As I’ve been revisiting my relationship with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and evaluating what it looks like to represent a missional mindset in all the different spheres of my life, I’ve had it on my heart to take a closer look at the great commission. Most commonly referenced from the end of Matthew 28, the Great Commission is a mandate given by Jesus before His ascension, that has driven all evangelistic and missionary efforts for the last two thousand years. “And Yeshua came up to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”” This is a powerful passage that gets referenced and taught on a lot, but there are still some implications here that continue to blow my mind every time I take a deeper look. Jesus starts by assuring his disciples that all authority has been given to Him. Not to them, even though they are the ones He is sending out. As someone who knows how stressful it can be to try to do things my own way and in my own power, this is deeply relieving. Jesus is sending them out to be His representatives, which carries power whenever they are in His will and wherever His authority is recognized - which is now everywhere! It would mean very little for the governor of Montana to send people out to administrate a law he declared over the Canadian province of Victoria, but we are assured that we will never find ourselves in that awkward position. We are not being asked to go anywhere where His name is not known and respected by the local spiritual government, so to speak. We are like FBI agents being dispatched from DC, and that means ALL local sheriffs have to respect the badge we carry whether they like it or not. Ok, enough of the law enforcement analogy lol... The point is that we have a lot more authority to go, say, and do than we think we do. We don’t need to tread lightly and constantly ask for permission to walk into an area that we already have a warrant for. We can enter into any situation with the boldness of the One who’s sent us. So now that begs the question, what is it we have been given authority to do? “Go and make disciples of all nations...” The modern church has taken the “all nations” part of that statement very seriously, and it’s beautiful to see every remote corner of the earth being systematically exposed to the love of the Father. Awesome!! But is it discipleship we are bringing into these corners, or just information? Are we exemplifying what it looks like to walk in the footsteps of the Master, or are we simply handing out pamphlets and hoping that written words will be enough to transform an entire lifetime of pain and brokenness? (Nothing against pamphlets, I’m just using that as an example. I actually do believe that the Holy Spirit can move POWERFULLY through the most simple introductions such as these!) I ask these questions not to be accusatory to those who have laid down everything to carry the gospel out to the nations - far from it! I simply want to encourage deeper thought and analysis of our efforts and the results we expect to gain from them. The concept of discipleship is key to the life and ministry of Yeshuah. And since it’s a concept we don’t have a very direct modern equivalent of, that’s usually a good reason to take a closer look. “The 12 disciples” were actually a close subgroup chosen by Yeshuah out of a much larger number of disciples who were quite literally following His career. (I like puns, don’t hate) In ancient times, a disciple was a student who was chosen by a Rabbi to spend years of their life following, studying, and emulating that teacher in every way possible. To be a disciple was not necessarily a position of prestige, and it required a very high level of commitment and personal sacrifice, but it did become a very big part of your resume. In fact all the credentials you needed were to cite whose disciple you were, because it was implied that you had been imparted all of their knowledge, wisdom, and insights on the interpretation of scripture. For example, Paul was held in high regard amongst the Jewish leaders of the day because he had been a dedicated disciple of Rabbi Gamaliel, a well known and highly respected teacher of the day. Paul’s reputation was based on Gamaliel’s reputation. It opened doors for him and qualified him amongst both his peers and his elders because of nothing he himself had done except to choose a teacher worth following. That is the implication of being a disciple, and the cultural understanding that Yeshuah was referencing. (This is an excellent article that goes much more in depth into the biblical meaning and understanding of discipleship, I highly recommend you check it out if you’re at all interested —> https://bible.org/article/being-first-century-disciple) Our mandate, then, is to be students of Yeshuah in every aspect of life, striving to emulate Him and His teachings in everything we do. In Hebrew society, everyone had the responsibility to know the scriptures, but it was the role of the Rabbis to help interpret the meaning of those scriptures to answer the questions of everyday life. When we let Jesus become our Rabbi, we are coming under His authority to teach us not only what the Bible says, but more importantly what it means in each of our everyday lives. And when we go out to create disciples, it’s to show what a life under His discipleship looks like so that they will want to learn from Him too! Our greatest witness is in how the integrity and consistency of our lives reflects the truth of His word. In the Hebraic mindset, belief was a concept that went far beyond a mental acquiescence of fact. You could only come to say that you believed something if it was actively reflected in the way you lived your life. That’s why James writes that “faith without works is dead.” (James 2:17) In other words, preaching is great, but it carries no validity if people don’t see you living what you preach. If we are to truly believe the words of God in any way that matters, it MUST be reflected in the way we live our lives and love others. And what does that reflection look like? That’s what each of us must walk personally with Jesus to find out. ““I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”” They will know we are His disciples if we love as Jesus loves. Everything in our lives - our words, our behaviors, our attitudes, our service - all boil down to how well we love. Do we emulate the heart of Christ in our daily lives, even when no one is looking? If “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks,” then who we are in the privacy of our own heart becomes the very basis of our public ministry. (Matthew 12:34) So then if we cannot genuinely love our brothers and sisters in our very heart of hearts, then the love we attempt to live by will be nothing.
And sadly many in the world today have a false concept of Christ’s love because they have observed “Christians” without that true love. Men have gone out bearing the name of our Lord, but who didn’t carry His heart because they didn’t take the time to get to know Him first. That is the danger of calling yourself a disciple but not actually being disciplined. It’s also the danger of trying to have a ministry before you’ve spent that quality time with God, allowing Him to teach and instruct you inside and out. It’s a millennia-old lie that has systematically and effectively created a bitter taste to those who don’t know the difference, and that we must daily strive to replace with Truth. The Truth in love is the Truth of love, because Love is a man and His name is Jesus! Discipleship is a slow, intentional process that’s meant to take the entirety of our lives to complete and to become so appealing to onlookers that they can’t help but join us. I think that’s what makes it the Greatest Commission we could ever receive.
1 Comment
SUSAN STRONG
3/27/2019 08:41:17 am
Beautifully communicated, dear Erika. If he can see what's going on here on planet earth I have no doubt your Papa is very proud of you (as I am also)!! Love you, beautiful disciple of Jesus.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
ErikaJeremiah 29:11 Archives
March 2023
Categories |
|