Back in the late 60’s, one television series I looked forward to watching, was Star Trek. In the Star Trek series Captain James Kirk led the voyages of the starship Enterprise, “Its five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.”
During this television series a term called the “Prime Directive” was often used and was Starfleet's General Order #1. The Prime Directive was the most prominent guiding principle of the United Federation of Planets.
The Prime Directive dictates that there can be no interference with the internal affairs of other planetary cultures. The crew of the Enterprise was not allowed to share its advanced knowledge or technology with primitive cultures lest this exposure alter the natural development of the society.
Did you know that the church has been given a mission and a Prime Directive? There are billions of people who are dying on this planet upon which we live.
The crew of the Enterprise could not give or expose any information regarding advanced technology lest this exposure alter the natural development of the society.
Our directive is to expose the inhabitants of planet earth to “advanced knowledge” that will alter the natural development of the society.
* There are people who are “sin sick” that need to be healed by this advanced knowledge.
* There are people who are in bondage and need to be set free by this knowledge.
* There are people who are on their way to a fiery, dark hell and need to be rescued by this knowledge.
Our Prime Directive is found in the New Testament book of Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18-20.
Mat 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
In Matthew 28:18, Jesus approaches His disciples and says to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Depending on the translation you are using the second word Jesus uses in this statement is either “power” or “authority.” The KJV uses the word power in verse 18 - “…all power is given unto Me.”
A better translation of this word would be “authority.” In the Greek language there are two different words for “power.”
dunamis, doo'-nam-is; force (lit. or fig.); miraculous power or miracle. We get our English word “dynamite” from dunamis. In the New Testament, where Jesus or one of the apostles does a miracle or mighty work, they are doing it by the dunamis of God.
exousia, ex-oo-see'-ah; privilege, i.e. (subj.) force, capacity, delegated influence:--authority, jurisdiction or right. In Matthew 7:29 Jesus is described as one who taught with authority.
In Matthew 28:18 the Greek word is exousia. It means authority or right. Jesus says, “All exousia/authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
When we think of authority, we think of the head of a government, like a president or prime minister, a governor or a mayor. This person has the privilege of telling others what to do.
A police officer has authority. The Scripture says in Romans 13:4 that they police are ministers. Paul writes, “for he is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.”
Our president has authority. Our Constitution says that He can declare war; he can veto legislation; he can authorize financial assistance when disaster strikes our cities and states. The president has the authority to pardon criminals. As Commander in Chief, our Constitution gives the president full control of the military.
The police officer and president has an authority that exceeds what the average US citizen has, but don’t think for a moment that any of these people would be crazy enough to say “all authority in heaven and on earth is mine.”
But Jesus says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Why does Jesus declare this to His disciples? He declares to His disciples that He has “all authority” because of the instructions that will follow.
What Jesus is about to tell His disciples of that day and those who were to come is based upon and backed by the authority of the risen and exalted Lord who promises to be with His people until the end of the age.
This is God the Son, the Creator of the universe sending His disciples on a mission.
Mat 28:18 “…All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…
Jesus commissions His disciples with this “prime directive.” For this reason some have called it, “The Great Commission.”
* You can go through life and accomplish all your goals and dreams.
* You can finish college, get a job, find a spouse, have children, climb the corporate ladder, fulfill your dreams, and make a lot of money and by a lot of “bling-bling.”
* You can even give away a lot of money like Bill Gates and Oprah…
…But there is only one thing that is eternally important, “Did you fulfill the Great Commission?
When the Christian’s life on earth is over and he or she is standing before God, one question from the Almighty might be, “Did you make disciples of all nations?”
Let’s look at the Great Commission.
It is important that we know how the sentence is structured
* There is only one command in verses 19 and 20. The command is “make disciples.”
* The command or “imperative verb” to “make disciples” is surrounded by three participles: Go, baptize, and teach (v. 20). The participles tell the reader how to fulfill the command.
Let’s first look at the command to “make disciples.” Afterwards, we will examine each of the supporting participles.
Make Disciples
The Hebrew word for disciple is talmid. Talmid means student. A talmid's job was to learn everything that his Master had to teach.
The disciples of First Century Judaism learned everything from their teacher, and they learned to be just like their teacher.
* They learned the stories that the teacher told.
* They learned the lessons that their teacher taught.
* They learned to eat the foods that their teacher ate, the way their teacher ate them.
*They learned to keep the Sabbath the way their teacher kept Sabbath.
* They learned to give charity the way their teacher gave charity.
* They learned to pray the way their teacher prayed and to fast the way their teacher fasted.
* They learned how to keep God's commands the way their teacher kept them.
The disciples followed their teacher everywhere he went, and the teacher taught his disciples everything he could. Then, after a disciple was fully trained, he would become a teacher and teach disciples of his own.
A disciple's job was to become like his or her teacher. Jesus says in Luke 6:40, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.”
Believers are commanded by Jesus to “make disciples.” If you are a Christian, you have been commissioned by Jesus to make followers or learners of Christ.
Jesus did not call the church to make “church attenders” or “choir members;” He commissioned the church to “make disciples;” people who are imitating Christ…walking like Christ did; loving like Christ did; praying like Christ did; teaching the Bible like Christ did!
How are disciples to be made? As said earlier, the command to “make disciples” is surrounded by three participles: Going, baptizing, and teaching (v. 20). The participles, though grammatically are not imperatives, are not optional. They tell us how to “make disciples.”
Let’s look at each of these participles.
Go (lit., going)
The first participle (out of the three) go – means to travel; to depart, to go forth or to go one's way.
This tells us that we are not to wait for the world to come to us. We are to go to the world.
C.S. Lewis has this really neat illustration.
He says that in the incarnation, (God becoming man) Jesus was like a diver. He is God in heaven looking down into this dark, slimy, murky water. That’s our sinful, polluted world.
God dives in, he gets himself wet. And then God came up again, dripping, but holding the precious thing he went down to recover.
That precious thing was a lost sinner—it was you and me. He dove in to save sinners like us. That’s how we get out of the slime of tax collecting, or cheating, or lusting, or hating, or whatever other self-destructive sin we are buried in.
God in Christ descended down into the slime and rescued us.
Resolutions and vows to be better won’t help; we don’t have the power to keep them. We are stuck on the sea bottom. We have no power of our own to get up or out. All we can do is cry out for God’s grace to lift us up, to rescue us.
“Go” could be better translated "having gone." It isn't a command; it's an assumption. Going is the outcome to the command of making disciples.
To “go” doesn’t mean “to go to church.” It means to leave the church; to leave the huddle; to leave your comfort and security zones and “go.”
To “go” means to reach out to others with the expressed purpose of sharing with them the Good News of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
Acts 26:17-18 tells us that the Apostle Paul was “sent” and “went.” Paul was sent to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins.” Paul was “sent” and he “went.”
There are many ways to “go.”
One way to “go” is to hit the streets and share your faith with total strangers—some have called this “marketplace evangelism.”
Paul and the other apostles spoke in the marketplace on several occasions. I’ve preached down in the Inner Harbor and handed out material. (Illustrate what happened)
In the Bible there are found a variety of ways that God sends His church to reach people.
* Some came to know Christ through deeds of kindness by Christians in their community (Acts 2:42-47)
* Believers were led by the Spirit to those who needed to hear the Good News (Philip in Acts 8:26)
* Some Christians suffered unjust treatment just so they would be a witness (Stephen in Acts 7 and Paul and Silas in Acts 16.)
So the first step one must take in making disciples according to Matthew 28:19-20 is going. But we are not only to “go” we are to “baptize.”
2.) Baptizing
This is the second participle. It comes from the Greek word baptizo, bap-tid'-zo; that means “to make fully wet;” “to immerse.”
This step assumes that the person has heard the Gospel message and has embraced Jesus as Savior and King. If this is true, one of the first steps of obedience for a new believer should be baptism.
Now someone might be thinking, “Why is baptism so important that Jesus would include it as one of the steps in fulfilling the Great Commission?”
The Scriptures teach that baptism is a means of identifying oneself with the Lord Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. (Romans 6:3-5).
(Rom 6:3 NASB) Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
(Rom 6:4 NASB) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
(Rom 6:5 NASB) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,
Let me say here that water baptism does not save anyone. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that it is “by grace we have been saved through faith” in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation, according to this verse, is “not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.”
The thief on the cross did not get baptized but in Luke 23:43 Jesus says to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Water baptism is a means of identifying oneself with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
In the first century when people requested or consented to be baptized, they were really serious about their relationship with Jesus.
Followers of Jesus Christ were labeled a cult by Jewish leaders and were thus ostracized, kicked out of the synagogue and persecuted. The leaders of Rome persecuted Christians by throwing them to lions and using them to fight in the gladiator games of the Coliseum.
Unlike the baptism services in the United States, baptisms in the first century occurred outside in the public view. Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ were baptized in full public view so there was rarely a “secret agent” Christian during the early days of Christianity.
In the first century people were not allowed to be a part of the fellowship of believers unless they were baptized.
Baptism is the second way the Great Commission is to be fulfilled. It is a public testimony to the world that one is identifying him or herself with Jesus Christ. It is a public confession. It is an outward expression of an inward change.
3.) Teaching
Finally, the third participle in our text is the word teaching. This word, didasko, did-as'-ko means, “to give instruction;” “to teach.”
When Jesus began His public ministry, the crowds began to follow Him. Obviously, each and every person who followed Him was not “sold out” in their commitment to Him and Jesus knew this.
John 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
John 2:24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,
Here you have people who believed in His Name but He did not commit Himself to them. Why? Because they were following Him with the wrong motives.
Great multitudes followed Jesus. Did Jesus see this as a good thing? Obviously not. Jesus wasn’t looking for multitudes; He was looking for disciples and had a unique way of finding them.
* Jesus found the real disciples by exposing the fake ones; the uncommitted ones.
* He exposed the uncommitted ones by raising the bar of commitment.
* He thinned the herds by getting those who were following Him to consider the cost of following Him.
People were following Jesus for various reasons. Some were following Him because He was their “meal ticket.” Others were following Jesus because He was vogue; He was trendy; He was the “new craze.”
In John chapter six we find people scurrying from all over the place trying to find Jesus. In verse 25 they found Him in Capernaum and asked, "Rabbi, when did You come here?"
Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
Many people today are following Jesus for the wrong reasons. Many are lured by well-meaning preachers by the “dangling carrots” of peace, joy, a husband or a wife, health, wealth, prosperity, security, food, shelter and clothing.
How many preachers have given appeals for people to come to Christ by saying something like, “If you come to Jesus, He will give you peace of mind, soul and spirit.”
While some of these things could be considered the benefits that come with having a relationship with Christ, this is not biblical evangelism.
If there is one thing we need to make sure is taught right, it is the Gospel itself.
In John six Jesus says, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."
The biblical model of evangelism is to call people to turn from their sins (repentance) and follow Jesus by faith. Jesus Himself says it this way in John 8:24, “…if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
In Acts 20:20-21 Paul testified, "I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable ... testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."
But the “teaching” Jesus commanded in Matthew 28 did not stop with the Gospel. Jesus commissioned His church to do what He did: to “make disciples” by teaching people the Word of God so they might grow and mature spiritually.
The Apostle Paul obeyed this command. We see this happening in Colossians 1:28 where he writes: “…we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” (Col 1:28-29)
Paul exhorts us later in the chapter to: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”. (3:16)
The apostle Peter pens the following words in 2 Peter 1:3: “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
After a person is baptized he or she is to be taught the Scriptures. The newborn Christian is to be taught the Word of God. The Bible says, “Newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word.” (1 Pet 2:2)
Many churches are no longer teaching and equipping their members to know the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. This is why many Christians are being carried away by false teaching. There are heretics both inside and outside of the church.
* Believers need to be taught the truth or they will continue to be like children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14).
* Believers need to be taught the word of truth or they will continue to be conformed to the former lusts which were theirs before they trusted Jesus (1 Peter 1:14).
* Believers need to be taught the truth so that they might be “imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1), “blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world..” (Philippians 2:15)
This is what “making disciples” is all about. “Making disciples” is the prime directive from Jesus to His church. It is the “Great Commission.” The Great Commission is all about life transformation.
Being a Great Commission Church is not about size, staff or structure. Neither is it about a specific program. A Great Commission Church is more about a congregation’s passion than its percentages. It focuses more on its burden than its bigness.
A Great Commission Church embraces the Great Commission and engages the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is a church committed to sending workers into the harvest fields. It is a church that encourages, equips, empowers and expects every member to be personally involved in fulfilling the Great Commission.
A Great Commission Church is a church of people burdened for the loss of all nations and seeks to create ways to reach its Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Most of all, it’s a church with the glory of God as its ultimate goal and primary purpose.
Are you a Great Commission Church?
