Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…And behold, I am with you always…(Matthew 28:19-20 – ESV)
Go therefore – because of this authority that Christ has been given we now have the authority to go everywhere and anywhere and do what Jesus now commands. Our commission is based on His position.
And make disciples – our initial job is proclamation, God doesn’t call us into the world to make sheep but to find them by calling them out, we find them and then we feed them. You evangelize by speaking of the Great Shepherd of the sheep, the Evangel, the Master, Jesus Christ, and those who are His will hear His voice and respond. You don’t produce converts, you proclaim Christ; you don’t make people believe, you make disciples of those who do.
Of all nations – these sheep will be everywhere. All ethnos, all ethnicities, all people groups, all social strata, tribes, nations, and tongues (Revelation 7:9): all are to be baptized, all are to be discipled, salvation in Jesus Christ has appeared to all people.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age – Follow the pattern and receive the promise of His presence. Behold – you will behold it if you do it. Go and Lo (KJV) – if you go and do what He says then lo and behold you will have what He says, if you go you will see. You may not be the one to do the baptizing but you are a part of the discipling process, we all help disciple one another as we see throughout the New Testament.
The reason that promise is packed with power is that the one who made it has all authority in heaven and on earth. He is not powerful but far away, and he is not present but weak. He is with us, and He is all-powerful, forever. The Great Commission is surrounded by powerful grace, and so are we. It is not the Great Omission, it is a command with the authority and power to proclaim it and see it through.
We are to bear fruit for the kingdom; we become disciples, and we go and make other disciples. We are to proclaim to others the knowledge of Christ, and to bring them to their burial with him in baptism, to be raised again to new life. Our duty then is to baptize and make disciples, we have our marching orders and we have our spiritual ordinance, let’s make sure we don’t make the Great Commission the Great Omission. The truth is that if we go, and make disciples, then lo, He will be with us in His power.
4 comments:
"You don’t produce converts, you proclaim Christ; you don’t make people believe, you make disciples of those who do."
So no amount of emotional pressure / reasoning / or tactic can be applied to "make" someone accept Jesus or ask Jesus to come into their heart??? If they already believe you won't / shouldn't have to jump through hoops...huh??
I used to use a booklet that helped me to "seek and save the lost". In this booklet was a series of questions that "led" people to make a "decision" for Christ and to be baptized (produce converts). I now wonder what I was converting them to??....makes me cringe.
Well, we certainly should be knowledgeable about our faith and winsome in our delivery (1 Peter 3:15), and try to be persuasive, not passive, and be defending the faith...that being said, to manipulate emotions without actually giving the Truth as it truly is (i.e. repentance, etc.), this is to engage in "decisional conversionism", and when something else comes around it may convert them to yet another belief system...
Praise God that He uses us in spite of ourselves and He can take those mistakes that we have made and use them for good.
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