Consider the words “Missions” and “Missionaries”. We throw these terms around quite a bit in the church. But how knowledgeable are we about what they actually mean. What is the point of missions? What is its source and what is its destination? How well do we understand what a missionary is? Is our view of both the importance and the role of missions and missionaries grounded in biblical understanding? These are the questions we will seek to answer today.
Our principle passage of scripture for this will be what is classically considered “the great commission”, found in Matthew 28:18-20…
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Please note that this famous passage includes verse 18. Some sources include only 19 and 20. But this is, in my opinion, a mistake that prevents us from coming to a full and complete understanding of this passage. In fact, I would go as far as to say that if one considers these verses without including verse 18 then one will have missed the entire point of what is being communicated here. We will see why shortly.
But before we get to that let’s begin by considering verses 19 and 20. This is essentially a list of instructions, or a recipe, for how to evangelize on a global scale. But there are nuances that may be missed by a casual reading in English. For example, the tendency would be to assume that there are multiple commands here, as follows:
19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
However, in Greek only “make disciples” is an imperative verb; “go”, “baptizing”, and “teaching” are participles which modify that main verb. What Jesus was commissioning His followers to do was make disciples. Everything else is subservient to that primary focus. Making disciples is what Christians are to be about. That is our mission. To put it bluntly, if making disciples is not what we are engaged in then we are not doing what Jesus said to do. With that point clear the next step is to figure out how Jesus wants us to accomplish this task. What are the ingredients of a mission of making disciples on a global scale the way Christ envisioned? We can break this down into three steps, provided explicitly by the text.
The first step is to “go”. There are two elements we need to understand about this. First is that Matthew, the author of this gospel, recorded these words of Jesus in a very specific way. You see, in Greek if you have a participle preceding a verb the participle picks up the tense of that verb. In this case, our verb is “make disciples” and its tense is imperative. It is a command, an instruction, or an order. And because “go” precedes it, “go” is also imperative. So in other words, it is understood that when Jesus said to “make disciples” His intention was for us to do that “while we are going.” That leads us to our second point, which arises as a question formed from the first point. Namely, where are we supposed to be going? Look at the word “nations” in verse 19. In the original Greek the word here is “ethnos”, which means people group, tribe, or race. In the translation into English I think we lose some of the nuance of this idea. It is certainly true that a nation is made up of people groups, and sometimes, although I think this would be rare, possibly even just one people group. But the meaning here isn't just that we are to go to every nation on Earth to make disciples. We are to hit every single people group on Earth to make disciples. What this means practically is that our mission is not accomplished when all the modern nations of the world have been reached with the gospel. The mission, as Jesus outlined it here, is only complete when every tribe, both within those nations and the groups outside of traditional nation states, have had the gospel preached to them. With that being said, it may shock you to realize that according to best estimates there are over 4,000 people groups, over 3 billion individuals, or just over 42% of the worlds population who have not heard the gospel and have no indigenous community of Christians who can evangelize their own people.
Why is this significant? There are two reasons. First, Jesus commanded us to reach these people and they are not being reached. Second, look at Matthew 24:14: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Now, there is a lot of disagreement over this verse in Christendom. Some would say that this it means that the end times as prophesied throughout the bible will not come until all the “ethnos”, or people groups, have heard the gospel. Others would say that no, when Jesus says “the end” here He is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, which is the question the disciples were asking back in verse 3 of the same chapter. They would further claim that this prophecy has already been fulfilled. I am going to avoid getting into this debate, because I believe there is a greater truth at stake here that we must understand before we need worry about specific time sequence application of Jesus's words. Namely, this verse makes it abundantly clear that the preaching of the gospel to all people groups is of exceedingly great importance to our Lord. It is so important to Him that he ties it directly to the fulfillment of prophetic statements. If He thought it was this important to preach the gospel to all people groups, and he commanded us to do it, then should we not make this mission our priority?
Going back to our passage in Matthew 28:19, we can see quite clearly that the next instruction in Jesus's formula for global missions, after going into the world to make disciples, is to baptize them. Now this is interesting. The list presented here of instructions in how to fulfill our mission is quite short. There are only three components to how He wants us to make disciples. This tells us that all three of them are of great importance and significance. So it is interesting to me that baptism is included in this list. The reason I find it interesting is that I think we often downplay the importance of baptism. We treat it as Christian extra credit or something. We put on kid gloves with new believers regarding how critical it is that they be baptized. This should not be so. Baptism is so important to the Christian faith that Jesus Himself ranked it as one of the three central elements of global missions. It certainly does not save us; notice that Jesus says to make disciples and then baptize them. We are to baptize those who have already become disciples by believing in Christ, not baptize them in order to make them disciples of Christ. So it does not save us, but it is a requirement for those who have been saved.
Finally, we are to teach. And what are we to teach? “To obey everything that I have commanded you.” The teaching and training of followers of Christ is a work with the very highest of importance. The ultimate objective of Christians is to be like Christ, to be “little Christs” as it were. How can we be like Christ if we don't know what He taught? And remember that God's instructions flow out of His very nature. They are not a list of things to do that He made up out of thin air. Rather, who He is automatically produces what we should do. So the obeying of Christ's commands is to be like Him.
But how do we teach obedience? One word: modeling. Consider the words of Jesus in John 15:12 – “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” Jesus taught by example. He led the way. He said “Come, follow me where I am going and do what I am doing.” rather than “You go there and do this and that or such and such.” And remember the context of this passage. Jesus has just given the ultimate object lesson to His Apostles by washing their feet in what was probably the most profound act of humility and service they had ever seen. He, their master, had lowered Himself to the level of a slave to do to them what they were too prideful to do to one another. I imagine the twelve were somewhat spellbound by the time Jesus gets to verse 12 of chapter 15. They would have been enraptured, hanging on His every word at this point.
Let us further consider that this command to teach obedience extends beyond just the scope of global missions. It flows both ways. It is a requirement of those making disciples. But it is also a requirement of those being made disciples. Each one of us, as those who claim to be followers of Christ, are expected by Him to be taught obedience to His commands. Being taught carries with it an implication of a willingness to be taught. So the question that hangs in the air like an 800 pound gorilla in the room that no one wants to acknowledge is this. Do you have a willingness and an eagerness to be taught how to obey the commands of Jesus? Are you seeking out someone to learn from? Does this submission to instruction form the framework of your life? Or are you merely coasting along in your supposed life of faith, unwilling to be stretched by the difficult teachings of the Son of God?
So in summary, the work of global missions is as follows: while we are assumed to be going to all the people groups of the world we are to make Disciples of Christ, baptize them into the Christian faith, and follow up by teaching and training them in everything that Jesus commanded.
Now then, having established the framework of global missions in verse 19 and 20, let’s return to verse 18 that I made such a big deal about earlier. Notice that Jesus says “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” This is a short sentence that has extraordinarily long and far reaching implications. The truth that Christ has been given all authority forms the framework for the rest of this passage, most of which we have already looked at. Therefore, we must carefully contemplate and spend time dwelling upon the ramifications of this statement. I have identified 19 ways in which the authority, or supremacy, of Jesus is seen in the bible. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it should serve to drive our thoughts in the direction they should go. That is: firmly, squarely, and exclusively upon the Son of God.
The supremacy of Christ is seen:
1. Instructionally (Matt. 7:29) – Jesus taught and continues to teach with incomparable authority.
2. Royally (Mark 16:19) – Jesus sitting at His Father’s “right hand”, in Jewish culture, indicated equality in ruling power and sovereign authority.
3. Judicially (John 12:48) – Through the medium of His words Jesus will judge mankind.
4. Glorifiably* (John 16:13-15) – The primary function of one third of the Godhead is to bring glory and honor to Christ.
5. Mercifully (Acts 2:38) – Only Christ is capable of granting forgiveness of sins.
6. Salvifically* (Acts 4:12) – The name of Jesus is the only name by which anyone can ever be saved from death.
7. Believably (Acts 18:8) – The person of Christ is believable to those who behold Him.
8. Powerfully (Rom. 1:3-4) – In His resurrection Christ was raised with power and majesty.
9. Righteously (Rom. 5:18) – In order to be capable of one act of righteousness Christ is required logically to be filled with righteousness.
10. Diplomatically (1 Cor. 1:10) – It is in the name of Jesus Christ that agreements should be reached and divisions mended.
11. Graciously (Gal. 1:6) – It is Christ’s grace by which the elect are called by the Father.
12. Revelatorially* (Gal. 1:11-12) – It is Christ who reveals the gospel, the truth about Himself, to mankind.
13. Psychologically (Phil. 4:6-7) – By dwelling upon Christ we can experience a true peace defined by a lack of destructive stress.
14. Positionally (Col. 1:18) – Christ is before all things, He is first in all things, and He is the head of all things.
15. Philosophically (Col. 2:8) – The contrast with hollow and deceptive philosophies based on worldly principles is a fulfilling and accurate philosophy based on Christ-like principles.
16. Hereditarily (Heb. 1:1-2) – Christ is the heir of God the Father in all things.
17. Sacrificially (1 Pet. 3:18) – It is through His death that Christ brings us to God.
18. Existentially (2 Peter 1:4) – This means neither the 19th century philosophical notion of existentialism (the theory that men are free agents who determine their own destiny) nor the pagan notion of apotheosis (man becoming gods). Rather, it points to a mysterious, organic connection with God that is accomplished through Christ.
19. Advocationally* (1 John 2:1) – Christ Himself actually makes intercession with the Father on our behalf when we sin. This is a unique and exclusive role.
My prayer is that after carefully considering this short list of examples of the supremacy of Jesus Christ your soul is soaring to new heights of appreciation for His majesty and glory and honor and power. That is the correct frame of mind with which to consider every area of life. But in particular, we must keep Christ’s authority in mind as we consider the very next phrase in our passage: “Go therefore”. This is a curious phrase, perhaps rendered more modernly in English as “Therefore, go…” The emphasis here is on “therefore” rather than “go”, although most bible translations position “go” first in order. This type of statement is called a conjunction. Its purpose in grammar is to show a relationship between two things, a cause and effect, or a sequence of events. In this case, everything else that Jesus says in this passage is informed by, dependent on, and enabled by what He has just said, namely that “all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me.” So then, when we consider that the rest of this passage is a set of instructions about how to do global missions, it must be understood that missions is somehow directly influenced and predicated upon this authority that has been given to Christ.
The question is, how and why? To answer that we need to first explore the etymology of the words mission and missionary. They are actually a little more complicated to define biblically than you might think because, perhaps surprisingly, neither is found anywhere in the bible. They are moderately recent terms, finding their first known usage around 1600 A.D. by the order of Jesuits. Both words come from the Latin “mitto”, which is itself a translation of the Greek apostollo, meaning to send. Ah hah! Now we’re getting somewhere. Apostollo has a familiar ring to it because it is the Greek root for apostolos, meaning someone who is sent, which we translate into English as apostle. This is a word that we are obviously quite familiar with. So in a very real sense, the word missionary is a modern version of the ancient word apostle. This clue enables us to uncover a sequence of thought that both helps to define missionary and to discover the link between Christ's authority and the work of global missions that we have seen in Matthew 28. We will begin by considering the usage of apostle in scripture.
1. The twelve (Luke 6:13) – Here we see apostle used to refer specifically to those twelve closest disciples of Jesus who He personally commissioned to be His authoritative human representatives on Earth after His departure. These would be the men upon whom the primary human burden of building up the church would fall.
2. Those gifted (Eph. 4:11-12) – A second usage of apostle in scripture is seen here, in this list of gifts of the Holy Spirit. Apparently, some in the body of Christ are expressly commissioned by the Holy Spirit as apostles, again meaning “sent ones.” In this context the word seems to have broader application than just the twelve. It could be that this category serves to capture all of the other high ranking first century ministers who were not among the twelve, such as Paul, Barnabas, and James the brother of Jesus.
3. Everyone else (Acts 14:4, 14; 2 Cor. 8:23) – In Acts 14 we see apostle used to refer specifically to Paul and Barnabas in verse 14. The word is also used in verse 4 in what appears inconclusively to be a broader sense. But the deal is sealed by comparing those verses with the appearance of apostle in 2 Corinthians. In that passage the implication is obviously common Christians. And the word used, although translated into English in most bible versions as “messengers” is actually the same Greek word “apostolos.” So there is clearly a sense in which all believers, while not having the same level of authority as the Apostles (with a capital A) are still considered apostles (with a lower case a) and are commissioned as “sent ones.”
Now then, with those points in mind we need to consider the cultural understanding of apostle in the Hellenistic world. The Greeks were seafarers. They first used this word “apostolos” in maritime language to refer to ships or even fleets that were sent out into the world, both in domestic and military applications. Further on in history “apostolos” came to refer more specifically to either the military commander of these naval expeditions or a group of colonists who were sent to settle new lands. So the idea here is not just of someone who is sent, but a person or a group of persons who is sent with authority. And not just a small level of authority but with the full authority of the government they had been sent by to increase the influence of their home country.
If we draw “apostolos” back into a biblical context it should be apparent that the government in Greek culture becomes Jesus Himself in this usage. And the military commander or group of colonists becomes individual or groups of Christians. And suddenly the link between Christ's supremacy and the work of global missions leaps into focus. It is because of the authority granted to Jesus that He sends us out into the world to make disciples with authority. This is a critical point that we dare not miss. Jesus frames His speech such that the work of missions is directly related to and enabled by His authority. So in a very real and tangible way missions is all about Christ. But not just in the message. It is all about Him in even its existence as a goal for the church. Colossians 1:16 comes to mind: all things have been created through Him and for Him. Applied to global missions we could say it like this. Missions is about Christ, authorized by Christ, and for Christ.
As if that wasn't enough evidence, look at how Jesus chose to end His statement in verse 20. “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” It is remarkable how He book ends this sweeping statement on global missions with first His authority and finally His presence. In fact, this is so significant that I suggest we amend our summary of a moment ago to this: Missions is about Christ, authorized by Christ, for Christ, and accompanied by Christ. To take the words of Paul in Ephesians 4 that He applied there to God the Father; Christ is over all and through all and in all. Global missions is all about Christ! Because of that it is of exceedingly great importance. Its centrality should be at the forefront of our thoughts and our minds and our efforts as a body of believers. It is absolutely unacceptable biblically to sideline missions in favor of other pursuits. Or to relegate it to a backseat because of difficult financial situations. Or to be closed off personally to the possibility of being called to global missions work as a missionary. If we are to take any of those stances on this subject then we are to blatantly defy the specific and clear teaching of Jesus Himself.
*I know that these words are not correct grammatically. However, I chose to ignore grammar in this case to preserve the symmetry of words which identify areas in which the supremacy of Christ can be seen.
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