Understanding the Great Commission

And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe… Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” – Mark 16:11, 14-18 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. – Romans 1:16

What are the four aspects to the Great Commission? How can we share Jesus with the people God has placed in our lives? What does that look like when it happens?

In Mark 16, we find Jesus alive after his death, walking around in His new, glorified body, and appearing to those whom He knew before His resurrection. The eleven disciples started to hear stories of Jesus appearing to some of His followers, but they quickly dismissed the validity of the accounts. Jesus? Back from the dead? It was too good to be true! The disciples all-to-quickly embraced a spirit of unbelief, and Jesus couldn’t let them stay like that. He showed up and called them out, confronting their unbelief.

Jesus then gave the disciples what we call the Great Commission Mandate: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature!” As followers of Jesus, we are tasked with the mandate, the first aspect of the Great Commission. We have the exciting job of showing the love of Christ to the world, and it’s our responsibility to be Jesus to everyone we encounter and meet. But, before we can do this, we must overcome unbelief. We are children of the King, royalty, kings and queens in the Kingdom of God! To choose not to believe limits our ability to access the power of God (Romans 1:16).

Why is belief so important? Belief is a form of receiving from God. In order to give others the good news of the gospel, we must first have received the good news from God ourselves. When we don’t believe that God is who He says He is – a powerful, good, holy, loving, gracious God – we fail to receive His blessings in our lives and the words and power we need to share His love with others.

Being a citizen of the Kingdom of God, which we all become as believers in Jesus, means to exist in a model of giving and receiving. As businesspeople, we are used to the model of buying and selling. We buy what we need and want; we sell products and services to make a profit. But in God’s economy, things are different — He doesn’t operate in a buying and selling model. Being in the Kingdom of God means to exist in a model of giving and receiving – receiving from the Lord and from others, and giving back to God and to others. When we believe in Jesus, we take the first step towards receiving from Him, and are then equipped to give love to others, telling them about the good news.

When someone receives the power of Jesus into his or her life by believing that He is who He says He is, there is evidence that a change has taken place. Believers in Jesus are given a new heart and experience transformation in their lives, and are baptized to show the world that they have placed their faith in Jesus. Evidence of a transformed life is the second aspect to the Great Commission.

Believing in Jesus means that we have the Spirit of God within us, and when we walk according to His will, we can access the power that is from God. Jesus says that signs, the third aspect to the Great Commission, will follow those who believe in Him – authority and power to overcome evil and to be vessels of God’s will for restoration and healing.

Lastly, God promises protection to His children. When someone believes in Jesus as their Savior, they are covered with God’s protection, the fourth aspect to the Great Commission. This doesn’t mean that we will always be protected from every harmful thing that comes our way, or that we will not experience our share of sorrow and grief in this life. Even Jesus was known as a “man of sorrows.” It does mean that nothing harmful can come our way without God’s express permission (i.e., the story of Job), and when we are following God’s specific calling for our lives and when our focus is on advancing God’s Kingdom through business, we can experience God’s miraculous protection and provision in supernatural ways.

My prayer for you today is that you would experience every aspect of the Great Commission, believing on Jesus for the power to transform the lives of others just as He transformed yours, and being privileged to watch the evidence, signs, and protection be manifested in followers of Jesus.