The Gospel Commission
After most of the sermons I’ve heard on the Great Commission, I’ve walked away feeling guilty for not making disciples. Some preachers emphasize the need to “Go!” Others zero in on our need to “make disciples.” Many preach the text to raise up missionaries for unengaged people groups. While all of these are valuable, they miss the fact that the Great Commission is a gospel commission. As we take a close look at Jesus’s words in Matthew 28:18–20, we’ll discover he sends us not merely to make disciples but to do so in the gospel.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and 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.”
Going In Jesus’s Authority
“Jesus calls each of us into making disciples; it isn’t a mission we simply stumble into. It requires intentionality, as do baptizing and teaching. ”
Jesus’s commission describes three ways to make disciples—going, baptizing, and teaching. These three words further develop Jesus’s main command to “make disciples.” The word go possesses a particular force, emphasizing our sentness.[1] Disciples of Jesus are sent into the world to make disciples. Reformers Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli failed to see this as a missional text, interpreting it as a commission given only to the apostles. Instead, they used these verses in Matthew 28 as a prooftext for the deity of Christ, baptism, and the Trinity.[2] But we know Jesus’s commission is for all Christians, because he says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” None of the original disciples lived until the end of the age; therefore, Jesus must be addressing all who will hear or read his commission. Jesus calls each of us into making disciples; it isn’t a mission we simply stumble into. It requires intentionality, as do baptizing and teaching.
All Christians are called to make disciples. However, not everyone feels qualified to make disciples. Kristan, a young mother in our church, confided in me that she felt inadequate to make disciples. She believed she lacked the necessary wisdom and experience. Hearing her concern, I sympathized with her struggle and reminded her that we are not sent in the authority of our experience but in the authority of Jesus. The lordship of Christ, not a certain set of experiences, is what qualifies us. Imagine what the brand-new disciples must have felt when Jesus sent them into neighboring villages! Yet, they overcame their discomfort by trusting Jesus’s authority and embracing his commands.
After our conversation, Kristan began reaching out to a Hindu neighbor. Their children played well together, which created a natural opportunity for Kristan to get to know the mother. Kristan developed a real friendship with her neighbor, who responded by inviting Kristian into her home, where her neighbor felt the freedom to share about her religion. The more Kristan learned about Hinduism, the more she was challenged in her aim of making disciples. When she was invited to participate in a Hindu festival, Kristan thoughtfully wrestled through how she could support her neighbor’s culture without affirming her religion as true. This gave Kristan the opportunity to clarify the difference between the gospel and karma. If Kristan had stuck with her initial belief that experience is what qualifies one to make disciples, she never would have had these opportunities. What would it look like for you to go in Jesus’s authority? What neighbor might Jesus be calling you to befriend? Take thirty seconds to consider your neighbors, jot down a name and pray for them.
People Were Jesus’s Program
In his best-selling book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman says: “[Jesus’s] concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes, but with men whom the multitudes would follow. . . .Men were to be his method of winning the world to God.”[3] Men were his method. Jesus came with people attached. He moved about with crowds, the twelve, a select few, and occasionally with just one companion (John 3:1–21; 21:15–19). He was discipling constantly. In turn, his disciples discipled others. Jesus instructed the twelve not only to go in pairs but also to take “nothing for your journey,” so they would be dependent upon the hospitality of others (Luke 9:1–6). Imagine what evening meals with their host families would have been like after the disciples came home from a long day of proclaiming the kingdom of God and healing diseases! People were Jesus’s “program.”
To mobilize Christians for discipleship, churches often require their members to take a seminar or complete a course. I have taught and participated in many of these. However, if programs and classes are our exclusive or primary method for making disciples, we tacitly convey the idea that discipleship is rational, not relational. It’s important to disciple in environments that nurture the relational and missional aspects of a follower of Jesus. Our method, as well as our content, forms disciples. This is one reason why I require people who take my discipleship classes to pick a person outside of the class whom they will disciple in the context of everyday life. This keeps them relationally engaged as they expand their intellectual understanding of discipleship. We must remember that people were Jesus’s program.
As the twelve learned from Jesus’s teaching, they went in his authority and made people their method. They followed Christ’s example by proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing everywhere (Luke 9:2, 6). They joined Jesus in calling people to repentance, and as they did, the number of disciples increased (Luke 6:17). Jesus’s disciples made more disciples. They went not in the authority of their own experience or wisdom but in the authority and power of Jesus. That has not changed. Today, Jesus sends us in his authority to make disciples of all nations. Like Kristan, we simply need to trust his power and obey his words.
Jesus-Centered Going
The Great Commission is certainly great in scope—all nations—but it is also great because of its depth. The gospel is its message and its motivation. Since all authority has been given to Jesus, all discipleship success is in his hands, not ours. He is Lord of the harvest; we are not. This truth is empowering and freeing. It empowers us to talk to our neighbor about the uniqueness of Jesus without feeling a sense of condemnation if they are disinterested. Wherever we go, Christ goes with us. This should embolden us to talk about the liberating grace of God.
“The Great Commission is certainly great in scope—all nations—but it is also great because of its depth. ”
The commission motivates us with the gospel by beginning with Jesus’s authority and ending with his presence: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). We are not sent on a rogue op that requires plausible deniability should we fail. Rather, we are sent with Jesus on a mission that will eventually succeed. Christ is with us not just some of the time but all of the time—always. In short, the mission of making disciples starts and finishes with Jesus. We are sent in his authority and with his presence to make disciples of all nations. What greater motivation could we have? Let’s go!
Content taken from Gospel-Centered Discipleship by Jonathan K. Dodson, ©2022. Used by permission of Crossway.
Jonathan K. Dodson is the founding pastor of City Life Church in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his wife and three children. Dodson is the founder of GCDiscipleship.com and the author of a number of books including The Unbelievable Gospel; Here in Spirit; Our Good Crisis; and Gospel-Centered Discipleship.
[1] Contrary to popular interpretation, the “going” participle should not be rendered “as you go,” but as “go and disciple the nations.” The main point is not to go, or while you are going, but that we are sent to make disciples. See Roy Ciampa, “As You Go, Make Disciples?,” Every Thought Captive (blog), August 18, 2008, http://everythought captivearchive.blogspot.com/2008/08/as-you-go-make-disciples.html.
[2] Timothy Tennent, Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty- First Century (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2010), loc. 5110–5130, Kindle.
[3] Robert E. Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1963), 21.