The Great Commission Repeated
Was the Great Commission given only once? In Mark 16:7, while still in the garden tomb area, Jesus instructed Mary to tell the disciples to meet Him at a designated place in Galilee. And Matthew 28:16-18 records the proclamation taking place on a mountaintop—in Galilee. But Luke 24:50 tells us that He spent His final hours with His disciples in Jerusalem, then walked with them as far as Bethany, and from there, He ascended. His final words, which we call the Great Commission, were His parting words.
When He sent out the disciples to evangelize, He may have often repeated the command to encourage and embolden them as He reminded them of the purpose of His sending. Besides the references already mentioned, common sense would suggest that if this commission was important enough to be His last words, they were important enough to have been spoken many times—not hidden in a secret place of His heart to be reserved as a one-time, parting command. After all, how often do you tell your wife you love her? I hope often because if those words are reserved as your final words, you may be saying them sooner than you think!
What Christ said is more important than where He said it, when He said it, or how often He may have said it. In a dozen or so words, He shares eight specific details:
Misunderstanding What A Missionary Is – Episode 28
- Who the sender is—Himself, not a board, a church or a denomination
- Whose authority He is sending with—His Father’s
- What power He is sending with—all the power given to Him in the totality of His creation
- Who He is sending—us
- Where He is sending us—to the entire world
- What He is sending us to do—to preach the Gospel
- Who will accompany us—He and His Holy Spirit
- And finally, how long He will accompany us—until the end of the earth
No business or battle plan conceived by man has ever been so expansive and, at the same time, so concise. On the other hand, no other command of God, existing for over two thousand years, remains yet to be obeyed. The shame is not His; it is ours. Let’s get busy and obey.
Points to Ponder
- If we will not obey it, does it matter how many times or in how many locations Christ may have repeated this command?
- In your life, with your time, talents, and financial means, what have you done to help fulfill His Commission? What else or what more could you do?
- If an impartial observer studied your life and actions, heard your prayers, and monitored your spending – would he surmise that you view Christ’s words as a Great Commission you obey or as a Mediocre Suggestion you ignore?
