🌍 World Missions — Unit 3: The Great Commission

Introduction: The Missionary Magna Charta

Every fall, spectators crowd into the stadiums to cheer the home team. Every coach loves to hear the enthusiastic fans — but the fact is, the fans do not play the game. They never sweat in the grind of it; they never shed a single drop of blood; they do not complete one pass or carry the ball a single yard. Most of them have never even played. It was on a mountain in Galilee that Jesus called His disciples under the open sky, with the grand panorama of the whole country spread before Him, and there He transformed His followers from spectators into participants.

The Great Commission of our Lord Jesus is one of the first passages a believer's child learns to memorize. So weighty are these words that the church has long called them the "Missionary Magna Charta." Jesus said: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19–20, NKJV).

Make no mistake about it: we owe the very idea of world missions to Jesus Himself. The New Testament is filled with powerful words and phrases that have sent thousands to the uttermost parts of the earth. When we support missions, we support an idea conceived in the mind of Jesus, proclaimed from the lips of Jesus, and carried out by the followers of Jesus. What, then, do these verses mean for us today? It seems clear that the missionary enterprise makes special demands upon four parts of the human anatomy — the lips, the feet, the head, and the heart. Some would argue, correctly, that missions calls for total commitment; but these four parts are especially affected.

I. Jesus Put the Words on Our Lips

First, Jesus put the words on our lips, and He did it by giving His followers a message. They were to speak "all things" that He had commanded them. What a tremendous message! A college speaker once said that all anyone needs in order to become a public speaker is to stand up before an audience with an idea he really believes in. Really believing what you are saying will drive away fear and give a man a natural eloquence.

The disciples believed the gospel message with all their hearts. How else can we explain Peter? — a man with no training as a speaker, a man whose beliefs had recently been shattered, now boldly standing on the streets of Jerusalem, addressing thousands. He truly believed that Jesus was the Son of God who had died on the cross for his sins and risen victoriously from the grave. He believed with every fiber of his body and to the depths of his soul that faith in Jesus gives abundant and eternal life.

Along with the message, Jesus also gave His followers a method — in fact, two methods: to preach and to teach. Preaching was a crucial part of the work. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15, NKJV). The Greek word for "preach" is the same word used for a herald who announced the message of the king. The herald did not create his message, and he did not change his message; he simply lent his voice to repeating the king's message. When we preach, we ought to be able to proclaim, "Jesus said it." The essential gospel message never changes. Teaching is the other half of our method. We are to teach men to observe all the things that Jesus taught. A man who has been saved does not merely need to hear the gospel every Sunday; he needs to be educated so that he can fulfill his potential as a Christian. And so we can say that Jesus put the words on our lips.

II. Jesus Put Movement in Our Feet

Second, Jesus put movement in our feet. The disciples already had the message and the blessings of their Lord. They could have quietly returned to their villages and fished for a living again. They could have taught and preached only to those curious enough to seek them out. But with one word, Jesus put movement in their feet. He said, "Go." The gospel does not wait for men to seek it out; it goes to where the people are. Jesus does not give waiting orders. He gives marching orders.

A short while ago a man I know was stationed in the service in Texas. He kept waiting for new orders to send him on to Colorado. He knew Colorado was his next station, but he could not leave until he had the orders in hand. In the Great Commission we have received our marching orders, and with them Jesus put movement in our feet. Paul made the same point in the book of Romans: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" (Romans 10:15, NKJV). Consider for a moment the feet of men like Paul and Peter — dirty, rough, cracked, and blistered. Yet they were beautiful, because they bore the good news of Jesus Christ. To those who receive the gospel, the feet of our missionaries are beautiful indeed. And we are to go everywhere preaching the gospel — not only in our own town, not only in our own region, not only in our own country, but to the uttermost parts of the earth.

III. Jesus Put a Vision in Our Head

Third, Jesus put a vision in our head. Unless men can catch a vision, they never know where they are going. The story is told of an airplane blown off course by a strong wind. The co-pilot asked, "Where are we?" and the pilot answered, "I don't know, but we're making good time." A church busy with activity but with no vision is only making good time to nowhere.

Jesus had a vision. It was a vision of every knee bowing and every tongue confessing Him as Lord (Philippians 2:10–11). The people of the world differ in race, color, language, climate, and custom; yet all are included in the command, for all are sinners. All have souls, all need God's grace, all need a Savior. What we need today is a fresh vision of a world united in Christ. We must be honest: the church has not kept pace. Christianity grows by hundreds of thousands while the world grows by hundreds of millions. Perhaps one reason we have failed to keep pace is a lack of vision. We have captured cities for Christ, and even nations for Christ, but we have not yet captured the world.

There is an old story of an artist who was painting the love of Christ for the children of the world. He had done his finest work, but one night he awoke to find a stranger altering his pictures. "Stop," he cried, "you'll ruin it!" The stranger replied, "You have already ruined it. Who told you that all the faces in heaven would be white?" "I always thought of it that way," said the artist. "You were wrong," answered the stranger. "I have used some of the colors you forgot — red, yellow, brown, and black. For little ones come from many countries to answer My call." We need a vision of that call.

IV. Jesus Put a Burden on Our Heart

Finally, Jesus put a burden on our heart. Those who have a vision in their head will also have a burden in their heart. Those who have caught the vision of a world won for Christ will gladly accept the responsibility of sending missionaries. For missionaries cannot send themselves; they must be sent. In Acts 13 we find the first commissioning service, the whole congregation assembled: "having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away" (Acts 13:3, NKJV). God calls some to go. Many have left behind families and friends because of their burden for the lost, and we are obligated to identify with them, pray for them, and support them. But not everyone is called to go. When Jesus said "Go," He was speaking to every one of us — and we must remember that those who send have as many responsibilities as those who go.

We have the responsibility to identify with their ministries. Any group that sends out a missionary and then forgets him should be ashamed before God. If we send them, they are an extension of us; their work is our work, and our work is their work. We have the responsibility to support them in prayer. When was the last time you prayed for a missionary? How many of us can even name three or four missionaries by name? Our missionaries may be wondering why they are not seeing more fruit; someone should tell them that the senders have turned off the power. Let us turn it on again. And we have the responsibility to support them in our giving. Those who go give their lives; those who send must see to it that the work does not stall for lack of support. Every year some who feel called as missionaries are turned away because the church cannot afford to send them. The lost world is crying out for the message of Christ, but too often there is no voice speaking to them — and many will live and die never having known the Savior, because no one was sent.

Stephen Grellet, the noted Quaker, once felt a burden and the leading of the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel to the men of an American lumber camp. But when he arrived, he found the camp deserted, for the men had gone deeper into the forest. Believing nevertheless that the Spirit had sent him, he stood up in the empty mess hall and preached his sermon, heard, as he thought, only by the bare walls of the building and the lofty trees. Years afterward, crossing London Bridge in the evening gloom, he was stopped by a man who said, "You are the man I have been looking for all these years." "There must be some mistake," said Grellet; "I have never seen you." "No," said the man, "but did you not preach in a lumber camp in the American forest? I had gone back for a saw that had been left behind, and through the chink in the logs I heard you preach. I was convicted of sin, I got hold of a copy of the Scriptures, I learned the way of life, I was saved, and I have brought others with me into the kingdom of heaven." The word of God does not return void. We are responsible to send it out — and to leave the harvest in His hands.

Conclusion: Our Marching Orders

And so we see why the Great Commission is a set of marching orders from Jesus. He is the One who put the words on our lips. He is the One who put movement in our feet. He is the One who put a vision in our head. And He is the One who put a burden on our heart. Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21, NKJV). There is a great work to be done. The question is no longer whether the task is ours; the only question that remains is what part we will take in it — to go, to send, and to pray.

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