Last week we looked at the concept of discipleship this week we will look at the start of the process, evangelism. As believers we are given the command to go and make disciples, to go and spread the Gospel to others. There are a number of passages that have taken on the title we often give to the call of the believer to evangelize, this title is the Great Commission. Each of the Gospels and the book of Acts have a different phrasing of the Great Commission but each of them have the same basic concept of how we are to go out and spread the Gospel to the world. The two most well known Great Commission passages are probably Acts 1:8 and the one we will look at this week, Matthew 28:18-20. “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
Jesus Came
The first thing I want to point out is how it starts, “Jesus came and said to them.” At this point the disciples had been with Christ for over 3 years, and saw him arrested and killed on a cross. This Jesus that came to them was the resurrected Lord and they knew what he was going to say would be important. But it wasn’t just that Jesus had a command for them, but He came to them, He approached them where they were to give them this message.
Fearful Disciples
The reason behind Jesus coming to them was up to this point the disciples were hiding out. They were scared of what the Jewish leaders and the Roman government would do to them for following Jesus. They had just seen their leader arrested, put on trial, and executed in a time frame of less that 24 hours; they were afraid they would be next. It is because of this fear that makes the first thing Jesus tells them make sense, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” You see Jesus starts by telling them don’t worry about the Jewish leaders or even what the Romans will do, I am the one in control. With Jesus having the authority nothing will happen that is not in God’s plan, and if we are working in God’s will we have nothing to fear. You see when I think of evangelism the first thing that comes to my mind is fear, I am scared of how people will react to the message and I am scared for my safety; but Jesus basically tells us there is nothing to fear. He understood that fear would be a major obstacle regarding evangelism so before giving the disciples the command to go out and spread the Gospel, he addressed their fear. You see one thing we need to remember when we share the Gospel is that no matter what happens or how people react, God is in control.
