“Our Threefold Commission”

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place, Osoyoos
Pulpit Series Volume 18, Issue 20 July 20, 2008

I love to read the story of Jesus’ appearances during the 40 days after His resurrection. Think of being one of those whom He appeared to!

Interesting that He only appeared to believers. Why didn't He go to Herod or Pilate and say, “Look! I'm back!” However, that isn’t like Him. He made Himself known only to His own, and if others are to hear about Him today, you and I must tell them.

Jesus died and rose again! It is true, He really did it! They buried Him dead and He came back alive! It is the greatest news flash in history, but I wonder if we Christians have gotten used to it?

When is the last time you said or heard someone say, “tell me the story one more time”? Did you know that we are actually commissioned (a threefold commission) by God to tell the “good-news”?

To the women at the sepulcher the angel said,
1. “Go tell his disciples”. Mark 16:7
WE HAVE A MESSAGE FOR A BEWILDERED CHURCH

The disciples were bewildered. Jesus had died; their dreams had faded; their hopes had vanished. They didn't know what to think. Some had gone back to their old ways. They were trying to live on the memory of a dead Christ. Were they any more bewildered than the church today?

Many Christians are confused, so taken up with their own problems they cannot help others. Others are so busy chasing after experiences. Growth is seen as numbers rather than maturity and much of what we see is merely swapping members, moving corpses from one morgue to another. It has been said, some freeze and some fry!

But we have a message for bewildered church:
“Go tell His disciples that He is going on before you!”
The message is simply Christ is risen!
We need a new experience of the living Christ.

Think about the appearance of Jesus to Mary in the garden.
First there is MISERY: “Woman, why do you weep?” Mary didn't know where to find her Lord. So many people are out of touch with the Lord today. However, praise God for her persistent “seeking”. When she recognized Him, she called Him MASTER. That’s the cure for the MISERY - seek the Lord and acknowledge Him as Master.

MISSION: “Go to your brothers and sisters and say…” When we really see the Master, He commissions us. Listen to the result, Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord,

Is He really in our buildings? He is if He is in us! And if He is in us let us never be content with leaving our gathering together as if we been to a funeral - instead may we as the disciples were when they saw Jesus, “be glad”. Jesus Christ - victorious conqueror!

We have a second commission:
“Go tell his disciples AND PETER.”

WE HAVE A MESSAGE FOR BACK-SLIDDEN CHRISTIANS

Peter was a backslider and the Lord singled him out as though he were marked “special”. Jesus wished to restore Peter. Unfortunately, many congregations miss the fact that Jesus can fire up the lost with new love and zeal.

What a field day for the gossips who heard about Peter denying the Lord! Can't you imagine them whispering, “Have you heard the low down about Simon Peter?” Ever wonder why they call it the “Low” down?

If you are backsliden, the Lord is looking for you, not to put you “down” but to pick you up. When Peter heard that Jesus was looking for him he ran to meet him. Jesus only had one question for him, “do you love me?” Not, “Aren't you ashamed of yourself?” He only asked, “Do you love me?”

The issue is Christ. “Do you love ME?” Backslider, you have an appointment with Jesus and the sooner you two get together, the better.

Our third commission: to go into all the world and make disciples.
WE HAVE A MESSAGE FOR THOSE IN DARKNESS
And that message is Christ. He is the Center: “All power is given to me; Lo, I am with you always.” When Jesus spoke with Peter, He was the Center: “Do you love ME?” But there was also the circumference: “Feed my sheep.” In geometry we use a compass. One prong is stationary, fixed. With the other we scribe our circle.

Folks, Christ is the fixed Center, the same yesterday, today and forever. From that Center we make the sweep of the whole world as our circumference. Once we admit to loving Jesus, He sends us out to feed His Sheep. “We've a story to tell to the nations”.

Our story is not centered about “a way of life” “our church” or even “Christianity”, it must be centered around Jesus.

All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Jesus makes His callings against the background of His resources. He is the center that is why He says, “Come to me” Matthew 11:27-28

The Great Commission is all of this put together; “All things are mine: Come, Believe, Go.” That is the full Christian experience.

We are to let our light shine and that light is Christ. It is a glow, not a glare, and we do not shine it, we let it shine. “Go tell the disciples; go tell Peter; go tell the world.” Tell them about Jesus, dead, risen, and alive forevermore!

Before you start thinking of how hard this is consider the fact that, the disciples did not have any special advantage over us!

It wasn’t any easier for them to believe the miracles than it is for us. True, they were eyewitnesses, but being an eyewitness to an extraordinary event doesn’t make it any easier to believe.

There are always those ‘helpful’ people with their ‘logical’ explanations. So if you have a problem believing in the Lord’s resurrection, take heart because even some of the disciples had a problem with it.

But Jesus didn’t care about their doubts! He gave the Great Commission to every one of them, even the doubters. The doubting disciples were loyal and obedient, and that is all that really mattered.

So that means that our doubts don’t matter to Him either.

Even if your not a Bible whiz and you couldn’t preach your way out of a paper bag, the Great Commission still applies to you.

You don’t have to have it all figured out before you start your career as a Christian, simply trust and obey the Lord Jesus.
As Paul said, “we know in part”. We will always have loose ends, difficult scriptures we don’t understand, and we’ll even have issues we don’t or can’t agree on.

It might help us to understand that Faith and Knowledge are two different things. Faith makes us into obedient servants (Pleases God) but knowledge only makes us trivia experts (Puffs us up).

It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Hold your questions to the end. Right now your primary task is loyalty and obedience.”

Go ye therefore…… Before you imagine having to leave Osoyoos to do this understand that “Go” could mean next door or across the street. But make no mistake about it “Go” is an action word.

Mark 5:18-20 And when Jesus got to the boat, the man who had been possessed with the devil asked Jesus to take him with him.

However, Jesus said, no, GO home to your friends and tell them about the great things the Lord has done for you. Tell them how the Lord had compassion on you. And he WENT, and began to testify about the great things Jesus had done for him: and all the people marveled.

Commission: an authorization or command to act in a prescribed manner or to perform prescribed acts: charge: authority to act for, in behalf of, or in place of another: a task or matter entrusted to one as an agent for another