Remembering the Great Commission

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’” (Matt. 28:18-20, NASB).

From the very first Sunday school class we attend to the very last missionary presentation we listen to, the verses of Christ’s “Great Commission” are drummed into us. Is it possible that we’ve forgotten the powerful meaning of this passage through its frequent repetition?

To treat the final words of Mathew’s Gospel as anything less than the crucial command of the entire Bible is to misunderstand the theme of reconciliation that runs through both the Old Testament and the New. God promised reconciliation almost immediately following the Fall (Gen. 3:15), and His plan culminates in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and the subsequent disciple-making by the church (cf. 2 Cor. 5:18-20). I’d like to offer seven points of exposition from this passage that all believers would do well to remember. 

I. The Great Commission Is Made Possible by God’s Sovereignty
We are told to “make disciples of all nations” because we are under Jesus’ authority (v. 18). He was sent to reconcile all humanity by the Father, and in turn He commissions us as His “foot soldiers” to continue the mission as we see in the 2 Corinthians passage. In doing so, He reminds us that the task is not ours alone, but that He is using us as tools to complete God’s divine plan—He enables the “go.”

II. Disciple-Making Is Natural to the Christian Life
In his commentary on Matthew, John MacArthur makes a just comparison of this command to the dominion mandate in Gen. 1:28 (“Be fruitful and multiply...”): “Reproduction in kind is natural to life. The call to make disciples is stated only once because it is natural for the new creation to be reproductive.” In other words, the Commission should almost be “second nature” to believers. Making disciples should follow as naturally as baptism and taking communion once a person is saved—we should stop treating outreach like an activity in our churches and start reinforcing it as a way of life.

III. Discipleship Is Coaching, Not Sales
You cannot “close the deal” on someone’s salvation—only God has the power to do that. Understanding the Greek word translated as “make disciples” in verse 19 (“teach” in the KJV) can shed some light on this. Mathēteuō in its transitive form means “to enroll as a scholar,” or “instruct.” This illustrates the idea that disciple-making is both a process and an event, just as the first day of school is both a specific time and the beginning of a much larger process of education. The word provides a fuller understanding of evangelism as an active guiding of someone toward Christ, rather than viewing it as simply “depositing” the Truth in their ears and asking for an immediate response. This active call is made more so by its coupling with the command to “go”—we are not asked to simply sit back and wait for unbelievers to come to us but rather told to seek them out and pursue their reconciliation.

IV. The Great Commission Is a Standing Order, Not a Goal to Be Attained
Much has been made of the interpretation of 2 Peter 3:12, “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God”, which some read as implying that we can speed up the Lord’s return by evangelizing all people. While some scholars agree that this can be an acceptable reading of the text, many believers have latched onto it to the detriment of real disciple-making.

If we see Christ’s command as a goal, our tendency is to rush to its completion, spending our resources and time to spread the Gospel to the four winds with little thought to the results of our sowing beyond a numerical representation of “decisions.” When we attempt to rush the outcome, we deliver a product that may not actually represent what is desired.

This approach has largely hijacked the nature of evangelism—many Christians are intimidated out of disciple-making when they aren’t seeing immediate results. The biblical model is one of longsuffering personal interaction and real conversion—i.e., cultivating a lifestyle of growth and learning in Christ that leads to future disciples being made. It is not as simple as a head count at a church service.

While there is never a drawback to the hearing of God’s Word, we cannot abandon the personal nature of conversion. It is often not enough that people hear the Word but that they see it make a difference in our lives, especially in regards to what lengths we are willing to go so that they can understand it more fully.

V. The Great Commission Is for Every Christian
Another unintended side effect of the goal-oriented approach is the division of the church into “those who go” and “those who send.” While it is very true that the body is variously gifted (Eph. 4:11-13), the command to make disciples is one that applies to all of us. It is perfectly right for the body to send out those who are especially equipped to bring the Gospel to another culture, but not at the expense of the larger command. When we put support for world missions in the place of (rather than alongside) our own responsibility to the ongoing ministry of reconciliation, we are not honoring the fullness of God’s command.

VI. Disciple-Making Should Be Taught from the Pulpit Often and by Example
Pastors have to lead the way in bringing the Great Commission to life for the church. Unless church leaders continually remind the church of its responsibility, Christians will not turn from complacency to action. Just preaching it is not enough. Pastors should lead by example in witnessing to the lost, and actively engaging in friendships, conversations, and social interaction with those who have not yet received Christ.

VII. Discipleship Starts with Prayer
Many Christians today are so cloistered within the church and parachurch social groups that they have little to no meaningful contact with nonbelievers. This will change only if we pray for the Lord to open our eyes to opportunities to become involved with those who need Him. Truly loving our neighbors as ourselves has to involve disciple-making. All too often, we forget the Commission (for a variety of reasons), and we cannot commit to make it a daily priority without the Lord’s guidance, insight, and careful prodding to remember His commands.

These seven points are by no means exhaustive. They are, however, a reminder of the crucial importance of this command to our lives. May we never allow the meaning of our mission to be lost on us for any reason. May we work to allow our churches to sift through all their programs to return to the central focus of the Christian experience. May we be faithful to make disciples for Christ.

Justin Lonas is editor of Disciple Magazine for AMG International in Chattanooga, Tennessee.