The Great Commission

Imagine it’s your last day to be hanging out with your disciples. You have spent 3 years pouring your life into these guys. You want to share one last thing with them. What do you say?

Jesus shared what we call the Great Commission.

In my opinion, it should be the obsession of every follower of Jesus Christ. How do we find our place in finishing this Dream of God?

Yet, when the Barna Research group asked this question “Have you heard of the Great Commission?” 51% of people did not know what that term was.

This has gotta change!

So we’re gonna dive deep into the Great Commission answering questions so we can get a little closer to making God’s Dream come true.

What is the Great Commission?

Where is the Great Commission in the Bible? I think there are 2 parts to the Great Commission. The Mark part and the Matthew Part.

The Great Commission Mark Verse says this:

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:15-18

The Matthew 28 Great Commission says:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

It’s the Every and the All.

Preach the Gospel to Every one and Disciple All The Nations.

It’s the 2 parts of the Great Commission, Preach & Disciple.

What are we supposed to preach to everyone? We are called to Preach the Gospel (The Good News) of the Kingdom to every person living on this planet.

Who are we supposed to Disciple?

Believe it, or not, the great commission doesn’t say to go and “Make Disciples” This is one of the things I think we have missed. If you go and look at the text. Jesus said to “Make Disciples of All The Nations.”

The same way we would disciple people, we are supposed to Disciple Nations.

When I first noticed this, I asked the question “Is that even possible? For followers of Jesus to reach and disciple entire nations?” If you look at Revelation 21 entire nations are bringing their glory into the city of God. So somewhere inbetween Matthew 28 and Revelation 21 it happens!

When I saw this in Black & White in the Bible I said “I’m in!”

God’s Dream is every person and all the nations.

Why is it called the Great Commission?

The term Great Commission doesn’t actually appear anywhere in the Holy Bible. A Dutch missionary named Justinian von Welz in the 1600s probably coined this term, but it was popularized by Hudson Taylor nearly 200 years later. A famous saying “The Great Commission is not an option to be considered, but it is a command to be obeyed.” May, or may not have come from Hudson.

It’s called the Great Co-Mission because you are on a Great Mission with your King Jesus who promised to never leave you and to always be with you.

So what does the Bible say about the Great Commission?

Jesus said this “if you love me you will ovey my commands” John 14:15

If you look at the 2 Bible verses above they are not suggestions. They are commands. The preach of the Mark commission and the teach of the Matthew commission are not optional.

Out of love for Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to make these 2 commandments priorities to obey.

Why is the Great Commission Important?

One of the most famous verses in the Bible, John 3:16, starts off with “God so loved the world”

What is the importance of the Great Commission?

God’s original plan when he created the world was to have a family on the planet that he loved, that would take his love and spread it all over the world.

Adam and Eve failed badly and instead invited death, disease and destruction into God’s good world.

But God had a plan and sent his Son.

His Son showed the world what this Father was like. He served the poor, healed the sick, cast out demons and raised the dead.

Ultimatedly he laid down his life by dieing on a cross. God raised Jesus from the dead 3 days later.

Then for 40 days the resurrected Jesus taught the disciples and right before he goes to be enthroned in heaven he shares what we call The Great Commission.

That’s why the Great Commission is important.

Is The Great Commission For Everyone? What Does Jesus Say?

So how should we do the Great Commission today? Is it for everyone?

I guess we should ask the question, “am I a disciple or just a believer?”

A believer might say they believe in Jesus but their relationship doesn’t go much further than that.

The Bible even says the devil believes in God (James 2:19). That doesn’t mean the devil is in the family of God and living according to his purposes.

So what’s the difference between a believer and a disciple?

Look at what the Great commission says:

• Disciple Nations. How? “Teaching them” – Disciples Train Others
• “Teaching Them To Obey…” – Disciples know how to obey and train others to do the same.
• “…Everything I Have Commanded You” – Disciples know All the commands of Jesus, they’re obeying them and training others to also obey them.

So how did the disciples carry out the Great Commission?

You can read how they did this in the Book of Acts of the apostles. The New Testament church would basically do this. They would boldy preach the Gospel. When people said yes to being a part of the family of Jesus, they would get baptized. Then they would start the journey of learning how to obey everything Jesus commanded them to do. The new disicples would go out and boldly preach the good news, baptize people, get them filled with the Holy Spirit and send them to do the same.

Doing the Great Commission should be the most normal thing for every Christian to do.

Barna Research On The Great Commission

But if we look at the Barna research again:

• 51% don’t know what the Great Commission is
• 25% say they have heard of the Great Commission but can’t tell you what it is
• 6% say they’re not sure

Everyone should be doing the Great Commission. That’s what Christianity is all about but This shows us that 82% of followers of Jesus aren’t doing the thing Jesus said we should all be doing!

This is why I started Purpose Concepts, to create a resource for every follower of Jesus to find their part on God’s plan to reach everyone, disciple all the nations and finish the Great Commission.

To finish the Great Commission we need to grasp 3 things: Dream, Strategy & Daily Discipline.

The Dream of God is the Every & All.

A Simple Strategy to follow to reach the every and disciple all nations is what I call the 4 Fields. Simple strategies to discover where to go, how to preach, how to disciple and how to multiply Ekklesias in the 7 Spheres of influence all over the world.

The Daily Discipline to deny yourself, take up your cross every day and follow Jesus.

I call this is a Commissionary. Someone who says yes to the Great Commission & the Greatness Commission.

If you’d like access to the different workshops and trainings on things like the 4 fields, How To Preach the Gospel & multiplying disiciples.

Visit PurposeConcepts.com/monthly