good courage, as I was with my servant, so I will be with you.” Therefore, God will also be with us to carry out the great charge until the end of the age.

THE GREAT PROMISE

Now friends, we have a stupendous task today of taking the gospel to every person in every house on every street in every city and town, and country, in every nation throughout the whole world. But what we usually do is lessen that commission, to fit our faith, which is weak. What we really should do is strengthen our faith and bring it up to the level of the charge or task that has been committed to us. David Livingston decided that since Jesus said, “Lo, I will be with you, even unto the end of the world,” he went ahead and carried out his task. And God will be with us today—no matter how dark, no matter how great the task is, no matter how much opposition, no matter how much we may seem to fail, He said He would be with us. The question is do we believe He will keep His word and be with us in good times and bad times, good circumstances and bad circumstances, when we’re rejected, when we re ridiculed, when we’re persecuted, as well as when we are praised and encouraged. Yes, God will be with us. He will be with us even unto the end of the age and, by the way, that shows that the commission was not just to the twelve apostles alone, it was to those who came along after the apostles and who were contemporary with them.

The Mad Czar of Russia

There was a czar of Russia; he was called the “Mad Czar of Russia.” His name was Czar Peter. Czar Peter had a guard of people that he very highly praised and appreciated. It is told that Czar Peter on one occasion was inspecting this royal guard, kind of like the royal guard that Saddam Hussein has over in Iraq. While he was inspecting this royal guard, there was one of the men whose button was unbuttoned and he went into a livid rage and he said to this royal guard, “About face,” and then he said, “Forward, march.” According to the legend, they marched north, unto Siberia to their death. The order was given, “About face, forward, march,” and they were never told to halt or to retreat and then to live up to the charge, the commission, the command of their king, they marched to Siberia to their death. He was a mad king. Our king is not mad, but He has given us a charge and that charge is—“about face, forward, march,” “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” and He has never said, “Halt.” He has never said to retreat. Here we are two thousand years from the time He gave that command and He has never told us to retreat or halt.

Go Make Disciples of All Nations

What is that charge that is so great? He said, “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:18-20). Let’s look at that message. “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” Are we to baptize all nations? No. What are we to do when we go into all the nations? Make disciples of them. What does that mean? The Greek word there is “mathetuo,” and it means to make scholars, to make learners, to make students. I know every person in this audience can understand the Bible today. We don’t have any trouble today studying and understanding the testimony of Matthew Levi, Mark, Luke, John the Apostle, Peter, Paul, James and John or any of the other authors of the New Testament. We are commanded to make disciples out of all the nations.

After we have made disciples out of all the nations, then what do we do? Baptize them. What is the antecedent of the demonstrative pronoun “them?” The nations? No. The antecedent of “them” is “the disciples” that you have made out of all the nations. The word “baptizing is a participle—present active participle, and a participle takes its action from the leading verb in the sentence. What is the leading verb? “Make disciples” is the leading verb! Then you do what? You baptize them—those that you’ve made disciples out of all the nations. How do you baptize them? You baptize them into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. That means you baptize them into a relationship with all three members of the Godhead.

What do we do after we baptize them? Do we leave them alone, never talk to them, and never spend any time with them? No. You then have fellowship with those people. You have joint studies in class situations with these people. You have periods when you fellowship with these people socially and while you are doing all these things you teach them everything that Jesus Christ has commanded us as our Christian duty. That’s the great of the great commission.

Exhortation

First, The Great claim—Jesus said, “I have all authority in heaven and on earth.” Second, The Great message—“Go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and third, The Great Promise—the promise that David Livingston relied upon when he looked and it said, “Lo, I will be with you always, even unto the end.”

Friends, Christ is still with us today. We are emphasizing the greatness of the great commission. We have got to get out and start carrying out the great commission—setting up Bible studies, opening up our Bibles, having people into our homes, teaching people, setting up occasions when we can encourage people to be faithful. That’s part of the great commission and we can all be involved in it. Not just a clergy, not just a special order of people that have supposedly been called to do this, but it is a task that is given to all of us. In Acts, when there was a great persecution against the church of Jerusalem, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word (Acts 8:4). That’s what we must do—all of us. When we leave this assembly we must go everywhere preaching and teaching the Word of God and making disciples and baptizing those that would become disciples. And then we must teach each other all things that Christ has commanded us. Isn’t that simple? The difficulty is not in understanding it. The difficulty is getting up and getting busy and getting involved and doing the work of the great commission, that was given to us by Jesus Christ.

If you have understood what you need to do to be saved and have forgiveness of sins and be a part of God’s family, we encourage you to do so.*