Jesus Commissioned

What Did Jesus Do?

Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples, 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.”
Matthew 28.18-20

Jesus was a commissioner. He didn’t oversee an athletic conference or league, as we are familiar with commissioners doing in our day. Rather he charged, or gave a commission to, his followers to do three things: 1) go, 2) make, and 3) teach. This three point charge is still known as The Great Commission. It comprised the final, standing orders Jesus gave His Church before departing back into heaven forty days after the Resurrection. By standing orders it is meant that they were/are to remain in force until new orders are issued. No further orders have come from the Lord, so we had better still be about the work of going, making, and teaching.

I have a particular interest in Jesus the Commissioner because that’s one of my jobs. One of my responsibilities in Boy Scouting is serving as a District Commissioner. While Scouting’s objective isn’t as important as making disciples for Jesus, helping develop young men and women of strong moral character, committed citizenship, and personal fitness in body, mind, and spirit, is nonetheless a worthy task. And, in Scouting as in the Church, we have to go, make, and teach the ideals, principles, and skills that make one a good Scout, just as Jesus’ “commissioners” must go, make, and teach the ideals, principles, and skills of being a Christian.

You see, like young boys who must be recruited into Scouting, people need to be wooed into a personal relationship with Jesus. Like boys who must make a decision and commitment to be and live as Scouts, so people need to make a decision and commitment to be and live as Christians. And, like boys who don’t know much of anything about how to be a Scout, and so must be taught the ideals, principles and skills of Scouting, people need to be taught the ideals, principles, and skills of being a Christian.

Now who do you think goes, makes, and teaches new Scouts? Those who are already Scouts of course! So, who do you think must go, make, and teach people about being Christian disciples? Right, those who are already Christian disciples. Wipe out a generation of Scouts and it is likely the program would disappear because there would be no one to go, make, and teach Scouting. And the Church, the Body of Christ, is not much more secure. If an entire generation were to rise up with no knowledge at all of the Savior, and no one to transmit that knowledge to them, well, what do you think would happen to Church?

Fortunately, our great Commissioner is not about to let a generation rise up in ignorance of the Great Commission. Jesus himself still calls and commissions disciples in each generation to go, make, and teach future disciples. Oh, there are definite ups and downs from generation to generation. Historically, every time it has appeared that the faithful, and consequently the faith, are dwindling, the Holy Spirit seems to prepare a special generation of ultra-committed disciples who cause what is commonly called “revival” to sweep through the Church. Regardless of the apparent fruitfulness, or lake thereof, at a given time, true disciples need concern themselves in season and out of season, as it were, with the three basic points the Great Commissioner gave us: go, make, teach. If you study the life of Christ, you will discover that’s just what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4