The Cross and the Commission

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus gives to believers what is known today as the Great Commission. While His commission was meant for all believers, many throughout the centuries have neglected it. It has become for many the Great Omission, but why has it become this for so many? Many answers could be given at this point. Two common answers heard are: 1) “Missions is not for everyone,” and 2) “What about the people in our own backyard?” These answers may explain some of the reasons why people don’t get involved, but they fail to address the heart issue. What if the answer to this question lies within the Great Commission itself?

Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV). In order to see the answer to the question posed, some background is necessary. When Jesus shares the Great Commission with His disciples as this point, He is not doing so carelessly. He is doing so intentionally, and He is telling them to do something that is fully in line with the purposes of His Father. Jesus does not just throw this out there for His disciples before He leaves. It is not as though Jesus almost forgot to tell them to go and make disciples, and remembered right before He ascended. Jesus passes on to His disciples the very mission given to Him. This mission was prophesied long ago.

The mission of God is often missed in the Bible because of the exaltation of theology over missiology. Debates concerning how God saved us are far more prevalent than debates on why God saved us. From Genesis to Revelation, God reveals His mission that finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ Jesus. The first command given to man in the Bible is to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28). Thus, God’s desire from the beginning has been to fill the earth with worship. However, the relationship between God and man was destroyed when man disobeyed God. But God began pursuing the worship of men's hearts, which is why mission's exists.[i] God’s design to redeem mankind can be seen in two verses in Genesis. In Genesis 3:15, God pronounces this judgment on the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel” (ESV). This is known as the protoevangelium[ii], or the “first gospel.” God declares that He will raise up from the woman a man who will destroy the serpent (Satan), but the serpent would bring suffering on the man.

The second verse that reveals God’s design to redeem mankind is Genesis 12:1-3. It reads, “Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (ESV). Some have called this the Old Testament version of the Great Commission.2 This promise reveals God’s plan to make from Abram, whose name is changed to Abraham meaning “father of many nations,” a great and blessed nation through whom He will bless all peoples. God promises that this will come through Abram’s offspring. The Apostle Paul writes of these verses in Galatians 3:8, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’” (ESV).

In Isaiah 49:6, there is a prophecy concerning the Servant of the Lord. God is speaking through Isaiah and says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (ESV). Here, God is saying that it is too small to just send the servant to the people of Israel. He will raise Him up and send Him as a light to all peoples, thus fulfilling the promise made to Abraham. The offspring of the woman, the offspring of Abraham and the Servant of the Lord are all prophecies concerning Jesus. When Jesus comes on the scene He declares why He was sent saying, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17 ESV). Jesus was sent to fulfill the mission of God. However, in John 20:21, He says something very interesting when He says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (ESV). Jesus is sending His disciples out as He Himself was sent by the Father. This is considered John’s version of the commission.2 So why have so many over the centuries turned the Great Commission into the Great Omission, and how is the answer to this question seen in the Great Commission itself?

In the Great Commission, Jesus gives the command to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). There are two phrases that will help answer the question above. These two phrases are “make disciples” and “all nations.” The phrase “all nations” in the Greek is the word panta ta ethne. In English, it means “all the nations.” When the word “nations” is spoken today, many people tend to think of this as nation-states, or countries. However, in the Greek, “ethne” means “ethnic/people groups.”1 So the Great Commission could read, “Go and make disciples of all the ethnic/people groups.” This phrase is connected to the other phrase “make disciples.” It is with this phrase that the answer begins to unfold. Jesus’ command to make disciples assumes one thing, and that is that it takes a disciple to make disciples. Jesus throughout His ministry was calling people to follow Him, but following Him carried a cost. He said on numerous occasions that if anyone wanted to be His disciple they would have to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23 and Luke 14:25-27). In denying themselves, they would have to give up their rights to their lives and dreams and ambitions. In taking up their cross, they would have to embrace much pain and suffering and even death. In following Him, they would have to go where He goes and do what He does. Discipleship was Jesus’ way to reach all the people groups of the world with the glorious life-saving, life-giving gospel. This is why He commands His disciples to go and make disciples of all the ethnic/people groups. And it is at this point that the answer is revealed.

For centuries, the Great Commission has become the Great Omission for many because of the lack of discipleship. Disciples embrace both the Cross and the Commission for the two are inseparable. Discipleship is about far more than bible studies and church attendance. It’s about far more than how many times you pray and if you tithe. True discipleship leads to one serving others as Jesus served. It leads to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless, visiting the sick and needy, looking after the orphans and widows, visiting those in prison, preaching the gospel truth and defending the oppressed. True discipleship leads to making disciples of others, but even this is not enough. As Jesus commands, true disciples make disciples of all people groups. This is a command for disciples of Jesus Christ. It is for those who would live the way of Jesus denying themselves, taking up their cross and following Him. For centuries, the lack of true disciples in the Church has lead to the majority not being much involved in God’s mission. True disciples have ears to hear when Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21 ESV). The issue here is not about going overseas as missionaries. The issue is being disciples who place our “Yes, Lord” on the table and let Him place it on the map.

If disciples are those who deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Jesus, then they must be about the very things Jesus was about. The cross Jesus bore was to “purchase people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9 NIV). This, too, is the cross of His followers, though it’s not our blood that purchases sinners but His. The Cross has made the Commission achievable, and the Commission is making the Cross known to people groups all over the world. Today, disciples are needed who embrace the Cross and the Commission.

[i] John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1993).

[ii] Moreau, A. Scott, Gary Corwin, and Gary McGee. Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2004).

For His glory and fame among all peoples,

Bryan