The Great Commission has five versions. The most pregnant and the most neglected is John 20:19-23. The essence of Christ’s message is verse 21, ‘I send you.’ Jesus possesses universal authority to send all his disciples into the world. The nature of the mission is, first of all, peace (v.19). There is peace of mind which dispelled their doubts and reassured them. There is peace of conscience for their sense of guilt at abandoning him. By showing them his hands and his side he was assuring them of forgiveness. There is peace in the church for we all need reconciliation, racial and social in our fellowship.
His summons to mission is ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ Our mission is to be like his. ‘He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives’, echoing the words of Isaiah (Luke 4:18). He was sent to preach the good news of the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43). He was fundamentally aware of being sent. ‘It gave significance, urgency and compulsion to everything he did.’ This is part of the very nature of the church. Christ’s mission was compassionate. He was moved with compassion, by the needs of the crowds. So must we. Christian evangelistic and social activity are both compassionate responses to human need.
Christ’s mission was costly. By his incarnation he made himself vulnerable to pain, weakness, poverty, sorrow, suffering and temptation. There was no aloofness about Jesus. He did not keep his distance from sinners. He was the friend of sinners. He touched the untouchable lepers and allowed prostitutes to touch him. He shrank from nobody. His death on the cross was the ultimate identification with us in our sins. Jesus calls us to apply to our mission in the world the same principle which characterized his. The most Christian context in which to offer service and share the gospel is genuine, caring friendship. We need to translate the gospel not only into the languages of the world but also into the cultures of the world. We are called to incarnation evangelism. We have to listen, to enter into the other person’s thought world, to try to understand his misunderstandings, his hangups, problems, doubts and fears.
Jesus breathed on the disciples and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (v.22). They needed the power of the Holy Spirit if they were to succeed in their mission. The presence and power of Christ to be received at Pentecost was anticipated in his words and action.
(Ted Schroder, John Stott: A Summary of his teaching, pp.94,95)
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