Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Mark 16:15 Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
WHAT MAKES THE GREAT COMMISSION "GREAT"?
This passage from Mark's Gospel is known as the "Great Commission." In it the Lord Jesus entrusted His disciples with the task of broadcasting far and wide the message of God's love for a fallen world perishing in sin. Why is this commission "great"? For at least three reasons. First, it's a message exceedingly wonderful, extraordinarily beautiful, and comforting beyond all telling! Think of it! The God of heaven showed His love for me in this way, by sending Jesus to die on a cross to atone for my guilt. He did it when I was His enemy and didn't deserve to be shown the least of His mercies. Now through Jesus I have the privilege of being God's own dear child, an heir with Christ of an inheritance in heaven too awesome to describe.
The Great Commission is also "great" because the Savior has tasked every disciple with the responsibility of telling this Good News. Each Christian man, woman, and child may rejoice in the knowledge: The God of grace has privileged me to partner with Him in His splendid soul-saving work!
A third reason for the "greatness" of the Great Commission: The Good News of God's love in Jesus is news He intends all peoples of the earth to hear. The early Christians, recognizing this, bore witness of the Savior "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Through their labors in His name thousands of souls were brought into the safe haven of His Church, snatched "in the nick of time" from the yawning pit of hell.
We Christians today are similarly privileged to take the Greatest Message ever spoken by man to the far ends of the earth. Though we may be unable to do so personally, we may call others to go out in our name as witnesses for the Gospel. In this way we're able to declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light to people living even on the opposite side of the globe.
How great is that?!
