GLST 200-D07
o
Article 20 by S. Hawthorne, pp. 126–131
Mandate on the
Mountain
Steven C. Hawthorne
•
Some doubted, but every one of them bowed to
worship Him.
•
Four times in His statement, Jesus used the word “all”
to declare the destiny of all of history. Looking at each
of the four “alls” may be the simplest way for us to
understand what He said:
•
A. all
authority,
•
B. all
peoples,
•
C. all
that
He
commanded
•
D. all
the
days .
All Authority
•
“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on
earth.” It didn’t surprise them at all that Jesus spoke
about Himself.
•
Christ had triumphed over evil at the cross.
Because of that victory the Father had exalted and
honored His Son as the head of all humankind.
•
He now held dominion over angelic entities that
inhabit unseen heavenly realms.
•
He now had power to push history in any direction
that suited Him.
•
He had been given kingdom authority to bring
forth the fullness of the Kingdom of God.
•
The person of God’s choice is fully human, from the
lineage of David, but He is altogether divine, the
Lamb that comes from the very center of the throne.
•
The Father grants this glorious man Christ Jesus the
ultimate authority to carry out all of His will.
•
All the Peoples
•
“Therefore…go and disciple all the peoples.”
•
the primary action word was “disciple.”
•
The other action words, “go…baptizing…and
teaching” were all commanded actions, but they
each filled out part of what Jesus meant by the
pivotal command: “Disciple all the peoples.”
A Goal, Not a Process
The expression must stand as a whole: “disciple all the
peoples.” Jesus was setting out a super-goal. A discipling
movement was in the destiny of every people on earth.
He was giving them the task of starting the movements.
Jesus did not emphasize the process of communicating
the gospel.
In
fact,
He
said
nothing
about
the
gospel
itself.
They were not mandated merely to expose people to the
gospel. They were commissioned to bring about a result,
a response, a global following of Jesus from every people.
It was a task to be accomplished. And it would be
completed. No doubts crossed their minds about that. Jesus
always finished everything He set out to do.
The Great Commission and The Great
Commandment
Steven Hawthorne
•
Many significant evangelical voices have put the two
imperatives side-by-side as a way expressing the full the
responsibility of Christians in the world.
•
The Great Commission is thought to focus on spiritual
issues, while the Great Commandment is considered to
address physical and social matters.
•
But when they are held side-by-side as responses to
human need, there can be confusion about how to
integrate them as Christian mission.
Different: Historic Achievement and Constant
Imperative
•
GREATEST COMMANDMENT: Loving God and our
neighbors with devotion and service is not something
which can ever be completed. Love is something that
can only grow over time and must be pursued at all
times
•
the Great Commission is a global, historic achievement,
a task to be completed.
•
the Great Commission is not a command to do
evangelism as often as one finds possible.
•
It is a mandate entrusted to all of Christ’s followers to
accomplish a work that requires many generations of
labor that at the end of history will be finished.
•
Same Focus: Both are For God
•
The primary end of both is a relational reality
directed toward God.
•
The point is not just to love God, but to labor that
He will be loved.
•
The greatest way of loving our Lord is to see
that He is worshiped, followed and loved in
every people.
•
Furthermore, we have been given something
greater than merely extending our own love to
neighbors.
•
We have a mandate to transform entire
neighborhoods by multiplying those who love one
another as Christ commanded.
•
How They Work Together
•
Neither can be prioritized above or below the other.
Ultimately, neither can happen without the other. We
cannot evangelize the peoples without excelling in
love. And we cannot consider our evangelization to be
complete unless people are growing in love for God
and obeying Him by loving their neighbors.
The Peoples
•
There are several facets to the way people groups
are identified: Linguistic, cultural, social, economic,
geographic, religious, and political factors can each
be part of what gives formation to the peoples of the
earth
Going to the Nations
•
He had sent them more than once to specific peoples
and places, always directing them to enter into
significant relationships in order to stimulate lasting
movements of hope in Christ’s kingdom.
•
World-over, by this baptism, God would gain for
Himself a people who would know personally what
God wanted declared globally. The baptized people
would wear His name publicly in every people group.
They would later recognize that God was forming,
from all the peoples, “a people for His name” ( Acts
15:14).
•
Living Under His
Lordship
•
They were supposed to train people to know and
follow Jesus in the fullest way that He could be
known. Their evangelism was to be primarily a
matter of life-obedience rather than pressing for
conformity of beliefs.
•
It was all about faith, but aimed, as Paul described it
later, for “the obedience of faith among all the
peoples” ( Rom 1:5).
•
Jesus was forming a community of life-giving joy
under His Lordship.
•
They were amazed by the rightness of it all. How
fitting, how
proper, how calmly urgent it was to summon people to
follow Him from every nation.
•
Jesus wasn’t expressing runaway ambitions.
•
The Ancient of Days had exalted Him as the only
redeemer and the final judge of every man, woman,
and child who had ever lived.
•
Only He could fulfill the destiny of every clan and
tribe of
earth’s peoples.
All the Days
•
He declared that He was on the planet to stay,
wielding every ounce of His authority until the end of
days.
•
He Himself would be with them every single day until
the end of the age
•
The age of which Jesus spoke has not yet ended.
Every day since that meeting, Jesus has been
“with” those who are fulfilling His mandate.
•
He has given all of His people a mandate to labor
with all of his authority to bring about obedience to
all He commanded among all the peoples. How can
we do other than give Him all that we are?
•
