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Q&A-12

120527PM

Questions answered:

What was the Great Commission and how does it relate to us today as Christians?

How do we know who to share the gospel with?

Did Jesus teach believer’s baptism?

120527PM Q&A Mt 28.docx

Q&A #12: The Church, The Mission Christ Gave,

&OUR Responsibility to that Mission

What Does the Phrase: “Great Commission Living”

Mean for us Today in the Church?

Matthew 28:18-20

Last week at our amazing baptism, communion, and Nepal Team commissioning service, we looked briefly at the Great Commission. That brief look prompted a question we need to address and understand more about. So tonight we’ll start with:

What did Jesus do on the mountain in Matthew 28? After 3 ½ years of training, Jesus assembled the remaining eleven and gave them a target, a mission for life. Most likely they never forgot that moment, much like others riveted in their minds: seeing the risen Christ, the day He called them, some of those awesome miracles like the calming the sea and the raising the dead.

But this one, in Matthew 28 was different. All of those events, miracles, and teaching times built up to Christ’s departure. Just before going back home to Heaven, Jesus asked the disciples to join Him for a time management, life-planning seminar. Jesus was going away, and much like a parent sending their child off to college, or that final talk before marriage: Jesus was saying, “Here are the final truths I want to leave with you. Always remember this!”

First, look at where Christ’s ministry fits in the flow of God’s Word:

  • Jesus took the Old Testament, affirmed it, and then applied it to both Israel as well as the His Church that was soon to be born at Pentecost.
  • Then, the mission that Jesus gave to His Apostles on the Mountain was then applied in both their ministries and in the Epistles. Most notably Paul, Peter, and James the brother of Jesus: applied Christ’s mission for the Church as they taught and wrote.

First, what exactly did Jesus say at the Great Commission?

There is a main verb and three supporting clauses. The central verb says make disciples (mathetes disciple 261x, matheteuo Matthew 3x; Acts 14:21)

Then, what exactly would He be referring to as what He commanded?

Finally, how do we see that fit into the ministry each of us in Christ’s Church are to have?

First, the syntax of the Great Commission: one primary clause, followed by 3 secondary clauses.

Second, the context of the Great Commission: Jesus lived and walked with 12 men He designated as His followers for 3 ½ years.

Then the exposition of the Great Commission: Jesus defined what a follower of Christ was, He interpreted and applied the Old Testament, and He trained the 12 to take His message out.

Finally, the application of the Great Commission: the New Testament epistles demonstrate the going, baptizing, and teaching. The question is, if we are part of that very same church Christ started, are we doing what He left us to do?

Back up to His closing stories, there is a sobering challenge in each of those in Matthew 25.