The Great Commission
What do you think was Jesus’ most earnest desire for his disciples once he had left earth? Maybe you're saying, that they know God's love or that they live out the great commandment to love God and to love others. And of course, Jesus deeply desired these things for his followers. However, when it was time for him to leave the Earth, Jesus gathered his followers and he began to speak to them. And he didn't remind them of those things.
Weighty Words
Think of it; his last words were going to be weighty words. They were words that he knew the disciples would carry with them. They'd never forget the last words he spoke to them before he ascended. He must have chosen them very, very carefully. And this is what he said in Matthew 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. Surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.”
Now that passage is known as the Great Commission. A commission is an instruction or a command, but also an act of trust. When you commission somebody to do something, you're entrusting that work to them. And so Jesus looked around at that very mixed up bunch of people, much like you and I, and said, “I'm commissioning you, entrusting to you the precious work of bringing others into this way of life. Share what you found. Tell people the good news. Tell them, teach them what a taught you.”
Sharing Our Faith is hard
I imagine the disciples had those words ringing in the ears. And yet for us, it's something we struggle with, isn't it? Sharing our faith is probably the most difficult thing that we have to do as Christians. It could be related to our culture, which is very against sharing faith. You've got to just leave people to their own thing because it's inappropriate or disrespectful to stand up for your own faith. But even before the world became this way, Christians struggled to share their faith.
Every Christian a Missionary
Philip Sheff wrote about the early church and said that every congregation in those days was “a missionary society, and every Christian believer was a missionary enflamed by the love of Christ to convert his fellow men. Every Christian told his neighbor, the laborer told his fellow laborer, the slave told his fellow slave, the servant to his master and mistress the story of his conversion, just as a mariner tells the story of the rescue from a shipwreck.” I love that. Every church was a missionary church and every Christian was a missionary. So enflamed by the love of God because they had a story to tell of being saved.
I want to encourage us this week to share our faith, and I'll give us some practical steps in the days to come. But I want to start the week by saying to you, look for opportunities to share your faith would you? Because there's nothing as thrilling as sharing with somebody else what Jesus has done in your life and what a difference it might make in their life if we would just take the courage to speak up instead of fearfully backing down.
