John 20:21-22; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:18-20. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty on January 24, 2021.
Last week, we talked about the importance of making the good confession to the world around us. In short, it is a declaration of our faith in Jesus and his teachings. We stand with him.
Today, we are going to recognize that this confession and testimony that we should give about Jesus is part of a larger task, or commission, that Christ has given us.
Let’s look at our passage.
We will look at each of the Gospel’s version of the Great Commission. They all highlight various things. Ultimately, Jesus had been crucified and resurrected. Over the course of 40 days, he appeared to them in order to prove the reality of the resurrection before he ascended into heaven, and to leave the apostles and his Church, that they would help build, with a task, a mission. Thus, we speak of Christ commissioning his Church and call it the Great Commission.
John emphasizes sending. We have been sent by Jesus as he was sent by God the Father. We are sent for a purpose, to do what he tells us to do. This is not a cultural thing. Jesus is not trying to spread first century AD Israelite culture all around the world, much less white culture. It is beyond culture. In fact, if we must use the term, it is the spread of heaven’s culture. All cultures are found wanting in the face of the Gospel and its obligation upon us all. Christians must never confuse the Gospel with their own native culture. Yes, some cultures have been impacted by Christianity more than others, but still, we are not representing our country, but rather Jesus and The Father.
John also shows Jesus breathing on his disciples and telling them to receive the Holy Spirit. The receiving is emphasized, but it is not explained why. We will save this for later.
Jesus also says that they, and we, will be a conduit to the forgiveness of sins for others. This statement sounds like the apostles can keep some people from being forgiven, but that is a misreading. Only Jesus can forgive sins, and thereby also refuse to forgive sins. However, we are sent by Jesus as his ambassadors with his words. We will be the representative of Jesus to those that we meet. We don’t create forgiveness or deny it to those who desire it. Rather, we announce it according to God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit’s wisdom. Like the prophets of old, we can speak to people because of the authority of the Word of Jesus. We can confidently tell people how to be forgiven of their sins, and how they cannot be forgiven. The emphasis is not on their inherent ability, but in the function, they serve in being sent by Christ.
Mark focuses on our proclaiming the Gospel, or good news. The NKJV uses the word “preach,” but the connotations of this word would be better translated as proclaim. It is not about standing behind a pulpit in a church, but about sharing the Good News with anyone anywhere. Mark’s gospel also emphasizes the scope of this mission, “all the world.”
A second aspect that we see here is the fact that powerful signs would follow Christ’s representatives. Jesus doesn’t command them to do powerful signs. Rather, the signs would follow them, and the signs listed are not an exhaustive list. As God’s people commit themselves to this task of proclaiming the Gospel, signs would follow them. Signs are not the focus, nor our job to make happen. Our job is to be faithful to the task of sharing the Good News with people.
I will take a moment to clear up the passage about taking up serpents, due to the fact that some Christians believe they should prove their faith in Jesus by handling poisonous snakes. Jesus is not talking about a means of proving your faith to onlookers, and neither is he talking about a test that all believers must do. The best example of what Jesus is talking about happened to the Apostle Paul on the Island of Malta in Acts 28. He was a prisoner on a ship going to Rome. The ship was wrecked by a storm and they all jumped ship and swam to nearby Malta. The natives met them on the shore and people began foraging for wood along the shore to build a fire and warm up the soaked men. While gathering a bundle of sticks to throw on the fire, the apostle Paul was bitten by a viper on the hand and he shook it off into the fire. The Bible tells us that the natives saw the viper hanging from Paul’s hand and figured that he would die, and that it was a punishment for some evil that he had done. Over time, it became clear that Paul was not harmed by the poison. This opened the people up greatly to hearing the Gospel. The point is not invulnerability of believers to poison, but that these kinds of signs would follow them as a whole as they took the Gospel to the nations. We too should expect that amazing things will happen from time to time as we are faithful to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Luke, we have some of the content of the Gospel described. First, Jesus had to do all of the things that he did. They had been prophesied in Scripture, and they were functionally important for the saving of people. Jesus lived a perfect life, and perfectly revealed the Father’s love by dying in our place, and being resurrected as proof that his sacrifice on our behalf was accepted. It is also proof that he has the power to resurrect us at the last day.
For those who believe the message about who Jesus is and what he has done for us, repentance from sin is in order. Those who believe and repent of their sins will have their sins remitted from them. Luke also records that this is for all nations, not just one people group.
Lastly, Luke also records that they were to wait for the Promise from the Father to come upon them and empower them before going out to accomplish this commission. The Promise from the Father is talking about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon all of God’s people, instead of just a select few. This is a task that is not intended to be done only by our power, strength, and abilities. God Himself will work through us and assist us by His Holy Spirit. Thus, we are not to hang back in fear, nor are we to rush forward in self-confidence. We are to be a people who are led by the Holy Spirit, and empowered by Him.
This should remind us of Acts chapter 1 verse 8. The book of Acts is technically Luke’s second volume. It is not a second Gospel, but rather describes the apostles doing what Jesus told them to do. We could think of Luke’s Gospel as the good news of what Jesus did, and his second volume as the good news that the apostles faithfully walked in his footsteps. Another way to look at these to books is to see Luke as the acts of Jesus and the book of Acts as the acts of his apostles.
Regardless, verse 8 emphasizes why we are to wait for the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit would help us do. The Holy Spirit would fill their whole being and enable them to be witnesses of Christ everywhere. They would be empowered by God Himself. A person cannot believe the Gospel without the influence of the Holy Spirit in their life. He is the one who convicts us of the judgment that hangs over our head. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit takes up residence or dwells inside of those who believe on Jesus and repent of their sins. However, we are to also open up our hearts and minds to Him through prayer so that He can fill our whole inner being. This is not a one-time thing, but a daily empowering experience that we can have to help us in our battle against sin, and our task to proclaim the Gospel.
John emphasized our being sent, but in Matthew we are shown why that is so important. Jesus has authorized us to go to all nations and call them to repentance and faith in him. What gives Christians the right to tell Romans that the idols they serve are lies and they need to repent? We could ask the same question today. Multiculturalism has some good to it. It reminds us that we should not look down upon styles of life simply because they are different from our own. However, Christianity is not supposed to be a cultural oppression.
The Spirit of God started with Israel and challenged the sin in their culture. It then moved to all other cultures. We are authorized by the God who made and loves all people. All of our cultures were, and still are, full of sin and ignorance. Satan wants to make people feel that they are doing something wrong when they tell people that God commands all people everywhere to repent of their sins and believe on Jesus. We must not give into this persuasion.
Next, we are to disciple those who believe by teaching them the commands of Jesus. The disciple is a student who is learning to become like their master teacher. Another image that is used in the Bible is that we are children of God. God’s people are a family that baby Christians are born into. We help the spiritually young to grow up and become more like our heavenly Father, which has been perfectly imaged to us by Jesus.
Lastly, Jesus tells us that he will be with us even to the end of the age. How important it is to know that Jesus is still with us through the Spirit of God that is within us. He hasn’t forgotten us no matter how difficult it may get at times. We must hold onto this promise.
When we put all of these things together, we end up with a lot of powerful concepts, so I have broken this up into two statements.
First, we have been authorized and sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel to all nations that only He can forgive and remove their sins because of his life, death, and resurrection.
Second, we are to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, which will have powerful signs as we teach people the commands of Jesus.
All of this emphasizes the task and purpose that Jesus has given us, and so it is missing an important component found elsewhere. God so loved the world that He sent His One and Only Son that whoever believes on him shall not perish, but have eternal life. God’s love for you, for me, and for those lost in this world, could not sit by as we destroyed ourselves through sin. The love of God and the demonstration of its depth by Jesus on the cross are the foundation of a relationship that we can have with our Lord and invite others to join. This is the Great Commission.