For far too long we have misunderstood or maybe just misread this passage of scripture known as The Great Commission.
Our interpretation and understanding has told us that we need to get people saved and them bring them into our church membership. In only doing this we in turn commit a great sin. A sin of omission.
Dallas Willard says in his book the great omission, that what we omit is the making of disciples when that should be the first thing that we should do with new believer and then allow for other things come in.
And secondly, we neglect to take our convents through the necessary training that will help then better discover who Christ is and how to do what He directs them.
In The Salvation Army when an officer completes their seminary training he or she is commissioned as an officer and given an opportunity to go out and feed the hungry, help the helpless and preach the word of God.
We all leave the halls of training school on fire and ready to save the world for Christ. Once one arrives to their appointment they go for it. I mean they go full force but only to eventually become disappointed. Why is my church small? Why are my people uncommitted? Did I make a mistake in following this path this calling?
After this if not dealt with properly at a spiritual level, we may find ourselves going from one appointment to the next feeling as a failure and merely holding things up. Maintaining the status quo, but never discovering our full potential in Christ.
Sadly enough this seemingly helpless way of thinking which is self center and not Christ centered is not just limited to pastors, but every one that calls him/herselves a follower of Christ (a Christian) will experience this. If they do not come to grasp what it truly means to be a true follower of Christ.
As I have tried to understand my own apparent short comings and inabilities as a servant of Christ, I have discovered that the key to these deceiving and unrealistic failures, that the devil tried to make me believe, is that many of us have never made a conscience choice to follow Christ.
Sure we have accepted his free gift but have never signed on to His team. You see obedience and training go hand in hand if we are to experience success in our Christian walk.
Yet for most of us we have been obedient to His calling of Salvation but have earnestly refuse to enter into training, to be intentionally discipled so that we may discover our true potential in Him.
I do not know if this describes you. That is between you and God, but the scriptures do remind us that by our fruits we will be known. So I ask you, do the fruits of your life reflect the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit? But even then what kinds of fruits are they?
I was eating some orange with my children last night and I read a small label on the side that read, seedless oranges. I think this is the only country where we produce fruits that do not have seeds. You have seen them. Oranges, grapes even watermelons.
As much as we may enjoy this version of fruit which unnaturally does not contain any bothersome seeds, we find ourselves in a bit of a conundrum or an unsolvable riddle.
If you had the last orange in the world and it was a seedless one, once you ate it then you would no longer be able to enjoy its sweet taste.
In the age that we live the Gospel of Christ itself has been water down, it has had its seeds remove, to illustrate the mere love of God. But what has happened is that as we have shared this gospel with others, though it has been a good fruit, those who received it have not been able to reproduce it to others.
True that the scriptures say that by our fruits we will be known, but I do not believe the Apostle
Paul could have ever imagined a day when fruits could be grown without seeds.
Our faith must be known by the fruits, or the products that we produce, but we must make sure that it is a meaningful fruit, a purposeful fruit, and a life changing fruit that other can take make their own and share over and over again with others and not merely become a one time, wonderful experience that will soon fade away.
You see the great commission does not end in Matthew 28:19 but it includes verse 20 as well, where we read, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you."
It is possible to break down those few verses to get the deep down understanding of what Jesus meant. In fact let’s take a few minutes now to do just that.
You see the great commission contains only one verb. At a first glance we may think that it is the word go after all it is an action word, but as we study the passage in its original language we come to understand that the action implied and intended is make, as in make disciples.
The other descriptive words that also may sound as verbs are go, baptizing and teaching. But these words are actually called participles, which simply means that they are words that have the characteristics of both a verb and an adjective or a description.
Simply put, you can see these three instructions as a triangle. On the first corner we have the commandment to go, which is the responsibility of all believers.
Next, we have the mandate to baptize, which in the Jewish tradition which is how we need to read this word it clearly meant to bring someone into the membership of that faith, evangelism if you will.
Then finally, we have the order to teach or to educate those new believers and this is nothing more than discipleship.
Once you complete this triangle then you will naturally move to the go position once again and start all over again. Reaching out and discipling new converts.
Observance requires obedience and doing what we are told requires training. It does not matter how old or young you are we all can affect our world for Christ if we learn to obey and allow His Spirit to train us.
We have two fruit trees in our back yard. Now I know exactly what they are not because I can smell their aroma, or not merely because someone has told me.
But I know what they are first because I can see their fruits. One has yellow oval shaped fruits and the other one has round orange shapes.
But you see besides seeing their fruits I also know what they are because I have tasted them and I have experienced them. One is tangy and the other is sweet.
Of course I am speaking of orange and lemon tree. But when people look at you what do they see? When others speak with you what do they experience?
Being a true follower of Christ has nothing to do with position or status or even commitment to one thing or another, but it all has to do with our attitude and how we adopt them to those of Christ. Trust me friends this is a truth that has hit close to me own heart, and I have had no other choice but to trust my God with it.
Our behaviors are dictated by what is inside of us. By our experiences and by how these things have shaped our outlook in life.
They are dictated by what is inside in our hearts in our minds in our souls and the only way to positively change that is to allow God to take over. No longer saying we want more of the Holy Spirit but believing that I need to give Him more control of me.
To invest ourselves in seeking after the things of God. To learn to reflect His fruit. His spirit in you. The only purpose for spiritual formation is to slowly transform us and renew us into beings that constantly reflect such godly inspired characteristics.
Can we make it to heaven by merely accepting Christ? Sure, I think so, but think about your existence in heaven as you find yourself in the presence of the one who you did not care to fully follow while you were on this earth? I do not think I would want to be in that situation.
The truth is friends that as we develop our friendships and relations with each other and with God, as we move from the mere corporal and social aspects of relating to one another we need to move together to the personal and intimate ways of relating to one another.
Because of this you need to know that I too struggle with things such as these. Often putting the horse before the carriage, being impatient and inattentive to the gentle voice of God. But the only thing that is truly required of me by God is to be silent and to listen. To obey and to be trained by God.
Jesus promised the Disciple that once he left he would send them the Holy Spirit who would not only remind them of what Jesus had taught them but he would teach them new things.
You see when you and I first accepted the gift of redemption that Christ purchased with His blood the Holy Spirit came into our hearts. And believe it or not he lives there.
Our spiritual development and I dare to say our walk to holiness is all dictated by how much access we give that spirit in our lives. As we said is not I want more of Him, after all we have all that we will ever need, but how much more can I give to him.
The easy way to do this is through the spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude, meditation and fasting. Now I know that these can be nearly impossible to accomplish, but when we start doing these things to honor God and not just for our own benefit we will come to experience God in a more personal and intimate way and become a more effective follower of His.
Being faithful to the entire great commission and purpose of our church The Salvation Army of saving souls, making saints and serving suffering humanity.
Bringing them into our fellowship, training them and finally by teaching then who they are not just in the eyes of others but in the eyes of God is what we all need to be doing as true follower of God.
It is not just enough to be a good person, but we must put our faith and calling as children of God into full action. Truly accepting to follow him in obedience and training.
But the reality is that until we truly comprehend what it is that Christ required of us, until we understand His love for us we will not be able to completely follow him.
In John 21:15-17 we have the clearest example of this. Turn with me in your bibles and let us read it together.
So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?"
He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You."
He said to him, "Feed My lambs."
He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?"
He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You."
He said to him, "Tend My sheep."
He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?"
And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You."
Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep.
When we read this passage we might get frustrated together with Peter. Why is Jesus asking me this three times? We may even come to understand why Peter was grieved.
But we would be wrong. For you see we need to look at the language in its original intention. In the Greek that is.
Unlike the English language where we only have one word for love, the Greeks had at least three. In this passage of scripture Jesus uses two of them.
You can imagine that the disciples had a long night of fishing and had caught nothing. In fact when they get to shore Jesus offers them breakfast. And after breakfast in verse 15 Jesus says Peter do you love me.
The Greek word for love here is apage which is a deep constant, selfless love, not as a result of any feelings but from a conscious total giving of oneself to another.
To which Peter replies, Yes Lord you know that I love you. But Peter does not use agape but he uses phileo, which means a tender affection based upon respect and friendship. This past week I was it the city of Philadelphia which is also known as the city of brotherly love.
Maybe a few minutes go by and Jesus once again comes close to Peter and says, Peter do you Love me, do you agape me?
To which Peter quickly responds, Lord you know I love you, you know I phileo you. You know I am your friend, you know I respect you, you know you are my buddy.
Finally, perhaps after a little more time went by Jesus comes over to Peter again and gets eye to eye with him and now he says, Peter son of Jonah, do you love me, do you phileo me.
You see Jesus has to ask him this because Peter does not fully understand what it means to have agape love for his master.
To which we read that Peter was grieved. So you see he was not grieved because Jesus asked three times, but because Jesus had to come down to his level.
Peter felt inadequate and unworthy of Jesus’ agape Love and Christ met him where he was at.
If I were to ask each of us individually today do you truly agape God, would you answer yes or would you say, of course we phileo him, of course we respect him, of course he is our friend.
The difference between phileo and agape is fundamental to discipleship and our leadership in this church and for God.
It was only after Pentecost that Peter made the transformational journey of the soul from a friendship and respectful love to a selfless, conscious, and complete surrender of his self to Christ.
Are you there in your Christian walk yet? The founder of The Salvation Army William Booth said once, God shall have all there is of William Booth, and the results of his faithful surrender are evident by the continued existence of this Army that God raised through him all those years ago.
What do you believe God can do through you if you only surrendered yourself to him and allow him to teach you and train you? To transform you and to help you become a true follower of His?
God wants to and is ready to do great things through each of us, but will we let him? If not through this message than through what? If not by the intentional surrender of ourselves to the Holy Spirit that by what? If not today, right now, then when?
To be like Jesus, says the chorus, this hope possesses me, in every thought and deed, this is my aim my creed, to be like Jesus this hope possesses me, His spirit helping me like him I’ll be.
Friends it is time that we start living for our full potential in Christ, not just because I said so but because God is cheering us on. We are his arms and legs and he wants to use us. But this is not merely a call to action and then good luck.
No, we will do this right. In a few weeks we will begin some discipleship groups to help us all better understand what it is meant to follow Christ, to pick up our Cross and walk in His shadows.
To reach our full potential as evangelists, as servants and fully equipped workers of God.
Jesus says I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and I lay down my life for them.
Do we know God?
Do we reflect him in our lives to others?
Is there clear fruitful evidence of his dwelling in us?
Are we ready to give up our lives or very self for him? Then this is the time to go before God in prayer and work it out.
As we pray, feel free to stand, or sit there where you are at or come forward to the Holiness Table and pray.
Don’t worry about anyone else, each of us must work out this on our own with God.
Just you take that first step of obedience and choose to move closer to Jesus today and I promise you will not be disappointed. Let us pray.
