How cool is it that the last words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew have been given a nickname, The Great Commission. I don't know if the church of the first few centuries used the phrase, but at some point, these words were so valuable that they were given their own name.
Most of the time when we quote The Great Commission we begin with, "Go into the world..." but those aren't the first words from Jesus. He begins with this, "All authority in heaven AND on earth has been given to me." Jesus wants to make heaven great for us, but he also wants to make earth great. He's not just building palaces and mansions in the sky-by-and-by. He's at work to redeem the world.
If you're like me, the process of fulfilling The Great Commission has sometimes consisted of teaching people about a belief system and then baptizing them. It's been about knowledge and information. I think Jesus had more in mind.
How cool is it that after receiving authority over heaven and earth, Jesus would choose to empower disciples to carry his message throughout the world? He could have chosen to assemble a committee, but he would have had to stay on earth another 4 years because we all know how committees work. He could have gone house to house on his own...showing his scars and convincing people of his existence. But he chose a different route. He chose to hand this message to us.
We are called to live in a way that we honor the responsibility given to us by Jesus. Over the next few posts, I want to talk more about these final words of Jesus.
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