John 20:21-23
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
The great commission is the answer to the doldrums of Christian life. Much of the turmoil choking the hearts of believers, stifling the sweet and fresh air blowing through the good life in Christ, is due to our diminishment of our God-given commission. We seek purpose and direction to our days, looking everywhere. Here it is. American Christianity, though it has many strengths, has become a spectator sport. It’s common for church-goers to rave about their pastor and church as though both are involved in some kind of performance art. You’ll note that absent from these exuberant expressions of emotional experience is – you guessed it – the blessed gospel itself.
A pastor or praise band that usurps the centrality of the gospel isn’t a thing of God, but Satan. A sermon that makes one think of the greatness of the pastor rather than Jesus Christ is a sermon of hell. A church service that’s reluctant to mention sin, fearing its “customers” will flee, is an organization that can’t possibly teach Christ because it was to save sinners that He came in the first place. A true church isn’t something defined by the times, by the masters of marketing, or by the charisma of the pastor, but by the Word of God. The Lord alone defines the mission and is the mission. A church isn’t successful if its congregation is massive and its offering plates are overflowing. Success is in the Word of the Lord flowing freely through the hearts of members who, in turn, take the principles of God out the door and into both their homes and whatever line of work to which they were called.
We note that Jesus doesn’t come to the disciples, stand in their midst triumphantly, break out a guitar and lead everyone in a rollicking and rousing hard-rock praise song, whipping them into an emotional frenzy and then send them home. That’s not Christianity. Christianity is repentance of sin, devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, the study of Scripture, and the application of those biblical principles to one’s life. If you can’t get excited over that it’s because you don’t understand the horrors from which you were saved (sin!). Certainly, one can enjoy great music at church but if that’s the central thing and not the great truths of Jesus Christ, it’s a counterfeit. And certainly one is blessed to have a great pastor – but this greatness must be measured in fidelity to the Word of God and how the preaching elevates true knowledge of Jesus Christ and, watch for it, faithfulness to Him. If the music and preaching downplay that Christ died for our sin and redeemed us, thereby calling us to Himself, freed from the bondage of sin and confusion, we are engaged in pandering, not discipleship.
The true church isn’t a religious experience. It’s where the saints go, those redeemed by God in Jesus Christ, to worship Him and grow strong in the faith through prayer and the preaching/teaching of the Word – and then they are sent out those doors with that renewed mind to live as lights in a sin-darkened world. To church goes the mechanic, the cashier, the waitress, the accountant, and they all glorify the Lord and welcome the true food from heaven, the Word of God. Then they go out…they go to their desk, their shop, their store and they bring the truth of Christ with them in glory. They learn to do their job better than they ever did it before because that job is from the Lord and they may now have an opportunity to witness to a co-worker, a friend, or a customer through it. Someone may ask for a reason for their hope (1 Peter 3:15) and their excellence, especially on those long days where things can be such drudgery. And then, oh, yes, then, dear Christian, a holy smile, a simple proclamation of faith in Jesus, maybe one word or sentence, perhaps even something you don’t say that another, in the flesh, would have said – and you have lived out your mission! Yes! Another soul will see Christ in you. That is the goal, always the goal, and the very thing we must never lose or else we have renounced our commission.
The church isn’t a place of silly and trivial manipulations of the emotions of the people. It’s the command center for God’s army where the combatants are renewed, refreshed, and armed with the knowledge of God. From there they are sent forth to do battle against the powers of darkness, the principalities, and the lies that darken the minds of sin’s captives, keeping them from the purity and freedom of God’s gospel.
So, Jesus comes to the disciples and gifts them the Holy Spirit. This is a foreshadowing of the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2. This is the empowerment of the Christian life, which is the life of the Spirit and it’s a gift from God given by Jesus Christ alone. We can understand this properly by focusing on the giver of the Spirit – Jesus. No man may come to the Father, nor do His work on earth, unless he’s given the Spirit of God through Christ. And no man can come to Christ except through the Word of God (Romans 10:14-15). American life, with all its ease and leisure, tempts men and women to seek novelty in every endeavor. But to seek something new in the gospel rather than obedience to its simple principles is to flirt with adding things to God’s Word. We must beware of this satanic and fleshly urge that calls us away from the purity of God’s perfect and life-giving Word.
If we are to seek the power of God in our lives then we’re to base our days on His Word. It’s that simple. The Devil would like to make you think it’s more complex than this, but assuredly it’s not. Christian power resides in the power of the Spirit, which rests in the preaching and hearing of the Word, which one is led to through humble submission and reverent prayer. The desire to live a strong Christian life absent a potent life of prayer and Scripture is a fool’s errand.
What’s next? Well, Jesus sends them into the world. He doesn’t tell them to hide. He doesn’t tell them to live by the world’s rules Monday through Saturday and His on Sunday. He doesn’t sanction secret-agent disciples. No. The power of one’s discipleship is reflected in how well they live out the reality of faith in everything they do. The loss of Christian power in America is exactly because so many of us have been duped into thinking that Christianity is done at the church when, in fact, it’s done in the average and everyday life of the mother and father, the business-owner and worker, the boy and girl.
Of course, Jesus is giving the disciples a special power to form His church but we must not confuse the issue. There is a regrettable philosophy of clericalism alive today that sees Christian life as divided between the so-called professionals (pastors, priests, elders, etc.) and the lay people. In this view, the lay person has a job/career which is secular while the pastor/priest does God’s work. This accounts for why it’s so common to find people who have been in church for decades and still can’t articulate the most basic Christian principles to someone who asks. But the New Testament calls us saints…all of us. The problem of the church is that too many of us don’t want to be bothered with the responsibility of the Great Commission, which is to go make disciples. This requires, first and foremost, that we’re disciples to start with. As the Apostle Paul pointed out, a soldier doesn’t get involved in civilian affairs. What good is a Christian soldier who neglects the Word and never reports for duty?
Now, true, you weren’t in the room with Jesus that day but He still tells you to go too. How do you know where to go? Well, as always, we consult Scripture for our answer. We find it in Romans 12. In light of these things – that is, our salvation through faith in Christ – we present our whole life as a living sacrifice to God. We know that everything we have is from the Lord. We’re called, therefore, to renew our minds, to test everything according to Biblical principles. This means that we aren’t to think according to the flesh, with the myth of neutrality, the lie that we’re the final reference point. We live and move through life with this question always on our lips: and what does the Scripture say?
Next, we aren’t to think of ourselves either more highly than we ought to think nor lose esteem for ourselves since for us Christ died and rose again. Soberly, in light of Biblical principles, we assess ourselves, our talents and opportunity. If directly in the church, then do that to the Lord, If at a shop, a store, a factory, or anywhere else, then do those things to the Lord as well since He is sovereign. If you’re a student, study and learn for the Lord. If you’re a mother, raise your children in the Lord. Do all with excellence and commitment because we do nothing in vain and the smallest action, no matter what the world thinks of it, if aimed at serving the Lord, will gain His approval.
In all of it, wherever you go, whatever your hand finds to do, you are an ambassador of Christ to a lost world. That is your privilege, Christian! Right now is the training for the life we will live with God in eternity. Right now the harvest field stretches out before you, vast and wide and clear. So, go. Go into your field in the name of the Lord, doing your work with all your skill and might, knowing the Word, and praising God always and you will shine greatly in a world dimmed by sin’s folly. You will be wise where others are lost and perturbed. You will be like a rock, steady and unmoved in a rapid tide that’s sweeping others away. And this not of your own power, but of the Lord, and others will reach out to you with queries and sighs. Love them as Christ loved you; tell them of the Savior.
You are a Christian soldier. Go. You have the greatest commission ever given to any private, any corporal, or sergeant. So, go.
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