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"Make disciples . . . and lo . . ."
(Matthew 28:19-20)
There are two mandates in the Great Commission. I had always taught there was only one mandate, but I recently discovered that there are actually two. The first we all know: make disciples. That is Jesus' clear commandment to His children, all disciples, all followers of Jesus, not just clergy or pastors or deacons, but all God's people. How do you and I obey this commandment? We follow the example of Jesus: 1. We go and tell people about Jesus. 2. We make disciples by sharing the good news of how God can bring someone out of death into life. We lead them to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. 3. We baptize them; this is how they publicly declare their faith and when their commitment is celebrated by the church. 4. Teach. This is a vital component of the Great Commission. We teach those we have led to Christ and baptized. What do we teach them? We teach them all the commandments of Jesus.
But what about the second commission in the Great Commission? It is found in verse 20 in a word that is easily overlooked. It is the word "lo". The Greek word is idou, and it also is an imperative, a commandment of Jesus. The word literally means to behold or to see. God wants you to take note and see that He is with you in this great endeavor of making disciples. The enemy will try everything in his arsenal to keep you and me and our church from obeying the Great Commission, but Jesus assures us that He is with us, and when He is with us, we are victorious!
Carey Nieuwhof has a "what I am thinking" segment in his podcasts. Here is my "what I am thinking" segment, as I close this devotional today: we are living in a new day, and we will not go back to normal as far as church attendance. The Church in the USA was already in serious decline before COVID-19, but this crisis accelerated the change that was coming. What will the church do? I assure you, we should not bury our heads in the sand of worry and be defeated. The best thing we can do is renew our commitment to our primary marching orders given to us by Jesus to make disciples. It is always a good time to tell someone about Jesus! We should also be open to new ways to get the redemption story out to as many as possible.
Here in our church in Austin, we have pivoted to a new opportunity in addition to the faithful personal evangelism of our people to share Jesus with the lost. We are pursuing the many who are watching us online. This is a huge mission field, and even though church attendance is not what it used to be, God has opened a door for us to reach more people for Christ than at any other time. Leighton Forshee, our social media director, told me last week that in addition to the many who tune in to watch our church's livestream on YouTube and Facebook Live, many more watch the worship service later in the week. I was shocked when he told me that one of our sermons was viewed 800 times after Sunday when I preached it. Online ministry is here to stay. Our next staff hire at our church is an online community pastor who will help us engage even more these people who God is drawing to Himself. God is working, and the fields are ripe for harvest. The future of the church must include them. When I shared with Pastor Steve Gaines how this whole online ministry is stretching my ecclesiology (the study of the Church), he said, "Let me ask you something." I had no idea what he was about to say. Steve will tell you what he is thinking, and I appreciate that about him. He asked me, "What would Paul do? Don't you think he would use this for the furtherance of the Gospel to reach more people?" Yes, indeed; I believe he would.
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