The Great Commission
Writer Author Sylvia Huffnagle
Christian Article
:
Bible Teaching
- Fiction No
As this generation has done with many of Jesus’ teachings as well as other Bible teachings, they’ve changed some of the wording and some of the meaning. In every case the result has been disastrous.
Let’s look at what The Great Commission in Matt: 28:18-20 really says: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
So Jesus tells His disciples to teach all nations. That does not say, “Go and give them the good news that I have died on the cross and rose again from the dead so that they don’t have to go to hell.” It says to teach the nations.
Teach them what? Teach them about God and about the Truth and invite them to believe, receive, and be saved from sin and death.
He goes on to say, “Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” As far as I can see, this does away with any of that talk that says, “Jesus was only talking to the Jews in His teaching.” He says here to teach the world to observe His teachings.
So, so far, we see that The Great Commission is not just about getting sinners into heaven, it’s about teaching them how to live and not die.
What else did Jesus say in The Great Commission? He said “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, therefore you go...” Then at the end of the commission, He says, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Jesus, the Son of God who has all power told us to go in His Name. Does He need hard rock bands, ice cream cones, or any other enticement in order to draw a crowd? No! The way we are doing things is an insult to Him. He has endued us with power from on high. We are supposed to be carrying out His ministry the same way He did.
What’s the big deal? You may ask. When Jesus spoke, men listened. Why? Because they knew He had the power to do something about their troubles. You may say, “Well, He didn’t convince all that many either. No, He was planting seed.
My point is those who did choose to believe were truly converted and those who came to believe later were truly converted. This means that if you win them by the power of the Truth and by the power of God, they will have a much greater chance of getting serious with God because they will revere Him.
Those who are drawn to hear you preach through carnal enticements, may like what you say and may respond to your message, but in most cases they have not been won over to God’s side, they have just been lured into the first step. Often they go no further or have to stumble along for years before they learn that He is God.
Some will say, we don’t have power easily accessible as Jesus did. Sadly, this is true. But that is because we are off. Doesn’t it make more sense to get lined up with God before we do The Great Commission?
How do we do that? By calling the solemn assembly--by dropping all our busyness and getting to church and as one body begin to cry out to God that He would pour out His Spirit on us, anew-- because The Great Commission can only be done with Jesus’ presence and power. Joel 2
This is how God feels about us doing The Great Commission our way instead of His way.
Isa: 30:1-4: Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2: That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3: Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 4: For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5-8: They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. 6: The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. 7: For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. 8: Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9-12: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 10: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: 11: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. 12: Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13-14: Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. 14: And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
(What shall we do?)
15-17: For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. 16: But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. 17: One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
18-21: And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. 19: For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. 20: And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: 21: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
22-23: Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. 23: Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
© Sylvia Huffnagle
Editor's Comment:
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Pennsylvania
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United States
Email:
huffnagl@verizon.net
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www.straightpaths.truepath.com/about4.html
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