Introduction
After Christ’s resurrection,
He spent forty days on this earth eliminating any doubt that He physically rose
from the grave and provided His disciples final instructions for their future
mission. He was not going to be with them; He was going back to be at the right
hand of the Father. He would send them the Holy Spirit, and by following His
instructions detailed in the four gospels and in the first chapter of Acts,
they would be God’s instruments for building the church. By diligently
comparing the words of Christ found in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20,
and Acts 1, His instructions can be organized into ten points for the purpose
of study and application.
Ten Points
1. In John 20:22, Acts 1:8
and Luke 24:49, Christ emphasizes that the power to accomplish the mission He
has given us comes from the Holy Spirit. After the ascension, the disciples
were told to wait for the Holy Spirit. and clearly, the importance of the Spirit’s
power, leadership, and involvement in the church cannot be overemphasized. Oftentimes
the Holy Spirit is relegated to second-class citizenry within the Godhead,
leading pastor and author Francis Chan to describe the Holy Spirit as the “Forgotten
God.” Clearly the role of the Spirit is integral in the NT church in so much as
effective preaching, teaching, evangelism, and ministry is impossible without
Him. We must pray that the Lord of the
harvest will send the Spirit to the do the work that only He can do.
2. From John 20:23 and Luke
24:46, we see the importance of forgiveness. The KJV uses the word remit in John; the idea is to clear one
from the guiltiness of the offense. The message that the disciples preached had
at its core the truth that sins can be forgiven through Christ Jesus. The
reality that God has forgiven our sins through the gospel has obvious
implications in the way that families interact within the church. Offenses will
inevitably occur, but the gospel demands that we forgive. Paul instructed the
church at Ephesus to “be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ’s sake had forgiven them” (Ephesians 4:32).
3. Luke makes specific
reference to the suffering of Christ in Luke 24:46; Peter does the same four
times in 1 Peter. The writer of Hebrews says Christ suffered outside the gate,
giving particular reference to the necessary location of Christ’s death. The
church must tell the world what Christ did for sinners. He suffered, and every
way in which Christ suffered must be proclaimed; His emotional and physical
suffering must be detailed and articulated to the church on a regular basis. His
love is fully displayed for the world beginning with his departure from the
glories of heaven and culminating in His death on a tree.
4. In Luke 24, Jesus also
directs the disciples that repentance must be preached. Repentance is a demand
to change; it is literally a change of mind created by God the Holy Spirit at
the moment of regeneration. In Acts 11, God granted the Gentiles repentance
leading to eternal life. Repentance is not optional, and it reminds both the
converted and the unconverted of the truth that God has graciously accepted us,
not that we are accepting Him. In Acts 17, all men everywhere are commanded to
repent. Nowhere does the Bible command men to repent of sins in order to be
saved. This may be implied in cases where a particular sin is keeping one from
believing the gospel. Such as the example of the idolatry that the members of
the church of Thessalonica turned from to serve the one true and living God (1
Thess.1:9). In a larger sense, repentance toward God and belief in the risen
Lord go hand-in-hand; one cannot truly exist without the other.
5. Each church executes the
mission to preach the gospel, baptize converts, and make disciples in its own
Jerusalem first. This is what church planting is all about. Our objective must
be to position a Bible-believing, gospel-preaching church in every village,
town, city, state, and country on the globe. In this way, each church will reach
a maximum number of people with the gospel with maximum efficiency. An
exceptional focus on overseas missions does not excuse a church of the typical
inward “us four and no more” mentality and culture that plagues many dying
churches with dwindling membership. Jerusalem
is mentioned in Matthew 28, Luke 24, and Acts 1:8 as the starting point for the
disciples and as the model for all churches to follow.
6. While attempting to reach
local residents of each church’s community with the gospel, there is also an
expectation from Christ that the church preach the gospel to the uttermost
(Acts 1:8), and to every creature without regard to ethnicity, race, creed,
and/or socio-economic class divisions (Mark 16:16). Churches are often racially
segregated as though the Bible is bereft of a requirement to reach a diverse
audience. This fault comes from ignoring the commandment to reach every
creature with the gospel and imposing our own social and racial biases into our
approach to who deserves to be offered salvation.
7. With great specificity the
church must emphasize that the means of avoiding damnation and receiving the
forgiveness of sins is to believe on (faith alone) (trusting/depending) Christ
and His gospel (Mark 16). To a great fault, the modern church has committed a
critical mistake in teaching that one must “ask” Jesus to be one’s savior, much
like one asks if someone will loan them money or join them for dinner or
accompany them on a date. The gospel of
John is overwhelmingly replete with an emphasis on believing (96 references in 85 verses). Because the gospel is a
promise (Romans 1:1-2) to all who believe, there isn’t a need to “ask” Christ
to save one’s self. Christ has already promised that all who will believe upon
Him will be saved, and permission is unnecessary when a binding promise from a
holy and righteous God has been enacted. Instead, what is required is faith in
the person (Christ) and the promise (the gospel). And since the one making the
promise is God, and God cannot lie, there is no doubt that He will fulfill His
promise. Moreover, we do not accept Christ; He accepts us. God is the one that
make us “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6, KJV, NKJV). We can no more
make ourselves acceptable in the beloved than we can raise ourselves from the
grave. Our faith is in the One who
imputes His righteousness to our account.
8. The primary instruction given to the church from the Lord found in
Matthew 28:19 is to “make disciples” (or fully functioning followers of
the Lord Jesus Christ) of all nations. Unfortunately, the emphasis in making
disciples of men and women from all nations is lost with the translators’
choice of the word “teach” in the KJV. Recognizing that the Greek word behind
teaching is the verb form of the noun disciple,
it becomes very apparent why all modern translations, including the NKJV,
translate mathēteuō
as "make disciples." Can you believe that I have had Baptists tell me
the church I lead puts too much emphasis on making disciples? Is that really
possible? I certainly can see how a ministry could put too much emphasis on one
or more of the ten points of instructions contained in this short article, but
is it really possible to put too much emphasis on making disciples? Our Lord
spent three and one half years making disciples; those twelve (minus one) in turn
dedicated the rest of their lives to making disciples. Disciples are followers or learners or pupils
of Christ; they pattern their life after Christ; they seek to know Christ and
live according to His Word; they believe the gospel, and the gospel guides
their lives. God’s plan is for disciples to make more disciples beginning in
each home where one or both parents are disciples themselves. Supplementing and
undergirding the family is the church with an emphasis on making disciples.
Together, God’s first institution, the family, joins with Christ’s church in
order to work together cohesively to make disciples of all people groups from
all nations to the glory of God.
9.
In both Matthew 28 and Mark 16, we find specific mentions of baptism, with
Matthew 28 providing an imperative that disciples of Christ are to be baptized
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The church as a whole has done
this in varying ways for various reasons, but Christ’s example and words do not
leave as much flexibility in mode and candidacy as one would think based on
what different churches do today. In
Matthew 16 belief precedes baptism—they believe and are baptized. In Matthew 28,
the church is to focus on making disciples and these disciples are to be
baptized. An infant cannot profess belief and therefore could not be classified
as a disciple of Christ. Without evidence that a person is a follower of Christ, a church should not baptize a person. John the
Baptist insisted that candidates for baptism exhibit fruit that provided
evidence that their repentance was genuine. If the church of the 20th
century would have insisted upon fruit worthy of repentance before baptizing
converts (Luke 3:8), far fewer bodies would have been sprinkled and immersed,
and fewer unregenerate converts would
have been given false assurance of salvation.
Christ’s example is worthy of consideration: Christ was baptized in the
Jordan River as an adult at the age of 30 years old. This is a far cry from an
infant being sprinkled or a five year old being
dunked. The church would do well to make
baptism part of its discipleship program. Baptism should be a serious step of
obedience with a clear expectation that one is converted and will remain in submission
to the will of the Lord for the rest of his or her life before being baptized
as a public confession of being a follower of Christ.
10.
Finally, Matthew 28:20
concludes with an expectation that “teaching” the Word of God will be a part of the life of the church. In fact, “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you” is specifically what the Lord told his disciples to do. The simplest definition of teaching is to
cause someone to know something they did not previously know. With sixty-six
books of Scripture, all profitable for doctrine, correction, reproof and
instruction in righteousness, there is a seemingly infinite amount of
information that can be taught from the Bible.
Elders and pastors must be “apt to teach” in order to be qualified for
their respective offices (1 Timothy 2). Far too many preachers are not capable
of teaching the Word of God. The next time you hear a sermon, ask yourself at
the end: what did I learn from this sermon? If the answer is “nothing,” was it
because you know everything already, or was there not an attempt to truly teach
during the preaching? In the four gospels, we find either an equal emphasis on
teaching and preaching or a scenario wherein more attention is given to
teaching than even proclaiming or preaching the truth. As a young adult in
fundamentalism, I often heard, “How will they know if we do not go?” But the
reality is that they will surely not know if we do not teach. I can remember
hearing teaching being undermined and even mocked; all that mattered was souls
that needed to be won to God through personal evangelism. This is based on an understanding of a single
focus in the clearly multifaceted commission the church received from Christ. However, as you can see from the words in
Matthew 28 alone, there is absolutely a greater focus on teaching in order to
make disciples. Yes, the gospel must be communicated, but that is not the
single focus of the church.
Conclusion
We see that the power of the
Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to everything we attempt to do in obedience
to this great commission, and the central message of all we do is to proclaim
Christ beginning in our Jerusalem and ultimately to the uttermost parts of the
world. Recognizing that the world does not know Jesus, we must tell them about
His miraculous virgin birth, sinless life, exceptional suffering, death on a
cross, burial, resurrection on the third day, ascension to the Father, and
glorious Second Coming. They will not know if we do not teach the amazing
message that the Creator God of the Universe has made it possible through
Christ Jesus for sins to be forgiven. And with the mention of sins, we are
reminded that the world may not even know what a sin is, and therefore once again,
we see the need to teach. The gospel of Jesus Christ must be taught. Can you
teach it? How well can you explain the narrative and the implications of the
narrative? Do you know why Christ had to be born of a virgin? Do you know why He
had to suffer? Who killed Him and why did He die? These questions and more are
what the world needs answered for our message to be received, and we must teach
them both before and after they are converted. We must explain why baptism is
important and who baptism is for and what it pictures. We must continue to
teach the gospel and the implications of the gospel in life experiences including
marriage, parenting, coworker relationships, and all other aspects of life, as
well. While the reception of eternal
life in heaven is a glorious by-product of Christ’s work on the cross, Christ
died so that the sins of the whole world could be forgiven. Or it could be said like this: Christ died so
that I could be released from the guilt or penalty of my sin. Recognizing that
God has forgiven my sins has epic and far-reaching implications into how I
forgive others when they sin against me.
A culture of forgiving one another must be created in godly families and
throughout the body of Christ. Finally, after the new disciple is baptized, we
must continue to teach him the Word of God in such a way that he will be able
to reproduce disciples for the glory of God. This is God’s plan, and it has
worked for 2,000 years; He has promised that it will continue to work until He
comes again. Christ said “the gates of hell will not prevail against His church,”
and His church must be uncompromisingly obedient to following the instructions
first given to his apostles some 2,000 years ago.
