Lord’s Day, Vol. 10 No. 28
The Great Commission Is Holy Spirit-Led
The Great Commission is the last instruction of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to His disciples before His ascension to heaven. It is recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, Luke 24:44-48, John 20:21-23) and a fifth time in the record of practice in Acts 1:8, the summary statement of the entire Book of Acts. This must be the biblical starting point. Therefore, the first principle for missions and church growth must be to understand its divine strategy or blueprint, in the Great Commission.
The Great Commission is the first commandment of Jesus Christ, the Head of the church to His church. It is summarized in 2 commands (1) “mathēteúō” in Matthew 28:19 which means to make a disciple of someone or evangelise, instruct, or cause someone to become a follower of Christ, and (2) “kērússō” in Mark 16:15 which means to “preach”, to preach the gospel to every man.
The Book of Acts is a detailed account of how the apostles fulfilled the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20. The instruction to “Go” or “poreúomai” though a participle in the Greek which means “going”), lends its imperatival force from the Greek imperative “mathēteúō” translated as “make disciples”.
One cannot fulfil the command to make a disciple unless he first “go”. But it is noteworthy that this is a passive participle functioning as a passive verb. It is acceded that this verb in the passive is often rendered in its active form but this writer observes from a contextual and theological viewpoint that its use is passive. The passive voice means that the subject is being acted upon by someone or something else, there is a need to identify the agent of the action which can be traced to the Holy Spirit in Matthew 28:20, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
This is the Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus promised the prominence and leadership on earth of the third Person of the Holy Trinity in the fulfilment of the Great Commission, in John 16:7-8 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
Sin, righteousness and judgment are explained in the following verses in John 16:9-11 “Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” An example of Holy Spirit guidance in fulfilling the Great Commission is in the account of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:29 where the Holy Spirit gave the command for Philip to “go”, “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” The passive nature of the verb “Go” in Matthew 28:19 has its significance theologically in that it is not self-led but Holy Spirit-led, there is that dependence upon the Holy Spirit for every move.
It is the Holy Spirit that triggers and directs in the proclamation of the Gospel. In the Book of Acts are many scattered accounts on the dependence upon the Holy Spirit to accomplish the Great Commission for our pattern as the case in point, Philip the evangelist. It is also significant to note that nowhere in the Old Testament was Israel “sent” to the nations but rather Israel upholds a centrifugal and centripetal method of sacred magnetism that Israel, by living a life in the presence and fear of the Lord, was to experience the fullness of the blessings of God, in this way, they are to startle the nation’s attention, arouse their inquiry, and draw them like a magnet to Jerusalem and to the Lord.
The Great Commission is not a blind charging going aimlessly, but rather a Spirit-led journey. The Christian is sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and obeys in immediate action as did Philip the evangelist in Acts 8:26-40. The mechanics of the Great Commission necessitates a human instrument as the agent of the good news as described by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10:13-15 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
The gospel of John outlines the Great Commission in John 20:21-23 by emphasizing the spiritual aspect of the dependence on the Holy Spirit, Jesus said unto the disciples “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22b). George Peters aptly said “It is spoken to the disciples to teach the valuable lesson that the whole of Christian life and especially the Christian commission can be accomplished only in and through the Holy Spirit…already in the Old Testament it had been taught, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” Zech 4:6…How fully this was realized is well portrayed in the book of Acts, the book which has often been called the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit”.
In John 20:21, as the Father “hath sent me, even so send I you”. The word “sent” in Greek is “apostéllō” which is in the perfect tense, which presents action having reached its termination and existing in its finished result. God the Father has sent His Son Jesus Christ in the past and this action has an abiding result, the commission from the Father for Jesus is still binding today. Christ in turn sent the disciples. As Christ has sent his disciples, Christ continues to send out labourers today to fulfil the Great Commission as the very words of Christ in John 17:18 “As thou (Father) hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.”
It is noteworthy to emphasize here John 17:21 “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” In the believer, is indwelt the Holy Trinity – God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as taught our Lord Jesus in John 14:20 “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” John 20:23 does not teach that the disciples have the power to remit sins for such powers belong only to God alone. But rather as the Son was sent as a mediator, so the disciples have a mediatorial ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18) accomplished by the “word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19) which is the gospel. With prayer, let the Lord lead us! Amen.
Yours lovingly
Pastor Lek Aik Wee