Just after His resurrection and just before His ascension into heaven, Jesus gave His disciples what is commonly known as ‘the great commission’ (Matt 28:16-20), the command to go into all the nations and make disciples, baptising them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything He had commanded. This commission was initially given to the eleven disciples who had followed Jesus throughout His lifetime, but all disciples are now commissioned in the same way.
This task seems daunting, but Matt 28:18 reminds us that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, and therefore this task carries with it all the authority and power of the Godhead. Because of Jesus’s authority, we can go in His strength and power.
The enemy tries many tactics to prevent us from obeying this task. Universalism is one such pitfall: if we believe all roads lead to God eventually, then we have no incentive to make disciples of anyone. The lack of interest in spiritual matters in the West also leads us to conclude that there is no point seeking to make disciples because people are not interested. But we cannot get away from the fact that this last command of Jesus needs to be our motivating and propelling force. Discipleship is about more than ‘getting saved’; it means encouraging, teaching and building up those who proclaim faith in Christ. Discipleship and baptism go hand in hand, with baptism the outward sign of what God has done inwardly (see Rom 6:1-3).
We need to see people saved and baptised. We need to be making new disciples. The average age of our church is about 53: we have to be constantly reaching out to people so that we do not wither away and die without seeing new disciples come into the church. We have to be active and serious about our commission. Salvation comes in God’s way and God’s timing, but He has made it plain that now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor 6:2) Our primary calling and purpose in life should be to fulfil this task of making disicples, baptising disciples and teaching them to obey all Jesus has said.
