The great commission

It was in the 1960’s, during the time when the Green Bay Packers were the National Football League’s perennial champions that on one particular week they suffered a humiliating loss.  It was the contention of Vince Lombardi, the coach, that the Packers never lost a game, but some weeks the clock just ran out on them before they had a chance to get more points than the other team.  On this week, however, even Lombardi had to admit that maybe they really did lose, which led Lombardi to take drastic action when the team reconvened for practice the following week.

Normally in such situations, Lombardi was known to scream like a tyrant or lunatic.  But this particular week he was unusually quiet.  The players went through the usual stretching exercises first, and then gathered around the coach for their instructions for practice.  All the players began to cringe, expecting the worst.  But Lombardi, in an almost subdued tone, began, “Men, we need to return to the basics this week.”  And reaching into the ball bag next to him, he pulled out an object and held it up high for all to see:  “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Like the Green Bay Packers that week forgot the basics of the game of football, so seemingly has the church forgotten the basics of the church.   A Gallup poll from a few years ago found that of 22 million church-going evangelicals, only 7 percent had taken any evangelistic training, and only 2 percent had ever lead someone to Christ.  Which leads Bill Hull to ask, “How would you like to march into battle with only 7 percent of your troops trained and only 2 percent with combat experience?”

That makes the words of author George Orwell so much more significant:  “We now have sunk to such a depth that the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” [Hull, p. 50.]

For the believer in Jesus Christ, the restatement of the obvious involves a restatement of the purposes of the church.  Jesus founded the church, and promised to grow the church.  And the means by which He has chosen to grow the church is through the ministry of believers in the world.  This is what we typically call evangelism, and while the church does more than evangelize, evangelism is fundamental to her purpose.  And the most comprehensive statement of Christ’s charge to the church is given in Matthew 28:18-20, a passage commonly called the Great Commission.

As we read these familiar words, here are some basics of evangelism and discipleship:

1.  The basis of evangelism is Christ’s authority.  The reason believers share the gospel and the power for conversion are both bound up in Christ’s authority.  He has authority to send people to declare the gospel and He has authority to produce salvation in those who hear the gospel.

2.  The command of evangelism is to make disciples.  The imperative in the verse is not “go,” but “make disciples.”  So the goal in our evangelistic efforts is not to convince people to pray prayers or go to church or to change their lives, but to repent of their sin and become life-long followers of Christ.  The question is often asked, “how do I know that person has believed and is a disciple?”  One means is by their identification with Christ through baptism (v. 19).  The act of baptism does not save anyone, but it is indicative of one who is aligning himself to and identifying himself with Christ.

3.  The place of evangelism is wherever you are.  While the word “go” is commonly misunderstood to be an imperative, it actually should be translated something like, “while you are going.”  In other words, wherever the Lord has placed you, be about the process of making disciples.  One need not go to the uttermost parts of the earth to be a disciple-maker, though he might go to the far reaches of the world to fulfill the command.  The emphasis of “while you are going,” is simply, “as you are living your life, wherever you are, always be looking for opportunities to turn people to Christ and to train them to love and obey Him.”

4.  The extent of evangelism is all the nations.  As Christ would also say in Acts 1, the extent of the gospel is to go “to the remotest part of the earth.”  There is no place where the gospel is not relevant and no place where it is not needed, so believers should always be strategizing about how to take it to every unreached people group (in the world) and every unconverted individual (in their neighborhood).

5.  The process of evangelism is teaching.  The means by which individuals become followers of Christ is by being taught His commands.  And an individual is not a follower of Christ if he is not obedient to Christ.  So the task of the evangelist is to communicate to the unbeliever Christ’s commands, along with the good news of Christ’s provision of power to obey His commands.

Evangelism and discipleship are often avoided because of fear of the unknown — “what do I do?”  But in this brief command, Jesus provides the believer all the basics of what he needs to be obedient and effective in his evangelistic efforts.