Consider the words “Missions” and “Missionaries”. We throw these terms around quite a bit in
the church. But how knowledgeable are we
about what they actually mean. What is
the point of missions? What is its
source and what is its destination? How
well do we understand what a missionary is?
Is our view of both the importance and the role of missions and
missionaries grounded in biblical understanding? These are the questions we will seek to
answer today.
Our principle passage of scripture for this will be what is
classically considered “the great commission”, found in Matthew 28:18-20…
18 And Jesus came up and
spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and
on earth. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all
that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age.”
Please note that this famous passage includes verse 18. Some sources include only 19 and 20. But this is, in my opinion, a mistake that
prevents us from coming to a full and complete understanding of this passage. In fact, I would go as far as to say that if
one considers these verses without including verse 18 then one will have missed
the entire point of what is being communicated here. We will see why shortly.
But before we get to that let’s begin by considering verses 19 and
20. This is essentially a list of
instructions, or a recipe, for how to evangelize on a global scale. But there are nuances that may be missed by a
casual reading in English. For example,
the tendency would be to assume that there are multiple commands here, as
follows:
19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo,
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
However, in Greek only “make disciples” is an imperative verb; “go”,
“baptizing”, and “teaching” are participles which modify that main verb. What Jesus was commissioning His followers to
do was make disciples. Everything else
is subservient to that primary focus.
Making disciples is what Christians are to be about. That is our mission. To put it bluntly, if making disciples is not
what we are engaged in then we are not doing what Jesus said to do. With that point clear the next step is to
figure out how Jesus wants us to accomplish this task. What are the ingredients of a mission of
making disciples on a global scale the way Christ envisioned? We can break this down into three steps,
provided explicitly by the text.
The first step is to “go”.
There are two elements we need to understand about this. First is that Matthew, the author of this
gospel, recorded these words of Jesus in a very specific way. You see, in Greek if you have a participle
preceding a verb the participle picks up the tense of that verb. In this case, our verb is “make disciples”
and its tense is imperative. It is a
command, an instruction, or an order.
And because “go” precedes it, “go” is also imperative. So in other words, it is understood that when
Jesus said to “make disciples” His intention was for us to do that “while we
are going.” That leads us to our second
point, which arises as a question formed from the first point. Namely, where are we supposed to be
going? Look at the word “nations”
in verse 19. In the original Greek the word here is
“ethnos”, which means people group,
tribe, or race. In the translation into
English I think we lose some of the nuance of this idea. It is certainly true that a nation is made up
of people groups, and sometimes, although I think this would be rare, possibly
even just one people group. But the
meaning here isn't just that we are to go to every nation on Earth to make
disciples. We are to hit every single
people group on Earth to make disciples.
What this means practically is that our mission is not accomplished when
all the modern nations of the world have been reached with the gospel. The mission, as Jesus outlined it here, is
only complete when every tribe, both within those nations and the groups
outside of traditional nation states, have had the gospel preached to
them. With that being said, it may shock
you to realize that according to best estimates there are over 4,000 people
groups, over 3 billion individuals, or just over 42% of the worlds population
who have not heard the gospel and have no indigenous community of Christians
who can evangelize their own people.
Why is this significant? There
are two reasons. First, Jesus commanded
us to reach these people and they are not being reached. Second, look at Matthew 24:14: “This
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to
all the nations, and then the end will come.” Now, there is a lot of disagreement over this
verse in Christendom. Some would say
that this it means that the end times as prophesied throughout the bible will
not come until all the “ethnos”, or people groups, have heard the gospel. Others would say that no, when Jesus says
“the end” here He is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, which is the
question the disciples were asking back in verse 3 of the same chapter. They would further claim that this prophecy
has already been fulfilled. I am going to
avoid getting into this debate, because I believe there is a greater truth
at stake here that we must understand before we need worry about specific time
sequence application of Jesus's words.
Namely, this verse makes it abundantly clear that the preaching of the
gospel to all people groups is of exceedingly great importance to our
Lord. It is so important to Him that he
ties it directly to the fulfillment of prophetic statements. If He thought it was this important to preach
the gospel to all people groups, and he commanded us to do it, then should we
not make this mission our priority?
Going back to our passage in Matthew 28:19, we can see quite clearly
that the next instruction in Jesus's formula for global missions, after going
into the world to make disciples, is to baptize them. Now this is interesting. The list presented here of instructions in
how to fulfill our mission is quite short.
There are only three components to how He wants us to make
disciples. This tells us that all three
of them are of great importance and significance. So it is interesting to me that baptism is
included in this list. The reason I find
it interesting is that I think we often downplay the importance of
baptism. We treat it as Christian extra
credit or something. We put on kid
gloves with new believers regarding how critical it is that they be
baptized. This should not be so. Baptism is so important to the Christian
faith that Jesus Himself ranked it as one of the three central elements of
global missions. It certainly does not
save us; notice that Jesus says to make disciples and then baptize them. We are to baptize those who have already
become disciples by believing in Christ, not baptize them in order to make them
disciples of Christ. So it does not save
us, but it is a requirement for those who have been saved.
Finally, we are to teach. And
what are we to teach? “To obey
everything that I have commanded you.”
The teaching and training of followers of Christ is a work with the very
highest of importance. The ultimate
objective of Christians is to be like Christ, to be “little Christs” as it
were. How can we be like Christ if we
don't know what He taught? And remember
that God's instructions flow out of His very nature. They are not a list of things to do that He
made up out of thin air. Rather, who He
is automatically produces what we should do.
So the obeying of Christ's commands is to be like
Him.
But how do we teach obedience? One word: modeling. Consider the words of Jesus in John 15:12 – “This
is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” Jesus taught by example. He led the way. He said “Come, follow me where I am going and
do what I am doing.” rather than “You go there and do this and that or such and
such.” And remember the context of this
passage. Jesus has just given the ultimate
object lesson to His Apostles by washing their feet in what was probably the
most profound act of humility and service they had ever seen. He, their master, had lowered Himself to the
level of a slave to do to them what they were too prideful to do to one
another. I imagine the twelve were
somewhat spellbound by the time Jesus gets to verse 12 of chapter 15. They would have been enraptured, hanging on
His every word at this point.
Let us further consider that this command to teach obedience extends beyond
just the scope of global missions. It
flows both ways. It is a requirement of
those making disciples. But it is also a
requirement of those being made disciples.
Each one of us, as those who claim to be followers of Christ, are
expected by Him to be taught obedience to His commands. Being taught carries with it an implication
of a willingness to be taught. So the
question that hangs in the air like an 800 pound gorilla in the room that no
one wants to acknowledge is this. Do you
have a willingness and an eagerness to be taught how to obey the commands of
Jesus? Are you seeking out someone to
learn from? Does this submission to
instruction form the framework of your life?
Or are you merely coasting along in your supposed life of faith, unwilling
to be stretched by the difficult teachings of the Son of God?
So in summary, the work of global missions is as follows: while we are assumed to be going to all the
people groups of the world we are to make Disciples of Christ, baptize them
into the Christian faith, and follow up by teaching and training them in
everything that Jesus commanded.
Now then, having established the framework of global missions in verse
19 and 20, let’s return to verse 18 that I made such a big deal about
earlier. Notice that Jesus says “All
authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” This is a short sentence that has
extraordinarily long and far reaching implications. The truth that Christ has been given all
authority forms the framework for the rest of this passage, most of which we
have already looked at. Therefore, we
must carefully contemplate and spend time dwelling upon the ramifications of
this statement. I have identified 19
ways in which the authority, or supremacy, of Jesus is seen in the bible. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it should serve to drive our thoughts in
the direction they should go. That is:
firmly, squarely, and exclusively upon the Son of God.
The supremacy of Christ is seen:
1.
Instructionally (Matt. 7:29) – Jesus taught
and continues to teach with incomparable authority.
2.
Royally
(Mark 16:19) – Jesus sitting at His Father’s “right hand”, in Jewish culture,
indicated equality in ruling power and sovereign authority.
3.
Judicially (John 12:48) – Through the medium
of His words Jesus will judge mankind.
4.
Glorifiably* (John 16:13-15) – The primary
function of one third of the Godhead is to bring glory and honor to Christ.
5.
Mercifully (Acts 2:38) – Only Christ is
capable of granting forgiveness of sins.
6.
Salvifically* (Acts 4:12) – The name of Jesus
is the only name by which anyone can ever be saved from death.
7.
Believably (Acts 18:8) – The person of Christ
is believable to those who behold Him.
8.
Powerfully (Rom. 1:3-4) – In His resurrection
Christ was raised with power and majesty.
9.
Righteously (Rom. 5:18) – In order to be
capable of one act of righteousness Christ is required logically to be filled
with righteousness.
10. Diplomatically (1 Cor. 1:10) – It is in the name
of Jesus Christ that agreements should be reached and divisions mended.
11. Graciously (Gal. 1:6) – It is Christ’s grace by
which the elect are called by the Father.
12. Revelatorially* (Gal. 1:11-12) – It is Christ who
reveals the gospel, the truth about Himself, to mankind.
13. Psychologically (Phil. 4:6-7) – By dwelling upon
Christ we can experience a true peace defined by a lack of destructive stress.
14. Positionally (Col. 1:18) – Christ is before all
things, He is first in all things, and He is the head of all things.
15. Philosophically (Col. 2:8) – The contrast with
hollow and deceptive philosophies based on worldly principles is a fulfilling
and accurate philosophy based on Christ-like principles.
16. Hereditarily (Heb. 1:1-2) – Christ is the heir of
God the Father in all things.
17. Sacrificially (1 Pet. 3:18) – It is through His
death that Christ brings us to God.
18. Existentially (2 Peter 1:4) – This means neither
the 19th century philosophical notion of existentialism (the theory
that men are free agents who determine their own destiny) nor the pagan notion
of apotheosis (man becoming gods).
Rather, it points to a mysterious, organic connection with God that is
accomplished through Christ.
19. Advocationally* (1 John 2:1) – Christ Himself
actually makes intercession with the Father on our behalf when we sin. This is a unique and exclusive role.
My prayer is that after carefully considering this short list of
examples of the supremacy of Jesus Christ your soul is soaring to new heights
of appreciation for His majesty and glory and honor and power. That is the correct frame of mind with which
to consider every area of life. But in
particular, we must keep Christ’s authority in mind as we consider the very
next phrase in our passage: “Go therefore”. This is a curious phrase, perhaps rendered
more modernly in English as “Therefore, go…”
The emphasis here is on “therefore” rather than “go”, although most
bible translations position “go” first in order. This type of statement is called a
conjunction. Its purpose in grammar is
to show a relationship between two things, a cause and effect, or a sequence of
events. In this case, everything else
that Jesus says in this passage is informed by, dependent on, and enabled by
what He has just said, namely that “all authority in Heaven and on Earth has
been given to me.” So then, when we
consider that the rest of this passage is a set of instructions about how to do
global missions, it must be understood that missions is somehow directly
influenced and predicated upon this authority that has been given to Christ.
The question is, how and why?
To answer that we need to first explore the etymology of the words
mission and missionary. They are
actually a little more complicated to define biblically than you might think
because, perhaps surprisingly, neither is found anywhere in the bible. They are moderately recent terms, finding
their first known usage around 1600 A.D. by the order of Jesuits. Both words come from the Latin “mitto”, which
is itself a translation of the Greek apostollo, meaning to send. Ah hah!
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Apostollo has a familiar ring to it because it is the Greek root for
apostolos, meaning someone who is sent, which we translate into English as
apostle. This is a word that we are
obviously quite familiar with. So in a
very real sense, the word missionary is a modern version of the ancient word
apostle. This clue enables us to uncover
a sequence of thought that both helps to define missionary and to discover the
link between Christ's authority and the work of global missions that we have
seen in Matthew 28. We will begin by considering the usage of apostle in scripture.
1. The
twelve (Luke 6:13) – Here we see apostle used to refer specifically to those
twelve closest disciples of Jesus who He personally commissioned to be His
authoritative human representatives on Earth after His departure. These would be the men upon whom the primary
human burden of building up the church would fall.
2. Those
gifted (Eph. 4:11-12) – A second usage of apostle in scripture is seen here, in
this list of gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Apparently, some in the body of Christ are expressly commissioned by the
Holy Spirit as apostles, again meaning “sent ones.” In this context the word seems to have
broader application than just the twelve.
It could be that this category serves to capture all of the other high
ranking first century ministers who were not among the twelve, such as Paul,
Barnabas, and James the brother of Jesus.
3. Everyone
else (Acts 14:4, 14; 2 Cor. 8:23) – In Acts 14 we see apostle used to refer
specifically to Paul and Barnabas in verse 14.
The word is also used in verse 4 in what appears inconclusively to be a
broader sense. But the deal is sealed by
comparing those verses with the appearance of apostle in 2 Corinthians. In that passage the implication is obviously common
Christians. And the word used, although
translated into English in most bible versions as “messengers” is actually the
same Greek word “apostolos.” So there is
clearly a sense in which all believers, while not having the same level of
authority as the Apostles (with a capital A) are still considered apostles
(with a lower case a) and are commissioned as “sent ones.”
Now then, with those points in mind we need to consider the cultural
understanding of apostle in the Hellenistic world. The Greeks were seafarers. They first used this word “apostolos” in
maritime language to refer to ships or even fleets that were sent out into the
world, both in domestic and military applications. Further on in history “apostolos” came to
refer more specifically to either the military commander of these naval
expeditions or a group of colonists who were sent to settle new lands. So the idea here is not just of someone who
is sent, but a person or a group of persons who is sent with authority. And not just a small level of authority but
with the full authority of the government they had been sent by to increase the
influence of their home country.
If we draw “apostolos” back into a biblical context it should be
apparent that the government in Greek culture becomes Jesus Himself in this
usage. And the military commander or
group of colonists becomes individual or groups of Christians. And suddenly the link between Christ's
supremacy and the work of global missions leaps into focus. It is because of the authority granted to
Jesus that He sends us out into the world to make disciples with
authority. This is a critical
point that we dare not miss. Jesus
frames His speech such that the work of missions is directly related to and
enabled by His authority. So in a very
real and tangible way missions is all about Christ. But not just in the message. It is all about Him in even its existence as
a goal for the church. Colossians 1:16
comes to mind: all things have been
created through Him and for Him. Applied
to global missions we could say it like this.
Missions is about Christ, authorized by Christ, and for Christ.
As if that wasn't enough evidence, look at how Jesus chose to end His
statement in verse 20. “and lo, I am
with you always, even to the end of the age.” It is remarkable how He book ends this
sweeping statement on global missions with first His authority and finally His
presence. In fact, this is so
significant that I suggest we amend our summary of a moment ago to this:
Missions is about Christ, authorized by Christ, for Christ, and accompanied by
Christ. To take the words of Paul in
Ephesians 4 that He applied there to God the Father; Christ is over all and
through all and in all. Global missions
is all about Christ! Because of that it
is of exceedingly great importance. Its
centrality should be at the forefront of our thoughts and our minds and our
efforts as a body of believers. It is
absolutely unacceptable biblically to sideline missions in favor of other
pursuits. Or to relegate it to a backseat
because of difficult financial situations.
Or to be closed off personally to the possibility of being called to
global missions work as a missionary. If
we are to take any of those stances on this subject then we are to blatantly
defy the specific and clear teaching of Jesus Himself.
*I know that these words are not correct grammatically. However, I chose to ignore grammar in this
case to preserve the symmetry of words which identify areas in which the
supremacy of Christ can be seen.
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