We have seen that missions is rooted in the eternal purpose of God. Missions is also grounded in the atoning death of Christ. We will show here that missions is crowned by the Great Commission. The crown of a tree is its most visible part. It is supported by the sturdy trunk which is deeply rooted. We will explore the Great Commission in its broad outline by asking the questions, “Why is the Great Commission ‘great’?” “What should constitute the motivation for missions?” and “When will missions end?”
Why The Great Commission Is “Great”
The command given by the Lord to the apostles in Matthew 28:18-20 has been called “the Great Commission”. It says, ‘And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.’ Why is this command of the Lord called “the Great Commission”? There are many reasons.
The last command
One reason is that it is the last command of the Lord before He was taken up to heaven. We know how it is that people tend to utter the most important matter just before parting ways. Other matters may have been said, but the last instruction is the most important because it is intended to be remembered by the other party. This command is given at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. It is as though Matthew wishes to leave his readers with this command ringing in their ears. The command is repeated in Acts 1:8, before the Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven. It seems clear that the Lord intended His disciples to remember this last command of His after He had gone away.
A repeated command
Another reason is that this command was repeated many times after the Lord’s resurrection. It is not only recorded in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8, but also in Mark 16:15-16 and Luke 24:46-49. This occurred in different settings, and on different occasions. The very fact that it was repeated that many times shows the importance of this command.
The “greater works”
There is a third reason why this command has been called “the Great Commission”, namely that it involves the “greater works” promised by the Lord. In John 14:12 the Lord Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” Bible commentators, like William Hendriksen (Hendriksen, 1976), argue convincingly that the “greater works’ referred to here are the works connected with the preaching of the gospel. When Jesus Christ was on earth, He was confined to the region of Palestine. His ministry was short-lived. In three years of public ministry, He was cut off. He knew, however, that His work would be continued through His disciples. It was His intention that it should be carried on by the apostles and the disciples after them. This is what He prayed for in the high-priestly prayer of John 17.
As far as the extent and scope of gospel preaching are concerned, we are able to cover more than the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not confined to the land of Palestine, nor to the Jewish people alone. We are able to reach more peoples — more nations, or tribes, or ethnic groups — than were reached by the Lord. We are, in fact, doing the “greater works” that the Lord had promised to His disciples. Of course, no disciple can be greater than the Master. In terms of what we are, whether considered individually or collectively, we can never be greater than the Lord. But in terms of the works that He has assigned to us, we are accomplishing more than what He did when He was on earth. He is the One who has given us these “greater works”, which are encapsulated in the Great Commission.
An abiding command
The fourth reason why this command is regarded as great is because of its abiding nature. The Lord intended the gospel to be carried to all nations in the world. In their lifetime, the apostles could reach only the peoples in the regions around the Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, the Lord promised to be with His disciples “to the end of the age”. This will not make sense unless we understand it to mean that the Lord will be with the apostles and all other disciples after them, as is indicated in the high-priestly prayer of John 17. The Great Commission is a command to God’s people until the end of the age. From that point of view also, it is “great”.
The culmination of prophecies
There is a fifth reason why this command is truly great. It is the fact that it constitutes the culmination of all the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the ingathering of God’s people, both Jews and Gentiles, to be members of Christ’s body. This is the “mystery” that was revealed to the apostles, namely, that the gospel concerning “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2) is to be preached to all nations (Rom. 16:25-27; 2 Cor. 2:6-8; Eph. 3:1-7).
A mandate with a clear objective
The sixth reason why this command is great is the fact that it is no ordinary command. The stature of the giver, the actual recipient, and the overall objective makes this command take on the status of a Commission. The command comes from none other than the King of kings and the Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14; 19:16). It was planned in eternity past that the Son should judge the world (John 5:22, 26-27). The resurrected Lord is now glorified. He is seated on the throne in heaven, ruling over the universe. It does not appear yet that all things are under His authority and rule, but the process of bringing all things under His rule has begun. We are told this in Philippians 2:9-11,
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is clearly stated also in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28). The Trinitarian God is sovereign and in control of all things from the beginning, and will be in control of all things to all eternity. As the Son of God born incarnate, i.e. as the Son of Man, He began to execute His rule from His glorification. The Great Commission was given to the church by the risen Lord on the eve of His glorification. The recipient of this command is the church militant, that is the church that is on earth — consisting of all true believers who are gathered as local churches. The overall objective is to build up the church of Jesus Christ by planting local churches. The sub-objectives include the making of disciples of all the nations, the ordering (i.e. the putting into order) of local churches, and the sanctification and training of members of the local churches.
A mandate given to the church militant to accomplish the exalted task of building up the church of Jesus Christ, through the planting of local churches, is rightly called “the Great Commission”.
The uniqueness of the gospel age
This last reason deserves more attention because it links the Great Commission theologically to the atoning death of Christ and to God’s eternal purpose. In other words, it helps us to see the Great Commission as the crown of the tree that is supported by the trunk of Christ’s atoning death, and which is rooted firmly in the eternal purpose of God. Acts 2:17-21 is a key passage which says,
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’
The apostle Peter was explaining the phenomenon of tongue-speaking, in which the apostles were taking turns to proclaim the gospel in different languages that they had not learned before. Peter quoted from the Old Testament prophet Joel which declared the uniqueness of the gospel age. There are three parts to the prophecy. The first part consists of verses 17 and 18 which describes the beginning of the gospel age when the Holy Spirit was poured out on God’s people, causing them to prophesy, see visions, and dream dreams. In other words, there would be signs and wonders among God’s people, as was happening on the day of Pentecost. The second part of the prophecy consists of verses 19 and 20 which describes the end of the gospel age. There would be upheaval in the universe, affecting the earth and other planets and stars. The sun will turn dark while the moon becomes like blood. These signs would accompany the return of the Lord to judge the world. These signs correspond to the description of the Lord’s return in Matthew 24:29-31 and Revelation 6:12-17. The signs among God’s people marked the beginning of the gospel age, while the signs in the heavenly realm will mark the end of the gospel age. The third part of the prophecy consists of verse 21, which is the period marked out by the signs at the beginning and at the end. During this period, “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. In other words, this is the period when the Great Commission is carried out.
The uniqueness of the gospel age as prophesied by Joel may be compared to special events such as the Olympic Games. The Games open with celebration — including a parade of the teams, speeches, cultural shows, and fireworks. The Games also close with celebration of like nature. The celebrations are at the beginning and the end of the Games only. In the period between the celebrations, the various teams compete against one another in the various events, for that is why they have come together. We do not expect the celebration at the beginning to continue through to the end. Similarly, the signs marking the beginning of the gospel age were not expected to last through the gospel age. Those who claim the continuance of the extraordinary signs of the Holy Spirit are not only mistaken in their understanding of Scripture, but fail to see the purpose of those signs. The expectation of those signs and the claim of tongue-speaking, healing and prophecy are a serious distraction to the proclamation of the gospel.
The Great Commission is the means used by God to call out the elect, in fulfilment of the covenant promises of the Old Testament. The gospel that is proclaimed to all the nations is used by the Holy Spirit to apply the atoning death of Christ to the elect. The redeemed of the Lord are gathered into local churches so that their faith may be nurtured. As the believers are edified by the word in the local churches, the universal church of Jesus Christ is being sanctified and cleansed by the Lord — “… with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:26-27).” We see, then, that souls are saved in the gospel age by the fulfilment of the Great Commission, to await the gathering together of all the redeemed of the Lord during “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9). “And they shall reign forever and ever (Rev. 22:5).”
Our view of the uniqueness of the gospel age, coupled with our view of when the world will end (see below), means that we see the millennium (1000 years) of Revelation 20 figuratively and being fulfilled now. The events recorded in the chapter are not to be taken as happening chronologically. The book of Revelation is a book of prophecy that is full of visions and symbolism. This is no license for us to engage in wild and fanciful interpretation. The normal rules of interpretation still applies, e.g. taking the text plainly, in context, comparing scripture with scripture, understanding the obscure in the light of the clear, etc. We are in agreement with William Hendriksen’s outline of the book which sees it as portraying the gospel age in parallel symbolism, instead of chronologically. Yes, we hold to Amillennialism, and not to Postmillennialism or Premillennialism, believing it to be the most consistent view of Eschatology. The seven churches of Asia in the first three chapters of the book is a reference to all the churches of the Lord throughout the gospel age, for seven is the number of God’s perfection. There were other churches in the Roman province of Asia that are not included, e.g. the churches in Colossae, Hierapolis, and Troas (Acts 20:6; Col. 4:13). Similarly, the 144,000 “of all the tribes of the children of Israel” of Revelation 7:4ff. is not to be taken in a literalistic manner. The millennium of Revelation is the gospel age that began with Christ’s first coming (some would say with Pentecost) and will end with Christ’s return to judge the world. We are in the “last days” (Acts 2:17; 2 Tim. 3:1; Heb. 1:2; etc.), when the Great Commission is carried out so that the elect may be called out of darkness, into God’s kingdom (Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9).
We see, then, the unique place of the Great Commission in the eternal plan of God. The Old Testament prophesied of the calling in of the elect from all nations to be God’s covenant people. The New Testament elaborates on how the gospel is to be carried to all nations for the calling out of the elect. If the Great Commission encapsulates such an all-pervasive truth of the Bible, the failure to carry out that Commission is serious indeed!
The Great Commission is a command that is truly “great”. The gospel age is unique in the plan of God.
The Motivation For Missions
What should provide the motivation to carry out the Great Commission? To answer this question, we begin by an analysis of the Great Commission.
An analysis
The Great Commission was given in slightly different forms, on different occasions, in the New Testament. The fullest account is found in Matthew 28:18-20. It consists of three parts. There is the preamble, or introduction, in verse 18. There is the precept, or rule of action, in verses 19 and 20. There, finally, is the promise found at the end of verse 20. Each of these parts may be regarded as serving the purposes of providing the power, the motive, and the comfort to the execution of the Great Commission. We may summarise the Great Commission in a table.
The precept
We begin with the precept, which constitutes the main thrust of the Great Commission. The sentence is actually couched in the imperative sense. We are taught in school that a sentence can be in the inquisitive sense, or the declarative sense, or the imperative sense. A sentence given in the inquisitive sense is actually a question. A mother may say, “Children, have you brushed your teeth?” That is in the inquisitive, in which an inquiry is made. The children may answer, “We have brushed our teeth.” That will be a sentence in the declarative sense, since it declares, or makes a statement. Instead of asking a question, the mother may say, “Children, go and brush your teeth.” That will be a sentence of the imperative sense. It is the giving of a command.
In the original Greek, the precept consists of a main clause, “Make disciples of all the nations”. This is in the imperative sense. It defines for us the task to be carried out. Attached to this main clause are three participles — namely, “going”, “baptising”, and “teaching” — which are also in the imperative sense. These participles define for us the objective of the Great Commission, which is the planting of local churches to build up the church of Jesus Christ. Put together, we have a sentence which comes across clearly as a command, which is not lost to us in the English translation.
The motive
This leads us to consider the motive for carrying out the Great Commission. Since its main thrust — the precept — is basically a command to accomplish a clear objective, it is actually a duty that is laid upon us to carry out. We have no choice in the matter. It is not an option. It must be carried out. Failure to do so will be tantamount to rebellion against our Lord and Saviour. It will be tantamount to rejecting Him as the Head of the church. As God’s people, we do want to obey Him! As a redeemed people, we do want to follow our Lord and Saviour! Joyful obedience is a mark of true discipleship.
We know that everything we do must be to glorify God. We are reminded of what the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory God.” We wish to do everything to the glory of God — including the carrying out of the Great Commission. That will be the ultimate reason for everything that we do. However, the immediate reason for carrying out the Great Commission is obedience to a command of the Lord.
Our obedience to the Lord is to be a joyful one. Not only do we wish to do it to the glory of God, we wish also to do it out of love for Him. We are able to love God because He first loved us. If we love God, we should also “love our neighbours as ourselves”, as the Lord teaches in the Gospels. There may also be other legitimate motives for carrying out the Great Commission, such as love for perishing souls, concern for friends and relatives who are living in ignorance of the gospel, the shortness of time to do God’s work, and desire to see God’s name honoured in the world. These motives, however, are secondary to obedience to the Lord. We would maintain that joyful obedience to the Lord constitutes the immediate and primary motive for carrying out the Great Commission.
The preamble
We consider, next, the preamble to the Great Commission. A command will need to be obeyed. But where are we to get the power to carry it out? The task spelled out for us is itself so daunting. We are to “make disciples of all the nations”. We may have the desire to obey the Lord, but we may not be equal to the task.
Consider the nature of the task — we are “to make disciples” of others. If you understand what is involved in this, you will know that it is beyond human ability to accomplish. Who can convert a sinner who is “dead in trespasses and sin”? Who can change his nature? Can an Ethiopian change his skin? Can a leopard change its spots? We know that a sinner cannot change himself. We know also that, left to ourselves, none of us can change him.
Consider also the scope of the task — we are to make disciples of all nations. Not only are we required to reach out to individuals, we are also required to reach out to various ethnic groups — for, that is what “the nations” (Greek, ta ethne) mean. An individual cannot accomplish all this. The whole church together cannot accomplish all this. Yet, it is required of us to carry out the Great Commission! We know that it is not expected of us to accomplish it in a lifetime. But, surely, it is required of us to do our utmost to contribute to its fulfilment.
Combine these difficulties with our own infirmities, and you will see the sheer impossibility of anyone accomplishing the task. How often it is that we are cast down because of our own sins and the many discouragements that beset us! We are sinners living in a sinful world, in which the devil reigns. Friends and foes alike may constitute hindrances and discouragements to us. Not all our friends will see things the same way with regard to the fulfilment of the Great Commission. The enemies of the gospel make deliberate efforts to frustrate the spread of the gospel. The devil uses various means to prevent us from preaching, and the hearers from responding to, the gospel.
It is here that we come to appreciate the authority of Christ behind the command. We are sent forth to the task by none other than the King of kings, and the Lord of lords! It is the Lord of glory Himself who is entrusting us with this commission. We, therefore, go forth in His name — by His authority and in His power! Who can stops? Who dare to oppose us? He who attempts to stop us is fighting against the Lord and Master of the universe! He who dares to oppose us is opposing the One who sends us! You would remember what happened to Saul when he persecuted the Christians. While on the road to Damascus, the Lord appeared and questioned him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” The Lord did not say, “Why are you persecuting the church?” but “Why are you persecuting Me?” In our weakness, we look to the Lord for strength. His grace is sufficient for us!
The power
The power, or ability, to carry out the Great commission, therefore, is from the Lord. Remember what the apostle Paul says about the preaching of the gospel: “To this end I also labour, striving according to His working which works in me mightily (Col. 1:29).” Remember also what he says in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?” The Lord will enable His people to preach the gospel.
The power to convert souls also is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word of God will be used by Him to convert sinners. The Spirit of God will use the proclaimed word to transform souls and give them spiritual life. God will honour the means He has appointed to call out the elect form the world. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17).” When people are converted, it will be because they have “obeyed the truth through the Spirit”, and “been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever (1 Pet. 1:22-23).”
The promise
There also is the promise of Christ’s presence. The precept provides us with the motive for missions. The preamble gives us the power to carry on the work. The promise comforts us in our trials. Yes, trials there will be if we are intent on carrying out the Great Commission! Which faithful servant of God has not suffered? The Lord Himself suffered. His apostles suffered. If we are going to be useful to the Lord, we must be prepared to suffer for the faith. Those who do not persevere to the end will drop out of the race. Those who do not have the grit — the endurance — will not be able to accomplish much good. That is because “Rome was not built in a day” — converts are not made overnight, and a local church is not built in a day.
We have Christ’s enabling power to do the work, and we have His promise to be with us to the end. We know that the Lord is faithful, and He will not break His words. He is not like men, the most trustworthy of whom cannot be fully trusted. Often it is that we are greatly disappointed by the people we trusted. This is something that we learn as we get older — the circle of trustworthy friends becomes smaller and smaller! There have been times when we wonder who will fail us next. And we have often wondered whether it is worthwhile continuing in the work. Friends may become enemies. The most sincere and loyal of friends is but a man. He is capable of falling. The Lord, however, will not fail us. Everything else around us might crumble, but the Lord will be with us still. Thanks be to the Lord for such an assurance!
The comfort
We derive comfort from the promise of Christ’s presence as we serve Him. He is present to guide, strengthen and protect us, as well as providing us our needs. The apostle Paul was comforted by the assurance of the Lord’s presence in a period of intense ministry in Corinth, plagued with opposition from the enemies of the gospel (Acts 18:9-11):
Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Another passage should be linked to the promise of Christ’s presence in the Great commission, i.e. John 12:24-26,
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
This writer confesses to being perplexed by the many well-known commentators who interpret the second part of verse 26 as a reference to heaven, “…and where I am, there My servant will be also.” We know that the last part, “him, My Father will honour”, concerns heaven, for it is a clear teaching of Scripture that those who are faithful to the Lord will be honoured by the Father when we arrive in heaven (Matt. 25: 21, 23; Rom. 8:17). The sentence before it, however, is concerned with the presence of the Lord during service. The commentators seem to have come to a different conclusion by a comparison of with the words in John 7:34 and 36, “You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.” While the immediate context of John 7 concerns the departure of Christ to heaven, that of John 12 is about self-denying service arising from whole-hearted commitment to Christ. One should at least allow for the possibility of understanding John 12:26 in the light of its immediate context, and by comparison with Acts 18:9-11 and Matthew 28:20. The missionary Charles R. Marsh expressed these thoughts — self-denying service, suffering, and the Lord’s presence — in his poem (Marsh, 1976):
I wanted to sow in a fertile field
That bordered a pleasant land,
Where fellowships sweet their joys would yield,
And comfort be mine to command.
He gave me instead, a barren spot
In a land that was wild and drear,
Where peril and hardship must be my lot,
Afar from all I held dear.
But I learned that the field of His choice was fair,
Far better than any beside,
For the Master, also, laboured there —
My strength, my Companion and Guide.
The motivation
There is a difference between “motive” and “motivation”. The motive is the reason or rationale behind an action. The motivation is what impels us to action. We have the motive for carrying out the Great Commission, we have the power provided for its accomplishment, and we have the comfort of Christ’s presence in the process of carrying it out. These three — the motive, the power, and the comfort — should, together, give us the motivation to carry out this glorious task.
We know what it is like with people who have no motivation to do anything. Everything is done in a listless, half-hearted way. When the spirit is crushed, all motivation is destroyed. It is a terrible thing to have no motivation to live the Christian life. That is why we must be so careful not to crush the spirit of any believer who is intent on serving the Lord. We must not break the bruised reed; we must not quench the smoking flax. Woe to those who cause Christ’s servants to stumble! William Carey carried with him into the mission field “an abashing rebuke” from a senior pastor for advocating missions to the heathens (Appleby, 2007). Of the twelve spies sent out to survey the land of Canaan, only Joshua and Caleb gave a positive report (Num. 13, 14). Few are the ones who have the spirit of Joshua and Caleb today!
We are discussing the motivation for carrying out the Great Commission. We note that the apostle Paul suffered much in the ministry. Yet, he refused to allow his motivation to be extinguished. Hear what he says in Colossians 1:24, 28-29, “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church…Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” Look at another example. In 2 Timothy 2:10, the apostle says, “Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”
The Great Commission is truly “great”. For it to be fulfilled well, God’s people must capture the right motivation for missions.
When Missions Will End
To determine when missions will end we need to determine the scope and objective of the Great Commission. The Matthew 28:16-20 passage is the fullest account of the Great Commission but it is, by itself, not the full account. To have the full account, we must look at the parallel passages, including Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:36-49; and John 20:19-23; as well as the teaching given on other occasions, including Acts 1:6-8 and Matthew 9:35-38. The last of these passages is particularly instructive.
The occasion was when a great crowd of people gathered around the Lord to hear Him preach. We are told that the Lord was moved with compassion upon seeing the multitudes who came to Him. This is a characteristic of the Lord — He looked upon the spiritually needy people around Him with compassion. He was capable of strong actions — as when He overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple area. He was also capable of using strong words — as when He rebuked the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites, vipers, and whitewashed sepulchres. The dominant characteristic of our Lord’s ministry, however, was His compassion for the souls around Him. This is consistent with His role as the Good Shepherd, who had come to die for His sheep. We are told that “He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd (Matt. 9:36).” This shows that our Lord was not merely concerned to save souls, but also to have them gathered into local congregations in which His people may be properly shepherded. The founding of local churches was always in the mind of the Lord. This is the objective of the Great commission.
Spatial and temporal aspects
Practically speaking, the founding of a local church begins with the salvation of souls. The Lord said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest (vv. 37-38).” If we stop to ponder for a moment, it becomes clear that more is said than is at first apparent. If the Lord was concerned only for the crowd of people immediately before Him, He could have preached to them there and then, and saved as many of them as He wanted, by an act of His divine power. Or, He could have assigned His disciples to minister to them in groups immediately — as He did when He fed the five thousands and the four thousands — and saved as many as were destined to be saved. The work would have been done. There would have been no need for the disciples to pray for labourers. But the language employed by the Lord shows that He was referring to the general situation, and not to the particular situation before Him — and He was referring to the situation that extends to the future, and not just to the moment. There is thus a spatial as well as a temporal aspect to the Great Commission.
The spatial aspect is clear to all. In Matthew 28:19, we are told, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” Mark 16:15 says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature…” Acts 1:8 says, “…you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The Great Commission requires that we take the gospel to those who are afar off. This has been well understood by generations of Christians, and it has spawned many missionary bodies which sent out preachers to every corner of the earth. In the Matthew 9 passage, we must understand that the Lord was seeing the crowd before Him as a microcosm of the multitudes in the world. The Lord’s burden was not just for the crowd immediately before His eyes. Labourers must be sent forth to reap the harvest farther and farther away. This is the spatial aspect of the Great Commission.
There is also the temporal aspect to the Great Commission. We are told in Matthew 28:20, “…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The Lord promises to be with His people to the end of the age. The apostles did not live to the end of the age. The Lord could not be referring to them only. He must have meant the apostles and all the disciples after them. In what sense will He be with His people? Put another way, in connection with what task will He be present with His people? Most Christians would answer, “In connection with carrying the gospel farther and farther afield.” The answer appears to be so obviously correct in view of its context. Yet a closer scrutiny shows that that is only part of the answer. We are not saying that it is the wrong answer, but that it is only part of the answer.
To get the full answer, we must remember that salvation comes to people individually, and not by virtue of their birth into a Christian family or a Christian community. Another way of stating this truths that the manner of salvation is individualistic, while the end of salvation is communal. An individual who is saved must get baptised to become a member of a local church. Since salvation comes to people individually, the gospel needs to be proclaimed, not only to raw pagans, but also to the children and grandchildren of those who have already believed. When a family or a community turns to Christ, we must ensure that the gospel is proclaimed to the subsequent generations. Otherwise, that community or family will become nominally Christian, whose members are unregenerate. Today, many so-called Christian nations are in such a state. Britain and America are only Christian in name —the true Christians number only a few percent of the total population. The Arab countries used to be centres of Christianity in the time of the apostles, but have become pagan after being conquered by the Muslims. The Orang Ulu (highland peoples) in Sarawak, Malaysia, experienced two main waves of revival in the 1960s and the 1970s (Lees, S. 1979), but they are today largely nominal. Such communities need to be evangelised as much as those that have never heard the gospel. This is the temporal aspect of gospel preaching.
We see this teaching given in Acts 2:39 as well. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached a powerful sermon which led to the conversion of about three thousand souls. In the sermon, he called upon the people, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Verse 39 follows, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” This verse has been much controverted in regard to baptism — whether infants born to believers are to be baptised. But we must not be diverted by the controversy to the extent that we fail to see the plain teaching contained in it. The promise of salvation — including the remission of sins and the reception of the Holy Spirit — is given to the immediate hearers, to their children (i.e. their descendants), and to all who are afar off. This is not a blanket promise to all and sundry, but to “as many as the Lord our God will call.” All are saved in the same way, namely by the calling of the Lord, when the gospel is preached. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17).” The apostle is saying here that the same message of salvation heard by the crowd before him needs to be preached to the subsequent generations as well as to those who are afar off. These are the temporal and spatial aspects of the Great Commission.
Coming back to the Matthew 9 passage, we need to see also the temporal and spatial aspects of the Lord’s words. He says, in verse 37, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.” The apostles were representatives of the churches. A command or teaching given to them, which is not tied to their unique office as apostles, or to the unique circumstances of the time, is meant for all the churches through the ages. Just as the apostles were commanded to pray for labourers, churches today must pray for labourers. If the harvest was plentiful, and the labourers few, in the time of the apostles, so it is today. The crowd before the Lord’s eyes was a microcosm of the multitudes throughout the world; it is also a microcosm of the multitudes down the centuries. The people who were there at that time needed to be saved, and so did their descendants. The spatial and temporal aspects of the gospel must not be missed in this passage of Scripture.
When the world will end
This leads us to the question, “When will the world end?” This is prompted by the common understanding of Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Many are those who claim that the end of the world will coincide with the evangelisation of all the nations of the world. This belief is then used to bolster motivation to evangelise as many nations as quickly as possible, so as to hasten the coming of the Lord. However, there are many problems, both theological and practical ones, connected with this understanding of the verse. Firstly, there is the theological problem that we will then be able to predict, to a high degree of proximity, the time of the Lord’s coming, which will contradict the teaching of the New Testament that no one knows that time (Matt. 24:36). Secondly, there is the practical difficulty of determining what constitutes a language group, for as a language is divided and subdivided, the boundaries between sub-dialects become more and more blurred. Although a case can be made out that a nation is distinguished primarily by its language, the method of defining a nation solely by this criteria is actually a human, and not a biblical, one. If this understanding of when the world will end is wrong, as we are contending, the possibility exists that the Lord might not come for another millennium, or more, after the last “nation” in the world has been evangelised. Is the church then to rest complacent while waiting for the Lord’s return, since the Great Commission will have been successfully carried out, according to this view?
For the correct understanding of Matthew 24:14, we must note that the emphasis is on the preaching of the gospel to all the people of the earth, and not on the differentiation of the people into different nations. The verse says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” The phrase “as a witness to all nations” is explanatory of the preaching to all the world. All the inhabitants of the world, regardless of ethnic groups, are to be reached by the gospel. Among those who hear the gospel, some will be saved while others will harden themselves and be condemned (Ezek. 33:8-9; 2 Cor. 2:15-16). With all the preaching engaged in by all Christians, the greater part of the world does not hear the gospel because the labourers are always few. Many in the world will perish without hearing the gospel, while others will perish even with the hearing of the gospel. The case with the elect is different, however. Not a single one of them will be lost. The normal method, ordained by God, for them to be saved is by the hearing of the gospel (Rom. 10:17; 1 Pet. 1:23). The urgency in gospel preaching lies in the need for all the elect to be called out of the world by the gospel. Indeed, the context of Matthew 24:14 shows that the objective of gospel preaching is the calling out of the elect from the world. Verse 13 says, “But he who endures to the end will be saved.” The next passage, from verse 15 to verse 28 (which many understand to be a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70) also concerns the elect (see vv. 22 and 24). The verses following, which obviously refer to the return of the Lord, again have the elect in view (see v. 31).*
Based on these considerations, we conclude that the objective of the Great Commission is the calling out of the elect from the world to be gathered into local churches, while the scope of the Great Commission covers “all nations”, i.e. all people, regardless of ethnicity, culture, language, or the time they live in. The truth that none of God’s elect will perish is taught clearly in various parts of the Bible, e.g. John 10:27-28; Romans 11:26; 1 Thessalonians 4 :17; Genesis 19:22. This is the doctrine of “the perseverance of the saints”, which is the alternative name for the doctrine of “the preservation of the saints”. Matthew 24:14 is saying that the end will come when all the elect are called out of all the nations, and not when all the nations are evangelised. The calling out of all the elect might — or it might not — coincide with the evangelisation of the last “nation”, no matter how it is defined. The important point is that we have a responsibility of proclaiming the gospel to all until the Lord returns, even when all “nations” have been evangelised. Those who associate the end of the world with the evangelising of the last nation on earth have not only wrongly understood Matthew 24:14, but also confused the objective of the Great Commission with the scope of the Great Commission.
Where Christ is not named?
What we have learned thus far appears to contradict the approach of the apostle Paul in his missionary endeavours, for he says in Romans 15:20, “And so I made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation.” Here, the apostle seems to be concerned only with the spatial aspect of the Great Commission, and not with the temporal. A little thought will show that that is not the case. Firstly, it is to be noted that the Great Commission was being carried out for the first time, covering the first generation of hearers. The temporal aspect need time to come into effect, for it is to the subsequent generations that this aspect of the Great commission applies. Secondly, it is to be noted that the apostle did not mean to be understood in a crass, literal, sense of him not wanting to preach wherever there was already a Christian witness. This is clear form the fact that he was ready to preach in Rome, which was already evangelised by others, for he says, in Romans 1:15, “So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.”
What, then, did the apostle mean when he said that he aimed to preach where Christ was not named? Was he engaging in rivalry with other preachers? Was he attempting to avoid misunderstanding with those who founded the church in Rome? To both questions we answer in the negative. The apostle had his own sphere of ministry, as is clear from 2 Corinthians 10:13-16, but that does not mean he was not in fellowship with other churches, nor that he isolated himself form others. He was, in fact, in close touch with other churches and was well-informed of the situation elsewhere. Within his own sphere of ministry, gospel work was carried out with the involvement of the churches in that sphere (Acts 20:4; 2 Cor. 8:16-24). By implication, there was at least another sphere of ministry, revolving around the churches in Jerusalem, in which the other apostles were based (cf. 1 Cor. 9:5). Churches in the two main spheres of ministry were obviously in touch with one another and working in co-operation. This is indicated by the facts that brethren from the church in Jerusalem came to Antioch to preach (Acts 15:1, 24), that the churches in Paul’s sphere of ministry contributed to the need of the churches in Judea (Rom. 15:25-26; 2 Cor. 8:1-7), and that Peter wrote to the same churches that Paul had written to (2 Pet. 3:15-16).
The immediate context Romans 15:20 shows that Paul was referring to his ministry as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ (see vv. 17-21). He was consciously fulfilling his ministry as the apostle to the Gentiles (v. 18; Gal. 2:7-9). It was a ministry unique to an apostle, which no other Christian today can imitate. We are not denying that the apostle’s ministry was also a fulfilling of the Great Commission, which is applicable to all churches until Christ returns. What we are saying is that the apostle was not minimising, much lest negating, the temporal aspect of the Great Commission.
Summary
The Great Commission is truly “great”. It is given by the risen Lord, to the church, as an abiding command, to reach all the nations with the gospel. For it to be fulfilled well, God’s people must capture the right motivation for missions. The motivation for missions arises from the knowledge that it is the risen Lord who has given us the command, which we want to joyfully obey, since it is accompanied by the promise of His presence to comfort, protect and empower us. The Great Commission has a spatial, as well as a temporal, aspect. The church must stretch its gospel efforts to reach people in distant places as well as to the people of the future generations. The gospel must be proclaimed to raw pagans as well as to nominal Christians. The objective of the Great Commission is the calling out of the elect to form them into local churches. The scope of the Great commission covers all the people in the world, of all generation, till Christ comes again.
It is appropriate to close with an application. You have just had a good meal, and the host says, “Its time to wash the dishes.” The host will not be too pleased if you allow him to proceed with the clearing and washing the dishes all alone, while you remain seated. When the Lord told the apostles, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest”, they knew that they were not just to pray, but to consider becoming the labourers who were so much needed. Today, the disciples of Christ must consider becoming the labourers themselves, while praying for other labourers to be raised. Have you prayed about becoming a labourer in the harvest?
Footnote
* In Matthew 24:14, the word translated “world” is actually oikoumene, used only a total of 12 times in the New Testament, and not the more commonly used word kosmos, which is found over 180 times in the New Testament. The word oikoumene is derived from the word oikos, which means a house or a dwelling place. A better translation of the word is “inhabited earth” rather than the more general “world”. The emphasis falls on the inhabitants rather than on the habitat. The phrase “as a witness to all nations” is the adjunct to “preached in all the world”. The conjunctions “and then”, kai tote, should be linked to the preaching of the gospel to all the world, and not to the adjunct.
References
1. Appleby, John. 2007. I Can Plod. Evangelical Press.
2. Hendriksen, William, 1976. New Testament Commentaries: John. The Banner of Truth Trust.
3. Hendriksen, William. 1980. More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Baker Book House.
4. Lees, Shirley. 1979. Drunk Before Dawn. OMF International (UK).
5. Marsh, Charles R. 1976. Too Hard For God?. Echoes of Service.
Recommended Reading
Lees, Shirley. 1979. Drunk Before Dawn. OMF International (UK).
Marsh, Charles R. 1976. Too Hard For God?. Echoes of Service.
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