HOW TO RESPOND TO THE GREAT COMMISSION

Our great mission in the church is to love, learn, and live to call men and women to Jesus Christ. He allows His church to remain on earth to reach the lost. Jesus calls every believer to be an instrument in fulfilling the church's supreme mission called the Great Commission.

Elements of the Great Commission:

1 Be available. The eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus has designated (Matt. 8:16). The greatest ability is availability. The most talented and gifted Christian is useless to God if he or she is not available to be used.

2 Be worshipful. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them (Matt. 28:17-18). The essence of true worship is a single-minded, unhindered, and unqualified concentration on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. When they focused on Jesus their doubts vanished.

3 Be submissive. All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). Before giving the Commission, Jesus first had to establish His absolute authority. Otherwise, the command would have seemed hopelessly impossible for the disciples to fulfill - and they might have ignored it. Submission is our supreme obligation. We need to have the attitude, Whatever the Lord commands, I will do.

4 Be obedient. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you (Matt. 28:19-20). Obey His command to turn unbelievers into disciples. The three parts of making disciples are:

* Going. The church is not to wait for the world to come to its doors, but it is to go to the world.

* Baptizing. As instituted by Christ, baptism becomes an outward act of identification with Him through faith; a visible, public testimony that one belongs to Him.

* Teaching. The church's mission is not simply to convert but to teach. God calls the new believer to a life of obedience, and that means it is necessary to know what He requires. Studying, understanding, and obeying the whole purpose of God is the lifelong task of every true disciple (Acts 20:27).

5 Lean on God's power. Jesus concludes the Great Commission by saying, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). While the first four element for effective fulfillment of the church's mission are crucial, they would be useless without the power that the Lord Jesus Christ offers through His continuing presence with those believers. Jesus did not simply command His disciples to become fishers of men, but promised that He would make them fishermen for men's souls. You never can be an effective disciple - or discipler - without His power.

----------- John F. MacArthur is the pastor of Grace Community Church in California and president of The Master's College and Seminary. He can be heard daily on the Grace to You national radio program and is the author of The Second Coming, Strength for Today, and The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness.

From Nothing But the Truth by John F. MacArthur, copyright (c) 1999. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Ill., 1-800-635-7993.