Many Christians seek advice from the Great Commission, but what does it mean? This is the story…
Definition
The term ‘the Great Commission’ is used as a clarion call for Christians to take the Christian message and expand the Church. Various verses and passages within the New Testament are used to create a theology for the ‘Great Commission’.
It isn’t clear when the term the ‘Great Commission’ was first coined. The term isn’t utilized in the biblical text as such, although some modern Bibles may use it as a helpful sub-heading to Matthew 28:16-20. The first book in English with the title was ‘The Great Commission’ by Rev John Harris published in 1842.
The term seems to have been popularised within the Victorian era by James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905). He is commonly quoted as having said, ‘The Great Commission isn’t an choice to be considered, nevertheless it is a command to be obeyed.’ The phrase then comes into more regular usage in Victorian Christian writing from the 1870s.
The key biblical passage traditionally referred to as the ‘Great Commission’ is found in several forms in all of the synoptic Gospel accounts.
The Great Commission in line with Matthew
When the Great Commission is quoted it is generally with the words of Jesus which close Matthew: ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go due to this fact and make disciples of all nations, baptising them within the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to look at all that I even have commanded you. And behold, I’m with you mostly, to the top of the age’ (Matthew 28:18-20).
The Great Commission in line with Mark
The parallel passage at the top of Mark has ‘Go into all of the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised shall be saved, but whoever doesn’t consider shall be condemned’ (Mark 16:15-16). That that is what happened is then elaborated, when the Gospel then closes with the verse, ‘Then the disciples went out and preached all over the place, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it’ (Mark 16:18).
The Great Commission in line with Luke
Luke wrote ‘repentance for the forgiveness of sins shall be preached in his name to all nations, starting at Jerusalem’ (Luke 24:47). Luke continues the story within the Acts of the Apostles when he reports Jesus saying: ‘…you’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and also you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).
Making disciples was the first goal, and baptising and teaching are a part of that process.
Eschatology of Mission
Some people have an eschatological drive to their mission. They need to see the entire world evangelised. Jesus says in Matthew 24:14, ‘And this gospel of the dominion shall be preached in all of the world as a witness to all of the nations, after which the top will come’ (Matthew 24:14 NKJV). Then John wrote: ‘After this I looked, and there before me was a terrific multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb’ (Revelation 7:9).
Evangelisation
Some Christians talk optimistically about ‘ending the duty’, whether that’s world evangelism, Bible translation, or the Great Commission itself. In reality it’s an ongoing task, with the duty continuing with each latest generation, and Bible translation never finishes because Bibles have to be revised over time.
Evangelisation is the term used to mean taking the Christian message to individuals who shouldn’t have it. This isn’t a one-off process, and sometimes people speak about re-evangelisation for its ongoing work.
Mission has often been kick-started by outpourings of the Holy Spirit equivalent to among the many Moravians in 1727, the Methodist Evangelical Revival of the mid 1700s, and throughout the Welsh Revival of 1904. The American missionary Vincent Donovan, reflecting on his time with the Masai in East Africa in his book ‘Christianity Rediscovered’, wrote, ‘Evangelisation is a process bringing the gospel to people where they’re, not where you desire to them to be.’
Understanding the scope
Some Christian agencies take the phrase ‘every nation, tribe, people and language’ in Revelation 5:9 and echoed in Revelation 13:7, as something which shall be literally true, and strive to be sure that it is going to be. They aim to succeed in tribes, nations, people groups and languages with no or few Christian believers.
Sending
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the employees are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, due to this fact, to send out staff into his harvest field’ (Matthew 9:37-38). Jesus also said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I’m sending you’ (John 20:21).
The earliest missionary was Paul. He went on three missionary journeys and took the Christian message beyond the Jewish world to the Gentiles. He explained his rationale in Romans 10:14-15: ‘How, then, can they call on the one they’ve not believed in? And how can they consider within the one among whom they’ve not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they’re sent?’
These passages led to the concept that persons are ‘sent’ and the thought of ‘sending agencies’ that are mission agencies or missionary organisations, which facilitate and support the sending of people or teams to have interaction in Christian mission work.
It’s coming home
The traditional idea of the Great Commission being ‘Go!’ to mean go overseas is changing. Parts of the world are actually sending missionaries to the West, and it’s becoming more common to seek out missionaries from places like Brazil, Nigeria and Korea in Europe. Movements of individuals the world over are changing the character of mission. Many unreached peoples have representatives in the nice cities of the world in modern diasporas. Instead of ‘from the West to the Rest’ it’s now ‘everyone to all over the place’.
Mission and Technology
Reviewing the history of mission through the ages, sometimes latest initiatives in mission appear to have been preceded by technological breakthroughs. Think of the printing press which spread the Reformation, the event of ocean-going ships which took missionaries to far continents, and the fashionable digital developments enabling cell phone Bible apps.
Conclusion
The Great Commission stays a central tenet for Christians engaged in evangelism at home and overseas. The idea of the ‘Great Commission’ has driven evangelism through the centuries, but has been interpreted and applied theologically in other ways. The idea of mission all over the place is shown in some churches which have an indication by the exit, which reads, ‘You are actually entering the mission field.’ Perhaps we must always consider today’s world as pre-Revival relatively than post-Christian.
