Introduction

We are all fairly familiar with the word and concept of mission. The picture above is from the movie Saving Private Ryan. In this movie, a unit led by Tom Hank’s character, Captain Miller, is sent on a mission to save Private Ryan who is played by Matt Damon. This unit is faced with harsh adversity, but they strive with all that they are to the point of death to save this private from the death that will surely come to him if they do not intervene.

However, I assume that most of you are like me and not in the military. That does not mean that you have not been involved in a mission. Every organization that survives has a mission or objective that it strives to accomplish. In the rest of this study, we will wrestle with the idea and the carrying out of the mission that we as Christians have been given by Jesus.

Merriam-Webster gives us a helpful launching point by defining mission as, “a task or job that someone is given to do.” Most commonly a superior gives a mission (task or job) to someone of lower rank or status. This person of lower rank is to then accomplish the mission by performing various steps. In Saving Private Ryan the mission is to save Private Ryan. It was given to the unit led by Captain Miller and the steps were to storm Normandy, to search Germany for this one soldier, to find him, and to return him safely to a place where He can be shipped back home. In watching the movie and studying other missions, it is evident that there is often challenges and obstacles that come up throughout the completion of a given task. For instance, Captain Miller and his men had to push against an enemy of a greater number and also grieve the loss of several men. We as Christ’s disciples (student followers) have also been given a mission that He himself gave to us. The main passage that we will study in this article is Matthew 28:18-20.

Context

We find that at the end of Matthew’s gospel that Jesus has already completed His mission by living in total obedience to God and dying a substitutionary death on our behalf. Furthermore, Jesus, as He had promised, rose from the dead victoriously, defeating sin and its ultimate consequence, death. In the more immediate context, we find that the Jews, upon hearing the soldiers testimony, devised a lie to be told in the land that Jesus’ body had been stolen by His disciples (Mt. 28:11-15). It is in this context that we find our passage. I aim to help us break down the mission by asking some key questions: what is the mission, who gives us the mission, and how are we to accomplish the mission? After answering these questions I will provide some ways in which we can apply what our Lord has said.

What is our mission?

The mission in Saving Private Ryan is plain. Captain Miller and his men are to literally save Private Ryan from death and return him home. Upon first reading this command it looks like there could be multiple commands: go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. However, upon closer examination, it is evident that there is really only one command and that is to make disciples. The other three verbs are modifying this one command. We will look more directly at these later in this reading. Here though, let’s focus on the command to make disciples. A disciple is a learning follower of a teacher. In the context of Jesus if you are a disciple then you are a learning follower of Him. Within this text, we as disciples are commanded by Jesus to make other learning followers of Him, who in turn make more followers of Him. In fulfilling this command we make people who believe in our Lord and are striving to become more like Him. Jesus made disciples, so we ought to do likewise if we consider ourselves to be His disciples. I can imagine what some of you might be thinking, “Jimmy, how could Jesus really be expecting us to do this? I mean we are only human, I don’t know what to say. Also, if all of this is true, where in the heck do I even begin?” I find that your questions and anxieties are answered by the person who is giving the command. It is this idea that we will focus our attention on next.

Who gives us the mission?

In Saving Private Ryan, the United States government gave the command while giving no way of ensuring their success. However, this is not the case in verse 18 of the text. The person speaking is the resurrected Jesus Christ, who was being worshipped by the disciples on the mountain. Jesus, before giving a single command, makes an astounding proclamation about himself. He said that “all authority in heaven and on earth” had been given to Him. He means exactly what He says, in that He at the moment He was speaking and now posses all authority in every location that exists. There is nothing that can take place apart from His permission and will.

That is not all that He tells us though. He says to His disciples and us now that He will be with us until His second coming in verse 20b. Meaning that His power will be with us until this age is ended with Jesus having final victory over all evil and the consequences of evil. The manifestation of this power is none other than the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit who resides in every believer and applies the gospel to the hearts of sinful men. In light of these two realities, there is no excuse for doing anything other than what Jesus commanded in this passage. In other words, we can be assured that our mission will not fail because Jesus has promised that it will be completed; that He will build His Church through us. Some of you still may wonder, how do I practically make disciples? Or is there a process that is given? The answer is yes, however, it is not an exhaustive method. It is simply a general guideline or maybe a description might be a better word for it, with room in which we may allow our personality and stage of maturity to take hold.

How are we to accomplish the mission we are given?

In the introduction, I presented some of the steps that were to be taken for the unit in Saving Private Ryan to save him (you may look back up there if you do not remember). I personally love a to-do list. I have one for every day and often break down more complicated jobs (missions) into steps. Steps and methodologies help us to complete things in a logical and efficient way. Jesus in this text gives us a general methodology or a couple of steps to work through when making disciples. In the very beginning of verse 19, He says, “go.” What He means is for you and me to insert ourselves in the physical locations of people in order that we might make disciples. His usage of this word lends me to think that there is a sense of urgency in what He is saying. We do not make disciples by staying where we are or just hanging out in our Christian clubs, but rather by going to nonbelievers and new believers. We can do this by approaching our intended person where they are and not expect them to come to us.

After someone has been approached, meaning that we have preached the gospel to them and they have responded by faith in Jesus, we are to baptize that person into the family of God. We are to bring them into the church and give them fellowship, teaching, and accountability. Baptism in the Bible is an outward symbol of an inward change. By taking the necessary action someone formally becomes a part of a local church and the global Church. We are to baptize someone in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. By being baptized in the name of each member of the Trinity, a person surrenders their lives to the triune God.

The final step that Jesus gives us is to teach those who have believed in Him and been baptized. We are to teach them to obey all that He has commanded us. This is an all-encompassing statement which means that we are to teach new believers all that God has taught us. This means that making disciples can be and should be done by every believer. You simply must find someone who is equally or less mature than you in the faith and teach them all that you know. Being a disciple implies learning, and we never cease to be disciples, therefore we never cease to learn of our Lord and His commandments to us. Practically that means studying the Bible in order to apply the Bible. We are to teach those whom we disciple what we have and are learning from the Bible as well as how it applies to them both practically and personally.

Concluding Remarks

The mission of making disciples is a joyous opportunity and I have personally seen the fruit of obeying Jesus’ command. In all honesty, it is one of the hardest endeavors you will ever set on and at times seem to be meaningless, but rest assured that Christ Jesus purposed for it to be how He would build His Church. Remember that He is Lord over all things and is present with you at all times. May we sound like Captain Miller when responding to his men questioning the mission, “This is an excellent mission, sir, with an extremely valuable objective, sir, worthy of my best efforts.”

Application

The most blatant application is that we as believers are to be proactive in our faith, that God will really do what He said He was going to do. Below are some things that you can do in fulfilling Jesus’ command to make disciples.

1. Join and plug into a local church: The Church is God’s primary vehicle that He uses to reach the world and manifest His kingdom. Furthermore, the Church is the bride of Christ. Therefore, being part of a local church is of utmost importance and one of the most practical things you should do.
2. Discipline yourself in Bible study and prayer: I said earlier that the Bible is God’s revelation to us, and it is by It that we test all other assertions of truth about God and the Christian life. Furthermore, it is what we should pull from in our discipling of others.
3. Invest yourself in a group Bible study/Sunday School: Bible studies help you to connect with other believers and be a missional community to the community at large. In them, you can begin to implement what God has been teaching you in His word.
4. Reach the unreached: This should be a given from above, but I think it is worth reiterating.
5. Grab someone who is beside you or behind you in the walk of faith and head toward Christ: Christ command is directed to every Christian, meaning that no matter how new you are in the faith you can begin by teaching someone who is a less mature Christian than you.
6. Find someone to disciple (mentor) you in the Christian faith: I personally have benefited greatly from this. From my freshman year of college until now I have had various men invest in me and my walk. They challenged me to be more like Christ. Christians are not meant to walk alone and it is of great value to have someone who has walked the Christian path longer than you to show you the ropes and encourage you.
7. Go on a mission trip: Mission trips are a great opportunity to see and be involved in the mission of God. It is an experience for you to grow personally and learn to preach the gospel in an entirely different cultural context.