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THE GOSPEL: FOR HERE OR TO GO? (Part 2 of
6) By Keith Giles
[part
1] [part
2] [part
3] [part
4] [part 5] [part 6]
In the closing words of the Gospel of
Matthew, Jesus leaves us with what has become
known as “The Great Commission”. In it,
Jesus charges his disciples with a set of
tasks until he returns. Here’s what Jesus
commands us to do:
1) Go out into the world and make
disciples.
2) Baptize these disciples in the name of
the Trinity.
3) Teach them to obey everything Jesus
commanded us.
If we take a moment to evaluate how we, the
Church, have done in accomplishing these
tasks, I think we’ll see where we’ve
missed the mark, and hopefully where we need
to get back on track.
First, we’re called to go. It seems
simple enough, but what frustrates me is how
often I see us in the Church twisting this
into a more comfortable format. For the most
part, the organized Church has built a model
of evangelism and discipleship that says,
“Come to us”. We build large buildings, we
buy plasma television screens to announce our
upcoming events, we host large-scale musicals
and plays to dramatize the Gospel, and we
instruct our members to invite their friends
to Church so that the professional clergy can
do the evangelizing.
I’m not trying to say that these methods
are wrong or evil, but just that we’ve taken
a very simple and clear command to “Go”
and made it into a call for the lost to
“Come to us”. This isn’t what Jesus
commanded us to do. Jesus very easily could
have commanded us to create inviting
environments where the lost feel welcome. He
could have commanded us to make space for
unbelievers to show up and meet us on our
terms, but he didn’t. He commanded us that
we should go out and, in the course of our
everyday, regular life, communicate and live
out the message of the Gospel among those we
encounter everyday.
Secondly, Jesus commands us to make
disciples. A disciple is someone who is daily,
intentionally following Jesus with their whole
life. A disciple is not a convert. If you take
a look at how our local churches practice
evangelism you’ll probably see a lot
emphasis placed on winning people to Christ,
getting them to come forward in the meeting to
make a public profession of faith, and not as
much emphasis on taking them from this first
step into all the other steps that follow.
As one example, I recently came across a
very helpful tool called “The Engel’s
Scale” which charts the slow progression by
degrees of those who are far from God and how
they slowly come to faith in Christ over time
and with the assistance of loving friends and
the Holy Spirit.
What I found troubling about the scale was
that it stopped at conversion. As if, after
the conversion experience, we no longer had
any need to chart their ongoing development
and discipleship to Jesus.
Again, the entire emphasis was on
conversion, not on discipleship.
I understand that there are exceptions to
this in the Body of Christ, and for that I am
very grateful. I’m simply pointing out that,
at least as far as I have seen, most modern
American Churches seem to focus entirely too
much on conversion and not enough on
discipleship, which is expressly what Jesus
commanded us to focus on.
Thirdly, Jesus commands us in the Great
Commission to “teach them to obey everything
I have commanded”. I find this part the most
painful to explore. Simply put, I have never
once encountered a church or a ministry where
the main goal was to emphasize the commands of
Jesus or to communicate a strong expectation
of obedience for those who would call
themselves disciples of Jesus.
If you want to know whether or not the
Church has been obedient in the third section
of The Great Commission, just ask yourself if
you can name all of the commands of Jesus. If
you don’t know what all of these commands
are, you not only cannot teach others to obey
them, you yourself cannot obey them.
Jesus had an expectation that those who
would follow him would…well…follow him.
Obedience to Jesus was not an optional
activity for disciples. Over and over again
Jesus spoke about how those who love him obey
his commands. His unwavering invitation was
for disciples who would take his words
seriously and put them into practice.
For the Gospel to become a living reality
to those around us, it must become a living
reality to those of us who have decided to
make Jesus our Lord and Savior.
When asked what the greatest commandment
was, Jesus responded by saying, “The
greatest commandment is to love the Lord your
God with all your heart, soul, mind and
strength; and the second is like the first;
you should love your neighbor as yourself”.
Without embracing the Great Commandment, we
can never hope to accomplish the Great
Commission. This is why Paul the Apostle tells
us that, without love, all that we strive to
do for the Kingdom is meaningless and empty.
(1 Cor 13)
We have to love people because they are
people that Jesus loves. We have to learn to
love people unconditionally. To love others as
He loved us. Until we get really, really good
at this, all our efforts to evangelize and to
make disciples will appear hollow and empty.
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