Great Commission

When Jesus met with His disciples after His resurrection, He commanded them to go into all the world and make disciples from all the nations of the world.

On the evening of the Sunday Jesus rose from the dead, His followers were meeting behind locked doors for fear of the Jewish leaders. All of a sudden, without coming through the door, Jesus was standing there with them. First, he calmed these fearful friends. “Peace to you.” Then He shared His plan with them for spreading the good news.

“Just as the Father sent Me, I am sending you. I want you to go into the entire world and share the good news with everyone. Remember how I told you before that everything written about Me in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled? That’s what you need to share with people around the world.”

Then Jesus explained what that meant so that when He was done, His followers understood the following:

• He was the Satan-Conqueror promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden
• God would bless all families, peoples, and nations (the promise to Abraham would come through Him)
• that blessing—a right relationship with God—was made possible through Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection.
• the Passover lamb was symbolic for Him, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
• all of the Feasts and the sacrificial system gained their meaning in His perfect sacrifice for sin on the cross.
• He was pierced, beaten, whipped, unjustly condemned, had our sins laid upon Him, all according to God’s good plan to crush Him, cause Him grief and make His life an offering for sin.
• God’s plan for Israel to declare His glory among all nations and peoples would finally take place through Him.
• ·God’s name would be honored by people of other nations from morning till night.

Summing up, Jesus stated clearly, simply, the message His followers were to declare to all people groups: “You see now, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and then rise from the dead on the third day and that this message—‘Sins are forgiven for all who repent and trust in His name’—would be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.”

His eleven closest followers went to a mountain Jesus had indicated in Galilee. He met them there and said, “With all God-given authority, I commission you: As you go about serving Me, whether near or far, develop Jesus-followers from all people groups, teaching them to follow and practice my teachings and identifying them with Me through baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can do this because I will be with you every hour of every day until this age comes to an end.”

Jesus may have reiterated these marching orders other times to His followers. We don’t know. But 40 days later, just outside Jerusalem, He told them one last time. “The Holy Spirit will come on you and enable you to tell others about Me here in Jerusalem and all over Judea, up into Samaria, and even to the end of the world.”