Great Commission Lifestyle - Part 2 — Robert Coleman

We've been thinking about the people that God brings into our life, to disciple, and you might be interested in this. This was written to Jesus, son of Joseph, the woodcrafter's carpenter shop, Nazareth, zip code 25922, from the Jordan Management Consultants.

Dear Sir, Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have taken our battery of tests, and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully. As part of our service and for your guidance, we make some general comments, much as an auditor will include some general statements.

This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee. It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking.

They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience and managerial ability and proven capability. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.

Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.

We feel it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, definitely has radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contact in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible.

We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-exclamatory. We wish you every success in your new venture. Sincerely, the Jordan Management Consultants.

God Uses Unlikely People in the Great Commission

I think that might encourage all of us. When you look around sometimes, you wonder what God has chosen, but you can see what he has got to work with. But it's so beautiful he can take the likes of us, things that in this world look foolish, and yet use people like us to confound the wise.

That's why everyone here can be assured. There's a place for you in fulfilling the Great Commission. And we have been looking at that, realizing that God's mission is to reach the whole world, to raise up a people from all the nations who will praise him forever.

How to accomplish that? In the fullness of time, Jesus came into the world, identified with us, and bore our sins to the cross. And we saw that principle of self-renunciation. We call it the incarnation.

And certainly it teaches us that we too must identify with people and take the form of a servant. And when you are known as one who cares, who serves, you never lack opportunity to make some disciples.

But that underscored that second principle of selection. While you minister to those that you can have opportunity to reach, you're especially sensitive to those that God has placed a deeper desire to learn from you.

It's not that you love the others any less, but it's for the sake ultimately of reaching the whole world that you concentrate on a few. And as we saw Jesus giving us a pattern, we stay together as much as we can, a principle of association, which is basically the basic way that we learn.

It's the idea of the family that God himself ordained in the Garden of Eden. And in that relationship, we can understand what is being taught. But it underscores the need, of course, of obedience to what we're learning.

For you learn as you go. And there's no end to it. But what makes obedience so beautiful is that it's all an expression of love to God, which motivates us and keeps us ever wanting to learn more and to keep pressing on to higher ground.

Demonstration: Learning Ministry by Watching Jesus

But that brings us to a fifth principle now I call demonstration. Jesus showed these disciples how to minister. So that it was more than just a declaration. It was also an example that he was imparting to the disciples.

And when he said, follow me, which was the way they would give witness to their faith, it was the way also they could learn by being with him. And they could see his compassion for the multitudes. They could see how he ministered.

And certainly they were learning how they too must reach out and care for people and love them. But they were also observing his inner life of prayer. No wonder after a while they came to the master and said, would you teach us to pray?

Have you noticed? They didn't ask Jesus to teach them to preach, but they knew prayer was the heartbeat of his ministry. In the same way, they were learning to use the scripture as Jesus so frequently alluded to the Old Testament scriptures.

166 times those Old Testament scriptures are recorded on the lips of Jesus in the full Gospels. And they were learning to measure their life by what is written in this book. And they were also impressed at the way Jesus made the personal application as again and again he called attention to the fact that he was only fulfilling what was written.

This was the way they were continually growing. It was by demonstration. And what they may not have realized until later in this process, they were also learning how you make disciples. So when at the end he told them to go and do it, they could understand what he was talking about.

They could look back upon their own experience and realize that's what discipleship means. And I would trust that the people that get close to you and that you are able to invest your life in will come to that same realization.

It's not much point in telling people about disciple making unless they have some frame of reference by which to interpret it. And have you noticed Jesus did not really spell out the strategy until just before he left.

After you've seen something demonstrated, haven't you noticed it's much easier to explain it? Because you understand out of the context of your experience. Much more, of course, to be said, but I want to move to that next principle, number six, of delegation.

Delegation: Involving Disciples in Ministry

Because as these disciples were continually learning and learning more as they watched Christ, he gave them ways to express it, getting them involved in ministry. At first, basically, it was just to be in attendance where he was to follow him around.

But very quickly, he found ways that they could assist him in his own personal need of entertainment and hospitality. He didn't have a house of his own, didn't own any property. So he just availed himself of the hospitality of his disciples and his friends.

I haven't found any place in the Gospels where it tells me Jesus turned down an invitation to dinner. I was glad when I discovered that. That's one place I think I'm very obedient. But it's a beautiful way for somebody else to exercise a ministry.

After a while, these disciples were beginning to catch on more to what he was doing. And so he gave them the opportunity to assist in feeding the thousands that were attending his meetings. They didn't have really enough faith to believe God for a miracle.

But he did give them each a basket and said, Now, I'm going to pray over this, these fish and these loaves. And then you go and feed the people. You know, there's another miracle there we sometimes overlook.

Those doubting disciples actually began to do it. Can you imagine how they felt when they looked down in that basket and began to break off a piece of that bread and then saw it grow back? Can you imagine?

Their eyes must have been as big as saucers. They were watching a miracle and they had a part in it. When it was all over, they still had a basket full of food. Jesus was making them feel important. They were a part of his work.

You can see how this increases as they move along after about a year and a half. One day they stop along the trail and he says, Now, we're going to do a little something different today. You are going to be able to go out into villages where we haven't yet gone.

I imagine they were a little scared. You know how you feel when there's a visitation campaign coming on? But he assured them, Now, you won't go alone. I'll be with you. And you just do what you've been watching me do.

You come into a new village. You announce the gospel. You cast out the demons. And you begin to make disciples. Well, he didn't say it like that. He said, You find the most worthy family. And you make that your headquarters.

And you can evangelize. You can go out into the community all day long and do your work. But every night you come back to this same house that has enough interest in your mission that they will open their home and provide a place for you to stay.

When you sit around the table at night, you can talk about what's happened. You can share some of your experiences. And you build a relationship. So that when you leave, at least there'll be one house in town that will know a little bit more about it.

Why, this might be the beginning of a new church plant. Here are some people that you've already begun to disciple. And they can carry on. But suppose there's no one that's the least bit interested. Even after you canvass the whole community, you can't find a soul that wants to learn.

What are you going to do then? Are you going to grit your teeth and say, Well, I'll make this program work if it kills me? I guess that's one option. But remember, we're working under the mandate of the harvest.

A harvest that's waiting. It must be reaped. We don't have the luxury of just going through routines when nothing's happening. No one is being discipled. Remember what Jesus said? Shake the dust off your feet.

Go to the next town where presumably there are people that have never even heard the first invitation to Christ. And someone has said, Why should anyone hear the gospel twice until everyone has heard it once?

This principle of ever reaching out, ever multiplying in your mission to the world. And of course, finally, to nail it down, he gives them that last command. You go now and you repeat what you've been watching me doing.

You make disciples. Now, you can see the implication of this very quickly. We can all some way be involved. Discipling is not some gift of the spirit or some particular call to full time ministry. Everyone is called to ministry.

This is a way of life. And everyone can have a place. You can all share your witness. You certainly can begin to help someone else grow in their faith when you have yourself met the Lord. Discipling, you see, brings the priesthood of all believers down to the level where everyone in the church has a part.

I think of a writing academy out in West Texas that advertises they have a horse to suit everyone's taste. For fat people, they have fat horses. For skinny people, they have skinny horses. For fast people, they have fast horses.

For slow people, they have slow horses. And for people that don't know how to ride at all, they've got horses that have never been ridden before. Now, I don't know what your taste is, but there's a horse you can ride.

More to the point, there's a horse everybody can ride in the church. And if you are the leader, you need to help that follower, that disciple, find the way that they can exercise their gifts. The way they can have a part in the ministry of Christ.

Oh, this is the joy that comes as you begin to see them reach out in ways which you do not have ability. And with contacts you would never have. And begin to see them multiply doing the work of the Great Commission.

Supervision: Encouragement and Correction in the Harvest

But they're going to face problems just like those disciples. And that brings us to that seventh principle of supervision. Jesus kept check on them. I suppose if you are doing nothing, you are not encountering a lot of resistance.

You're probably dead, though. But if you are really out there in the harvest, you're going to face these difficulties. You're going to have to resist the powers and principalities of evil that are aware also of what you're doing.

And you will come under pressure. You will be attacked. And sometimes you may stumble and fall, but encourage one another. You're in this together. Jesus would bring back the disciples time and time again and ask them how things were going.

Give them further instruction. Just as an example, take the time 70 had come back. You'll notice there's been some growth, at least in the working force out in the harvest. And he asks how things are going.

And they say, well, Lord, even demons were subject to us. And then we're told Jesus rejoiced in the spirit. Don't ever miss anything in the scripture. It's all inspired. You parents know what that means, don't you?

When your children do something right, don't you rejoice? Don't you put that little picture they drew in Sunday school up on the refrigerator door? Don't you hug them and brag on them when people are around?

Let them know you're proud of them. Yes, we need to affirm one another, especially those that are young. And Jesus was letting his disciples know he was pleased at the way they had gone forth and had success.

But he seizes the opportunity to teach them a profound theological truth. When he said he could see Satan fall like lightning from heaven. We could spend the rest of the day trying to exegete all the different interpretations.

But what is obvious, as this ministry multiplies, the powers of darkness are going to be shaken. The kingdom of darkness is being invaded with the gospel. But there is a personal application he doesn't want them to miss.

And so he says, don't rejoice just because you had a big success today that demons were subject to you. But rather rejoice that your name is written in heaven. Do you see the lesson? Suppose those disciples had the idea that you're happy only when you have a great success.

Nothing went wrong. Everything you planned worked out just as you anticipated. What are you going to do, though, when things begin to fall apart? And you've tried to help someone and they've only responded with rejection.

Maybe a door slammed in your face. What are you going to do then? Are you going to feel sorry for yourself? I think one of the most popular sins among church workers is self-pity. And if we expect to always be appreciated and complimented, we'll be off balance a good part of our life.

It's not going to work out that way. We are engaged in warfare against powers and principalities. And we can be grateful that even in the midst of suffering, we will come to our greatest lessons as we grow in the likeness of Christ.

No, he said, don't rejoice just because today was a success. You can rejoice all the time, whether you see success or not, as the world calls it. You can rejoice just knowing that you're saved, just knowing your name is written in heaven, just knowing you are a child of God.

And there's that personal witness of the spirit of that relationship with him. What more can happen than already has happened? And that's why I tell my students, I want to hear some shouts of joy on this campus.

I want people to know we're alive because our names are written in the book of heaven. Doesn't that thrill you? But that's not a sermon. Jesus just made that comment after they had had an experience. That's the way he's teaching.

It doesn't sound like a sermon or a lecture, but he seizes the experiences that they're having and he uses them to teach profound lessons of truth. And so as you read the Gospels, have you noticed it doesn't sound like a book of systematic theology that we have students read.

But as you read through these pages, don't you have a sense that there's a person that walks right out of these pages? He's so real, he just walks through your life. That's great teaching. When the message is not obscured in your method and you see the truth that is being expressed.

Yes, Jesus kept check on them, continually encouraged them and sometime rebuking them. But assuring that they were moving toward that destiny that he had planned for their lives. And the greatest expression of this is in the way he prayed for them.

Jesus’ Prayer for His Disciples and the World

That's why I like for the boys to memorize the 17th chapter of John. You know why? It's the longest recorded prayer of our Lord. And if you want to know someone well, learn how they pray. Isn't that when the deepest yearnings of your soul come to the surface?

And as you read that prayer, you can see what's uppermost in the mind of Jesus as he begins in the adoration of the Father. So grateful that God would have entrusted him with this mission. A mission that he knows will lead to the cross.

And yet he can foresee how by belief in him, people will have eternal life. And he rejoices in it. In his praise of God. But soon he turns his attention to those that the Father has entrusted to him. He says they belong to you and you have given them unto me.

Who's he praying for now? His disciples. And particularly the 11. Because he mentions one of them is lost, the son of perdition. That the scripture might be fulfilled. You see, Jesus knew that Judas would betray him in the beginning.

And you wonder why he would put up with that rascal. It had been written in the Psalms many years before that one of his own friends would set his heel against him. And Jesus lived by every word that is written in this book.

But oh, how he prayed for the others. Yearned that they might be kept from the evil one. That they might have his joy. That they might be set apart or sanctified as he was sanctifying himself. And yet even as he prayed, these disciples were beginning to fear.

For there was already a delegation coming with the high priest's commission to take Jesus away and crucify him. And he knew how soon they would be scattered. But oh, how he prays for them. How he yearns for them.

And then he prays, not for these only, he says, verse 20, but for all who shall believe on me. Through their word. Now he's looking down beyond the disciples to generations unborn. He's including you and me.

And though their faith, it seemed, was beginning to stammer. He wouldn't give up on them. His love would not let them go. He held them up to God. If you've ever had a wayward child, you've learned something about it.

You pastors that have seen wayward members of your church, you know what it is to hold them up when their own faith is faltering. For though, he concludes, that faith that he has in those discouraged men has believed for a whole world.

For through them he knows how someday the world will reach the ends of the earth as they multiply. And so he prays that finally the whole world will come to believe on him whom the Father has sent and be filled with the same love.

That the Father has for the Son. You cannot conceive of anything higher than the love within the Holy Trinity. Oh, we've got a lot of growing to do. But that's what he wants for us. That's discipling.

How do you pray? That would be the greatest index of your understanding of the Great Commission. But always in your mind, of course, is the harvest. The day when at last this purpose of God will be accomplished.

Reproduction: Multiplying Disciples and Reaching the Nations

And so that principle of reproduction comes into focus. He looks to these disciples to carry on the work and to multiply until finally the world has heard the gospel. This is what he's been teaching them all along.

He taught them very early to think of the harvest when they prayed. To think of the Great Commission when they have their private devotions. Because you can't think of God without his love for a world for whom Jesus died.

And he talks about the fruit in our life. One day they were walking along and he saw a vine growing out of some bushes. And he commented, he was like that true vine. And from that vine there would grow branches and from those branches there would be fruit.

And then he made the analogy. You are the fruit, my disciples. But when that fruit you see is planted in the earth, it becomes a seed. And under proper conditions, it will begin to grow another vine. And then you have the multiplication 30, 60, 100, 4.

This is a principle that Jesus again and again is bringing to his disciples. The principle of reproducing your life in others but teaching them in turn to do it to another generation. And for them to pass it on to another.

That promise in John 14, 12 is one which I've often reflected on because it's so staggering. He says, everyone that believes on me will do my work. And even greater works than these you will do because I'm going to the Father.

Can you conceive of the church doing anything greater than Jesus? That's what he says, everyone who believes on him. Certainly, I can't see the church ever coming up with greater miracles or greater sermons or greater insights in teaching.

But I can see in at least one respect where the church is doing something greater. And it's being seen before our eyes all the time. It's in the harvest. When Jesus went back to heaven, the largest number of believers is said to be about 500.

That was the number mentioned of the witnesses to the resurrection. But if you would look at the great evangelists of the world and think upon their ministry in terms of numbers, you probably wouldn't include the name of Jesus.

Often in a Billy Graham crusade, more than 500 will come every night. But you see, you would miss the whole point. Jesus had not come himself to evangelize the world. He came to offer the sacrifice to make it possible for the world to be saved.

That's where his work was finished. But on his way to the cross, as he preached the gospel to the multitudes, he concentrated upon training some disciples and infusing them with his vision for a world so that when his work was finished, after confirming them in their faith, he could soon return back to the throne of God, knowing that they would carry on and they would begin to reach out and multiply.

And that's what you begin to see in the book of Acts, as 120 of these disciples actually go back to the upper room where they had heard this promise earlier. There, on that day of Pentecost, filled with the Spirit, they went out and began to declare the works of God.

It created a sensation. And when Peter gave an explanation for it, people cried out, What must we do to be saved? And he told them how. About 3 ,000 were converted, more in one day than Jesus himself, and one in over three years.

And every day after that, others are added to the church as they're being saved. The book of Acts doesn't even have a conclusion. Have you noticed that? It virtually breaks off in the middle of a sentence.

Because, you see, we're still living in the age of the harvest. And it will not conclude until the great commission is fulfilled. This is the vision that Jesus imparts to his disciples. The vision of the coming of the kingdom.

Oh, that thrills you. What you're doing now may not seem like it's changing the course of the world. But you just let it keep moving out. The time will come when the multiplying effect will begin to change things.

And that added to others assures someday this mission will be accomplished. And God will gather his people from every tongue and tribe and nation. And there's going to be a celebration in the sky. Doesn't it thrill you to anticipate the harvest?

And here's where every one of us in the church, everyone who believes on him, he said, has a part of this greater... That's the joy. As you can work with people and begin to hear them make their plans and begin to try to follow along in some way as they begin to project their life.

And having been on this trail now for a number of years, I can say this is the greatest joy that can come to a discipler. It's in seeing the fruitfulness of others who are beginning to multiply. And thankfully, they're doing a better job so often than I could do.

Well, hopefully I've helped them a little so that they won't go through some of the tunnels that I've been through. But isn't that the joy of a father and a mother, of a pastor, and of every discipler who watches their children grow in the truth?

Impartation: The Holy Spirit Empowers Disciple-Making

But you can anticipate that harvest only because of this final principle I call impartation. I saved it for the end because I wanted to emphasize it. Actually, in the book, The Master Plan, it's in the middle.

I didn't want to wait until we got to the end to introduce the power by which it happens. So I tried to give the impression everything else kind of emanates from this principle of the Holy Spirit empowering and enabling us to fulfill the commission.

But this is what puts it all together. And apart from this reality, all of our work would be sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. It would be as nothing. God is known as the Father in His administration.

We recognize Him as the Son in the revelation. We only know God as we know Jesus. No one sees the Father. He is the Word finally incarnate in the flesh. But we know God as the Spirit in operation. And we're introduced to Him in the very first chapter of the book of Genesis as the Spirit there is moving upon the deep, bringing the cosmos into being.

By the Spirit, the heavens are laid out. And by that same Spirit, God took the dust and fashioned it into a creature and then breathed into its nostrils the breath of life. And it became a living soul.

The word breathe is the root for the word Spirit. That's why we began to live and move and have our being in God. And by that Spirit, we actually now, we're beginning to live in His strength. Of course, the tragedy of sin is that we turn to our own way.

And that life-giving power was withdrawn. So we were on our own. We still had the capacity, but without the Spirit, there was no means of communication. No way to experience the life of God. And Jesus made it very clear, that's the reason we must be born.

Again, born of the Spirit because it's the Spirit, He said, that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. Not only does the Spirit give life, He sustains that life. He nourishes it. He likens it to a spring of water that's continually bubbling up within.

When you drink of this water, you don't thirst anymore. You see, the reason lives are being recreated is the Spirit of God Himself, in creation, is working to transform us and make us into the image that He has planned in Christ.

And by this same power, of course, He accomplishes His work. And you see it all through the Old Testament, as in particular times and special events, the Spirit of God comes upon someone and enables them to do God's work.

And of course, this is the reason the prophets can foresee long ahead that one is coming in whom the Spirit will dwell without any limitation. And in the fullness of time, just as had been promised, that same Spirit plants the seed of the Father in the womb of the Virgin, so she conceives by the Spirit and brings forth into human history God's one and only Son.

And by that same Spirit, Jesus is led during the days of His incarnate life. And in that Spirit, He does mighty works. And as He comes to the close, those disciples are gathered in the upper room, and you can understand now why He so earnestly wants them to understand what has been the source of His power.

In that upper room discourse, it is most beautifully revealed, John 14, 15, 16, when He tells them that He's going to be going back soon to the Father to take His place at the throne. But He will not leave them orphans.

Another, He said, will come, and He will be your counselor, the Spirit of truth. He won't talk about Himself, but He'll take the things of mine, and He will show them unto you. He will guide you into truth.

He is the one who will glorify Me. He's not talking about a theory. This isn't a doctrine. He's talking about one like Himself, another. Only the difference between the visible Word in Christ and the invisible presence in the Spirit.

But in power, in holiness, in love, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. You can see why Jesus told the disciples to tarry until this becomes a reality, because He's given them the charge to reach a world, a world that has killed their Lord, and yet they're to go forth boldly to proclaim that His work has been finished, and whosoever will may come and before Him receive new life.

Yes, you can see why they needed something more. And so, as He had told them, they went back to that room where they had heard Him promise this after the Lord's Supper. It happened to be during the feast day of Pentecost, the day that worshipers from all over the nation are bringing in the first fruits of the harvest, and they're laying their grain offerings there on the altar.

While they're celebrating the harvest, bringing in their gifts, there's a much greater harvest that's beginning, a spiritual harvest. And while they tarry there in that room, suddenly there's a sound like a rushing wind that fills the place, and a great, a scintillating flame of fire seems to burst forth until a flame sits upon the head of each member.

Oh, what symbolism. Jesus sits down at the throne, and the Spirit comes and sits on the head of the disciples. He takes over, and they speak in ways that the people can understand out on the streets as they declare the wonderful works of God.

But the power is not in the wind or the fire or the tongues. The power is in the Holy Spirit who has come, come to be in charge now of His people who wait upon Him, who are filled, filled with the presence of their Lord.

And don't you see a difference as they go forth now? Those discouraged, beaten disciples go forth fearing not men or demons, and where once they were bickering among themselves who would be first or who would sit on the right and the left, now they love each other, and they're filled with joy, and they go on their way giving praise to God.

That's the reality that explains the New Testament church. And that's the promise of the Great Commission. Have you noticed it? Having given the command to go and disciple, He concludes, Lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

That's why you can believe God will do it. But only as you empty yourself before Him and by faith receive the promise of the Father and are filled with the Holy Spirit. Not that you have all of the Spirit.

There's always more. But to your capacity, as you know your heart, you can give all that you know of yourself to all that you know of Him. You know, even a little thimble can be filled with the ocean when it's immersed beneath the waters.

Have you surrendered to Jesus all that you know of yourself, confessing every impediment, every sin that would be on your heart, every fleshly attitude that would hinder the flow of this life-giving, cleansing power?

Oh, that's the promise. That's why you can believe God, through you, will make disciples. Because it's the Spirit from the very beginning that affects the incarnation. Just as with Jesus, in some way that is different, but the principle is the same.

He is recreating you in the image of Jesus. Breathing that life into you. And it's the Spirit that enables you to show His compassion to a world so that people are drawn into your life. And it's the Spirit that makes the selection.

You just respond to the Spirit at work bringing people to you. Doesn't that take a burden off of your shoulders? And it's the Spirit that creates the fellowship, that association which later Jesus calls the church.

Where you meet with Him and just one other person, He's present. And sometimes it may take a larger dimension as is here today when there are hundreds present. But you are always privileged to be a part of that fellowship.

And it's the Spirit that pours love into your heart so that you want to obey. And that becomes the joy and rejoicing of your soul, keeping His commandments. And it's the Spirit that enables you actually become a demonstration of what you believe so that as the Bible says people can look at you and read you like a letter, you become the example.

And it's the Spirit that delegates, that singles out people for different missions and enables them with different gifts to fulfill different roles. But He's the one that sends forth. And it's the Spirit who supervises.

He's the one that convicts us when we're wrong and helps us know the error of our way. And it's the Spirit who inspires us, who encourages us through the Word. And it's the Spirit who even helps us as we pray with groanings that cannot even be uttered.

It's the Spirit that prays. We just get on His wavelength. And it's the Spirit who finally brings forth the harvest so that we are really nothing more than a witness to the miracle of the grace of God that is being disclosed in men and women before our eye.

That's all. And only as we are willing to step aside and lay ourselves entirely upon the altar and let Jesus be rightfully Lord and authority are we able to go forth and fulfill His commission. But in that strength, nothing's impossible.