Question: how do you view The Great Commission? Simply Jesus’ last words found in Matthew? Something beyond you? For the professionals? What’s your perspective, your personalization?
Those words are for all of us, wherever we live and whatever we do, in the worlds in which we live. They should permeate our own words and our actions. This should be as ‘familiar’ to us as anything and everything we do and say. Read Jesus’ words again, after He had died, rose again, went to heaven, He returned to earth:
“… And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end
of the age.’” (Matthew 28:17-20, ESV)
These words are directed to all of us who have accepted Jesus as our Lord, not just the original disciples, nor the ‘professional’ ministry. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul indicates that we ALL have gifts for the body and it is our responsibility to use them for the growth of the body (Ephesians 4:12-16, NKJV)
“for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the
faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we
should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may
grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom
the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies,
according to the effective working by which every part does its share,
causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
None of us are designed to do it all… including the professional ministry. We all have a part. Its up to us to choose to act on what has been given us for the growth of the body. So, what is your perspective… your personalization?
